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A review by nineteen_adze
An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000 by Jo Walton
4.0
This is a serious brick; I’ve been chipping away at it since early April. It’s put together with an amazing level of detail, and I’d absolutely recommend it as the first stop for someone looking to put together an SFF history course or a book club of great shorter work from different decades. Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton left a lot of insightful comments on things that were left out of the finalist lists over the years, and the commentary on older short stories and novelettes that didn't make the ballot is fantastic.
If you’re not focused on learning more about the history of the genre or adding to your TBR of the best-reviewed classics, on the other hand, this isn’t going to be your cup of tea. My attention definitely flagged when I tried to read more than two years at a time, or when there was a span of years without the great concluding essays about one of the finalists. More years have those essays than not, but it was rough to hit too many sections that feel like lists without more reflection to break it up sometimes.
To access the core year-by-year material online, check out the Tor.com series. For the essays on the individual books, check out the Jo Walton Reads tag (her monthly reading lists are also delightful).
If you’re not focused on learning more about the history of the genre or adding to your TBR of the best-reviewed classics, on the other hand, this isn’t going to be your cup of tea. My attention definitely flagged when I tried to read more than two years at a time, or when there was a span of years without the great concluding essays about one of the finalists. More years have those essays than not, but it was rough to hit too many sections that feel like lists without more reflection to break it up sometimes.
To access the core year-by-year material online, check out the Tor.com series. For the essays on the individual books, check out the Jo Walton Reads tag (her monthly reading lists are also delightful).