Hugo, Girl!

WE WERE KIND OF CONFUSED BUT MOSTLY LIKED THIS BOOK AND ALSO GEORGIA IS BLUE!! IT'S BLUUUUUUUE!

Music by Eon: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss

For this supersized super special episode, we were joined by Ginger Lee Thomason, who is currently writing her thesis on food in fiction and knows every snack in the book! Join us as we geek out over everything from lembas to roach jello to seared krayt dragon. Sound quality is always a crapshoot when recording remotely, so this time around, Lori and Haley are coming to you from the bottom of a well - sorry! Find Ginger at https://gingerleethomason.com/ and @wordsofginger on Twitter.

This month we discussed the 2015 Hugo winner for best novel, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

There's a lot going on in this book, so our plot summary is longish. If you don't need a plot summary you can skip 5:48-14:35.

CW/TW: LANGUAGE and sexual content that you REALLY probably do not want your kids to hear in the car and chant over and over during Zoom school, but if that does happen please tell us because that sounds funny.

Music by Eon: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss

Links:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/08/06/the-big-idea-n-k-jemisin-4/

http://nkjemisin.com/2015/08/creating-races/

We're taking a break from recording this month, so we're releasing the crossover episode we recorded back in January of 2020 with Seth Heasley, creator and host of the Hugos There podcast. This book is wild - all of humanity (and humanoid...ity??) is dead and in a bizarre, harsh afterlife. Actually now that I write that out, it feels familiar. Is 2020 just Riverworld??

CW/TW: suicide, sexual assault, slavery, antisemitism, racism, Nazis, sexism

Music by Eon: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss

It's our Halloween Spooptacular! In honor of Spooptober, we bring you a special episode on Fritz Leiber's 1944 retro Hugo winner for best novel, Conjure Wife. Big thanks to Seth (@hugospodcast) for suggesting this 180-page Misogynist Moment, which asks (over and over and over) if witchcraft might be real. Warning: major digressions ahead. Topics include Elvira and whether or not spit is water.

Music by Eon: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss

Article about the many covers of Conjure Wife: https://www.blackgate.com/2014/02/15/lust-women-and-the-devil-seven-decades-of-fritz-leibers-conjure-wife/

This month we discussed A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter H. Miller, winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for best novel. It has lots of men, lots of death, and almost no women - and we all loved it! We loved it so much, we forgot about our Boob Talk segment, but there are no boobs in this book anyway.

CW: discussion of the author's death by suicide

Music by Eon: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss

New Yorker article: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/science-fiction-classic-still-smolders

Welcome to our inaugural Hugo Babygirl episode! These are shorter episodes (hence the "baby") where we read and discuss Hugo Award-winning short fiction (and other stuff if we feel like it).

For this episode we read Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse, which won the Hugo Award for best short story in 2018. Spoiler: we all thought it was excellent.

Apologies for some weird audio in this one. The results of recording remotely are always a surprise!

Read the story via Apex Magazine: https://apex-magazine.com/welcome-to-your-authentic-indian-experience/

Or listen to LeVar Burton read it to you on your favorite podcast app or at http://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/

To borrow a term from our friend Seth at the Hugos There podcast, this was a comfort read chosen by Haley. As far as we know, it won no awards, but it is composed of many words printed on paper and is definitely a book. Plus, there are Force witches!

We also announce our fundraiser/book drive in support of the Women's Prison Book Project (https://wpbp.org/). Details are on our social media. The short version is if you donate money to them or ship them items off their Amazon wish list and email us the receipt, you'll be entered to win some sweet HG merch! Deadline is 8PM EST on 9/18/2020.

Music by Eon: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss

This month we bring you a supersized episode for a supersized book. We read (and read and read) the 2004 winner for Best Novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. We also recorded the day after the Hugo Awards, so we discussed that for a while. If you'd prefer to skip straight to the book talk, start at 14:15.

CW: Discussion of Clarke's antiquated racial language at 48:20-49:30

Amy's links: The SF Site: An Interview With Susanna Clarke (Steven H. Silver) Strange Horizons - The Fantasy of Talking Back: Susanna Clarke's Historical Present in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Elizabeth Hoiem) Introduction to the Caribbean Books of Magic, Second Edition (Jennifer Oksana)

Music by Eon: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss

This month we discuss Ancillary Justice, winner of the 2014 Hugo for best novel, and the first book in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy. It's got sentient ships, zombie soldiers, tons of tea, and no he/him pronouns, which threatens a lot of men on Goodreads, apparently!

We were also thrilled to have special guest Colette Fozard, co-chair of DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, join us for this episode! Find out more about the 2021 convention in Washington, DC here: https://discon3.org/ or @worldcon2021 on social.

Music by Eon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss