The 2014 Hugo Awards thread

[happyturtle]

The Hugo finalists are listed here (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/04/finalists-2014-hugo-award-1939-retro-hugos-with-free-fiction-links/), with links to the entries that are available free online.

I'm excited about this year's ballot because I've read most of the short stories, some of the novellas/novellettes, and one of the novels. I've never voted for the Hugos before, but I might do it this year.

The thing that seemed really weird to me is that the Wheel of Time series was nominated for Best Novel. Like, the entire 14 books. Tor, the publisher, has already said they'll be making all 14 books available electronically in the Hugo Voter Packet. Against that behemoth is the brilliant Ancillary Justice. And there are other books that I haven't heard of, but intend to read if I can. Not sure about reading Wheel of Time though. That's a looooot of reading. :smalleek:

The Hugo Awards are awards for excellence in the fields of fantasy and science fiction, voted on by fans. To be eligible to vote on the final ballot in 2014, you must be a LonCon member (http://www.loncon3.org/memberships/) - supporting membership costs £25/$40.


Any thoughts on the nominees? Who would you vote for if you could? Have you ever voted for the Hugos?

[IthilanorStPete]

I haven't voted before, but I probably will this year.

On WoT: It got nominated as a "multi-part serialized single work". I'm not entirely happy with this; I think it'd be more fair to separate big, multi-volume series into a separate category. I'm not sure if there's enough series like that to sustain a yearly award, though.

Best Novel: While I like Wheel of Time and I'm glad it got nominated, I don't think it deserves to win; it's sprawling, bloated, and kind of messy. I'm definitely leaning towards Ancillary Justice, which was absolutely brilliant.

Best Novella: I've only read "Equoid" and "Wakulla Springs" at the moment. "Equoid" was pretty good, but "Wakulla Springs" was a very neat story.

Best Novelette: Only read "The Lady Astronaut of Mars", though that was a pretty good story.

Best Short Story: "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" was absolutely fantastic. I've read "Selkie Stories Are For Losers", but didn't think much of it. Haven't read the other two.

In the other categories: Best Related Work is always a weird category that ends up comparing apples to oranges a lot of the time. "We Have Always Fought" was a really good essay, though, so it'll probably get my vote. I don't keep up with any of the serialized works in Best Graphic Story, so I won't vote there, but I think it's cool that xkcd's "Time" got nominated. I haven't been keeping up with movies or TV enough to vote in either of the Best Dramatic Presentation categories.

[happyturtle]

Yay! We've read and loved all of the same stuff! :smallbiggrin: (Except WoT. Never read that because I'm not a great fan of the 'sprawling secondary world fantasy epic with gods and magic and names with apostrophes in them' genre.)

I think perhaps there should be a Lifetime Achievement award to cover things like Wheel of Time. It's not fair to put new novels against a 4.4 million word epic, which has been churning along for decades.

Here are my very very preliminary thoughts so far. I will read whatever's available in the Hugo Voter's Pack (or start reading, anyway. If I can wander away from a work without finishing it, then it doesn't deserve to win), but based on what I've read at the moment:

Best Novel: I'll be amazed (and delighted!) if anything wows me more than Ancillary Justice. I'll also be amazed if WoT doesn't run away with this one. :smallyuk:
Best Novella: "Equoid" was wonderfully horrible.
Best Novellette: "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" broke my heart and I loved it.
Best Short Story: "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" <3
Best Related Work: "We Have Always Fought"
Dramatic Work (Short): "The Rains of Castemere"
Best Fan Writer: Kameron Hurley

The other categories, I either don't know the entrants yet, or don't know how they work. (Editors, anyone? :smallconfused:)

[turkishproverb]

The Hugo finalists are listed here (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/04/finalists-2014-hugo-award-1939-retro-hugos-with-free-fiction-links/), with links to the entries that are available free online.

I'm excited about this year's ballot because I've read most of the short stories, some of the novellas/novellettes, and one of the novels. I've never voted for the Hugos before, but I might do it this year.

The thing that seemed really weird to me is that the Wheel of Time series was nominated for Best Novel. Like, the entire 14 books. Tor, the publisher, has already said they'll be making all 14 books available electronically in the Hugo Voter Packet. Against that behemoth is the brilliant Ancillary Justice. And there are other books that I haven't heard of, but intend to read if I can. Not sure about reading Wheel of Time though. That's a looooot of reading. :smalleek:

The Hugo Awards are awards for excellence in the fields of fantasy and science fiction, voted on by fans. To be eligible to vote on the final ballot in 2014, you must be a LonCon member (http://www.loncon3.org/memberships/) - supporting membership costs £25/$40.


Any thoughts on the nominees? Who would you vote for if you could? Have you ever voted for the Hugos?
...c...can supporting members vote? I'd buy a membership now for those 14 E-Books of Wheel of time...


Past that, I hope
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot written and directed by Peter Davison (BBC Television) wins it's category, though I know it won't. I also think "fanzine" has become less clear in definition, judging by the nominees.

And if the retro novel award doesn't go to The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, I'll be...displeased.

[IthilanorStPete]

...c...can supporting members vote? I'd buy a membership now for those 14 E-Books of Wheel of time...

Yes, they can.

[turkishproverb]

Fun. Now if I could just figure out where the link on the website for that kind of membership is...

[CarpeGuitarrem]

This is the first time I've actually looked into the Hugos; they have a category for screenplays? That's awesome!

[happyturtle]

Membership link here. (http://www.loncon3.org/memberships/)

[turkishproverb]

I saw that link, but it only lists "standard" membership, not "supporting."

[happyturtle]

*peers at*

Ah, yes. The page isn't well designed. If you click on 'Standard Membership', it takes you to the order page, and all the membership types are there in a drop-down box to choose from.

[turkishproverb]

*peers at*

Ah, yes. The page isn't well designed. If you click on 'Standard Membership', it takes you to the order page, and all the membership types are there in a drop-down box to choose from.

Fun...hrm..why is it only letting me know I'll be eligible to vote for 2015?

[IthilanorStPete]

In the Short Story category, I read "The Ink Readers of Doi Saket", which I thought was decent, but nothing special. Also reread "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" and confirmed my opinion that it's awesome, if painful. That's sort of the point, though.

EDIT:

Fun...hrm..why is it only letting me know I'll be eligible to vote for 2015?

That bit's talking about being able to nominate works for next year's Hugos as well as voting this year.

EDIT 2: Purchased my membership. Looks like the voter packet isn't out yet, unfortunately.

EDIT 3: Read "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love". Like "The Ink Readers", it was all right, but hardly brilliant.

[IthilanorStPete]

Update: Orbit is not going to be including the full text of Ancillary Justice, Neptune's Brood, or Parasite in the voter's packet. (http://www.orbitbooks.net/2014/05/13/hugo-voter-packet/) :smallmad:

[happyturtle]

Welp, there goes even the ghost of a chance Ancillary Justice had against Wheel of Time. :smallsigh: Of course it never had much chance. Pitting a new release novel against a three decade old old series isn't David vs Goliath - it's more David vs Goliath and his entire army.

EDIT: Ann Leckie and Charles Stross respond (http://www.annleckie.com/2014/05/13/news-hugo-voter-packet/). It looks like they are not happy.
EDIT 2: Apparently Orbit has a history of being stingy (http://www.duskbeforethedawn.net/2013/06/the-2013-hugo-voter-packet-why-would-you-not-do-this/#comment-40569). In previous years, they released works as password protected pdfs with watermarks.

[IthilanorStPete]

Welp, there goes even the ghost of a chance Ancillary Justice had against Wheel of Time. :smallsigh: Of course it never had much chance. Pitting a new release novel against a three decade old old series isn't David vs Goliath - it's more David vs Goliath and his entire army.

EDIT: Ann Leckie and Charles Stross respond (http://www.annleckie.com/2014/05/13/news-hugo-voter-packet/). It looks like they are not happy.
EDIT 2: Apparently Orbit has a history of being stingy (http://www.duskbeforethedawn.net/2013/06/the-2013-hugo-voter-packet-why-would-you-not-do-this/#comment-40569). In previous years, they released works as password protected pdfs with watermarks.

I saw Leckie & Stross's response, but didn't know that Orbit has a history of this. (Though it might be coming down from Hachatte)

EDIT: Argh. This really frustrates me.

[Saph]

I'm an Orbit author, and yeah, it's probably coming down from Hachette. It's definitely above the level of our editors, anyway.

I wouldn't assume that Wheel of Time's automatically going to win – traditionally, the Hugo voter base and the WoT fanbase only have a limited amount of overlap. I'm very curious to see which way it'll go. :)

[happyturtle]

Welp, I just bought my LonCon supporting membership so I can vote. Wheee!

The voter pack isn't out yet, but I can at least get started on the stuff already available. (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/04/finalists-2014-hugo-award-1939-retro-hugos-with-free-fiction-links/)

Oh crap... I just looked over the Short Story category again and realized how hard this decision will be. :smalleek:

[IthilanorStPete]

Welp, I just bought my LonCon supporting membership so I can vote. Wheee!

The voter pack isn't out yet, but I can at least get started on the stuff already available. (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/04/finalists-2014-hugo-award-1939-retro-hugos-with-free-fiction-links/)

Oh crap... I just looked over the Short Story category again and realized how hard this decision will be. :smalleek:

Which stories did you like? For me, the Short Story category's probably going to be the easiest to decide.

[happyturtle]

I liked all four, but "The Water that Falls on You from Nowhere" and "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" are the best.

[Dorian Gray]

You know, the Wheel of Time books would be a shoo-in if only the first five or six books and the last three were counted. The quality of those books was a big parabola.

[Thiel]

It really annoys me that Wheel of Time is included. The Hugo awards are supposed to be about literary excellency, not longest mind-numbing mediocrity.

[GloatingSwine]

They're also fan nominated and awarded, so they also reflect public popularity.

If people are honest with their voting, WoT won't win, it's too saggy in the middle, but it's very likely people won't read all of it again and will only remember that the first few are good and vote for it.

[JoshL]

I disagree on WOT...I like it start to finish (and for that matter, the first is the weakest in the series). That said, Sanderson is not the caliber of writer that Jordan was, and the last book in particular had some pretty clumsy parts. He did a pretty bad job with Mat and his female characters tend to be guys in dresses. But the story was great, and the last book was relentless. I think the books that people find to drag work well if you view the overall dynamics of the story, but as a stand alone work, I agree that Crossroads of Twilight, for example, is too much building and not enough payoff.

But the series as a whole is not up for the award; the last book is. I think it has a chance as a tribute to Jordan and the overall work and again, the story is fantastic and I loved how it ended. But on a technical level, it's not as good as the best in the series (if I had to pick one, maybe The Shadow Rising).

[IthilanorStPete]

I disagree on WOT...I like it start to finish (and for that matter, the first is the weakest in the series). That said, Sanderson is not the caliber of writer that Jordan was, and the last book in particular had some pretty clumsy parts. He did a pretty bad job with Mat and his female characters tend to be guys in dresses. But the story was great, and the last book was relentless. I think the books that people find to drag work well if you view the overall dynamics of the story, but as a stand alone work, I agree that Crossroads of Twilight, for example, is too much building and not enough payoff.

But the series as a whole is not up for the award; the last book is. I think it has a chance as a tribute to Jordan and the overall work and again, the story is fantastic and I loved how it ended. But on a technical level, it's not as good as the best in the series (if I had to pick one, maybe The Shadow Rising).

Um, no, the entire series is what's been nominated. (See the OP, or the Hugo Awards site) There's a WorldCon rule saying (emphasis mine):

3.2.6: Works appearing in a series are eligible as individual works, but the series as a whole is not eligible. However, a work appearing in a number of parts shall be eligible for the year of the final part.

[JoshL]

In that case, I take it back entirely. WOT should win because it's one of my favorite things ever :smallbiggrin:

[happyturtle]

Yeah... 14 books, published over decades, up against 2013 novels. I disagree with the decision, and hope the Hugo people change the rules for the future.

However, I'll give them a chance to grab me and wow me, like I will all the other works, but it would have to be a LOT of wow to displace Ancillary Justice for my vote.

[Saph]

I hope they don't change them, personally. This is the first time in years I've been genuinely interested in who wins.

[IthilanorStPete]

Voter packet is out! Time for some reading. :smallbiggrin:

[turkishproverb]

Crap. I forgot to sign up. Oh well. Have fun guys.

[IthilanorStPete]

Crap. I forgot to sign up. Oh well. Have fun guys.

You can still sign up! There's a ways to go before LonCon.

[happyturtle]

Voter packet is out! Time for some reading. :smallbiggrin:

I'm looking at my confirmation email over and over and not finding a membership number or a PIN. :smallsigh:

Edit: n/m... went spelunking in spam and found it. Stupid outlook... :smallannoyed:

[turkishproverb]

You can still sign up! There's a ways to go before LonCon.

Yea, but I thought there was a cut-off date.

[IthilanorStPete]

For the people who haven't read Wheel of Time: tor.com has a (spoiler-filled) summary of the books here (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/06/the-wheel-of-time-hugo-refresher), if you want to give it a read. It's a pretty good summation of the series, as much as a quick summary of such a massive series can be.

[Psyren]

I don't think it's fair for me to vote considering WoT is one of the only things I've read on there. But I might do it anyway :smallbiggrin:

A Hugo nom/win could be one step closer to getting a movie or series deal so I'm happy about that.

[IthilanorStPete]

I don't think it's fair for me to vote considering WoT is one of the only things I've read on there. But I might do it anyway :smallbiggrin:

A Hugo nom/win could be one step closer to getting a movie or series deal so I'm happy about that.

I think it's fair to at least give the other nominees* a chance; none of them are terribly long.

*except the Correia book, which is on there as a protest vote by reactionaries upset that people beside white men are receiving literary acclaim...long story.
EDIT: Also, Vox Day's story in the Best Novelette category.

[Psyren]

I think it's fair to at least give the other nominees* a chance; none of them are terribly long.

And I definitely will, especially after all the raving for Ancillary Justice in this thread! (It's about AI too, right up my alley...)

[IthilanorStPete]

Voting is officially open (http://www.thehugoawards.org/2014/06/hugo-voting-opens/)! The only categories I've fully decided on are Short Story and Fan Writer; I've still got plenty of reading and watching to do. There's a number of categories I probably won't vote for due to unfamiliarity with the material (I have no idea how to compare editors) or the simple fact that there's too much material to work though and judge. (The 'zine categories and Fancast)

[happyturtle]

Same here - Short Story and Fan Writing have their votes, as well as Dramatic Presentation (short form). I also have no idea how to select an editor. That seems like an inside baseball kind of thing. I will read the 'zines though, because I love short stories.

If I look at my kindle, a lot of the Hugo reading is done - I'm moving titles from a 'Hugo unread' category to a 'Hugo 2014' one as I finish them. But of course there's a lot of material that wasn't formatted for kindle, plus material that isn't in the voter packet at all (some of which is oddly available elsewhere (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/04/finalists-2014-hugo-award-1939-retro-hugos-with-free-fiction-links/), so why it wasn't made available for the voter pack, I don't know :smallconfused:.)

But it's amazing how quickly the 'to read' pile can get whittled down when you take long soaky baths with your kindle in a protective waterproof case. :smalltongue:

[happyturtle]

Hugo Nominee Ancillary Justice is on sale at several ebook sellers. (http://ann-leckie.livejournal.com/204259.html)

[Foeofthelance]

*except the Correia book, which is on there as a protest vote by reactionaries upset that people beside white men are receiving literary acclaim...long story.
EDIT: Also, Vox Day's* story in the Best Novelette category.

Its a little more complicated than that. His ballot included Sarah Hoyt, who is Portuguese by birth, and Toni Weiskopff, who has been running Baen Books since Jim Baen died. There's also the fact that, as Correia gleefully enjoys pointing out, he is technically the only non-Caucasian nominated for Best Novel this year, "because the government says so". `The truth is that Correia holds certain political beliefs and enjoys has a lot of fun arguing with and making fun of those who disagree with him. There's been some off-and-on claims of shenanigans when it comes to authors of a certain bent getting nominated for the Hugos, so Correia announced the 'Sad Puppies Campaign', where in order to prove his claims his asked his readers to end Chronic Sad Puppy Disease by nominating him to the Hugo ballot. If he was wrong, there would be no hue and cry, and if he was right, there would be a terrible uproar.

And lo, there was a terrible uproar! Accusations flew that he and Vox had bought hundreds of memberships under false names in order to rig the vote. Blogs went back and forth arguing over whether he was a racist, sexist, homophobic wife beater (which resulted in some very odd calls to his wife by well meaning friends, who were otherwise unaware of what was going on), a brave champion standing up for the oppressed, or could we please leave the politics out of this and won't someone think of the stories?! Comment sections burned down in flames, Twitter was reduced to the barren ashlands of a WWI-era battlefield, and it even got a small mention in USA Today. Correia made fun of the usual suspects (mostly the folks screaming, "Its a terrible book, and I know this because I've never read it!") declared his point made, and moved on. The people he was arguing with declared themselves the winners, and moved on. And when the Hugo votes are tallied, it will all start up again as those arguing against him crow triumphantly when he loses, even though Correia himself as already stated that he has no hope, let alone expectations, of victory.

That said, if you enjoy steampunk style pulp novels crossed with a bit of eldritch horror set against the 1930s, you'll probably enjoy The Grimnoir Chronicles. If it sounds like a very bizarre combination, you might not. I had fun, but read it and make up your own mind.



*Vox's story was really kind of bland. Would not suggest reading this one.

[happyturtle]

I started Correia's book, but didn't get very far. It didn't engage my attention enough to finish it, and it most certainly was NOT comparable to Ancillary Justice, Neptune's Brood, or Parasite - all of which I adored. (Still haven't started WoT - I have other Hugo works to read!)

[Foeofthelance]

Quick question: Had you read the first two books? Warbound is the last volume in a trilogy. Starting from scratch on that one is sort of like starting Star Wars with the fight over the Sarlacc pit. Otherwise, hey, at least you tried it.

[happyturtle]

No. I knew it was a 'volume 3', but firstly, I think a Hugo nominee should stand or fall based on what is on the ballot. (Neptune's Brood was a sequel, and it held up fine without me having read the first one.) But secondly, the plot may be stretched out over three books, but the narrative, dialogue, and characterization are not. Those are what I judge to be clearly inferior to the other nominees that I've read. Not 'unspeakably bad' writing. Just not great writing.

YMMV, of course. But it's very difficult to believe that it would have been nominated as one of the 5 best SFF books of last year without the Sad Puppies campaign.

[IthilanorStPete]

Finished Neptune's Brood today. Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed. The setting and ideas were pretty neat, telling the story of a mermaid accountant IN SPACE is certainly original, but the execution was rather lacking. There were far too many infodumps for the narrative to flow well and the characters weren't terribly engaging. Still need to read Parasite, but Ancillary Justice is definitely looking like my number one vote for Best Novel.

[happyturtle]

It's pretty obvious I'm not going to get all the Hugo nominees read in time, even omitting Wheel of Time. I'm on the Semiprozine and Fanzine categories now.

[IthilanorStPete]

Read Parasite. On one hand, it was solidly executed, smooth and generally well-placed. I liked the main character, and it was nice to see a portrayal of someone with anxiety. On the other hand, it seemed fairly shallow, I saw the final twist coming from a mile away, and it ended with an obvious sequel-bait cliffhanger; there wasn't a good sense of closure.

[dps]

I disagree on WOT...I like it start to finish (and for that matter, the first is the weakest in the series). That said, Sanderson is not the caliber of writer that Jordan was, and the last book in particular had some pretty clumsy parts. He did a pretty bad job with Mat and his female characters tend to be guys in dresses. But the story was great, and the last book was relentless. I think the books that people find to drag work well if you view the overall dynamics of the story, but as a stand alone work, I agree that Crossroads of Twilight, for example, is too much building and not enough payoff.

But the series as a whole is not up for the award; the last book is. I think it has a chance as a tribute to Jordan and the overall work and again, the story is fantastic and I loved how it ended. But on a technical level, it's not as good as the best in the series (if I had to pick one, maybe The Shadow Rising).

I finally finished reading the series recently, and I still have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I like the setting, and it has a fairly interesting plot. OTOH, a lot of it is bloated and overwrought, and I find very few of the characters likeble, or even relatable. Plus, most of the time, almost all of them come across as, well, kind of stupid. There were so many times when I was reading it that I wanted to yell at the good guys, "Just f***ing tell each other what's going on! Things will be much easier for you if you quit working at crosspurposes!"

I can't totally agree with your assessment of Jordon as a better writer than Sanderson. Perhaps on shear ability as a wordsmith, maybe, but I think Sanderson did a better job of making the characters relatable. Once he took over, the good guys did actually start working together better, but I suppose that may have been Jordan's plan all along. I know that Jordan had left behind notes about how he planned things to go, but I have no idea how detailed they were.

I wasn't entirely thrilled with the ending, either. The main plot was wrapped up in a satifactory manner, but I think the fate of some of the characters wasn't handled well. Again, I don't know how much of that was planned by Jordan and how much Sanderson had to fill in on his own, but there were several characters about whom I thought when reading the last book, "Jordan's notes must not have really said how their story arcs ended, so Sanderson just decided to kill 'em off". It didn't help that many of those character deaths were "off-screen" so to speak.

[happyturtle]

Hugo voting ends on July 31. I've finished mine, but it was a lot of reading.

I never did get to Wheel of Time. :smalltongue:

[IthilanorStPete]

I've got my votes in, though I didn't have enough reading time to vote on the 'zine categories or the Campbell Award.

[IthilanorStPete]

It's time for the ceremony! Video coverage streamed here (http://www.ustream.tv/hugo-awards), text coverage via CoverItLive here (http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2014-hugo-awards/2014-hugo-awards-live-coverage/).

EDIT: Ancillary Justice wins (http://www.thehugoawards.org/2014/08/2014-hugo-award-winners/)! "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" wins! Kameron Hurley takes two Hugos! Great slate of winners this year. Detailed results are linked in that post; Wheel of Time only came in fourth on the ballot, only beating Warbound and No Award.

[happyturtle]

The full list of winners

Best novel Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Best novella Equoid by Charles Stross

Best novelette The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Best short story The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere by John Chu

Best related work We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)

Best graphic story Time by Randall Munroe

Best dramatic presentation (long form) Gravity written by Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón

Best dramatic presentation (short form) Game of Thrones: The Rains of Castamere written by David Benioff and DB Weiss, directed by David Nutter

Best editor (short form) Ellen Datlow

Best editor (long form) Ginjer Buchanan

Best professional artist Julie Dillon

Best semi-pro zine Lightspeed Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki

Best fanzine A Dribble of Ink edited by Aidan Moher

Best fancast SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester

Best fan writer Kameron Hurley

Best fan artist Sarah Webb

John W Campbell award for best new writer Sofia Samatar



I am beyond chuffed at this set of results - most especially for Kameron Hurley's "We Have Always Fought" - but also for the nearly 50/50 gender breakdown. I'm speechless with joy. :smallsmile::smallsmile::smallsmile: