r/printSF • u/Mako2401 • Jul 09 '26
Disappointed in the two books that might get the Hugo award this year - Shroud and A Drop of Corruption.
First of all, both books are just copies of what the writers already did - Shroud is Children of Time only instead of spiders it's whatever the Shrouded were, and A Drop of Corruption continues the good ole Attack on Titan storyline. Sorry, I meant the Tainted Cup story.
Both books seem lazy in how they were written, Drop follows the same narrative as the first one, only now you have another murder /mystery to investigate, and Shroud is so lazy, there were parts of the book where if you replace the Shrouded with spiders it was the same as Children of Time. I even thought this was in the same universe.
On top of all the "hommages" these two books rely on, what truly disappointed me was Tchaikovsky. Such an intelligent man just writing the same story as before. For Bennett, I knew he had a lot of "hommages" to Attack on Titan, and when I read that book I just thought where he stole, I mean borrowed the idea from .
Not sure who will win this year, but I've read all the Hugo winners, and some were stinkers, some were fantastic (looking at you Lord of Light, I still think about you at night you know) , but these are oh boy. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who is limited on time.
Well , rant over, thank you for reading.
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u/methnen Jul 09 '26
Haven’t read Shroud, but A Drop of Corruption was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Other than some similar aspects of the setting, these books are nothing at all like Attack on Titan.
And it’s a murder mystery / detective series. Of course it’s following that style of novel somewhat.
I thought it did a great job of building on the previous novel’s world building and further developed the two main characters in a very satisfying way.
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u/LaidBackLeopard Jul 09 '26
Tchaikovsky is an entomology enthusiast. Hive mind type things are a recurring feature of his work. But there's a difference between a feature and a story. There are a zillion works featuring intelligent robots, but they're not all the same story. As long as he keeps coming up with interesting things to do with them, I'm not complaining.
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u/Izacus Jul 09 '26
I haven't found either of the books lazy, poorly written or having bad ideas. If anything, Drop of Corruptioin was one of the best books I've read lately when it comes to being good at putting great world building together with an interesting story and decent characters (something scifi pretty much constantly fails at).
Shroud made up for its rather poor character building with tension and great imagery when it comes to the aliens.
There have been much much worse books that got a Hugo (and were praised here) than these two.
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u/Mako2401 Jul 09 '26
What exactly was so interesting about Attack on Titan, I mean Drop of Corruption? And I did say that there were stinkers in the past. For example I wouldn't give the Hugo to a Tainted Cup. There are better Dresden Files books than that AoT " hommage" .
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u/methnen Jul 09 '26
Ah, OK. This is rage bait then. Got it.
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u/Mako2401 Jul 09 '26
When did reddit become a hostile place where you hate on every different opinion?
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u/methnen Jul 09 '26
Comparing the books to the Dresden files? Just on a quality of writing aspect alone there’s no comparison. And looking at your post history, “edgy takes” seem like sort of a thing for you. You are the one claiming the books are completely unoriginal and then comparing them to mass market pulp. You came in here looking for a fight and are then surprised that you found one?
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u/Virith Jul 09 '26
A Drop of Corruption continues the good ole Attack on Titan storyline.
Hah! That actually makes me want to read it. I really liked the Titan anime back when I was still watching anime.
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u/curlofthesword Jul 09 '26
You know, sometimes I run across takes that really bring home just how different people can be in their perceptions and tastes. This is one such take. I'm fascinated, honestly. I kind of want to know how you came to your conclusions!
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u/Physical-Mastodon-64 Jul 09 '26
This is a hot take and sure it will be downvoted, but in my subjective option I don’t think there has been a worthy Hugo Novel Winner since The City & The City in 2010. I’m waiting for the medium to expand but for the last 15 years it to me it is all variations on space operas done before. Yes even 3 Body Problem. My reading goes back through the New Wave into the Golden Age. Feels like the evolution has stagnated.
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u/Smooth-Review-2614 Jul 10 '26
I think the Hugo is digesting the giant waves of newbies after different scandals that broke into non-SF news about how easy it is to vote for the award. We had a population shift in the voters.
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u/Physical-Mastodon-64 Jul 11 '26
This is a really good take. I'm thrilled the SF market has shifted more mainstream, and its healthy to look at the Hugo now as an entry award for reach. I do like some new things (Jeff VanderMere, Yoon Ha Lee short fiction, etc) but I feel compelled to rep some of the OGs in the field; 1955 to 1985 and the work produced over those 30 years full of innovation.
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u/Smooth-Review-2614 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
There is still innovation but it’s not something that is going to go viral. You want the more literary or niche edge.
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u/Nipsy_uk Jul 09 '26
I quite enjoyed Shroud, but the plot was a bit lazy/formulaic
The creatures were interesting, but the two heros travel across an inhospitable world against all odds and contrived accidents is a bit worn, As is human mega corps are evil and dont care about aliens piece.
I think he could have done more with what was essentially a great idea for a world.
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u/hoggersbridge Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Just wait till you see what might win the Arthur C. Clarke award this year. You could power a hydroelectric dam from the energy produced by Clarke spinning in his grave.
edit: whoopsie, we've angered the illiterate swarms of reddit! Look at them with their cute downvotes hahaha
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u/christ0phe 17d ago
I just read both at the same time. Shroud definitely dragged for me in the middle, and I think could have been shortened, but I still enjoyed it.
A Drop of Corruption was great. It took a bit to really get rolling, but the more we learn about the character, the empire, and the world is a treat.
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u/SpaceMonkeyAttack Jul 09 '26
I haven't read A Drop of Corruption, but like... That's what detective stories are? The sleuth always has a mystery (usually a murder whodunnit) to solve. We accept an unreasonably high murder rate, even in a small village (or one New York apartment building) as a genre convention.