A Week of Winners 🥉🥈🥇

 

  I've had the good fortune to spend the week reading award-winning sci-fi and fantasy. 

    In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune is the 2023 Science Fiction Book winner of the Good Reads Choice awards. As I read, I noticed similarities to Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi--relationships, similar names, real boys--and looked it up to find I was correct. It is Pinocchio turned inside out. Most characters are robots, cyborgs, and synthetics, except for one real boy, Victor Lawson. Klune's story is imaginative, fast-paced, and humorous. Beneath all that is an account of humanity's greed and foolishness, but also their love. It deserves the award because it has layered characters, action, and adventure. 

Spoiler Alert: I didn't love the ending, and I don't think it was because of the other stellar books I also read. Stylistically, I would have preferred something different. I award this book the bronze medal.

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Science Fiction book of the year in 1988

Note: This is an old cover. I couldn't find the current one. 

    Connie Willis is my favorite author. Lincoln's Dreams is a mind-bending, suspenseful drama that shows Connie Willis at her best. Multiple plot threads propel the book. Jeff is a researcher for a man who writes Civil War historical fiction. His old roommate Richard, a psychiatrist at a sleep clinic, has a patient, Annie, who has recurring, disturbing dreams about the Civil War. From there, it gets really fascinatingly weird. I read this book about thirty years ago and still remember it. Revisiting it helped me appreciate Willis's talent for juggling many characters and plots while exploring ideas of duty and honor. I award this book the silver medal.

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    Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher wasn't on my radar despite its many awards like the Hugo and Nebula. My daughter recommended it to me, and I loved it. Kingfisher takes the ingredients for a typical fantasy novel: a heroine who wants to save someone precious to them but faces impossible odds. First assemble an odd crew of fierce misfits, then adds some incredibly imaginative plot twists, and dash of romance. I award this book the gold medal.

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