Schools out for summer and Redbox has video games to keep you entertained. There are more than 40,000 locations nationwide, so rent and return anywhere, and you'll get a free one-night game rental from Redbox when you use the promo code Snell 2 at checkout.

Swing by a box in your neighborhood, or if you want to make sure the game is there when you arrive, reserve it online at Redbox.com slash games.

This offer is valid through July the 8th, so hurry, subject to additional terms, charges

apply for additional nights, a payment card is required.

Getting into video games has never been so easy.

Redbox, use code Snell 2 for a free one-night game rental.

The incomparable number 358, June 2017.

Welcome back, everybody, to The Incomparable.

I'm your host, Jason Snell.

You know, once a year, we like to take sort of a short list of books that have been given awards

or award nominations,

and we like to read them and tell you our opinions. It's a nice way where the nice people

who run awards have a constructed reading list for us. This year, we took the Hugo Award

nominees for Best Novel and the Nebula Award nominees for Best Novel in science fiction and

fantasy. And we kind of stuck them together. And as a result,

we ended up with a list of eight books to read. And quite frankly, you will never find an

episode of The Incomparable with a larger required time investment for its panelists. And yet,

because I didn't read eight books, I read seven and a half books, and therein lies a story.

But I found three people up to the challenge.

You will not be surprised at who they are.

They are exactly who you think.

They are the three people who would take the assignment to read eight books.

...