2014 hugo winners. have you read any?

[J-Sun]

J-Sun,

We're probably not going to see eye-to-eye on this, but that may also be because we have different criteria by which we judge "acceptable levels of grounding/explanation." I'm quite comfortable with the explanation for the ancillaries, and felt it was as clear as it needed to me (particularly considering that the book, in general, tilts slightly to the fantasy side of space opera). If that bothered you, though, then it's fair--other elements of the book bothered me much more than they bothered other readers.

Yep, I agree - fair enough. I'll add that there are cases and types where I am satisfied with minimal explanations or fantastic things so it's not like I think, e.g., Kafka's "Metamorphosis" sucks because it's not well-explained... cuz that would be dumb - but this was just such that it, um, bugged me. But I get where you're coming from and it's okay if we still see it differently.

 

[J-Sun]

I do not mean to be beating a dead horse here (I've said all I can say and have nothing personally to add) - I just came across a non-genre resource talking about Leckie and her award winner, so thought people who've followed the thread might be interested in it. But there is one point in it that struck me as funny regarding my use of "zombie" and, e.g., Bick not caring for the term - it's not just me. This article mentions 'legions of reanimated zombie soldiers called "ancillaries."' Of course, in mentioning her unprecedented award-winning-ness, it also implies Heinlein was a slacker for not winning a Clarke award, so maybe that doesn't count for much.

Anyway - here it is: St. Louis Sci-Fi Author Ann Leckie Makes Science Fiction History With Debut Novel.