Hugo Voting Ends July 31
As you know, Bob, voting for the Hugo Awards closes at the end of the month.
I’m still working my way through the nominated material from the voters packet and online. Some thoughts on various categories…
Best Fanzine: I’ve been saying for about a year now that I think Mike Glyer’s File 770 earned this one, both for the ongoing coverage of last year’s Hugo mess — with links to a range of opinions — and for the sheer amount of fandom-related information the man manages to curate and present every day.
Best Professional Editor (Long Form): My own editor, Sheila Gilbert, is once again up for this one. I’m obviously biased here. Sheila has been wonderful to work with for the past ten years, and she’s made every one of my own books better.
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): I struggled a bit with this one, but ultimately decided to go with The Martian for my number one spot. I love the pro-science, pro-intelligence, and generally optimistic and hopeful tone of the story. Plus, you know, poop potatoes and lines like “I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this.” Mad Max: Fury Road was a close second.
Best Related Work: I haven’t finished reading the nominees yet, but so far I’ve yet to read one that isn’t crap.
Best Short Story: Naomi Kritzer’s “Cat Pictures, Please” is my favorite so far, but I’m not done reading this category yet either. “If You Were An Award, My Love,” goes below No Award, but is interesting if only because it shows how obsessed the Rabid Puppies have been with pissing all over anything they don’t understand or personally approve of, to the point of including a threat against the author at the end. I love Chuck Tingle’s persona and his ongoing counter-trolling of Vox Day and the Rabid puppies, but “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” is also going below No Award. (Though it will be ranked above “If You Were An Award, My Love.”)
Best Fan Artist: This may be another No Award category. Thus far, I’ve got Kukuruyo at the very bottom, thanks in part to his penchant for drawing naked/sexual cartoons of underage SF/F girls.
Best Novella: Right now, Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti is at the top of my list. (It’s also the only work that wasn’t on the Rabid Puppy slate. Coincidence?)
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For those of you reading and voting, any particular stand-outs you’d like to recommend from this year’s nominees?
Alan DeHaan
July 20, 2016 @ 11:42 am
Honestly. best Fan Writer. Shamus Young, despite who nominated him, is a rather informative (if occasionally grumpy old man) writer on things. I’ve been a fan of his for years. Though I may be biased because my entire twitter circle happened because of his fandom.
Because of my constant readings of things that are slightly older (Sales!). I only read one of the Best Novel works and I don’t feel it really qualifies for “Best”. Novella/Novellette/Short Story I read nothing of. Out of what I’ve seen on Dramatic Long Form, I got to go Mad Max. Short Form I’ve only seen AKA Smile and…y’know, maybe. Just maybe that deserves it.
Everything else, no real opinions. I’m so on the outer edges of fandom.
Ian Wright
July 20, 2016 @ 12:44 pm
I have to agree about File770. I don’t know how he manages to find the vast amount of material he presents on any given day.
Joel Zakem
July 20, 2016 @ 2:19 pm
Steve Stiles has been doing amazing cartoons for fanzines and convention publications for many years and, imho, richly deserves the Fan Artist Hugo.
bluestgirl
July 20, 2016 @ 2:50 pm
Nth-ed on File 770. It’s been an amazing resource for keeping informed last year.
I didn’t feel like I could buy a membership this year, so I’m crossing my (non-voting) fingers, especially for: Strange Horizons for semi-pro-zine, and Jessica Jones for short dramatic presentation. (I think that the JJ episode should have been “AKA Ladies’ Night,” but honestly ANY episode is jaw-droppingly good.)
BONUS: Strange Horizons is running a special Our Queer Planet issue this month, and I *love* the first fiction story.
Mark
July 20, 2016 @ 5:13 pm
I’m leaning towards Penric’s Demon for novella, although I will cheer loudly if Binti takes it instead. For novelette I think it’s a two horse race between …Trail of Dead and Folding Beijing, which will be interesting because both have their flaws and I’ve seen quite a few people really take against one or the other.
In semiprozine I’m thinking Uncanny for a barnstorming first year, although that’s harsh on the excellent Strange Horizons (and Daily SF and Beyond Ceaseless Sites are also valid choices – it’s a pleasingly strong category despite the shenanigans).
Sally
July 20, 2016 @ 9:00 pm
File 770 (even if you don’t follow it, the packet material is good), Steve Stiles (long overdue and much deserved), and Jessica Jones. Doctor Who in second; as great as Capaldi is, he hasn’t had writing to match. But since not everyone has Netflix, DW might win again, which is fine. Fifth Season is amazing.
I can’t begin to guess what’ll win Movie — SW, MM, and Martian are all so strong. Nor who’ll take novelette between “Dead” and “Bejing”.
“Cat Pictures, Please” is the first story I got behind even before nominations opened. So it gets #1 for me, #2 is NA, and #3 is Tingle.
Things I abhor and think have no place on the ballot don’t even get mentioned; I think there’s something in the rules what says that’s the best way to keep them down. And it’s not just Puppy favorites… Seveneves got a WTF from me, after I was looking forward to it. Stephenson is NOT improving with age IMO.
Jim C. Hines
July 20, 2016 @ 9:05 pm
“Things I abhor and think have no place on the ballot don’t even get mentioned; I think there’s something in the rules what says that’s the best way to keep them down.”
See http://kevin-standlee.livejournal.com/1440530.html
Avilyn
July 21, 2016 @ 1:21 pm
For Novel, my top choice is Uprooted by Naomi Novik; I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so that immediately after I finished reading it, I bought the audiobook and listened to it.
Graphic story I like Full Frontal Nerdity, my husband turned me on to the webcomic and I enjoy reading it.
Still making my way through short stories/novelette. The only movie I saw last year was star wars, which gets my vote; haven’t seen any of the tv shows (no TV/Cable) so not sure what I’ll do for those.
Thanks for the reminder to update my ballot with what I’ve gone through so far!
Joe Karpierz
July 22, 2016 @ 7:39 pm
Alastair Reynolds’s Slow Bullets may have been on the slate, but it won the Locus Award and was up for the Nebula. Great stuff.
Joe Clement
July 22, 2016 @ 8:30 pm
Best Novel – Uprooted. 2nd Place – Ancilliary Mercy
Best Novella – Penric’s Dragoon 2nd Place – Binti (real close 2nd)
Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form – The Martian 2nd Place – Star Wars The Force Awakens
Retro Hugos – The Roads Must Roll
All other catagories I either don’t know enough about the nominations or don’t care.
Allison
August 3, 2016 @ 10:27 am
Penric’s Demon was the biggest pleasant surprise for me out of all the things I read for the Hugos. I’d never read anything by Lois McMaster Bujold before, though I’d heard good things. Reading it has prompted me to read her other stories set in the World of the Five Gods and thus far I have also not been disappointed even though I normally don’t really like epic fantasy.
Biggest unpleasant surprise work that I finished was Stephen King’s “Obits” in the novelette category. It was well written, I just felt…dirty after reading it. King’s power to unsettle and disturb in a way that creeps under your skin is not exaggerated.
Biggest disappointment overall was Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves. I know the man has his fanbase who will sing his praises no matter what he puts out at this point, but I vacillated between boredom and disgust the entire time I was reading it. In the end I couldn’t finish.
There were some good entries in the Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) this year, but in the end I also went with The Martian with Fury Road as a close second. I think that was the only category in which I had nothing below No Award; the movies had their various merits but all were deserving of recognition. I was a little disappointed that Inside Out didn’t get nominated but the voters have spoken.