[Ribald]

So the Hugo Awards are out and there are some interesting nominations.

Most notably that the whole of The Wheel of Time has been nominated as a single novel.
http://www.theguardi...wards-shortlist

Also, Vox Day has a nomination in Best Novelette.

Much rumblings are afoot this year.


Best Novel (1595 nominating ballots)

• Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
• Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross (Ace / Orbit UK)
• Parasite, Mira Grant (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
• Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles, Larry Correia (Baen Books)
• The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books / Orbit UK)

Note: The Wheel of Time series was nominated as and ruled to be a multi-part serialized single work, as defined in Section 3.2.4 of the WSFS constitution.

Best Novella (847 nominating ballots)

• The Butcher of Khardov, Dan Wells (Privateer Press)
• "The Chaplain's Legacy", Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jul-Aug 2013)
• "Equoid", Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)
• Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Press)
• "Wakulla Springs", Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10-2013)

Best Novelette (728 nominating ballots)

• "Opera Vita Aeterna", Vox Day (The Last Witchking, Marcher Lord Hinterlands)
• "The Exchange Officers", Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jan-Feb 2013)
• "The Lady Astronaut of Mars", Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com/Tor.com, 09-2013)
• "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling", Ted Chiang (Subterranean, Fall 2013)
• "The Waiting Stars", Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky, Candlemark & Gleam)

Best Short Story (865 nominating ballots)

• "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love", Rachel Swirsky (Apex Magazine, Mar-2013)
• "The Ink Readers of Doi Saket", Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 04-2013)
• "Selkie Stories Are for Losers", Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons, Jan-2013)
• "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere", John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)

Note: Category had only 4 nominees due to the minimum 5% requirement of Section 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.

Best Related Work (752 nominating ballots)

• Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It, Edited by Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damian Thomas (Mad Norwegian Press)
• Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary, Justin Landon & Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
• "We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative", Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)
• Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, Jeff VanderMeer, with Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image)
• Writing Excuses Season 8, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story (552 nominating ballots)

• Girl Genius, Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
• "The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who", written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Jimmy Broxton (Doctor Who Special 2013, IDW)
• The Meathouse Man, adapted from the story by George R.R. Martin and illustrated by Raya Golden (Jet City Comics)
• Saga, Volume 2, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics )
• "Time", Randall Munroe (XKCD)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (995 nominating ballots)

• Frozen,screenplay by Jennifer Lee, directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (Walt Disney Studios)
• Gravity, written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films; Warner Bros.)
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, screenplay by Simon Beaufoy & Michael Arndt, directed by Francis Lawrence (Color Force; Lionsgate)
• Iron Man 3, screenplay by Drew Pearce & Shane Black, directed by Shane Black (Marvel Studios; DMG Entertainment; Paramount Pictures)
• Pacific Rim, screenplay by Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney Double Dare You)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (760 nominating ballots)

• An Adventure in Space and Time, written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Terry McDonough (BBC Television)
• Doctor Who: "The Day of the Doctor", written by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Television)
• Doctor Who: "The Name of the Doctor", written by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Televison)
• The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, written & directed by Peter Davison (BBC Television)
• Game of Thrones: "The Rains of Castamere", written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
• Orphan Black: "Variations under Domestication" written by Will Pascoe, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions; Space/BBC America)

Note: Category has six nominees due to a tie for the final position.

Best Editor, Short Form (656 nominating ballots)

• John Joseph Adams
• Neil Clarke
• Ellen Datlow
• Jonathan Strahan
• Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form (632 nominating ballots)

• Ginjer Buchanan
• Sheila Gilbert
• Liz Gorinsky
• Lee Harris
• Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist (624 nominating ballots)

• Galen Dara
• Julie Dillon
• Daniel Dos Santos
• John Harris
• John Picacio
• Fiona Staples

Note: Category has six nominees due to a tie for the final position.

Best Semiprozine (411 nominating ballots)

• Apex Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore, and Michael Damian Thomas
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
• Interzone, edited by Andy Cox
• Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki
• Strange Horizons, edited by Niall Harrison, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Sonya Taaffe, Abigail Nussbaum, Rebecca Cross, Anaea Lay, and Shane Gavin

Best Fanzine (478 nominating ballots)

• The Book Smugglers, edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James
• A Dribble of Ink, edited by Aidan Moher
• Elitist Book Reviews, edited by Steven Diamond
• Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Lynda E. Rucker, Pete Young, Colin Harris, and Helen J.Montgomery
• Pornokitsch, edited by Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin

Best Fancast (396 nominating ballots)

• The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch
  (Producer)
• SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester
• The Skiffy and Fanty Show, Shaun Duke, Jen Zink, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, David Annandale, Mike Underwood, and Stina Leicht
• Tea and Jeopardy, Emma Newman
• Verity! Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L.M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas, and Tansy Rayner Roberts
• The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond

Note: Category has seven nominees due to a tie for the final position.

Best Fan Writer (521 nominating ballots)

• Liz Bourke
• Kameron Hurley
• Foz Meadows
• Abigail Nussbaum
• Mark Oshiro

Best Fan Artist (316 nominating ballots)

• Brad W. Foster
• Mandie Manzano
• Spring Schoenhuth
• Steve Stiles
• Sarah Webb

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (767 nominating ballots)
Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2012 or 2013, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)

• Wesley Chu
• Max Gladstone*
• Ramez Naam*
• Sofia Samatar*
• Benjanun Sriduangkaew

[Trull's son]

Aren't these awards just a club of writers making each other feel good about themselves? The Wheel of Time series in the best novel category is a joke. But then, Sanderson is part of the club, so I guess WoT gets a pass.

[Ribald]

The Hugo awards are fan based awards, not voted on by authors.

Anyone who attends one of the conventions listed gets to vote on the Hugos, so it is actually fairly egalitarian.

[Illuyankas]

Ancillary Justice was enjoyable but I guess this year is the honourary WOT award.

[Andorion]

Ancilliary Justice was pretty good, but how does Wheel of Time qualify as a single novel?

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 22 April 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

Ancilliary Justice was pretty good, but how does Wheel of Time qualify as a single novel?

It qualifies VIA a loophole in the HUGO rules in that since none of the indidual books in the series were ever nominated, it is allowed to be entered as a single work.

My issue with that is if it wins, it won't be because as a complete story it's good enough for that win...it will win on the nostalgia-vote. Which is a level of stacking the deck that I can't get behind. Some of the books and story are good, but as a complete story beating other stuff in that category? No. way.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 22 April 2014 - 02:14 AM

[worry]

What do the winners get? Like is there a point in honoring a dead guy for nostalgic reasons instead of a live person who needs to sell books? Do their kids get a lifetime supply of gold foil to emboss on stuff?

[stone monkey]

The only new thing I've read on the list (and therefore the only thing I feel qualified to comment upon) is Ancillary Justice, which is fun enough and plays some interesting games with gender. But it is imo really not good enough, well enough written, or strikingly imaginative enough to win awards. It's better than average, but the award should rather go to something that's awesome. And if there's nothing that good, the award should not be... um... awarded. WoT will probably win; but imo probably shouldn't, as parts of it are beyond awful.

I'd be extremely happy if the Hugo or Nebula or John W. Campbell (or whatever) skipped years when the quality wasn't high enough. Although, arguably, who am I to judge?

[Edit] Okay, I have also read Equoid which is both hilarious and deeply disturbing (which I suppose is what you get when Charlie Stross gets Peter Watts, of all people, to consult with him on a story). I'd like to see that win something, but in the absence of anything to compare it to, I guess I should pass without comment.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 22 April 2014 - 08:35 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Joe Abercrombie has written some thoughts about the Hugo Awards here.

This post has been edited by Tiste Brent Not Abyss Weeks Simeon: 23 April 2014 - 03:12 PM

[Abyss]

Tiste Brent Not Abyss Weeks Simeon, on 23 April 2014 - 03:11 PM, said:

Joe Abercrombie has written some thoughts about the Hugo Awards here.

TL;DR.

[Tiste Simeon]

^ K.

[stone monkey]

I see the Vox Day controversy has indeed rumbled on, with John C. Wright getting his knickers in a twist and tbh anything that irritates him is a good thing in my book (he's up there with The Yearded One in the wrongness stakes, except that he can actually write. Indeed, I suspect they'd get on well).

I'd not heard of Vox Day until very recently and what I have now heard I really dislike (although by all accounts there's at least one reason why he'd dislike me, so yeah...). It also appears there may have been some gamesmanship on his followers' part in getting his work onto the ballot in the first place, which is just rude.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 28 April 2014 - 08:04 PM

[worry]

Spoiler

Vox Day is the villain of True Detective season 2.

[Steve Halter]

worry, on 28 April 2014 - 08:34 PM, said:

Spoiler

Vox Day is the villain of True Detective season 2.

Yes, that seems about right.