My thoughts on all the nominees for the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novel

I have read all the nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Novel since 2000, along with all the winners before 2000. Last year, I kept up with reading the books, but not with writing the reviews, so here is a somewhat belated review post summarising my thoughts on last year’s nominees. Here are the 2023 nominees in random order:

  1. Tamsyn Muir – Nona the Ninth
  2. Silvia Moreno-Garcia – The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
  3. Mary Robinette Kowal – The Spare Man
  4. Travis Baldree – Legends & Lattes
  5. John Scalzi – The Kaiju Preservation Society
  6. T. Kingfisher – Nettle & Bone

Like last time, I have reviewed each book with the lowest rating first and my personal pick for the award last. Finally, I offer some general thoughts and reflections about this year’s batch.

6. Travis Baldree – Legends & Lattes

Travis Baldree – Legends & Latte

Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes offers a cosy, slice-of-life tale set in a high-fantasy world. The story follows Viv, a female orc barbarian who retires from a life of adventuring to open a coffee shop in a town where no one has even heard of coffee. This setup immediately grounds the reader in a whimsical yet down-to-earth setting, where the primary conflicts revolve around running a small business rather than grand, world-saving quests.

In short, this is the kind of thing you’d come up with in your table-top role-playing group when you’re bored of high-fantasy, but aren’t brave enough to try a different genre. I have tried something similar, although it wasn’t a coffee shop specifically, but this was when I was fifteen.

The plot of Legends & Lattes is straightforward and predictable, with few surprises. Viv faces various challenges, from dealing with a local mob boss to managing her new business and fostering a sense of community among her eclectic staff and patrons. While the narrative includes some tension and minor twists, it largely focuses on day-to-day interactions and the simple pleasures of building a new life.

However, in my opinion, Legends & Lattes falls short in several areas. The book really does feel more like a D&D session than a fully fleshed-out novel. I assume that this is at least partially the point (L&L) but that doesn’t help.

The plot is overly predictable, and the stakes are intentionally low, which makes the story feel uneventful. The feel-good nature of the book, and the lack of significant conflict or character development, might appeal to people who read books only to relax, but it leaves me feeling unengaged and, after about half the book, thoroughly bored.

I must admit that I couldn’t bring myself to finish the last third of the book, so Legends & Lattes goes on my very short list of DNF titles

5. The Kaiju Preservation Society

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society sets itself up with an intriguing concept that combines the mundane with the fantastical, which seems to be a trend in the author’s books in recent years.

We follow Jamie Gray, who loses his job during the COVID-19 pandemic and stumbles upon a peculiar job opportunity that thrusts him into a hidden world of kaiju (giant monsters). Employed by the secretive Kaiju Preservation Society, Jamie finds himself navigating a parallel dimension where these enormous beings roam, blending environmentalism with an adventurous twist.

The plot revolves around Jamie’s adventures within the Society as they strive to protect the kaiju from both natural threats and human interference. The narrative is a mix of action, humour, and ethical quandaries, as the team faces various challenges in their mission. As Jamie explores this hidden world, he uncovers conspiracies that threaten the delicate balance of the kaiju ecosystem.

Despite its somewhat promising setup, The Kaiju Preservation Society falls flat in execution. The book feels banal and unimaginative, recycling familiar tropes without offering any fresh perspectives. The dialogue is often flippant and overly casual, detracting from potential character development and thematic depth. The fact that I find most of the humour misplaced or not funny doesn’t help. Much of the dialogue feels like the beginning of Aliens but without the irony. I’m not sure why I don’t like Wil Wheaton as the narrator of the audiobook, he seems to fit this type of book well, but he manages to mostly irritate me and I like the book even less.

Overall, the book is a light, entertaining read but fails to deliver anything memorable or thought-provoking. If you’re looking for quick action, flippant dialogue and lots of science fiction tropes mixed without too much care, The Kaiju Preservation Society is for you. As should be clear, it’s not for me, and this is probably the worst book in the 2023 batch of nominees.

4. Mary Robinette Kowal – The Spare Man

Mary Robinette Kowal – The Spare Man

Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Spare Man combines a classic murder mystery with the futuristic setting of space travel. The story follows Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and heiress, and her new husband Shal Steward, a retired private detective, on their honeymoon on a luxury space liner. When Shal is framed for murder, Tesla must navigate her disability and PTSD to clear his name and solve the crime.

This is the fourth book I’ve read by Kowal, and it’s clear from her Lady Astronaut series that she is good at weaving together believable characters with a science-focused plot. I found at least the first book in the trilogy quite good, and it also won the Hugo Award in 2019. In The Spare Man the same skill set is on display, but in a less interesting setting and less interesting plot. I’m not too fond of murder mysteries, so this might be partly on me.

Still, the characters are engaging and the world-building believable. Unlike some of the other books in this year’s batch of nominees, Kowal is clearly a competent writer, and I doubt that she will ever publish an outright bad novel. However, The Spare Man also has its shortcomings. While the blend of science fiction and mystery mostly works, I found the resolution of the mystery somewhat underwhelming, leading to a climax that didn’t quite live up to the buildup.

Overall, I found The Spare Man to be okay but not on the same level as Kowal’s previous works. The plot, though well-constructed, lacked the originality that made her earlier books stand out.

3. Silvia Moreno-Garcia – The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

Silvia Moreno-Garcia – The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a reimagining of the H.G. Wells classic The Island of Doctor Moreau, set against the lush backdrop of 19th-century Yucatan. The novel follows Carlota Moreau, the daughter of the infamous Doctor Moreau, who conducts ethically questionable experiments creating human-animal hybrids. The story is a blend of historical fiction, gothic horror, and science fiction, with an added strain of feminist and anti-colonial themes.

The plot centres around Carlota’s coming of age and her gradual realisation of the moral and ethical implications of her father’s work. The arrival of Eduardo, a wealthy suitor, and the ensuing conflicts reveal deep secrets, leading to dramatic confrontations with men, animals and hybrids.

I found The Daughter of Doctor Moreau to be mildly interesting and quite well-written, but didn’t feel that the novel engaged me on a deeper level. It reaches the worthwhile-to-read mark but doesn’t go far beyond it, more because of the basic premise of the book than for shortcomings in execution.

2. Tamsyn Muir – Nona the Ninth

Tamsyn Muir – Nona the Ninth

Tamsyn Muir’s Nona the Ninth continues her The Locked Tomb series, offering a unique and fresh narrative that feels both familiar and new. The story introduces Nona, a sweet and innocent character with a deeply intense side, living in a borrowed body in a war-torn city. This novel diverges significantly in tone from its predecessors, focusing more on the grounded, day-to-day life of its characters and less on the epic and occasionally incomprehensible necromantic battles of the previous book.

I like Nona the Ninth for the same reason I liked the other books in this series. Muir’s writing brings a breath of fresh air to the genre, maintaining her signature blend of dark humour, intricate plots, and emotional depth. The novel is more down-to-earth compared to Harrow the Ninth, and its connections to the earlier books are not immediately apparent, creating an intriguing puzzle for the reader to piece together.

Just like the other books in this series, you’re entirely in the hands of the author, and you have to trust that she knows what she’s doing. In the first book, things are wild, but still comprehensible. In the second book, things are still wild, but now also largely incomprehensible. In this third book, things are suddenly unexpectedly slow, and you need to just trust that Muir will pull it all together and connect it with the rest of the plot. Which she does.

In summary, I found Nona the Ninth excellent, although not in the same way as the previous books in the series. This is in fact Muir’s strength: each book in the series is not just a continuation of the previous book, but very different in style. As for recommending this novel, if you enjoyed Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, there’s no need to stop here. If you haven’t read those yet, you should!

1. T. Kingfisher – Nettle & Bone

T. Kingfisher – Nettle & Bone

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher is a refreshing take on fairy tale tropes, presenting a dark yet whimsical story. The plot follows Marra, a minor royal who has spent most of her life in a convent, as she embarks on a quest to save her sisters from an abusive prince. This journey involves a unique cast of characters, including a grave witch, a fairy godmother, a former knight, and some magical animal companions like Bonedog and a demon-possessed chicken.

The novel is concise, less than 300 pages, with a tight and engaging narrative, yet still offering a richly detailed story. This is the first book I read by the author, but I appreciate works of fiction with such a high quality density (interesting things per page). I also appreciate this new angle on more traditional fairy tales and the author’s ability to handle dark themes with sensitivity and charm, which makes the novel both heartwarming and thought-provoking.

While I used to like long fantasy series as a teenager, this is more the type of fantasy I prefer these days: Novels with a clear focus, exploring a specific theme in as many pages as it deserves, no more, no less. Unlike most of the other books in this year’s batch of nominations, I can recommend this book to most people who find the initial description at least partly interesting!

Thoughts and reflections

Overall, this year’s batch was weaker than last year. I would only say that two books were truly worthwhile, which is not very good considering that this is supposed to be the best of the best already.

Naturally, I know since before that my preferences and opinions don’t conform perfectly with the people who nominate and vote to decide the Hugo Award for best novel. Am I drifting further from the mainstream, or were there simply fewer good books this year?

It would be interesting to check previous nominations to see if I like fewer and fewer, proportionally speaking, but I’ll save that for another day and another article.

Here are the actual results from the vote for the 2023 Hugo for Best Novel (you can see the full voting results here):

  1. T. Kingfisher – Nettle & Bone
  2. Silvia Moreno-Garcia – The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
  3. John Scalzi – The Kaiju Preservation Society
  4. Travis Baldree – Legends & Lattes
  5. Tamsyn Muir – Nona the Ninth
  6. Mary Robinette Kowal – The Spare Man

It’s worth noting that Nettle & Bone crushed the competition in the first round of voting, receiving almost three times as many votes as the runner-up. Considering that the only other nominee I really liked was Nona the Ninth, this is not surprising. I understand that people don’t like a slow-paced third book in an already eccentric series, which leaves Nettle & Bone as the only good book.

The rest is not terribly interesting. I thought Legends & Lattes and The Kaiju Preservation Society were terrible, but I realise that other people probably enjoyed them more than I did. Overall, I’m somewhat disappointed with the nominees this year and hope 2024 will be better!


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