On March 31st, nominations for both the 2016 Hugo Awards and the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards will close.
Sad Puppies IV attempted to turn their slate into a “recommendation” list this year by opening up suggestions on a dedicated page (those participating made their suggestions in the comments) and then offering to whittle the list down to ten or so finalist recommendations, that puppies were then encouraged to consider for their ballots.
Kate Paulk recently closed the comments (at the beginning of March) so that they could be compiled and a final list composed.
It’s a little late in the game, especially considering that nominators are kinda expected to read and be familiar with works they’re going to recommend (but that isn’t necessarily an impediment for organized voting), so we’ve decided to help them out a bit and give them a hand up.
We started with one of the most visible categories – Best Novel. The following list contains all of the individual works mentioned in the comments. We did not verify eligibility (although most, if not all of the works seems to meet that criteria). When judging whether or not someone recommended something, we took “Plus 1” and “Me Too” to count for a “vote”. If someone talked about a work but didn’t expressly indicate that it was something they were going to nominate, we didn’t count it.
If a “top ten” is going to be compiled, it’s pretty obvious from the counts below what we should see on the Sad Puppy IV Slate. It will be interesting to see how the final list compares.
Of particular note is Honor At Stake by Declan Finn. He wasn’t shy at all about recommending his own work and apparently working the room works! Honor came in at #2. Funny how the same thing that was done to the Hugos last year popped up in SPIV, huh?
There were some 356 comments over all. Patterns are sometimes obvious: whenever someone mentioned a previously unmentioned work, it was usually followed by a handful of “me too” comments.
Maybe there’s a reason this compiling has waited so long. Maybe (off-chance), Kate decided that if it came in too late for the majority of works to be read, the claim could be made that SPIV didn’t really influence anything. Maybe.
The process was relatively straight-forward: individual works were added to a list and then each individual mention of a work that met the above criteria was counted as a vote.
There was a lot of discussion of nominating series; these were included.
I don’t understand the need to compile a top ten: we’ve already got the “recommended reads” part done.
Nevertheless, here it is. It will be interesting to what, if anything makes it to the final ballot.
1 | Somewither | Wright | 23 |
2 | Honor At Stake | Finn | 22 |
3 | Aeronaut’s Windlass, the | Butcher | 19 |
4 | Uprooted | Novik | 19 |
5 | Long Time Until Now, A | Williamson | 16 |
6 | Seveneves | Stephenson | 15 |
7 | Nethereal | Neimeier | 13 |
8 | Son of the Black Sword, the | Correia | 11 |
9 | Fifth Season, the | Jemsin | 8 |
10 | Strands of Sorrow | Ringo | 8 |
11 | Ancillary Mercy | Leckie | 7 |
12 | Just City, the | Walton | 7 |
13 | Desert and the Blade, the | Stirling | 6 |
14 | Saturn Run | Sandford/Ctein | 6 |
15 | Aurora | Robinson | 5 |
16 | Devil’s Only Friend, the | Wells | 5 |
17 | Golden Son | Brown | 5 |
18 | Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | Yudlowsky | 5 |
19 | Raising Caine | Gannon | 5 |
20 | Dark Tide Rising Series | Ringo | 4 |
21 | Discworld Series | Pratchett | 4 |
22 | Firefight | Sanderson | 4 |
23 | Hell’s Foundation Quiver | Weber | 4 |
24 | Net of Dawn and Bones, A | Chancy | 4 |
25 | Ronin Games | Harmon | 4 |
26 | Sorcerer to the Crown | Cho | 4 |
27 | 1636: The Cardinal Virtues | Flint/Hunt | 3 |
28 | Black Wolves | Elliott | 3 |
29 | Blackbird | Boykin | 3 |
30 | Dark Forest, the | Liu | 3 |
31 | Fool’s Quest | Hobb | 3 |
32 | Nemesis Games | Corey | 3 |
33 | Shepherd’s Crown, the | Pratchett | 3 |
34 | Torchship | Gallagher | 3 |
35 | Ancillary Sword | Leckie | 2 |
36 | Angels of Attack | Kloos | 2 |
37 | Anniversary Day Saga | Rusch | 2 |
38 | Archangel | Reed | 2 |
39 | Autumn Republic, the | McClellan | 2 |
40 | Black Fleet Trilogy | Dalzelle | 2 |
41 | Bones and All | De Angelis | 2 |
42 | Call To Arms, A | Zahn/Pope/Weber | 2 |
43 | Children of Time | Tchaikovsky | 2 |
44 | Collisions of the Damned | Young | 2 |
45 | Darker Shade of Magic, A | Schwab | 2 |
46 | Distopia | Kroese | 2 |
47 | Dragon Thief | Swann | 2 |
48 | Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits | Wong | 2 |
49 | Foxglove Summer | Aaronovitch | 2 |
50 | Her Brother’s Keeper | Kupari | 2 |
51 | House of Shattered Wings, the | de Bodard | 2 |
52 | Library at Mount Char, the | Hawkins | 2 |
53 | Mechanical, the | Tregellis | 2 |
54 | Traitor Baru Cormorant, the | Dickinson | 2 |
55 | Vermillion | Tanzer | 2 |
56 | Werewolf Cop | Klavan | 2 |
57 | A Succession of Bad Days | Saunders | 1 |
58 | Alex Crow, the | Smith | 1 |
59 | Alice | Henry | 1 |
60 | Architect of Aeons | Wright | 1 |
61 | Armada | Kline | 1 |
62 | Ashes Born | Lowell | 1 |
63 | Awesome, the | Darrows | 1 |
64 | Book of Lost Doors, the | Burnett | 1 |
65 | Borrowed Man, A | Wolfe | 1 |
66 | Buried Giant, the | Ishiguro | 1 |
67 | Byrony and Roses | Kingfisher | 1 |
68 | Castaway Planet | Spoor/Flint | 1 |
69 | Cat at Bay, A | Boykin | 1 |
70 | Chaplewood | Priest | 1 |
71 | Cinder Spires, the | Butcher | 1 |
72 | Clockwork Lives | Anderson | 1 |
73 | Culmanic Parts | Sutcliffe | 1 |
74 | Cunning Blood | Duntemann | 1 |
75 | Dark Intelligence | Asher | 1 |
76 | Dark Orbit | Gilman | 1 |
77 | Dinosaur Lords | Milan | 1 |
78 | Dread Wyrm, the | Cameron | 1 |
79 | Echopes of Apollo | Thompson | 1 |
80 | Edge of Dark | Cooper | 1 |
81 | Flex | Steinmetz | 1 |
82 | Gatefather | Card | 1 |
83 | Gentleman Joe and the Red Queen | Bujold | 1 |
84 | Grace of Kings | Liu | 1 |
85 | Greek Key | Spangler | 1 |
86 | Half a War | Abercrombie | 1 |
87 | Hidden Masters of Marandur and the Assassins of Altis | Campbell | 1 |
88 | Illuminae | Kaufman | 1 |
89 | Invisiblew Library, the | Cogman | 1 |
90 | Karen Memory | Bear | 1 |
91 | Knight’s Shadow | de Castelle | 1 |
92 | Less Than Hero | Browne | 1 |
93 | Liar’s Key, the | Lawrence | 1 |
94 | Last Song Before Night | Myer1 | 1 |
95 | Life and Death | Meyer | 1 |
96 | Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Chambers | 1 |
97 | Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan | Campbell | 1 |
98 | Mind Over All | Fabian | 1 |
99 | Morte | Repino | 1 |
100 | Oncoming Storm, the | Nuttall | 1 |
101 | One Year After | Forstchen | 1 |
102 | Oracle | West | 1 |
103 | Originator | Shepherd | 1 |
104 | Pact | Wildbow | 1 |
105 | Philosopher Kings, the | Walton | 1 |
106 | Predator One | Mayberry | 1 |
107 | Providence of Fire, the | Staveley | 1 |
108 | Radiance | Valente | 1 |
109 | Radiomen | Lerman | 1 |
110 | Retrieval Artist series | Rusch | 1 |
111 | Rising, the | Tregillis | 1 |
112 | Root of Unity | Huang | 1 |
113 | Saint Odd | Koontz | 1 |
114 | Sceptre of Morgulan, the | Ryan | 1 |
115 | Shadows of Self | Sanderson | 1 |
116 | Shrivers: The Substrate War 3 | Kinnison | 1 |
117 | Signal to Noise | Moreno-Garcia | 1 |
118 | Skull of Oghren | Vainio | 1 |
119 | Skull Throne, the | Brett | 1 |
120 | Sousmission | Houlledeq | 1 |
121 | Straits of Hell | Anderson | 1 |
122 | Sword of Arelion | Green | 1 |
123 | Twice and Future Caeser: A Novel of the USS Merrimack | Meluch | 1 |
124 | Vorrh, the | Catling | 1 |
125 | War Dogs | Bear | 1 |
126 | Watchmaker of Filigree Street, the | Pulley | 1 |
127 | Water Knife, the | Bacigalupi | 1 |
128 | Welcome to Night Vale | Cranor/Fink | 1 |
129 | Whispering Swarm, the | Moorcock | 1 |
130 | Wolf by Wolf | Graudin | 1 |
131 | Yaqteenya, the Old World | Bahjatt | 1 |
132 | Zero World | Hough | 1 |
TITLE | AUTHOR(S) | NOMINATIONS |
1636: The Cardinal Virtues | Flint/Hunt | 3 |
A Succession of Bad Days | Saunders | 1 |
Aeronaut’s Windlass, the | Butcher | 19 |
Alex Crow, the | Smith | 1 |
Alice | Henry | 1 |
Ancillary Mercy | Leckie | 7 |
Ancillary Sword | Leckie | 2 |
Angels of Attack | Kloos | 2 |
Anniversary Day Saga | Rusch | 2 |
Archangel | Reed | 2 |
Architect of Aeons | Wright | 1 |
Armada | Kline | 1 |
Ashes Born | Lowell | 1 |
Aurora | Robinson | 5 |
Autumn Republic, the | McClellan | 2 |
Awesome, the | Darrows | 1 |
Black Fleet Trilogy | Dalzelle | 2 |
Black Wolves | Elliott | 3 |
Blackbird | Boykin | 3 |
Bones and All | De Angelis | 2 |
Book of Lost Doors, the | Burnett | 1 |
Borrowed Man, A | Wolfe | 1 |
Buried Giant, the | Ishiguro | 1 |
Byrony and Roses | Kingfisher | 1 |
Call To Arms, A | Zahn/Pope/Weber | 2 |
Castaway Planet | Spoor/Flint | 1 |
Cat at Bay, A | Boykin | 1 |
Chaplewood | Priest | 1 |
Children of Time | Tchaikovsky | 2 |
Cinder Spires, the | Butcher | 1 |
Clockwork Lives | Anderson | 1 |
Collisions of the Damned | Young | 2 |
Culmanic Parts | Sutcliffe | 1 |
Cunning Blood | Duntemann | 1 |
Dark Forest, the | Liu | 3 |
Dark Intelligence | Asher | 1 |
Dark Orbit | Gilman | 1 |
Dark Tide Rising Series | Ringo | 4 |
Darker Shade of Magic, A | Schwab | 2 |
Desert and the Blade, the | Stirling | 6 |
Devil’s Only Friend, the | Wells | 5 |
Dinosaur Lords | Milan | 1 |
Discworld Series | Pratchett | 4 |
Distopia | Kroese | 2 |
Dragon Thief | Swann | 2 |
Dread Wyrm, the | Cameron | 1 |
Echopes of Apollo | Thompson | 1 |
Edge of Dark | Cooper | 1 |
Fifth Season, the | Jemsin | 8 |
Firefight | Sanderson | 4 |
Flex | Steinmetz | 1 |
Fool’s Quest | Hobb | 3 |
Foxglove Summer | Aaronovitch | 2 |
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits | Wong | 2 |
Gatefather | Card | 1 |
Gentleman Joe and the Red Queen | Bujold | 1 |
Golden Son | Brown | 5 |
Grace of Kings | Liu | 1 |
Greek Key | Spangler | 1 |
Half a War | Abercrombie | 1 |
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | Yudlowsky | 5 |
Hell’s Foundation Quiver | Weber | 4 |
Her Brother’s Keeper | Kupari | 2 |
Hidden Masters of Marandur and the Assassins of Altis | Campbell | 1 |
Honor At Stake | Finn | 22 |
House of Shattered Wings, the | de Bodard | 2 |
Illuminae | Kaufman | 1 |
Invisiblew Library, the | Cogman | 1 |
Just City, the | Walton | 7 |
Karen Memory | Bear | 1 |
Knight’s Shadow | de Castelle | 1 |
Last Song Before Night | Myer1 | 1 |
Less Than Hero | Browne | 1 |
Liar’s Key, the | Lawrence | 1 |
Library at Mount Char, the | Hawkins | 2 |
Life and Death | Meyer | 1 |
Long Time Until Now, A | Williamson | 16 |
Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Chambers | 1 |
Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan | Campbell | 1 |
Mechanical, the | Tregellis | 2 |
Mind Over All | Fabian | 1 |
Morte | Repino | 1 |
Nemesis Games | Corey | 3 |
Net of Dawn and Bones, A | Chancy | 4 |
Nethereal | Neimeier | 13 |
Oncoming Storm, the | Nuttall | 1 |
One Year After | Forstchen | 1 |
Oracle | West | 1 |
Originator | Shepherd | 1 |
Pact | Wildbow | 1 |
Philosopher Kings, the | Walton | 1 |
Predator One | Mayberry | 1 |
Providence of Fire, the | Staveley | 1 |
Radiance | Valente | 1 |
Radiomen | Lerman | 1 |
Raising Caine | Gannon | 5 |
Retrieval Artist series | Rusch | 1 |
Rising, the | Tregillis | 1 |
Ronin Games | Harmon | 4 |
Root of Unity | Huang | 1 |
Saint Odd | Koontz | 1 |
Saturn Run | Sandford/Ctein | 6 |
Sceptre of Morgulan, the | Ryan | 1 |
Seveneves | Stephenson | 15 |
Shadows of Self | Sanderson | 1 |
Shepherd’s Crown, the | Pratchett | 3 |
Shrivers: The Substrate War 3 | Kinnison | 1 |
Signal to Noise | Moreno-Garcia | 1 |
Skull of Oghren | Vainio | 1 |
Skull Throne, the | Brett | 1 |
Somewither | Wright | 23 |
Son of the Black Sword, the | Correia | 11 |
Sorcerer to the Crown | Cho | 4 |
Sousmission | Houlledeq | 1 |
Straits of Hell | Anderson | 1 |
Strands of Sorrow | Ringo | 8 |
Sword of Arelion | Green | 1 |
Torchship | Gallagher | 3 |
Traitor Baru Cormorant, the | Dickinson | 2 |
Twice and Future Caeser: A Novel of the USS Merrimack | Meluch | 1 |
Uprooted | Novik | 19 |
Vermillion | Tanzer | 2 |
Vorrh, the | Catling | 1 |
War Dogs | Bear | 1 |
Watchmaker of Filigree Street, the | Pulley | 1 |
Water Knife, the | Bacigalupi | 1 |
Welcome to Night Vale | Cranor/Fink | 1 |
Werewolf Cop | Klavan | 2 |
Whispering Swarm, the | Moorcock | 1 |
Wolf by Wolf | Graudin | 1 |
Yaqteenya, the Old World | Bahjatt | 1 |
Zero World | Hough | 1 |
ETA (3/9/2016): Unranked, “recommendation list-like” version. (Alphabetical by title)
TITLE | AUTHOR(S) | NOMINATIONS |
1636: The Cardinal Virtues | Flint/Hunt | 3 |
Aeronaut’s Windlass, the | Butcher | 19 |
Alex Crow, the | Smith | 1 |
Alice | Henry | 1 |
Ancillary Mercy | Leckie | 7 |
Ancillary Sword | Leckie | 2 |
Angels of Attack | Kloos | 2 |
Anniversary Day Saga | Rusch | 2 |
Archangel | Reed | 2 |
Architect of Aeons | Wright | 1 |
Armada | Kline | 1 |
Ashes Born | Lowell | 1 |
Aurora | Robinson | 5 |
Autumn Republic, the | McClellan | 2 |
Awesome, the | Darrows | 1 |
Black Fleet Trilogy | Dalzelle | 2 |
Black Wolves | Elliott | 3 |
Blackbird | Boykin | 3 |
Bones and All | De Angelis | 2 |
Book of Lost Doors, the | Burnett | 1 |
Borrowed Man, A | Wolfe | 1 |
Buried Giant, the | Ishiguro | 1 |
Byrony and Roses | Kingfisher | 1 |
Call To Arms, A | Zahn/Pope/Weber | 2 |
Castaway Planet | Spoor/Flint | 1 |
Cat at Bay, A | Boykin | 1 |
Chaplewood | Priest | 1 |
Children of Time | Tchaikovsky | 2 |
Cinder Spires, the | Butcher | 1 |
Clockwork Lives | Anderson | 1 |
Collisions of the Damned | Young | 2 |
Culmanic Parts | Sutcliffe | 1 |
Cunning Blood | Duntemann | 1 |
Dark Forest, the | Liu | 3 |
Dark Intelligence | Asher | 1 |
Dark Orbit | Gilman | 1 |
Dark Tide Rising Series | Ringo | 4 |
Darker Shade of Magic, A | Schwab | 2 |
Desert and the Blade, the | Stirling | 6 |
Devil’s Only Friend, the | Wells | 5 |
Dinosaur Lords | Milan | 1 |
Discworld Series | Pratchett | 4 |
Distopia | Kroese | 2 |
Dragon Thief | Swann | 2 |
Dread Wyrm, the | Cameron | 1 |
Echopes of Apollo | Thompson | 1 |
Edge of Dark | Cooper | 1 |
Fifth Season, the | Jemsin | 8 |
Firefight | Sanderson | 4 |
Flex | Steinmetz | 1 |
Fool’s Quest | Hobb | 3 |
Foxglove Summer | Aaronovitch | 2 |
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits | Wong | 2 |
Gatefather | Card | 1 |
Gentleman Joe and the Red Queen | Bujold | 1 |
Golden Son | Brown | 5 |
Grace of Kings | Liu | 1 |
Greek Key | Spangler | 1 |
Half a War | Abercrombie | 1 |
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | Yudlowsky | 5 |
Hell’s Foundation Quiver | Weber | 4 |
Her Brother’s Keeper | Kupari | 2 |
Hidden Masters of Marandur and the Assassins of Altis | Campbell | 1 |
Honor At Stake | Finn | 22 |
House of Shattered Wings, the | de Bodard | 2 |
Illuminae | Kaufman | 1 |
Invisiblew Library, the | Cogman | 1 |
Just City, the | Walton | 7 |
Karen Memory | Bear | 1 |
Knight’s Shadow | de Castelle | 1 |
Last Song Before Night | Myer1 | 1 |
Less Than Hero | Browne | 1 |
Liar’s Key, the | Lawrence | 1 |
Library at Mount Char, the | Hawkins | 2 |
Life and Death | Meyer | 1 |
Long Time Until Now, A | Williamson | 16 |
Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Chambers | 1 |
Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan | Campbell | 1 |
Mechanical, the | Tregellis | 2 |
Mind Over All | Fabian | 1 |
Morte | Repino | 1 |
Nemesis Games | Corey | 3 |
Net of Dawn and Bones, A | Chancy | 4 |
Nethereal | Neimeier | 13 |
Oncoming Storm, the | Nuttall | 1 |
One Year After | Forstchen | 1 |
Oracle | West | 1 |
Originator | Shepherd | 1 |
Pact | Wildbow | 1 |
Philosopher Kings, the | Walton | 1 |
Predator One | Mayberry | 1 |
Providence of Fire, the | Staveley | 1 |
Radiance | Valente | 1 |
Radiomen | Lerman | 1 |
Raising Caine | Gannon | 5 |
Retrieval Artist series | Rusch | 1 |
Rising, the | Tregillis | 1 |
Ronin Games | Harmon | 4 |
Root of Unity | Huang | 1 |
Saint Odd | Koontz | 1 |
Saturn Run | Sandford/Ctein | 6 |
Sceptre of Morgulan, the | Ryan | 1 |
Seveneves | Stephenson | 15 |
Shadows of Self | Sanderson | 1 |
Shepherd’s Crown, the | Pratchett | 3 |
Shrivers: The Substrate War 3 | Kinnison | 1 |
Signal to Noise | Moreno-Garcia | 1 |
Skull of Oghren | Vainio | 1 |
Skull Throne, the | Brett | 1 |
Somewither | Wright | 23 |
Son of the Black Sword, the | Correia | 11 |
Sorcerer to the Crown | Cho | 4 |
Sousmission | Houlledeq | 1 |
Straits of Hell | Anderson | 1 |
Strands of Sorrow | Ringo | 8 |
Succession of Bad Days, A | Saunders | 1 |
Sword of Arelion | Green | 1 |
Torchship | Gallagher | 3 |
Traitor Baru Cormorant, the | Dickinson | 2 |
Twice and Future Caeser: A Novel of the USS Merrimack | Meluch | 1 |
Uprooted | Novik | 19 |
Vermillion | Tanzer | 2 |
Vorrh, the | Catling | 1 |
War Dogs | Bear | 1 |
Watchmaker of Filigree Street, the | Pulley | 1 |
Water Knife, the | Bacigalupi | 1 |
Welcome to Night Vale | Cranor/Fink | 1 |
Werewolf Cop | Klavan | 2 |
Whispering Swarm, the | Moorcock | 1 |
Wolf by Wolf | Graudin | 1 |
Yaqteenya, the Old World | Bahjatt | 1 |
Zero World | Hough | 1 |
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