Longer review/overview that I wrote here. Whether it’s the play upon “Evita” (Lilith? Eve? Someone else?), the way Lafferty interconnects discussions of Utopia with questions about the soul, or any number of other major themes in the book, it’s a fascinating, fantastic ride. There’s no question here that Lafferty has steeped this book in layers upon layers of meaning, to the point that unpacking it all would take quite a bit of study. The book took me as long to read as most 400+ page novels do, largely because I found myself so drawn into the premise, prose, and symbolism found throughout. Though it’s short, I could hardly believe it only weighed in around 190 pages when I looked it up online. He’d been recommended by a number of different people to me, and with this Hugo read-through I finally picked up Past Master to check him out. I’ve never read a work by Lafferty before this one, and I have to say I was absolutely blown away. Past Master–well, you’ll see what I think below and in my extended review, but I adored it. Stand on Zanzibar was clearly worthy of a classic, though parts of it are nearly unreadable, and it is so heavy. But even if he’s not at his best, I enjoy Simak. The Goblin Reservation was a somewhat disappointing Simak book to me. But I loved them as much or more than “Nightwings.” Together, they make a novel-length book which wouldn’t unseat Past Master as my favorite this year (see my gushing below), but would give it a run. Silverberg wrote two sequel novellas, which he humorously points out Frederik Pohl, the editor of the magazine to which he submitted them, did not like. In a far future Earth the main character is assigned to watch for alien invasions while accompanied by a Changeling and a fairy-like woman. It’s pretty fantastic, and a superb example of New Wave science fiction. One thing I wanted to talk about from the 1969 Hugos is the winner of best novella, “Nightwings” by Robert Silverberg. I’ve also dropped a short reflection on the year’s Hugo list at the beginning.ġ969- Ever see your own opinion on books and think you were wrong? I suspect if I re-read some books I’d have an entirely different opinion on them. I’ve marked the winner as well as my own choice for which novel would win, had I the choice among the nominees.
Here are the nominees and the winner of the 1969 Hugo Awards.
I’m a huge science fiction fan, and, having read a list of what are alleged to be the top 200 science fiction novels, I decided to next tackle a read-through of all the Hugo Award winners and nominees for best novel.
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