Following the 5th Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off

I’ve been woefully absent in the blogging world this past month (both in terms of posting here and also catching up with other great blogs I enjoy), so I feel bad about that, but I’m finally getting to the end of other projects so I’m hoping to change things. I thought I’d start with a short post about the 5th Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off that recently came to a close. I’ve been following and enjoying it, so I wanted to share a few links and thoughts. Continue reading

Casting a Vote in the 2019 Hugo Awards

I often like to look at which books get nominated for fantasy and science fiction awards. A nomination doesn’t always mean I’ll like a book, because I’ve come across winners I’ve loved and others I’ve hated, but I enjoy finding out whether I agree with the choices. I rarely actually vote in any awards, either because I can’t, or because I don’t have time to read the shortlisted entrants before the deadline, and I don’t like to choose without having considered them all.

This year, however, I’m going to WorldCon, so for the first time ever I’m able to vote in one of the biggest SF&F awards out there: the Hugos! I’m pretty excited about it, so I decided I’m going to try to read the finalists in as many categories as I can before the online ballot submission closes on July 31st.

I’m a slow reader, so I don’t know how many I’ll manage, but here are the main categories I’m going to attempt: Continue reading

The Award-Winning Fantasy Novels of 2017

It might seem a bit late to be looking back at 2017, but as I mentioned in last week’s post, I’ve decided to start doing yearly round-ups of the award-winning fantasy books from the various awards of the past year. Since last year wasn’t all that long ago and had some intriguing prize-winning novels, I figured better late than never!

In this post, I’ll generally only be listing the novel-length fantasy works for adults or young adults that won an award in 2017 (I do make one exception for a novella at the end of this list). The other finalists are certainly also well-deserving of attention, as are the graphic novels, comics, short stories, novellas, science fiction novels, children’s books and other forms of work that won, but if I tried to include them all this list would get very long and overwhelming. If you’re interested in seeing other finalists and categories, the links below each book will take you to the full list of finalists and winners for the related award.

The book blurbs are from Goodreads (to go to the Goodreads page, click on the book cover). I’ve also briefly included my impressions and thoughts on whether I’ll read the each book – these are obviously just based on my own personal tastes and reading habits, and not an indication of whether other people should pick them up or not!

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10 Major Awards for Fantasy Literature

If you like fantasy books, you’ve probably seen stickers or announcements highlighting the fact that a particular book has won a Hugo, a World Fantasy Award or another prestigious fantasy and science fiction prize. If you’re a big fan of the genre, you might even follow these awards more closely and vote in them.

I don’t usually vote (either because I’m not a member of whichever group organises them, or because I haven’t read all the shortlisted works and feel bad voting for one if I can’t fairly compare it to the others), but I do check out winners when I see them announced online. While an award doesn’t always mean I’ll like the book, it’s usually a good sign and it gets me interested, and I’ve loved several books I learned about through book prizes. I’m keen to start doing yearly round-ups of award-winning fantasy novels as a reminder of which books have been recognised. Continue reading

How a Book Gets My Attention

I’ve always been fascinated by how books are discovered – by how a person ends up finding and deciding to read a particular novel amidst the ever-growing sea of books swirling around them. Since starting to write myself I’ve become even more fascinated by this process, knowing I may one day have a book out there that I hope to get into readers’ hands.

Sadly I don’t have the expertise or the data to analyse how most people find the books they read. However, I do know my own habits and behaviours as a reader, so for interest’s sake I thought I’d take a look at how a book can stand out from the crowd for me and make it onto my “to-read” shelf. Continue reading