Hugo Nominees 2011

The 2011 Hugo Nominees are (finally) out. They waited a few weeks this year so that they could time the announcement with a convention. The full list is here but per usual, I'm more interested in the Best Novel nominees:

Best Novel
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

• A few notes on the nominees. I haven't read any of these but from the online buzz, I'm expecting to like 'The Dervish House' the most. It'll be interesting to see if that holds up or not.
  
• Lois McMaster Bujold is a very familiar name to the Hugo list. If she wins here, she'll have a record five Hugos for best novel. This will break a tie with my hero Robert Heinlein. I haven't gotten to any of her novels yet in my reading but man, she better be good.
• There is some controversy over 'Blackout/All Clear'. It seems that the publisher took a longish story and simply cut it in two. This kind of screwed the reader as they had to buy two books. Amazon currently has them both in hardcover at a combined $33.05 (kindle versions for $24.98. There was some movement to ask the nominators to punish the publisher.
• I haven't heard of either of the other two before and I'm very curious to see what they will be like! You may remember that my favorite from last year was a book called 'Palimpsest' and I never would have picked it up if it hadn't been nominated.