It's Science Fiction and Fantasy Week on Goodreads

Click here to see what Goodreads has as part of their SF/F coverage this week. As I have mentioned before, I like using Goodreads to help genre readers because the lists and information you get from Goodreads is created by actual readers. If you are not a fan of a specific genre, you want to go right to the source-- actual readers-- if you wan to best help a reader in front of you. Even if you are a fan, you might not have the same genre tastes. 

The Hugo Awards were also handed out this week.  Here is a list of nominees and winners via Locus magazine and below I have reprinted the most relevant ones to public libraries:

2018 Hugo and Campbell Awards Winners 

• Winners for the Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were announced by Worldcon 76, the 76th World Science Fiction Convention, on Sunday August 19, 2018 during a ceremony held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose CA:

  Best Novel

  WINNER: The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
  

  • Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty (Orbit US)
  • Provenance, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
  • Raven Stratagem, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
  • New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
  • The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK)

  Best Novella

  WINNER: All Systems Red, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

  • River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
  • Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
  • Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
  • “And Then There Were (N-One)“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/17)
  • The Black Tides of Heaven, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

  Best Novelette

  WINNER: “The Secret Life of Bots“, Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld 9/17)

  • “Children of Thorns, Children of Water”, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny 7-8/17)
  • “Extracurricular Activities”, Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com 2/15/17)
  • “Wind Will Rove”, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 9-10/17)
  • “A Series of Steaks“, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld 1/17)
  • “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time”, K.M. Szpara (Uncanny 5-6/17)

  Best Short Story
  

  WINNER: “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™”, Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex 8/17)

  • “The Martian Obelisk”, Linda Nagata (Tor.com 7/19/17)
  • “Fandom for Robots”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny 9-10/17)
  • “Sun, Moon, Dust”, Ursula Vernon (Uncanny 5-6/17)
  • “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 9-10/17)
  • “Carnival Nine”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 5/17)

  Best Related Work
  

  WINNER: No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, Ursula K. Le Guin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

  • Sleeping With Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Liz Bourke (Aqueduct)
  • Iain M. Banks, Paul Kincaid (University of Illinois Press)
  • Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, Alexandra Pierce & Mimi Mondal, eds. (Twelfth Planet)
  • Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate, Zoe Quinn (PublicAffairs)
  • A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison, Nat Segaloff (NESFA)

  Best Graphic Story

  WINNER: Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood, Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)

  • Black Bolt, Volume 1: Hard Time, Saladin Ahmed, illustrated by Christian Ward (Marvel)
  • Bitch Planet, Volume 2: President Bitch, Kelly Sue DeConnick, illustrated by Valentine De Landro and Taki Soma (Image)
  • My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
  • Paper Girls, Volume 3, Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated
  • Saga, Volume 7, Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image)

  Best Dramatic Presentation — Long

  WINNER: Wonder Woman

  • Blade Runner 2049
  • Get Out
  • The Shape of Water
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi
  • Thor: Ragnarok
    

  Best Dramatic Presentation — Short
  

  WINNER: The Good Place: “The Trolley Problem”

  • Black Mirror: “USS Callister”
  • “The Deep”, Clipping
  • Doctor Who: “Twice Upon a Time”
  • The Good Place: “Michael’s Gambit”
  • Star Trek: Discovery: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”

  Best Fancast

  WINNER: Ditch Diggers

  • The Coode Street Podcast
  • Fangirl Happy Hour
  • Galactic Suburbia
  • Sword and Laser
  • Verity!

  Best Series

  WINNER: World of the Five Gods, Lois McMaster Bujold (Harper Voyager; Spectrum Literary Agency)

  • The Divine Cities, Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway)
  • The Memoirs of Lady Trent, Marie Brennan (Tor US; Titan UK)
  • InCryptid, Seanan McGuire (DAW)
  • The Stormlight Archive, Brandon Sanderson (Tor US; Gollancz UK)
  • The Books of the Raksura, Martha Wells (Night Shade)

  John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer [Not a Hugo Award]

  WINNER: Rebecca Roanhorse

  • Katherine Arden
  • *Sarah Kuhn
  • Jeannette Ng
  • Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • Rivers Solomon

  * Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.

  The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Award for Best Young Adult Book [Not a Hugo Award]

  WINNER: Akata Warrior, Nnedi Okorafor (Viking)

  • In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan (Big Mouth House)
  • A Skinful of Shadows, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK; Amulet)
  • Summer in Orcus, T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) (Sofawolf)
  • The Art of Starving, Sam J. Miller (HarperTeen)
  • The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman (Knopf; Fickling UK)

These are all names you should know, purchase, and get into the hands of readers right now. Also don’t forget my post on how to use awards lists as a RA tool. It’s not just the winners you need to worry about.

Also a comment on Jemisin’s win. She is the first author to win the Hugo for every book in a series! A few years ago I already make her my official start with author for all readers looking to see what SF is right now. She still holds that place for me as she should for you. One of the most striking things about her writing is how it straddles the line between SF and Fantasy. This is becoming a major trend in all speculative fiction. Click here to read more about the Broken Earth Trilogy on Goodreads. 

Scalzi and Wells are also very good examples of the current state of SF. And Rebecca Roanhorse is an amazing talent that you need to read and know about. 

Speaking of Locus, they have this wonderful, linked index of every single speculative award in one place and this wonderful, annual their Recommended Reads list for all speculative genres.

I also love Barnes and Noble’s speculative fiction blog, Tor.Com’s articles, pre-pub alerts, essays, re-reads, etc..., and LitReactor Magazine which isn’t only speculative but has a lot of speculative fiction coverage.

I think you are now properly set up to celebrate Science Fiction and Fantasy Week. These links should start you down a rabbit hole [or 2 or 3].