Hugo Winners, with commentary

[drwex]

I'm indebted to dr_memory for the snark concept. Keep in mind that a Hugo is a popularity contest, not necessary a metric of literary worth. Anyone have a comparable list of Nebula winners handy?

Year	Book	Author	Read it?	Commentary
2005	Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell	Susanna Clarke	No
2004	Paladin of Souls	Lois McMaster Bujold	No	On my TBR list
2003	Hominids	Robert J. Sawyer	No
2002	American Gods	Neil Gaiman	Yes	This is a good book, in the "Wow, Neil is doing a really good Tim Powers act" sense. I don't dislike him for that but I wish Powers got more recognition for some of his works.
2001	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	J. K. Rowling	No	Not unless someone pays me.
2000	A Deepness in the Sky	Vernor Vinge	No	will probably read it at some point
1999	To Say Nothing of the Dog	Connie Willis	No	Another 'maybe'. I keep wanting to like Willis' writing more, based on liking her talks at cons, and failing.
1998	Forever Peace	Joe Haldeman	No	I'll have to read this eventually but Forever War disturbed me for so long after reading it that I'm actively afraid of picking this one up. It's comparable to how I couldn't watch Kurosawa films for several years after seeing Kagemusha.
1997	Blue Mars	Kim Stanley Robinson	Yes	I found the Mars trilogy spectacularly unmemorable; thought the California trilogy was better.
1996	The Diamond Age	Neal Stephenson	Yes	Dr M wrote: "It's a good thing that endings are apparently not a requirement for a Hugo", which is true - remember it's a popularity contest. The first 80% of the book is brilliant and a must-read for anyone who cares about how children are educated.
1995	Mirror Dance	Lois McMaster Bujold	Yes	I like all of the Vor novels.
1994	Green Mars	Kim Stanley Robinson	Yes
1993	Doomsday Book	Connie Willis	Yes	Another of the "I really should like this more than I do" books.
1993	A Fire Upon the Deep	Vernor Vinge	No
1992	Barrayar	Lois McMaster Bujold	Yes
1991	The Vor Game	Lois McMaster Bujold	Yes
1990	Hyperion	Dan Simmons	Yes	A book ruined for me by realizing it has a GAPING hole it its central plot logic.
1989	Cyteen	C. J. Cherryh	No
1988	The Uplift War	David Brin	No	I've never felt Brin was actually writing the kind of adult fiction I wanted to read.
1987	Speaker for the Dead	Orson Scott Card	*	Godawful. Gave up about 1/4 through. See below.
1986	Ender's Game	Orson Scott Card	Yes	There was a really good short story here, once. Then it got blown up into a couple of ponderous and boring novels. And I learned too much about the author to enjoy anything he wrote, like EVER.
1985	Neuromancer	William Gibson	Yes	Gibson is actually a better read at short story length but this is still an amazing novel and puts a lot of its contemporaries to shame.
1984	Startide Rising	David Brin	*	Bo-ring. When you're reading stuff like Neuromancer and being blown away by it, it's things like Brin that suffer by comparison.
1983	Foundation's Edge	Isaac Asimov	No	It might be good. Or I might decide that I really want to hold onto my memories of being riveted by the original Foundation books and not read an aging author's attempt to stretch it just one more book.
1982	Downbelow Station	C. J. Cherryh	*	Another one I tried and just couldn't get into. For me it really pales in comparison with Cherryh's Chanur trilogy, which are smaller, faster, and MUCH more interesting books.
1981	The Snow Queen	Joan D. Vinge	No
1980	The Fountains of Paradise	Arthur C. Clarke	No
1979	Dreamsnake	Vonda N. McIntyre	No
1978	Gateway	Frederik Pohl	Yes	Good space opera of the kind I used to enjoy.
1977	Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang	Kate Wilhelm	No
1976	The Forever War	Joe Haldeman	Yes	A frightening book, which is part of its brilliance.
1975	The Dispossessed	Ursula K. Le Guin	Yes
1974	Rendezvous with Rama	Arthur C. Clarke	No
1973	The Gods Themselves	Isaac Asimov	Yes
1972	To Your Scattered Bodies Go	Philip José Farmer	No
1971	Ringworld	Larry Niven	Yes
1970	The Left Hand of Darkness	Ursula K. Le Guin	Yes
1969	Stand on Zanzibar	John Brunner	Yes
1968	Lord of Light	Roger Zelazny	Yes
1967	The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress	Robert A. Heinlein	Yes	One of my favorite Heinleins, for all its flaws.
1966	Dune	Frank Herbert	Yes	The spice is life; the endless raft of sequels is death.
1966	...And Call Me Conrad (This Immortal)	Roger Zelazny	No
1965	The Wanderer	Fritz Leiber	No
1964	Here Gather the Stars (Way Station)	Clifford D. Simak	No
1963	The Man in the High Castle	Philip K. Dick	Yes	F'ing brilliant, as with much of Dick's work.
1962	Stranger in a Strange Land	Robert A. Heinlein	Yes	I still use 'grok' in casual conversation. I are a geek.
1961	A Canticle for Leibowitz	Walter M. Miller, Jr	Yes	Another disturbing and brilliant work.
1960	Starship Troopers	Robert A. Heinlein	Yes	Such a good book that I will forever hate Verhoeven for birthing that abomination of a movie with the same name.
1959	A Case of Conscience	James Blish	Yes*	One of the few books that has so aggravated me I've flung it away in anger. Not that it's not well-written, I just wanted to choke the characters to death.
1958	The Big Time	Fritz Leiber	No
1956	Double Star	Robert A. Heinlein	Yes	Not one of his better books.
1955	They'd Rather Be Right (The Forever Machine)	Mark Clifton & Frank Riley	No
1953	The Demolished Man	Alfred Bester	Yes	I agree that The Stars My Destination is better, but this is not a bad book.

So that's 27 yes, 22 no, and 3 failed-to-finish.

Comments

[drwex]

I would say that there are some good metrics of worth in that books can have purposes and can achieve or fail those to greater or lesser degrees. We might also sketch some general metrics for "why have literature at all" including "to entertain", "to educate", "to challenge" and note that many (most) books fail on most (all) these general metrics as well. Those that do succeed are, imo, more worthwhile, given that I have only limited time to read.