http://www.worldcon.fi/wsfs/hugo-finalists/
I've been thinking about it because I'm eligible to vote and have a lot of reading to do in the next couple of months! I'm pretty happy with this year's shortlist, at least as far as I'm familiar with the nominated works. The two categories where I'd guess other readers here are most likely to be familiar with some of the works are:
Best Novel
•All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)
•A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)
•Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)
•Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)
•The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)
•Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)
Of the three that I've read, Ninefox Gambit is at the top of my list - an incredibly confusing but amazing military SF with political intrigue and a weird calendar based belief system. I also loved The Obelisk Gate, although not quite as much as the previous book The Fifth Season - an epic fantasy on a seismically active world that's falling apart. I've just finished the audiobook of Too Like the Lightning, and I'm not sure what I think of it - also confusing, set in the future with a radically changed world political set up, but told in a very consciously mannered 18th century enlightenment style. Until the last chapter I was almost sure I wouldn't read the next in the series, but now I'm interested in following up on the final revelations, so I'm not sure...
Best Series
•The Craft Sequence, by Max Gladstone (Tor Books)
•The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey (Orbit US / Orbit UK)
•The October Daye Books, by Seanan McGuire (DAW / Corsair)
•The Peter Grant / Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz / Del Rey / DAW / Subterranean)
•The Temeraire series, by Naomi Novik (Del Rey / Harper Voyager UK)
•The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Top of my list is The Vorkosigan Saga, a long running space opera series which is comfort reading for me - the first book was one of those that got me into reading SFF as an adult. I'm also really enjoying the October Daye series - I find McGuire's voice compelling and the series has a good balance of self contained stories, but with new developments or revelations about the world in every book. I liked the first Temeraire books (Patrick O'Brien with dragons!), but found the series started to drag in later books, and haven't read the last couple. I've read the first couple of Rivers of London books and loved the characters - especially the rivers - but haven't felt compelled to read the rest of the series. I bounced off the first Expanse book (hated one of the viewpoint characters), but I know lots of people love them, so I might try again. I haven't read the Craft Sequence, but again, have heard good things.
Has anyone else read any of the books & series above (or other nominated works)?
If anyone else is interested, you can can vote for the Hugos (and nominate for next year) if you get a supporting membership for Worldcon. It costs 35 Euros, but gives you access to the Hugo Voter packet, which contains e-book copies of many of the nominated works, including most of the novels and two of the series.
http://www.worldcon.fi/memberships/