So I've read and reviewed (sort of) all the 2024 Hugo Best Novel finalists.
Overall, a decent variety of novels. We have two novels of unclear genre (Bright Doors and Starter Villain), two fantasy novels and two science fiction. Hugo voters this year really had a big beef with reality with two books in which time, space and history end up being at the whim of some questionable people (Bright Doors and Desperate Glory) plus physical space taking a bit of a battering in Translation State. Physical reality was also in more occasional trouble in Amina and Witch King with really only Starter Villain having a relatively secure grounding in a stable physical world.
The hardest book for me to rank here is Witch King by Martha Wells. This is a book I intend to re-read because I just didn't click with it and I don't really know if that was me or the book. It has many obvious good qualities but I don't know, sort of never really got going for me.
Starter Villain I liked more than John Scalzi's previous book but there's not enough there for it to get a higher ranking than 6. It's fine, it has cats in it, it passes the time but then so do lots of books. Unless you only read one SF&F book from 2023 then you probably read a better book that wasn't a Hugo finalist.
That leaves four books that are very strong contenders and much harder to rank. Even so, for originality and a story that sucked me into a completely different reality, I think Vajra Chandrasekera'sThe Saint of Bright Doors is my clear number 1 pick.
Which leaves me with the thorny problem of 2nd, 3rd and 4th. I think Some Desperate Glory is a strong second choice. If Bright Doors wasn't a finalist, then Tesh's novel would be my likely number 1. I've then no idea how to pick between The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi and Translation State. I might have to toss a coin as they aren't easily comparable books. One was more fun than the other and one was more thought-provoking than the other.
So here's my initial ranking. I think the two ends aren't likely to change but the middle might.
- The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
- Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
- Translation State by Ann Leckie
- Witch King by Martha Wells
- Starter Villain by John Scalzi
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