Book Review: Cheddar Luck Next Time by Beth Cato

A cozy mystery opening featuring an engaging protagonist, a murder...and lots of cheese. 

Bird Nichols has been through a lot lately. She’s been trying to get a custom cheese board business off of the ground. Her grandmother, not too long after her parents’ death, has disappeared and has been declared dead, with Bird as the heir to her California Central Coast house. Now, just as Bird settles in, a reprobate neighbor turns up dead, and the prime suspect is Grizz, an old friend to her grandmother, and a fatherly figure in Bird’s life. Now, Bird has to do what her grandma apparently did all of her life and get snoopy, or else Grizz could wind up brie-hind bars for a murder he didn’t commit. But who did, and why?

This is the story of Cheddar Luck Next Time, a murder mystery by Beth Cato.

Longtime readers of my reviews know that I commonly neither read nor review straight up murder mystery novels. It’s not my usual slice of cheese at all, although SFF murder mysteries ranging from Mary Robinette Kowal to Mur Lafferty to Laura Anne Gilman have attracted my interest and attention. I mainly “followed” Beth Cato out of genre and into mystery based on my enjoyment of her previous more straight-up genre work from the Clockwork Dagger series to most recently, her Chefs of The Five Gods duology.

The throughlines of the novel are pretty clear even for me, not fully immersed in all the nuanced protocols of straight up murder mysteries. Bird is an engaging young protagonist, single, trying to make a living with her passion. Trying to return to and live in the very small community she spent vacations in and living there, a community at turns both welcoming and suspicious of her. A real sense that her grandmother was, in the end, a meddler, and the community might see Bird falling into that role. And of course a murder mystery that, thanks to the friendship with someone she cares about as the prime suspect, pushing her inexorably toward trying to solve the mystery herself, even if that one client’s cheese board just will not wait. 

One thing I should note is that Bird is autistic (like her creator) and that autism is presented and represented in an excellent and engaging way. The author doesn’t let you forget it, in ways small and large, but its not the story of Bird, any more than what her hair color is. There is an author’s note at the end about autism and its importance in recognizing and diagnosing it, for herself, and urging readers who might have similar experiences to get themselves tested and diagnosed themselves. I commend this outreach on Cato's part.

I think the mystery is a fair one, with a small town, the list of suspect is pretty small, and the eventual murderer makes sense given the evidence and clues we are given throughout the novel. Again, my protocols are not so finely honed as readers of many mysteries, I can’t answer if someone who has read very many mysteries will finger the killer, or will care that they do, before they reveal themselves. My reaction when the killer was revealed was “that makes sense” rather than “wait, what?”.

There is also a cat, Bowser, who winds up inserting himself into Bird’s life, in the inimitable way that unexpected pets (especially cats) do. 

The writing quite supports what the author is going for in the book. Sure, there is a mysterious death, and some shady characters, and some peril for our heroine, but its meant to be a light and fun read and that’s the way the book comes across. I do think that this novel qualifies as “cozy murder mystery” based on my own reading. There is a murder and a mystery around it, but a lot of revolves around Bird’s regular life and her attempts to fit into her new surroundings. As mentioned above, the main character is autistic, and one of her mechanisms to interface better with the world is to talk to herself in a running commentary. This does allow us into her headspace and what she is thinking and a sense of her deduction of what really is going on. It makes it a comfortable, comforting read, neither a pulse pounding story nor a crackerjack intricate puzzle. This is a mystery story to relax with, and enjoy.

Foghorn, the fictional tiny town (more like a village) is the setting for our murder mystery, slipped into the Central Coast of California somewhere near San Simeon and Piedras Blancas. There are mentions of plenty of real places on the coast. There is a very strong sense of place, geography and physiography to Cato’s description of a place that she, as well as her protagonist, clearly have a strong connection to. Having Foghorn be a place that she’s not native, to, but visited as a child is an excellent choice to give her a tie to the tiny community and yet be something of an outsider as an adult. In any event, for me, the area reminded me of a vacation and trip from 30 years ago when I visited the region and it makes me wish to make a return visit to an underappreciated yet beautiful part of California.

The real star of this book is not the protagonist, or the murder mystery, or the setting, and it’s not even Bowser. The real star of this book is, in fact, cheese. The author is an expert and connoisseur of cheese (as much as she is of baking), and she pours that knowledge into Bird and her cheese boards. Every cheese that Bird enjoys throughout the book is a real cheese, and all of the pairings that Bird comes up with sounds real, authentic and delicious (did the author taste test all of these combinations? I would not be surprised in the least). In addition to Bird’s cheese business, there is a grilled cheese place in Foghorn called Quesoquick. Yes, the owner of the place, Dale, is cute, single and Bird and he hit it off but this is not a romance book. But its clear there is a could-be-more-down-the-road sort of vibe to their relationship. And, in addition to that, Dale and Quesoquick give even more chances for Cato to introduce cheese into the narrative.

Cheddar Luck Next Time is a light fun romp of a straight-up cozy mystery novel. The board of the novel has all the components for an easy snack of a read that is never over Leyden: an engaging main character, a quirky fictional very small town, a solidly plotted murder, a mild stab toward romance, and a heck of a lot of delicious cheese and cheese combinations. The novel’s components are all arranged by the author in an aesthetic and culinary pleasing way, delicious from the first to the last bite. Can a book be a mystery novel and yet teach you delicious ways to combine, pair and eat cheese? Yes it can, and does a Gouda job of it. Cheddar Luck Next Time is a light, quirky and fun mystery novel that shows off and ably demonstrates Cato’s love of the Central Coast region of California and yes, of course, delicious cheese and cheese preparations of a delicious and tantalizing variety.

--

Highlights:

• Cheese, from the title to the last page. All kinds of real, hunger inducing cheese
• Light, frothy, and fun mystery. 
• Great sense of place 
• Did I mention Cheese?

Reference: Cato, Beth, Cheddar Luck Next Time, [Datura Books, 2025]

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Book Review: A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato

Following the lives of an extraordinary mother and daughter: the former secretly a sorceress in a world based on food magic, and the latter an adopted princess who learns of her adoptive nature and her own magical gift

Ada has a problem. Ever since deserting the Verdanian army and not wanting to use her food-based magic for them any longer, she has been living in secret, scrabbling out an existence with her grandmother, hoping to keep her head down and safe. When an assassin comes to disrupt her life, she realizes the fragile peace she had found is gone.

In the meantime, the daughter she never got to know, Solenn, thinks she is the blood daughter of the royal family of Braiz. She is, in fact, Ada's daughter, and soon discovers, as she is being betrothed to a Prince from Verdania, that she is a sorceress of food magic, a chef, herself. She finds this out even as it is clear someone is trying to poison and kill her betrothed, and frame her for the deed.

Ada and Solenn's converging stories are the main ingredients in Beth Cato's A Thousand Recipes for Revenge.

While there is much to talk about the worldbuilding here, and naturally, readers of my reviews know I will have much to say about it. I want to start with the two main characters and their slowly intertwining lives. Even now, in 2024, it is uncommon, as we have here in A Thousand Recipes for Revenge, that the main characters and the main driver in that social sphere are a mother and daughter, even if they do not know each other personally, or even know of each other's existence. That Cato would choose a pair of female characters as her leads is not the surprising thing, given her previous fiction. The mother-daughter pairing is what is unusual here, and most welcome as a change from the usual set of characters for such a story.

What's more, the novel starts off with Ada and her grandmother, an elderly woman whose faculties are slowly slipping. Having had a friend whose wife has had to be put into memory care very recently, and also my own mother's last days, this subplot definitely hit me with additional resonance and power. Grandmere's plight, and how Ada must deal with it even as assassins come down on her head, give the book extra emotional depth and development.

Cato does take her time with the reveal to the characters (although the book matter and things external to the book make it clear to the reader that this unexpected reunion is coming) that Ada and Solenn are mother and daughter and that their stories are on a collision course. There is a good deal of plot going on, plot that does depend on really engaging with the worldbuilding that's presented in order to appreciate it. Even with Ada and Solenn as the centerpieces of this work from a character point of view, the rest of the meal of the plot takes a lot of background work before it can be plated for the reader's consumption, and that's where the worldbuilding comes in.

So let's get into the worldbuilding. This is a book that garnishes its pages with the magic system, which is based on five food-oriented deities. All magic is tied to food in this realm, either in the special senses and empathy magic-using cooks (called chefs) have, or in the use of special ingredients to achieve magical effects. Some of these don't require a chef in order to activate; others require a culinary preparation in order to achieve their effects. But all chefs derive their gifts from one of five deities, and there are various skill levels and levels of ability to the magic.

Cato uses Ada in a bit of an "as you know" sort of mode to give us the finer details of magical ingredients and how magic works on a fine level. She is extremely experienced and has a lot of background knowledge, and so details on what the magical part of the plot against her and others comes through Ada's resource as a source of information on these ingredients. Solenn, on the other hand, gives us the "new to the magic" perspective that allows us to understand the basic assumptions, rules and more that Ada takes for granted. Solenn already knows some of this intellectually—chefs are common, and a lot of what they can do (but not everything!) is something Solenn understood on a basic level. Having the new senses of being a chef thrust upon her, suddenly and unexpectedly, allows us to taste and feel what it is like to become a chef in a way we don't get from Ada's perspective.

It should also be said, continuing in the vein of characters, that while there are plenty of male characters, this is a story that is not just the two leads in a sea of men. There are plenty of secondary female characters as well, in all walks of life, and it gives the book a very inhabited feel.

There are also some in-world quotes at the beginning of chapters from a couple of books, including, notably, one that purports to be a guide for cooks (that is to say, people who prepare food but do not have the magic gift) to be able to try and prepare food on the level of chefs. I was charmed by the epigraphs from this imaginary book, especially because of the worldbuilding it reveals, as well as the esprit of the novel. This is a novel that loves food, thinks about food, on a variety of axes. What does it mean to prepare food for yourself, or others? To share a meal with someone? Even way beyond the magic, this book makes food, which is often a key ingredient in many fantasy novels, from Samwise Gamgee cooking potatoes all the way to Wren Valere grabbing a pumpernickel bagel with a schmear on it, and makes that the center of the novel. There is an unstated but to me clear message to the novel that you don't have to be a high chef in order to enjoy food and understand food and prepare food, and that is a message I can definitely get behind. The novel is a love letter to the power of food.

As far as the worldbuilding outside of the magic itself, it's set in a multiversal variant of Western Europe that, based on external cues, appears to be around the 18th century. That certainly is the feel of technology as well as fashion and politics. There are monarchs and prime ministers, but not yet anything like an Industrial Revolution. Albion is England, Verdania is most of France, but there is a separate land of Braiz which is an independent kingdom that covers, in terms of our geography, Brittany and Normandy. It's much weaker than either Albion or Verdania, and so is always a potential pawn between the two. As the plot unfolds, especially for Solenn, adoptive princess of the Braiz royal family sent to Verdania for a marriage alliance, we see the problems of having two rather dangerous neighbors.

The novel takes communities and bonds and the presence of how they work in this world seriously and does not neglect women in any level of society. One bit of egalitarianism that belies its real-world models (as seen above) is that, while women do have somewhat restricted rights in keeping with the social and political models, women (primarily chefs) are definitely drafted into the military as easily as male chefs are. Ada is AWOL, of course, but it is clear her grandmother served in the military as well, and this is seen as being natural and normal. At one point, when Ada is trying to pose as a mercenary, the fact of her gender is not an issue at all to her prospective employers—only her competence.

The novel slowly builds, like a layer cake, layer by layer of worldbuilding and character development, and, especially, plotting. It takes quite a while for Ada and Solenn to even know of the other's existence, much less to meet, but the action sequences which punctuate the book like peppercorns in soup become a barrage of spices by the end of the novel. I think the novel gets a bit unwieldy by the end (this is first in a series, mind) as some revelations about the world that are new to the character themselves come into play, but it feels a little backloaded and top heavy, novel-wise. The real scope of the conflict and the themes of the novel (and series) only get full play in the back quarter of the book.

The novel does have a lot of interesting things to say about war, duty, sacrifice, and the bonds of a mother-daughter relationship. It's a complex and tasty world that Cato has created here, and I admit to curiosity, now that the complex and laden charcuterie board is fully set up by the end of this novel, just where the conflicts and issues of the series go in the second novel. The ending of this novel's roughness, as well as the nature of the series, means that there is no easy offramping, or leaving the set table, after this book, if you want to only go into one volume in this series.

Highlights:

• Strong mother-daughter relationship, and a good cast of female supporting characters too
• Inventive and interesting food based magic
• Entertainingly and enchantingly written, with Cato's verve and skill

Reference: Cato, Beth. A Thousand Recipes for Revenge [47 North, 2023].

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

6 Books with Beth Cato

Nebula Award-nominated Beth Cato is the author of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge from 47North (out June 1, 2023) plus two fantasy series from Harper Voyager. She’s a Hanford, California native who now wanders in far distant realms, usually with one or two cats in close orbit. Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

Today she tells us about her Six Books.

1. What book are you currently reading?

I've just completed a hard push through the Nebula finalist works (whew!), and I'm rewarding myself by reading through an advance copy of a middle grade book, A Sky Full of Song by Susan Lynn Meyer. Fun fact: when I was young, I was obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder's books and read almost every other juvenile-category Old West-set book I could find. This book adds a wonderful new perspective to the old pioneer tales by following a young girl, Shoshana, who leaves Ukraine with her Jewish family and settles in North Dakota in 1905. The book is cozy and yet also heartbreaking as it deftly handles the racism of the period. I wish I could give this book to my 11-year-old self, as I grew up Protestant and pretty sheltered. This book would've opened my eyes in a lot of ways.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

I have a galley of J.R. Dawson's The First Bright Thing that I'm desperate to get to. I mean, come on--a magical circus, time travel, post-World War I America? That so sounds like my kind of thing,

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

Oh gosh, my to-read pile is massive. I feel like the main things I re-read these days are research books when I need to glean new details. I do have a goal to read at least one 'classic' book each month, though, and as part of that, I've been rereading some books that I loved as a kid--things like Island of the Blue Dolphins and Jane Eyre. Coming up, I'd love to revisit more of Marguerite Henry's horse books. I've reread King of the Wind (my absolute favorite) a few times as an adult, but not Misty of Chincoteague. I own many of those books as library discards from my hometown.

4. How about a book that you love and wish that you yourself had written?

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. That book devastated and enlightened me in turns. Such brilliant science fiction.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that holds a special place in your heart?

Just one? Okay, a major book for me was Carbonel, the King of Cats by Barbara Sleigh. It's a chapter book first published in the 1950s, and incredibly British. It follows a girl, Rosemary, who ends up involved with a witch and her familiar, Carbonel. The book is cozy and fun, and has great illustrations. I probably checked it out from my hometown library dozens of times as I grew up. As an adult, I hunted down an early edition of the book as well as a recent reprint. I've always had a thing for talking animals, especially cats, and this book really set a standard for me. I don't recommend the sequels, though.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

A Thousand Recipes for Revenge is about food magic, musketeers, and meddlesome gods! It's set in a fresh fantasy world inspired by 16th and 17th century France. There's political drama, swashbuckling action, and LOTS of food, including my beloved cheese. I've had people ask me if there are actual recipes for revenge included, to which I'll say that there are many riffs on period recipes. It's up to you if revenge is the intent.

Thank you, Beth!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

The Hugo Initiative: Mind Meld: Favorite Best Novel Hugo Winner

Editor’s note: For years, the essential sci-fi blog SF Signal published Mind Meld, a regular column that featured a weekly roundtable discussion of the tropes, themes, politics, and future of genre fiction. The Mind Meld solicited answers from writers, editors, readers and fans on a rotating basis. After the closure of SF Signal, this feature was picked up and continued for a time by the Barnes and Noble Sci Fi Blog. We at Nerds of a Feather are proud to honor those traditions today as part of our Hugo Initiative.

Today’s Mind Meld question is the following...

What is your favorite winner of the Hugo award for best novel? Why?


Charlie Jane Anders is the Hugo Finalist co-host of Our Opinions are Correct, as well as the author of All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

This is my favorite Le Guin novel, and I think about it all the time. The story of a physicist who travels from a dirt-poor socialist anarchist world to a decadent capitalist one, this book asks so many important questions about money, property, scientific progress, and the balance between the individual and society. And even better, it doesn't really give us any easy answers. Le Guin probes the flaws in both Urras and Anares with great precision, while managing to make both worlds feel real and lived-in. And when you read all of her Hainish novels and stories in one go, as I highly encourage you to do, you start to realize that this novel's hero, Shevek, has an impact that extends far beyond these two worlds --- Shevek invents the Ansible, a instantaneous communications device that provides a crucial plot point in many of the other Hainish stories. The natives in Le Guin's "The Word For World Is Forest" are only really saved because of an Ansible, and it also helps in many other stories to provide a crucial connection to the wider universe. For all its focus on the fate of two worlds and the never-ending clash between ownership and collectivism, The Dispossessed ends up being a story of how technology can connect us to many other worlds and help us to realize that we're all connected.


Casey Blair writes speculative fiction novels including the cozy fantasy web serial Tea Princess Chronicles, which is available online for free. She lives among the forests of the Pacific Northwest and is most frequently found trapped by a cat. Follow her on Twitter as @CaseyLBlair, or visit her website at caseylblair.com. 

On one hand my answer is N.K. Jemisin, particularly The Stone Sky for the glorious, visceral thrill of such a brilliant author and series being uplifted by the voters to stick a metaphorical finger in the eyes of racist naysayers by winning three times in a row. Every book in the Broken Earth series is unflinching, and reading the truth Jemisin lays bare in it and knowing people have recognized the value of her work is incredible. It was a powerful series to read, and it was powerful to see it win every single time.

But for me it is also Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls, which was my first encounter of a fantasy book that centered an older woman and mother who still gets to experience adventures. Bujold's work is always stunning, but this one in particular mattered for me to read: among a great deal of heavy narrative lifting, it was also a dream of a future for women where we exist, and are relevant, and can have fun past our early twenties or past bearing children. Reading that masterfully wrought story and realizing how rare this aspect was and is in our fantasy changed how I thought about the genre, the world, and what it mattered for me personally to do in both.


Cheryl Morgan is an editor, critic, publisher, radio presenter, occasional writer of fictions, and
possibly a few other things that she has forgotten. Most of her writing can be found via her blog,
Cheryl’s Mewsings and she is on Twitter as @CherylMorgan.

I have often been asked to pick my favourite science novel. That’s not an easy question, but it is actually easier in some ways than picking my favourite Hugo winner. After all, people rarely agree on which novel is the best of the year. If they did there would be no point in having the Hugos. So in many years my favourite book fails to win the Hugo. Indeed, quite often it doesn’t even make the final ballot (Cathrynne M Valente’s Radiance being a case in point). As a result, the exercise of picking a favourite Hugo winner becomes more a matter of picking a favourite among a bunch of books that I thought were a bit meh, or even actively disliked.

Thankfully there are some years in which books I did like were winners. I still have a soft spot for China Mièville’s The City and The City, for example. I also love Ancillary Justice, and the whole of N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy. (Are the Hugo winners getting better, or at east coming closer to my taste?) But I’m slightly nervous of picking something recent in case it doesn’t pass the test of time.

A case in point is William Gibson’s Neuromancer. It is a book I loved when it came out. It also
kickstarted the entire cyberpunk genre. It is clearly a very important book. But is it still a favourite, now that we live in a world in which cyberspace has proved very different to the one that Gibson imagined? The real internet is far more like something out of Pat Cadigan’s Synners than out of the Sprawl Trilogy. Of course, there are also books that I haven’t read. And there are books that I read so long ago (The Demolished Man, for example) that I have no idea whether I still like them or not. I have this year’s Hugo reading to do, so I’m not going to be re-reading the backlist for this project. So where does that leave me? Well, there are a handful of absolute classics of the genre on the Hugo Winner list, and among those I am fortunate enough to find one of the books I often mention when people ask me for my all-time favourite science fiction novel. That book is The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin. What is so special about The Dispossessed? Well to start with it is by Le Guin, who is as close to a  genius that our genre has produced (and note that Gene Wolfe did not win a Hugo with any of his novels, nor did Octavia Butler). But the main reason I love it is that it does a thing that many science fiction novels try; and does it superbly well. The Dispossessed is a Utopian novel, harking all the way back to Thomas More’s original. Whereas More’s Utopians dig a channel to separate themselves from the mainland, the people of Anarres have gone to live on an entirely separate world. They have, in classic Utopian manner, tried to create a perfect society. And, just like everyone else who tries this, they fail. Le Guin understands that one man’s Utopia is another man’s Dystopia. What suits some of us does not suit all of us. Also, humans are naturally competitive, and any attempt to create a totally egalitarian society is doomed to failure. Someone will always find a way to make themselves seem better than everyone else, even if that is only “better” by their own definition. As a result, The Dispossessed is less of a political polemic and more of an extended analysis of the merits and demerits of different forms of social organisation. It is a book that debates with itself, and makes a very good attempt at doing so neutrally and fairly. Obviously there are those who think that the book is a stunning portrayal of the evils of Capitalism, and others who think it is a stunning portrayal of the evils of Communism. I think both of those groups are wrong, and I think Le Guin would be disappointed in their reaction as well. This attempt at a balanced political analysis puts The Dispossessed head and shoulders above so many other science fiction novels that have attempted to portray utopian societies. (I’m thinking in particular of Sheri Tepper who kept trying to enforce correct behaviour by various sorts of mind control.) I wish there were more books out there that admitted that they don’t present a solution to problems of mankind, and indeed that no such solution is possible. People are individuals, cultures are individuals. Attempting to impose a one-size-fits-all solution will always be a disaster for a lot of people. We need that lesson more than ever right now.


Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, and Campbell Award winning author of 30 novels and over a hundred short stories, and her hobbies of rock climbing, archery, kayaking, and horseback riding have led more than one person to accuse her of prepping for a portal fantasy adventure. 

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, writer Scott Lynch. 

“Favorite" is a hard question, and probably changes depending on my mood. But I can tell you the most formative one for me, which is John Brunner's STAND ON ZANZIBAR, a dazzling and difficult novel that manages to be cyberpunk before cyberpunk was a thing. I read it when I was very young, and I've reread it at intervals since. The actual metric of whether science fiction is any good or not is not whether it manages to predict the future, and yet STAND ON ZANZIBAR and its companion novel THE SHEEP LOOK UP manage to predict algorithm-targeted advertising, fake organic food, spree killers, and a number of other issues that feel pretty relevant today. Stand on Zanzibar is very concerned with overpopulation as an "if this goes on" kind of issue, which sometimes makes it feel a little dated, but the concern with corporate control of media, fake news, and the management of what people think and feel through information siloing are eerily prescient.

The book's written in a non-trad format that was radical enough for its day that there's actually a note at the beginning explaining how to read it, but any modern reader who can handle recent Hugo-winning novels (or Alfred Bester or Ursula Le Guin, for that matter) won't find it too daunting, I think.


Michael J. Martinez has spent 20 years in journalism and communications writing other people's stories. A few years ago, in a moment of blinding hubris, he thought he'd try to write one of his own. So far, it's working out far better than he expected. Mike currently lives in the Los Angeles area. He's an avid traveler and beer aficionado, and since nobody has told him to stop yet, he continues to write fiction.. His latest novel is MJ-12: Endgame.

I’m extraordinarily pleased to be doing another mind meld and I hope this feature finds a permanent home soon. I’m less pleased about having to actually choose my favorite among the Hugo Award winners for Best Novel. It’s honestly not fair. Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War? The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin? Dan Simmons’ Hyperion? I mean, Neuromancer is on this list! We got several Connie Willis books, some Kim Stanley Robinson novels, we got Neil Gaiman, Ann Leckie’s awesome Ancillary Justice, John Scalzi’s too-much-fun Redshirts and N.K. Jemisin’s brilliant landmark Broken Earth trilogy in a historic three-peat. I almost went with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke, which remains one of my favorite books and was a true pleasure to read. But if I’m truly honest, I need to go with Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.

Right? I know. I’m the last guy to get all literary, believe me. I’m not necessarily a fan of Chabon’s other works. But this book in particular stuck with me, made me think, opened some doors in my head and is a tiny bit to blame for my own career. I’d had an interest in alternate history and historical fantasy works for years, going back to The Guns of the South by the iconic and amazing Harry Turtledove, as well as Fatherland by Robert Harris. I liked the intellectual exercise of plotting history based on changes to these wonderful inflection points. They planted the seeds that would bloom in my brain years and years later and lead me down a similar road. Chabon did all this, of course, in developing the community of Sitka, Alaska, turning that sleepy little town into a bustling haven for the Jewish people during and after World War II. He imagined a very divergent post-war society with all kinds of cool details only alluded to in the book. But what he did so well, and what truly captured my imagination, was not his political alternatives, but his cultural ones. Here, he took Jewish culture and used his setting details to truly make it a living, breathing thing, divergent and strange but yet recognizable and comfortable all the same. And he populated the story with truly memorable characters and a resonant story. All of this combined to make Chabon’s alternate history truly immersive. In some alt-histories, I find myself still comparing the divergences in history as the story moves forward. But in The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, I surrendered completely and utterly to the story. The brilliant setting was yet another character, permeating the narrative perfectly.

Did I have more fun reading Strange and Norrell and Redshirts? You betcha. But Chabon was perhaps the most brilliant example of the kind of alternate history that I aspired to write years later.


Nebula-nominated Beth Cato is the author of the Clockwork Dagger duology and the Blood of Earth trilogy from Harper Voyager. She’s a Hanford, California native transplanted to the Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband, son, and requisite cats. Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. What makes it stand out among so many excellent Hugo winners? First of all, it's the second book in a series, following up the excellent Curse of Chalion. As much as I loved that book, however, Paladin resounded even more for me because of its heroine, Ista. She's an older woman who has lost her husband and child. Other people underestimate her, assuming her to be fragile and insane after all she has endured. Ista is a woman who wants to escape and truly live again, and as someone with major anxiety and depression, wow, can I relate. This is one of those books that I wished would never end. Fortunately, there ARE more books in this setting; in particular, the Penric novellas are cozy and wonderful, and I am woefully behind in reading the rest of them. I should correct that. Thank you for reminding me to do so, Mind Meld.


Marguerite Kenner is a native Californian who has forsaken sunny paradise to live and work with her partner, Alasdair Stuart, in a UK city named after her favorite pastime but pronounced differently. She manages her time between co-owning Escape Artists, editing its YA imprint Cast of Wonders, lecturing, grappling with legal conundrums as a lawyer, studying popular culture (i.e. going to movies and playing video games), and curling up with really good books. You can follow her adventures on Twitter.

My favorite best novel Hugo winner is from 1982 -- 'Downbelow Station' by C. J. Cherryh. I still own my first copy of it, a dog-eared, well-loved paperback. Captain Signy Mallory was the first 'unlikable woman' protagonist I remember resonating with, and I think I still know all the words to the filk song...









Sara Megibow is a literary agent with kt literary out of Highlands Ranch, CO. She has worked in publishing since 2006 and represents New York Times bestsellers authors including Margaret Rogerson, Roni Loren, Jason M. Hough and Jaleigh Johnson. 

My favorite winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel is THE WINDUP GIRL by Paolo Bacigalupi. It was 2010 and I was a newbie agent only four years into my publishing career. My local sci-fi con is MileHi Con in Denver and Paolo Bacigalupi was one of the guests that year. Way before the con (and before the Hugos), I read THE WINDUP GIRL and fell in love with it – the writing, the characters, the mind-expanding nature of the world – all made for an amazing and memorable read. What made this book extra special for me, though, was the opportunity to hear the author speak in person. I can’t quote the panel accurately all these years later but I do remember how Mr.
Bacigalupi described imagining the concept and creating THE WINDUP GIRL from there. Listening to him speak about his work helped me appreciate the nuances and conflicts in his book even more. Cons can be expensive but if it’s in the budget they are an amazing experience! THE WINDUP GIRL sits on a place of honor on my bookshelf because meeting the author in person after already having fallen in love with his book was such a wonderful experience.


Jaime Lee Moyer is a writer of fantasy and science fiction, herder of cats, occasional poet, and maker of tangible things. Her first novel, Delia's Shadow, was published by Tor Books, and won the 2009 Literary Award for Fiction, administrated by Thurber House and funded by the Columbus Arts
Council. Two sequels, A Barricade In Hell and Against A Brightening Sky, were also published by Tor. Her new novel, Brightfall, came out from Jo Fletcher Books on September 5, 2019.

In 1979, Vonda McIntyre’s novel, Dreamsnake, won the Hugo for best novel. I didn’t discover the novel until years later, one of the few books I hadn’t read in the paperback rack at the library. The three racks full of paperbacks were a constantly changing treasure chest of SFF books, and Dreamsnake was definitely a treasure. I remember falling in love from the first word. The protagonist of this novel is Snake, a young healer who relies on her three snakes, Grass, Mist, and Sand, to heal the people who seek her out. Grass is her dreamsnake, rare and precious and hard to come by. When a desert tribe asks her to heal a very sick little boy, Snake knows these people are afraid of her, and afraid of her snakes. What she doesn’t realize is how deep that fear runs and what it will cost her. Snake blames herself. McIntyre painted a vivid picture throughout Snake’s travels of what it means to be different and other, to be needed and feared at the same time, and did so in a way that felt emotionally true. I saw so many parallels to the real world. Great characters, and excellent worldbuilding, suck me into a book every time. This book made a lasting impression on me. Not only is Dreamsnake my favorite Hugo winner, it’s in my top ten list of all-time favorite novels.

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.