A review by amandaquotidianbooks
An Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton

3.0

I bought this book immediately upon publication because I loved What Makes This Book So Great, also by Walton and of a similar format, so much. I was looking forward to great SFF recommendations and book reviews from Walton. This book definitely has that, but it also has lists. Hundreds of pages of lists. And that's fine. I realize I came into this book expecting to find what it was never going to be. For what this truly is, An Informal History of the Hugos, it is a comprehensive look back at the award (and other SFF awards), its nominees and the evolution of SFF literature. But what I really wanted was to just hear Walton talk about books, which only happened half of the time. I also found all the novellas and short fiction, listed in the main body of the essays and in the included comments from the blog, a little frustrating because not all of them are easy to read today. It felt like hundreds of tantalizing works I'd never be able to experience myself. Overall, I'll keep this on my shelves and am pleased to have added so many SFF books to my Goodreads TBR because of An Informal History of the Hugos.