The SFFBC 2020 Hindsight Awards: A RetroSPECtive (Winners announced!)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Good question!

This nomination period is open until November 20. It is my intention to go through about weekly (thanks for helping catch ones I missed!) to tabulate where we stand, find any that are ineligible that we missed and so on, so that if we see that Yoon Ha Lee's work is showing up 10 times in Bender and 8 times in SF and 5 times as best author, folks can decide if they'd like to make changes, campaign for others to make changes, or plant their flag on the hill they've chosen.

tl;dr yes, this is gonna be a crazy review period but I'm only doing it this one month so go ahead and chat if you'd like.

[Anna]

Thanks!

So we might as well all just post our initial lists, and then come back to agonize later :D

[Anna]

This is torture!


Best Fantasy Novel
The Fifth Season
The Goblin Emperor ( Who Fears Death )
The Raven and the Reindeer

Best Science Fiction Novel
Memory of Water
The Calculating Stars
Ancillary Justice (Semiosis / The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet)

Best Genre Bending Novel
Midnight Robber
Ninefox Gambit
The Prey of Gods ( My Real Children )

Best Fantasy Author
Lois McMaster Bujold
J.Y. Neon Yang
Zen Cho

Best Science Fiction Author
Connie Willis
Emma Newman
Nnedi Okorafor ( Ted Chiang )

[Gabi]

Okay, I've edited my post (#msg 43) now.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Gabi, what's your hesitation with Funke? it looks like she wrote adult books in the past 20 years

[Gabi]

Allison wrote: "Gabi, what's your hesitation with Funke? it looks like she wrote adult books in the past 20 years"

Okay, that's good! Her writing is a lot more mature than that of some 'adult' Fantasy writers, but I wasn't sure if the target audience label counted. I guess her "Pan's Labyrinth" should qualify her.

[CBRetriever]

Anna wrote: "CBR, RemPop is also too old! :( It would be on my list, but alas :'("

dang - my version is published in 2003, so i thought I was good to go. Sci Fi is hard because either the ones I read weren't that good or I preferred to nominate the author like Adrian Tchaikovsky or Neal Stephenson because their output is greater than the one book.

OK I changed out RemPop for Walkaway
and
Binti for Annihilation

[Anna]

Yeah I also had it on my list but then realized I should check and it was a very sad surprise :(

[CBRetriever]

that's the problem with Kindle books - their copyright/publication date is for the digital version so you could have a version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels published in 2020

[Nicol]

Allison wrote: "Nicol, Vanished Birds was published in 2020, feel free to replace!"

Replaced! Thanks

[Kaa]

Arghhh this is so hard!

Best Fantasy Novel
Spinning Silver
The Raven and the Reindeer
Jade City

Best Sci-Fi Novel
The Light Brigade
Children of Time
The Calculating Stars

Best Genre-Bending Novel
Midnight Robber
Ninefox Gambit
The Prey of Gods

Best Fantasy Author
J.Y. Neon Yang
N.K. Jemisin
P. Djèlí Clark

Best Sci-Fi Author
Nnedi Okorafor
Ted Chiang
Aliette de Bodard

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Votes so far:

Best Fantasy Book:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - Norman, Banshee
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - Norman
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - Norman, Silvana, Jemppu, Anna
The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher - Jain, Anna
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - Jain, Banshee, Kaa
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley - Jain
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - Chessie, Christopher
The Warded Man by Peter Brett - Chessie
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence - Chessie
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - Christopher, Kaa
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik - Christopher
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - Allison, Nicol, Jemppu, Gabi
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley - Allison, Gabi
Deathless by Catherine Valente - Allison
The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang - Ryan
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - Ryan
The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker - Ryan
Written in Red by Anne Bishop - Nicol
Soulless by Gail Carriger - Nicol
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire - Banshee
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley - Silvana
Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan - Silvana
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James - Jemppu
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton - Fabitha
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi - Fabitha
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - Fabitha
The Way of Thorn and Thunder by Daniel Heath Justice - Gabi
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - Anna
Jade City by Fonda Lee - Kaa

Best Science Fiction Novel:
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - Norman, Banshee, Anna
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin - Norman, Banshee, Fabitha, Gabi
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks - Norman
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley - Jain, Kaa
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie - Jain
Warchild by Karin Lowachee - Jain
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow - Chessie
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - Chessie
The Martian by Andy Weir - Chessie, Allison, Ryan, Jemppu
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Christopher, Ryan, Kaa
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - Christopher, Allison, Kaa
Semiosis by Sue Burke - Christopher, Silvana
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline - Allison
The Quantum Magician by Derek Kunsken - Ryan
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - Nicol
The Power by Naomi Alderman - Nicol, Fabitha
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett - Nicol
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - Banshee
Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald - Silvana
Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang - Silvana
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - Jemppu
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer - Jemppu
Fledgling by Octavia Butler - Fabitha (NOTE: to be discussed with Fabitha first)
Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton - Gabi
Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett - Gabi
Memory of Water by Emmi Itaranta - Anna
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - Anna

Best Genre Bending Novel:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon - Norman
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - Norman, Banshee, Fabitha
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - Norman, Banshee
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly - Jain
The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine - Jain
Farthing by Jo Walton - Jain
The Last Policeman by Ben Winters - Chessie
Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht - Chessie
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks - Chessie
The City & the City by China Miéville - Christopher, Banshee
Among Others by Jo Walton - Christopher
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - Christopher
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer - Allison, Ryan
Arcadia by Iain Pears - Allison
Rosewater by Tade Thompson - Allison
Shadow Over Avalon by CN Lesley - Ryan
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - Ryan, Anna
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen - Nicol
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - Nicol
Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore - Nicol
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden - Silvana, Kaa
The Devourers by Indra Das - Silvana, Gabi
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders - Silvana
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - Jemppu
My Real Children by Jo Walton - Jemppu, Anna
The Martian Child: A Novel About a Single Father Adopting a Son by David Gerrold - Jemppu
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer - Fabitha
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - Fabitha
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin - Gabi, Kaa
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - Gabi
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson - Anna
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone - Kaa


Best Fantasy Author:
Neil Gaiman - Norman, Banshee, Fabitha
Charles Stross - Norman
George R.R. Martin - Norman
Frances Hardinge - Jain
N.K. Jemisin - Jain, Allison, Ryan, Nicol, Banshee
Megan Whalen Turner - Jain
Joe Abercrombie - Chessie
George R.R. Martin - Chessie, Christopher
Tad Williams - Chessie
Jo Walton - Christopher, Allison, Ryan, Gabi
Lois McMaster Bujold - Christopher, Anna
Juliet Marillier - Allison
Catherynne Valente - Nicol
VE Schwab - Nicol, Banshee
Robin Hobb - Silvana, Jemppu
China Miéville - Silvana
Joe Abercrombie - Silvana
Ursula K. Le Guin - Jemppu
Guy Gavriel Kay - Jemppu
Andrzej Sapkowski - Fabitha
Stephen King - Fabitha
Terry Pratchett - Gabi
Cornelia Funke - Gabi
JY Neon Yang - Anna, Kaa
Zen Cho - Anna
Nalo Hopkinson - Kaa
Martha Wells - Kaa

Best Science Fiction Author:
Connie Willis - Norman, Gabi, Anna
China Miéville - Norman
Kim Stanley Robinson - Norman, Christopher, Jemppu
Ted Chiang - Jain, Christopher, Allison, Jemppu, Anna, Kaa
Aliette de Bodard - Jain, Kaa
Yoon Ha Lee - Jain, Silvana
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Chessie, Jemppu, Gabi
Neal Stephenson - Chessie
Martha Wells - Chessie, Christopher, Banshee
John Scalzi - Allison, Banshee
Becky Chambers - Allison, Nicol, Banshee
Emma Newman - Ryan, Gabi, Anna, Kaa
Peter Hamilton - Ryan
Claire North - Ryan
Nnedi Okorafor - Nicol, Fabitha
Rivers Solomon - Nicol
James S.A. Corey - Silvana
Annalee Newitz - Silvana
Ursula K. Le Guin - Fabitha
Amy Kathleen Ryan - Fabitha

[CBRetriever]

Allison, what are you going to do if, for example

Adrian Tchaikovsky is tops in SF authors
and
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is tops in SF books

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

the one that has the most votes will go to polls! if there's a tie, I'll probably do a random selection. That's why Anna was asking about strategizing, as that's the best way to make sure your picks are somewhere in the polls

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Fabitha re: Fledgling...isn't this fantasy?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

If this went to polls today:

Best Fantasy Book:
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - 4
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - 3
------Some combo of 3 of these-----
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - 2
The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher - 2
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 2
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - 2
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley - 2

Best Science Fiction Novel:
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin - 4
The Martian by Andy Weir - 4
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - 3
[Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - 3]
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - 3
-------------------- Alternates--------------------
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley - 2
Semiosis by Sue Burke - 2
The Power by Naomi Alderman - 2

Best Genre Bending Novel: (too close to call)
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - 3
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - 2
The City & the City by China Miéville - 2
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer - 2
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden - 2
The Devourers by Indra Das - 2


Best Fantasy Author:
N.K. Jemisin - 5
Jo Walton - 4
Neil Gaiman - 3
----Some combo of 2 of these------
George R.R. Martin - 2
Lois McMaster Bujold - 2
VE Schwab - 2
Robin Hobb - 2
JY Neon Yang - 2


Best Science Fiction Author:
Ted Chiang - 6
Emma Newman - 4
-----Some combo of 3 from these-------
Connie Willis - 3
Kim Stanley Robinson - 3
[Adrian Tchaikovsky - 3]
Martha Wells - 3
Becky Chambers - 3

[Leticia]

Fantasy

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker
The Deathless (The Deathless Trilogy #1) by Peter Newman

Sci-fi
The Martian by Andy Weir
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Genrebenders
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

Fantasy Author

Brandon Sanderson

Sci-fi Author

Martha Wells

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Leticia, you can only have an author 1 time on your slate! Ex either Game of Thrones or best author GRRM

[Fabitha]

@Allison: I thought so, but I've seen it listed on Wikipedia as a science fiction vampire novel. I was baffled too!
I can move it if you think it's best - or maybe that qualifies as genre bending? Anyway I totally loved it, and I was shocked I'd never discovered Octavia Butler before last year!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Fledgling was very unique! I can kinda see the sf angle, and Butler is generally a scifi author. I think it's fine? Just probably a bit confusing for folks interested in the story :)

[Leticia]

Allison wrote: "Leticia, you can only have an author 1 time on your slate! Ex either Game of Thrones or best author GRRM"

Changed.

[Fabitha]

@Allison yes, I agree on everything!
Now that I think about it, I'd consider I am Legend as scifi too, so maybe the vampire presence isn't always enough to qualify as fantasy? That's interesting!

[Anna]

Allison wrote: "Best Genre Bending Novel: (too close to call)"

Did you leave Ninefox out because there are so many with two votes? I need Ninefox to be somewhere on the list, and I still believe it belongs on the bender list (the author himself says it's magic, not science), but obviously I'd switch if it was the only way to get it on any list. Right now the lists make it look like scifi is the stronger option, but by my count it has two votes each for scifi and bender?

edit: Oh no, sorry I missed one for scifi! OK, so that's why it's only on the scifi list? Got it!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Yes! The "if it were going to polls" list is how the math would play out if this is everyone who nominated!

[Anna]

Ninefox people, we need to have a discussion! I'm not ready to switch it to scifi yet, since it's clearly a bender, anyone willing to switch from scifi? :)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I guess I could flipflop Rosewater and Ninefox... not like Rosewater has traction right now anyways.

[Anna]

I'm also torn about Fifth Season, since it *is* bender, but I have it in fantasy, but it looks like Jemisin will take a spot on the author list, so it doesn't really matter either way.

[Kaa]

I'll try to swap Ninefox, Anna - I originally had it as a bender and only switched it to squeeze in other things.

[Anna]

Yayyyy!

Also, I'm very happy to drop Chambers and move Ninefox to scifi if that's the better way to make sure it's on the final list. I just thought bender was both the correct place for it, and also a better chance for it to win.

[Kaa]

Allison, I edited a bunch of my votes -

Fantasy novel: Goblin Emperor -> Raven & Reindeer
Sci-fi novel: Ninefox Gambit -> Calculating Stars
Genre-bender novel: Three Parts Dead and Fifth Season -> Midnight Robber and Ninefox Gambit
Fantasy author: Nalo Hopkinson -> N.K. Jemisin

[Anna]

Kaa, you're the best! ^_^ I can feel all the best books climbing onto the list and settling in!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Awesome, thank you, and thank you for breaking it down for me.

[John]

Allison wrote: "If this went to polls today:

Best Fantasy Book:
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - 4
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - 3
---."

I demand a recount (tried really really hard to resist but had to as been ballot processing the last 6 nights so election on the brain)

Reading The Way of Kings now so can't vote for it as don't know yet so:
The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss
Best Science Fiction Novel: The Martian by Andy Weir
Best Genre Bending Novel: Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
Best Fantasy Author: George R.R. Martin
Best Science Fiction Author: Connie Willis

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

You get up to 3 if you'd like! (I shake my fist at your election "humor!" haha)

I will add these to my next round :)

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Gah! I have to remove all my nominations to play politics with this.

Do I need to remind you of my (former) nominations?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

no, I'll recount from the beginning in a few days, go ahead and campaign and drum up support too!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

this is still very preliminary! I'm hoping others will join in, and this might change drastically!

[Meredith]

This is hard, y'all!

I felt like I was almost nearly ready to think about locking in my choices when I changed one of my Sci Fi author picks, and that had... cascading effects. So now I have to sit with the new options for a bit before maybe posting my selections.

For what it's worth, I consider Fledgling a genre bender because, to me, it has elements of fantasy and sci fi.

[John]

Allison wrote: "this is still very preliminary! I'm hoping others will join in, and this might change drastically!"

Oh good. this was taken as humour and I am not banned from the group. This is the best group and Allison writes the best newsletters (what is that very loud sucking noise?)

After re-Reading The Fine Instructions see that I can nominate more than one and have to think because as someone else mentioned, the cascading effect. Will post the other 2 for each category later.

[CBRetriever]

might I make a push for Adrian Tchaikovsky for the author's list rather than for Children of Time? His output in both SciFi & Fantasy is extremely good.

[Meredith]

Fantasy author
N.K. Jemisin
J.Y. Yang Laini Taylor
Neil Gaiman

Sci fi author
John Scalzi
Connie Willis
Mary Robinette Kowal

Fantasy
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

Scifi
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson

Genre bender
Perdido Street Station, China Miéville
Annihilation Borne , Jeff VanderMeer
The Stars Are Legion, Kameron Hurley

[Anna]

Might as well remind everyone about this too while I'm at it :)

[Jessica]

I've got YA on my list as I see other YA listed - children's/MG are not included, but YA is okay, right?

Best Fantasy Novel
Dead Until Dark
Empire of Wild
Witchmark

Best Science Fiction Novel
The Martian
Station Eleven
Life As We Knew It

Best Genre Bending Novel
Hollow Kingdom
The Book Thief
Silence for the Dead

Best Fantasy Author
P. Djèlí Clark
N.K. Jemison
Patricia Briggs

Best Science Fiction Author
Ted Chiang
Mary Robinette Kowal
Nnedi Okorafor

And all filled in! Took some further thinking and my genre-bending in particular looks a bit different than others, but I think I have it.

[Mel]

Oh, this is hard. Trying to balance which to put for novel and which to put for author splits up the potential votes. I didn't look at the standings yet though, so I may come back to do some strategic shuffling.

Best Fantasy Novel
The Book of Flying
The Final Empire
Theft of Swords

Best Science Fiction Novel
Ancillary Justice
The Martian
Wool Omnibus

Best Genre Bending Novel
City of Stairs
The Song of Achilles
Captive Prince

Best Fantasy Author
Juliet Marillier
Walter Moers
T Kingfisher

Best Science Fiction Author
Becky Chambers
Martha Wells
John Scalzi

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'll do another count today! Reminder, we're intending to close this in 4 days!

[Eva]

So hard! I'm mostly voting for series (e.g. I think Shards of Honor and The Way of Kings are the weakest books in their series). It would actually be awesome if we could introduce a "Best Series" category, so that we can then nominate the books we actually think are the best. :-)

I'm going to go with:

Best Fantasy Novel:
The Way of Kings
Raven's Shadow
Red Sister

Best Science Fiction Novel:
House of Suns
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
Cage of Souls

Best Genre Bending Novel:
Gideon the Ninth
The Hundred Secret Senses
The Luminaries

Best Fantasy Author:
Brandon Sanderson
Patricia Briggs
Mark Lawrence

Best Science Fiction Author:
Tamsyn Muir
Lois McMaster Bujold
Adrian Tchaikovsky

Edited: accidentally put the wrong Amy Tan book under genre-bender. By the way, I'm interpreting genre-bender to also mean Literary/Magical Realism/Supernatural/Ghost Story things, not just Fantasy/SF hybrids - if I shouldn't please let me know and I'll correct it. :-)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

We thought about series and then we thought about how many folks have rules about not starting series that aren't done etc and it felt like we were only going to have a couple options that everyone would pick. This made it harder in some senses but much easier to think of options :)

Also, remember the author can only show up 1 time on your slate! Do you want Brandon Sanderson or Way of Kings for example?

[Eva]

I can only vote for a book if I think its author isn't very good? Hmm... in that case I take all my noms back: I only vote for those authors *because* they wrote the best books. Yes, I'm so sorry, but I just can't separate the two, I hope that's not a problem. :-)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

? what? you can only have an author once on your slate, because an author can only win 1 award. you have to pick if you think their whole bibliography is great or if they have 1 work that is superlative. For example, you said you thought Way of Kings was the weakest of the series but you love the rest of the books, so maybe Sanderson is an author you think is great, and maybe there's some other actual book that you think is worthy of an award on its own merit.

[Kaa]

Allison, I'm changing one of my fantasy author picks from Martha Wells to P. Djèlí Clark.