The nominations for this year’s Hugo award for best novel are:

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

For once, I’ve read all of these. The Scalzi, Stross and Doctorow stories fall more under science fiction. Well, more or less. Anathem is very hard to place, and I’m willing to call it “speculative”, and not try to pin it down any further. The Graveyard Book is definitely fantasy. So I’m better informed than in any previous year, and yet – I cannot decide which of these I think is most worthy.

Anathem is a wonderful book. It’s deep, complex, satisfying, and makes you think. It’s hard work at times, and while I was fine with the long, long philosophical sections, many people weren’t. The invented words bugged some people, but I reckoned they were very well done, and indeed, appropriate. I say it deserves a Hugo.

Little Brother is also very, very good. Two paragraphs ago, I called it science fiction.  I’d prefer a world where it was fantasy, but it’s definitely not. It’s more of a real-world, tomorrow-or-the-next-day satire. It concerns itself with surveillance, citizens’ rights, and the way in which both are changing. I reckon it deserves a Hugo.

The Graveyard Book is Neil Gaiman at his very best. He’s been writing this for many, many years, and it’s a beautiful, polished, charming piece of work. It’s suitable for kids, and also has enough thought-provoking material to make it well worth the time for adults. Not only did I like it a lot, but I’m jonesing for a sequel, so obviously, it deserves a Hugo.

Saturn’s Children is a Heinlein-ish, Asimov-influenced, space opera. It has no human characters whatsoever, and it’s both big and clever, examining more concepts than anyone can summarise into a single paragraph. It deserves a Hugo.

And Zoe’s Tale re-examines the events of Old Man’s War from a new point of view, and adds immense depth to the setting, not to mention looking at concepts like consciousness in a way I’ve never seen before. I was sceptical until I picked up a copy, and had looked at half a page before I decided to buy. It… you’ve guessed it, deserves a Hugo.

You see the problem here. I look forward to hearing which of these deserving novels actually wins the award, and in the meantime, I encourage you to read all of them.