I’m still on that big push to finish all the fiction finalists for the Hugo Awards and this week I finished both  Robert Charles Wilson’s Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl.

Interestingly, both are future dystopia’s, although Julian Comstock is more “back to the future” with a 22nd century where society has regressed to a 19th century level theocracy, and where technology—what there is of it—is mechanical. The life and adventures of Julian Comstock (“Julian the Agnostic’) are also very closely aligned with the life and activities of the Late-Roman Emperor Julian (“the Apostate”). Well, I found the alignment interesting anyway, being a keen student of history . . .

The Windup Girl on the other hand is what is being called “biopunk” (nods here to William Gibson and Neale Stephenson’s “cyberpunk”)—but this medium-term future is characterised by steampunk style technology and genetic engineering, the latter having in many/most cases gone horribly awry. There’s a lot more to say, including that I really enjoyed the read, but as with Catherynne M Valente’s Palimpsest last week, I am trying not to say too much until I have read all six finalists in the novel category. But it may be worth noting that The Windup Girl has already won the Nebula Award 2009 and Locus Magazine’s 2010 Award for “Best First Novel”, and I’m told it’s the insider’s tip to win the Hugo Award as well.

But having said all that, I have just started the last of the six finalist’s, China Mieville’s The City and The City and I have to say that I am finding that compelling reading—so far, so good—as well, so the jury is very much still out as far as I am concerned. And of course, The City & The City won the Locus Award 2010 for “Best Fantasy Novel, as well the British Science Fiction Association’s Award for “Best Novel”—and fellow Hugo nominee Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker took the Locus award for “Best Science Fiction Novel” so I would say it very much won’t be over until all the votes are counted.

By the way, I also posted on the Hugos on Out of this Eos blog earlier this week—click here to read.