Hugo Finalists 2015

[happyturtle]

The Hugo finalists have been announced. Winners will be revealed on August 22, 2015

I'll be using this post to link up any legal web copies of the works that I can find. Discussion of literature is a good idea. Certain ideological movements involving the Hugos, whether pro or con, should probably be off limits.


Best Novel (1827 nominating ballots)

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)
Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos (47North) (withdrawn by nominee)
Skin Game by Jim Butcher (Roc Books)
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor)


Best Novella (1083 nominating ballots)


Big Boys Don’t Cry by Tom Kratman (Castalia House)
“Flow” by Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, Nov 2014) (https://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Flow_ArlanAndrew-HUGO.pdf)
One Bright Star to Guide Them by John C. Wright (http://www.castaliahouse.com/downloads/the-nominated-short-fiction-works-of-john-c-wright/) (Castalia House)
“Pale Realms of Shade” by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House) (http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/04/pale-realms-of-shade/)
“The Plural of Helen of Troy by John C. Wright (http://www.castaliahouse.com/downloads/the-nominated-short-fiction-works-of-john-c-wright/) (City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)


Best Novelette (1031 nominating ballots)


“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium” (http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i39&article=_005) by Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, May 2014)
“Championship B’tok” (http://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Championship_EdLerner-HUGO.pdf) by Edward M. Lerner (Analog, Sept 2014)
“The Journeyman: In the Stone House” (https://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Journeyman_Stone_House_%20MichaelFlynn-HUGO.pdf) by Michael F. Flynn (Analog, June 2014)
“The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale” by Rajnar Vajra (https://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Triple_Sun_RajnarVajra-HUGO.pdf) (Analog, Jul/Aug 2014)
“Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House) (invalidated for being previously published in 2013)
“The Day The World Turned Upside Down” (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-day-the-world-turned-upside-down/) by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Lia Belt (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2014)


Best Short Story (1174 nominating ballots)


“Goodnight Stars” (http://www.johnjosephadams.com/apocalypse-triptych/2015/04/09/news-goodnight-stars-by-annie-bellet-is-a-hugo-award-nominee/?hc_location=ufi) by Annie Bellet (The End is Now (Apocalypse Triptych Book 2), Broad Reach Publishing) (withdrawn by nominee)
“On A Spiritual Plain” (http://www.otherwisealternatehistory.blogspot.com/2015/03/on-spiritual-plain.html) by Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, Nov 2014)
“The Parliament of Beasts and Birds” by John C. Wrigh (http://voxday.blogspot.ch/2014/12/the-parliament-of-beasts-and-birds.html)t (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
“Totaled” (http://galaxysedge.com/Hugo/Totaled.htm) by Kary English (Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, July 2014)
“Turncoat” (http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/08/turncoat.html) by Steve Rzasa (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)
“A Single Samurai” by Steven Diamond (The Baen Big Book of Monsters, Baen)



Best Related Work (1150 nominating ballots)


“The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF” by Ken Burnside (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)
Letters from Gardner by Lou Antonelli (The Merry Blacksmith Press)
Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth by John C. Wright (http://www.scifiwright.com/xabout/transhuman-and-subhuman/) (Castalia House)
“Why Science is Never Settled” by Tedd Roberts (http://www.baen.com/Why_Science_is_Never_Settled.asp) (Baen.com)
Wisdom from My Internet by Michael Z. Williamson (Patriarchy Press)



Best Graphic Story (785 nominating ballots)


Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt (Marvel Comics)
Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery written by Kurtis J. Weibe, art by Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)
Saga Volume 3 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick written by Matt Fraction, art by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)
The Zombie Nation Book #2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate by Carter Reid (The Zombie Nation)




Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) (1285 nominating ballots)


Captain America: The Winter Soldier screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, concept and story by Ed Brubaker, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Entertainment, Perception, Sony Pictures Imageworks)
Edge of Tomorrow screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, directed by Doug Liman (Village Roadshow, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, 3 Arts Entertainment; Viz Productions)
Guardians of the Galaxy written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, directed by James Gunn (Marvel Studios, Moving Picture Company)
Interstellar screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lynda Obst Productions, Syncopy)
The Lego Movie written by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, story by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, LEGO Systems A/S Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation (as Warner Animation Group))



Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) (938 nominating ballots)


Doctor Who: “Listen” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Douglas Mackinnon (BBC Television)
The Flash: “Pilot” teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, story by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, directed by David Nutter (The CW) (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television)
Game of Thrones: “The Mountain and the Viper” written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by Alex Graves (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
Grimm: “Once We Were Gods”, written by Alan DiFiore, directed by Steven DePaul (NBC) (GK Productions, Hazy Mills Productions, Universal TV)
Orphan Black: “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried” written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions; Space/BBC America)


Best Editor (Short Form) (870 nominating ballots)


Jennifer Brozek
Vox Day
Mike Resnick
Edmund R. Schubert (withdrawn by nominee after ballot had gone to press)
Bryan Thomas Schmidt


Best Editor (Long Form) (712 nominating ballots)


Vox Day
Sheila Gilbert
Jim Minz
Anne Sowards
Toni Weisskopf


Best Professional Artist (753 nominating ballots)


Julie Dillon (http://www.juliedillonart.com/)
Jon Eno (http://joneno.com/) (disqualified for publishing no qualifying artwork in 2014)
Nick Greenwood (http://www.nick-greenwood.com/scifi.html)
Alan Pollack (http://www.alanpollack.com/)
Carter Reid
Kirk DouPonce (http://www.dogeareddesign.com/)


Best Semiprozine (660 nominating ballots)


Abyss & Apex (http://www.abyssapexzine.com/) Wendy Delmater editor and publisher
Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine (http://www.andromedaspaceways.com/) Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Association Incorporated, 2014 editors David Kernot and Sue Burtsztynski
Beneath Ceaseless Skies (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/) edited by Scott H. Andrews
Lightspeed Magazine (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/), edited by John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant
Strange Horizons (http://www.strangehorizons.com/) Niall Harrison Editor-in-Chief


Best Fanzine (576 nominating ballots)


Black Gate (http://www.blackgate.com/) edited by John O’Neill (withdrawn by nominee after ballot had gone to press)
Elitist Book Reviews (http://elitistbookreviews.com/) edited by Steven Diamond
Journey Planet (http://journeyplanet.weebly.com/) edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Alissa McKersie, Colin Harris, and Helen Montgomery
The Revenge of Hump Day edited by Tim Bolgeo
Tangent SF Online, (http://www.tangentonline.com/) edited by Dave Truesdale


Best Fancast (668 nominating ballots)

Adventures in SF Publishing Brent Bower (Executive Producer), Kristi Charish, Timothy C. Ward & Moses Siregar III (Co-Hosts, Interviewers and Producers)
Dungeon Crawlers Radio Daniel Swenson (Producer/Host), Travis Alexander & Scott Tomlin (Hosts), Dale Newton (Host/Tech), Damien Swenson (Audio/Video Tech)
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
The Sci Phi Show Jason Rennie
Tea and Jeopardy Emma Newman and Peter Newman

Best Fan Writer (777 nominating ballots)



Dave Freer (http://davefreer.com/)
Amanda S. Green (http://nocturnal-lives.com/)
Jeffro Johnson (https://jeffro.wordpress.com/)
Laura J. Mixon (http://laurajmixon.com/)
Cedar Sanderson (http://madgeniusclub.com/)
A profile of all 5 Fan Writer finalists (http://cedarwrites.com/fan-writers/)



Best Fan Artist (296 nominating ballots)

Ninni Aalto
Brad Foster
Elizabeth Leggett
Spring Schoenhuth
Steve Stiles

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (851 nominating ballots)
Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2013 or 2014, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award).

Wesley Chu*
Jason Cordova
Kary English*
Rolf Nelson
Eric S. Raymond

[warty goblin]

So I knew I didn't really keep up with contemporary sci-fi/fantasy these days, but I haven't even heard of the vast majority of these. Are any of them worth reading?

[Man on Fire]

It's absolutely disgusting that the year Terry Prachett died, a guy who compared him to Hitler and called Legend of Korra creators "disgusting, limp, soulless sacks of filth" just because they disagree with his bigoted worldview, will likely win six Hugo awards. And not because of his skills, but because he is backed by a block-voting group that wants to destroy fantasy and science-fiction that dares to have anything to say and isn't just a mindless male power fantasy in vein of worst Conan and John Carter stories, to the boint such concept as good Orcs is a blasphemy to them.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Of the few I've read...

I've heard that the Ancillary books do some really cool stuff with high-concept sci-fi, and they come strongly recommended, so I'm considering giving them a look.

Skin Game was a blast, naturally. Because Dresden Files.

The Plural of Helen of Troy can only be described as Gallifreyan Noir, despite not actually being a Doctor Who story...I remember it being pretty interesting but a bit of a head-spinner, and I'm not sure if I thought it was great stuff in the end. Very much the sort of story you'd expect to find about a ruling class of time travellers, however, and there's all sorts of funky world concepts therein.

I have Transhuman and Subhuman wishlisted, because I thought The Golden Age was a neat high sci-fi book and I like seeing Wright discuss metaphysics in sci-fi.

Ms. Marvel is on my wishlist as well, and I've considered looking into Saga; they both come highly recommended by people.

I'm gonna assume you're not asking about the movies and TV shows.

[IthilanorStPete]

I wasn't planning on voting this year, there wasn't as much that I really cared about as last year, but after seeing the nominations...I'll definitely be voting and choosing No Award in a lot of the categories.

[Man on Fire]

This year it's feels like the best option, since nominations has been rigged by block-voters who hate any originality in speculative fiction.

[comicshorse]

It's absolutely disgusting that the year Terry Prachett died, a guy who compared him to Hitler and called Legend of Korra creators "disgusting, limp, soulless sacks of filth" just because they disagree with his bigoted worldview, will likely win six Hugo awards. And not because of his skills, but because he is backed by a block-voting group that wants to destroy fantasy and science-fiction that dares to have anything to say and isn't just a mindless male power fantasy in vein of worst Conan and John Carter stories, to the boint such concept as good Orcs is a blasphemy to them.

Care to explain who this is (preferably with links) for the rest of us ?

[Man on Fire]

Care to explain who this is (preferably with links) for the rest of us ?

John C. Wright, but I'm not sure if I can post links, because they are about topics forbidden here - he compares Prachett to Hitler in an essay because Prachett is "a man without God" and has "practical views on euthanasia", and what he said about creators of Legend of Korra, he did because he hated that they showed two girls falling in love on the screen. So I'll post links only with premission from the mods.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Certain ideological movements involving the Hugos, whether pro or con, should probably be off limits.

It's almost as if nobody bothered to read the OP.

(I bring this up mostly because the OP specifically requested that we not talk about it. Down to the thumbs-up icon on the thread--I know this forum doesn't have a concept of "plus threads", but I think the OP's hope was that we could talk about the literature featured on this ballot.)

[comicshorse]

Fair enough. With Man on Fire's lead a little Goggling informed me and my curiosity is now satisfied. And yes I think taking the discussion that way will get this thread banned very quickly

[Seerow]

It's almost as if nobody bothered to read the OP.

(I bring this up mostly because the OP specifically requested that we not talk about it. Down to the thumbs-up icon on the thread--I know this forum doesn't have a concept of "plus threads", but I think the OP's hope was that we could talk about the literature featured on this ballot.)

That ends up being a pretty empty topic, since the literary value of the things that made it through the nomination process is pretty slim. Out of the Novelette, Novella, and Novel categories, the only story worth discussing on the ballot is Skin Games, and we've already got a Dresden Files thread for that.

[GloatingSwine]

Trouble is, I don't think you can talk about the 2015 Hugos without talking about the SP/RP slate and the way it has distorted the shortlists this year, completely taking over several categories.

The Hugos this year has become about that slate and what the organisers of it are attempting to turn the Hugos into.

This should basically be the year of No Award.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Trouble is, I don't think you can talk about the 2015 Hugos without talking about the SP/RP slate and the way it has distorted the shortlists this year, completely taking over several categories.

I don't really agree; even if it exists, there's certainly a place for discussing the current ballot's stories as their own thing. I have the gut feeling that none of them are trash-level writing, based off of the few I've read.

That said, I'm no literary snob, so I have a much less refined sense of literary taste. :smalltongue:

Making a current note to go and check out some of the linked free files, I'll be giving impressions thereof as I wrap them up.

[Saph]

This should basically be the year of No Award.

No, it shouldn't. I know quite a lot about this year's Hugo Awards, since given my career it's kind of my business, and while I won't go into the details of it due to board rules, I will say that there are some extremely deserving candidates on the ballot.

Personally, I'm going to be getting a membership this year for the first time, partly because for once there are some candidates on the list that I care about, but mostly because of the people threatening to No Award everything. (No Awarding all of the good books on the list would be bad enough, but if No Award wins out over Anne Sowards in the Best Editor category, I'm going to be seriously annoyed.)

[Sith_Happens]

While I know the background behind this list happening, how much of it is actually any good? I don't necessarily mean in the critical sense; I looked up this Wright guy, for example, and his stuff all sounds like fun reads if not the sort of thing that deserves half of every category he qualifies for.

[happyturtle]

While I know the background behind this list happening, how much of it is actually any good? I don't necessarily mean in the critical sense; I looked up this Wright guy, for example, and his stuff all sounds like fun reads if not the sort of thing that deserves half of every category he qualifies for.

There are links in the OP to what stories are available online for free. Anyone want to make this a review thread for those stories? :smallcool:

[CarpeGuitarrem]

There are links in the OP to what stories are available online for free. Anyone want to make this a review thread for those stories? :smallcool:
I'm planning on it. :smallsmile:

[Mx.Silver]

Certain ideological movements involving the Hugos, whether pro or con, should probably be off limits.


In which case you'd likely be better off just making a thread about whatever individual works/creators you want to talk about, I'm afraid.
The Slate just is the conversation as far as the Hugo's are concerned at this point. As it would be if the same circumstances happened to another award, because that's what happens when things get nominated based on undisguised bloc voting and ballot-stuffing.

If that's not going to be talked about (and I do agree that it probably can't be safely talked about on these forums) then you're left with talking about the works in isolation, at which point you aren't really talking about the awards anymore.

[Reverent-One]

In which case you'd likely be better off just making a thread about whatever individual works/creators you want to talk about, I'm afraid.
The Slate just is the conversation as far as the Hugo's are concerned at this point. As it would be if the same circumstances happened to another award, because that's what happens when things get nominated based on undisguised bloc voting and ballot-stuffing.

If that's not going to be talked about (and I do agree that it probably can't be safely talked about on these forums) then you're left with talking about the works in isolation, at which point you aren't really talking about the awards anymore.

The thread last year was primarily about the works in isolation as well. As all the works being discussed are finalists for the Hugo award, I think that justifies having one thread to discuss all of them rather than a few dozen individual threads.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

If that's not going to be talked about (and I do agree that it probably can't be safely talked about on these forums) then you're left with talking about the works in isolation, at which point you aren't really talking about the awards anymore.
Worth noting that the thread is not actually about the awards themselves, but about the finalists for this year's awards. Ergo the title.

[endoperez]

Has anyone read The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison?

The premise seems interesting enough - steampunk fantasy with airships and political intrigue. The ruling family dies, except for the youngest son, a half-goblin who wasn't raised in the court. A fish-out-of-water, growing-up, politics and intrigue sorta story. They can be interesting, but it depends a lot on the author, so...

[happyturtle]

The thread last year was primarily about the works in isolation as well. As all the works being discussed are finalists for the Hugo award, I think that justifies having one thread to discuss all of them rather than a few dozen individual threads.

Exactly so.



As far as Best Novel, so far I've only read Ancillary Sword. It's a worthy successor to Ancillary Justice, but I don't know that it deserves the Hugo just for that. I keep hearing that Skin Game is awesome, but I haven't read any of Dresden Files. Is this a book that can be read alone? I've also heard good reviews of Goblin Emperor, but haven't read it yet.

[Zyzzyva]

I keep hearing that Skin Game is awesome, but I haven't read any of Dresden Files. Is this a book that can be read alone?

No. Very much no. It's a good series but it's become fairly really completely serialized as it goes on. I'm not even sure, spoilers and ability to catch up at the beginning aside, how "awesome" it would be without all the context to make you go "huh, that's a clever and surprising bit of characterization, because of things established in previous books".

[happyturtle]

Shame about that. I probably won't get to it this Hugo season then. :smallfrown:

[tomandtish]

No. Very much no. It's a good series but it's become fairly really completely serialized as it goes on. I'm not even sure, spoilers and ability to catch up at the beginning aside, how "awesome" it would be without all the context to make you go "huh, that's a clever and surprising bit of characterization, because of things established in previous books".

Have to agree with this. The Dresden Files is an excellent series, but by this point there's way too much that won't make sense if you don't start from the beginning. Skin Game was excellent, but definitely not a stand alone work.

Neither is Lines of Departure. I enjoyed that as well, but I don't think you would as much if you haven't read Terms of Enlistment first.

In fact, only The Goblin Emperor appears to be a completely new work.

Ancillary Sword and Lines of Departure are both the second books in their respective series.

Skin Game is book 15 in its series.

The Dark Between the Stars seems to be book one in a sequel series to a seven (?) book series.

So not much truly new original work out there.

That's not automatically a bad thing. As I said, I love The Dresden Files and enjoyed both of Kloos' books. But at the same time it is a little disappointing that we aren't seeing more nominees that are new works and not continuations.

[Tengu_temp]

For anyone confused about the controversy, I recommend googling "sad puppies" and "rabid puppies." Also check out the blogs of Vox Day and John C Wright. I present this entirely without commentary but will advise that the two blogs contain content that some people may find distressing.

I'd also like to point out that George R. R. Martin wrote a commentary on the whole thing on his livejournal (yeah, he uses a livejournal for some reason), which in addition of being made of truth is also a worthwhile and interesting story to read in its own right.

Spoiler alert: like pretty much every other legitimate, non-bigoted author, he's not very fond of sad puppies.

[Dragonus45]

Would any of the people here who want to whine bitch and moan about the nominations care to attack the quality of the novels rather than run off about whatever issues you have with the writers politics. I mean, by all means tell me why the story is good or bad not why the author needs to be blacklisted because he committed thought crime.

[warty goblin]

So I read some of Dave Freer's fan writing, since he's up for the fan writing award. He was doing a statistical analysis to show that the Hugos are politically biased, which had me reaching for my Bad Statistics Bludgeon, right around the time he said that political views were normally distributed, then using this as the distribution from which nominated books were drawn. Now even if one accepts that political views are normally distributed, this does not mean the political ideology of sci-fi/fantasy novels is normal, or that the quality of a book is independent of the author's political ideology; even if somebody happened to have a Universal Writing Quality Yardstick handy.

To be precise, I'd argue that to demonstrate bias you'd need the joint distribution/density of authorial political leaning and book quality (using your handy Universal Writing Quality Yardstick), locate the modes, and demonstrate that Huge winners come disproportionally from one mode, or one end of a modal ridge in R2, or whatever shape the distribution actually has. Point being, he's using the the marginal to make inference about the joint - and he's using the wrong marginal. But even using the right marginal would still be the wrong analysis, because as we all learned at Granpa Probstat's knee, the marginal does not uniquely identify the joint distribution. So he gets some props for at least doing some math, but it's the wrong gorram math, which is often worse than no math at all, and calls for a vigorous thrashing with the Bad Statistics Bludgeon.

So far as I've seen as yet, the best use of statistical methodology in fan writing this year is still Laura Mixon's. Also probably the most useful.

This has been your daily rant about bad statistics. Please return to your previously scheduled content. I need to grind a new point on the Bad Statistics Bludgeon.

[Drayrs]

I have only read Skin Game and Ancillary Sword thus far, I am picking the Goblin Emperor up when I have a chance.

While I loved Skin Game, it really isn't the same without the rest of the series to back it up (as was mentioned before).

Ancillary Sword was an excellent novel. However, it was a different kind of story than its predecessor, and while it stands on its own in that regard it still relies on much of what was built in Ancillary Justice.

I rarely vote if only because I find it difficult to objectively analyze each work. Reading/watching everything is also a bit of a quest. I'm pretty sure these same problems is why voting as a community tends to skew the nominations and make everyone angry.

[Algeh]

The apparent lack of non-series novels is one of the reasons I'm getting so burned out on reading new SF/fantasy (and watching SF television, for that matter) lately. I'm done with series that go on and on without an obvious end to the point where I can't remember what happened in one book rather than another within the series, and my brain can't keep track of more than maybe 8 viewpoint characters, more like 3 if they all have names like Tolkien elves, if I'm expected to remember them after more than about 50 pages of absence or from book to book.

Are ANY of the "Best Novel" nominees this year something I might be able to read as a stand-alone work? Or is the only one that's not part 500 in an ongoing series just part 1 of what the author hopes will one day be an ongoing series? I didn't bother to nominate anything this year because the only "new" books I'd read in 2014 were all the latest installments in ongoing series that I'm starting to get sick of, and they weren't even the best books from those series.

I miss novels that were actually novels rather than serials.

I don't mind long things that actually have a beginning, middle, and end to them, as long as they're my general kind of thing. I just get tired of series that ramble on forever telling me the next set of updates on everyone we've ever met in any of the previous books, like some kind of fantasy/SF social media feed (although often with more battle scenes). Almost all of my very favorite works over the years have been true stand-alone novels, whereas almost every long series I've read has gone from favorite to chore at some point along the way.

[Sith_Happens]

I need to grind a new point on the Bad Statistics Bludgeon.

Doesn't that make it no longer a bludgeon?:smallconfused:


[Snip]

Between this and the talk about Skin Games I'm starting to think that maybe some of the categories should be split up into "Existing Franchise/IP" and "New IP" subcategories.

[Tengu_temp]

Would any of the people here who want to whine bitch and moan about the nominations care to attack the quality of the novels rather than run off about whatever issues you have with the writers politics. I mean, by all means tell me why the story is good or bad not why the author needs to be blacklisted because he committed thought crime.

If you don't know why people are disgusted by an openly homophobic writer and his supporters, then I don't know what to tell you. This isn't a matter of politics, this is a matter of being a decent human being.

[happyturtle]

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium (http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i39&article=_005) by Gray Rinehart

This story presents a human interstellar colony that has been conquered - possibly enslaved - by lizard-like aliens. The opening was somewhat confusing. First of all, I thought there were 3 humans present, because the first line of dialogue is "Let's go back, Phil," but the character is referred to as 'Keller' in the narrative. Eventually I figured out that this is Phil Keller, but it is poor craft for the writer not to put in those clues early on. I also dislike when the viewpoint character is not told what is going on simply so that the reader will learn when they do. It was used clumsily here - I was not convinced that Cerna would go to the Peshar's place with Keller without an explanation.

Further opinion behind the spoiler tag.The build-up of the story is to reveal that the Peshar are so claustrophobic that the mere notion of an underground grave will remind them of their own childhood ghost stories and terrify them off the planet? Seriously? :smallannoyed: This space-faring civilization left their system before learning the difference between fairy tales and reality?

I liked the aliens, other than the problem in the spoiler tag. I liked the set-up of a human colony being discovered and conquered. But the story presented here simply didn't impress me. I'll be interested to see what others think.

[Grinner]

If you don't know why people are disgusted by an openly homophobic writer and his supporters, then I don't know what to tell you. This isn't a matter of politics, this is a matter of being a decent human being.

So let's all crucify him for having an opinion? :smallconfused:

[Haruki-kun]

The Winged Mod: Everyone, please stick to discussing the awards themselves and the nominated works or related literature. The nominees' political opinions or stances are off-topic for this thread and clearly heading in a bad direction.

[happyturtle]

The apparent lack of non-series novels is one of the reasons I'm getting so burned out on reading new SF/fantasy (and watching SF television, for that matter) lately. I'm done with series that go on and on without an obvious end to the point where I can't remember what happened in one book rather than another within the series, and my brain can't keep track of more than maybe 8 viewpoint characters, more like 3 if they all have names like Tolkien elves, if I'm expected to remember them after more than about 50 pages of absence or from book to book.

Are ANY of the "Best Novel" nominees this year something I might be able to read as a stand-alone work? Or is the only one that's not part 500 in an ongoing series just part 1 of what the author hopes will one day be an ongoing series? I didn't bother to nominate anything this year because the only "new" books I'd read in 2014 were all the latest installments in ongoing series that I'm starting to get sick of, and they weren't even the best books from those series.

I miss novels that were actually novels rather than serials.

I don't mind long things that actually have a beginning, middle, and end to them, as long as they're my general kind of thing. I just get tired of series that ramble on forever telling me the next set of updates on everyone we've ever met in any of the previous books, like some kind of fantasy/SF social media feed (although often with more battle scenes). Almost all of my very favorite works over the years have been true stand-alone novels, whereas almost every long series I've read has gone from favorite to chore at some point along the way.


I get the impression that publishers want series. Or at the very least, a sequel or a trilogy. It's much easier for them to gear up their marketing machine to sell 'Book X #N in the beloved YYY series!' than to sell 'Book X, a new book by the author of the beloved YYY series, but no, X is not part of the YYY series, but we really want to use YYY to help sell the book....'

It would be a lot easier for me, as a reader, if I would be told up front though. If X is part of YYY series, can I read it if I'm new? (Thank you to the people who advised me on Skin Games.) If X is the first book of YYY series, am I going to get a complete story? Ancillary Justice and Fellowship of the Rings are both the first book of trilogies, but one of them is a complete story, while one of them is not. I'd like to know that up front. (I get really irritated when books end on cliffhangers if there hasn't been any indication that this is only 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/10 of a story rather than 1 story. Tell me what I'm buying, dammit! :smallmad:)

As for the number of viewpoint characters, I've noticed a trend towards first person narration. It seems to be the most common in Young Adult fiction, and it's fairly common in newer science fiction. Epic fantasy requires a large cast and therefore a larger number of viewpoint characters. You can tell a story about a grand war between good and evil by focusing only on the way it effects the life of an illiterate turnip farmer who is too old to be conscripted, but that won't be an epic tale.

If you're getting burned out on SF/F, try reading other genres for a while. When you start really missing SF/F, it will be here for you to come back to.

[warty goblin]

The apparent lack of non-series novels is one of the reasons I'm getting so burned out on reading new SF/fantasy (and watching SF television, for that matter) lately. I'm done with series that go on and on without an obvious end to the point where I can't remember what happened in one book rather than another within the series, and my brain can't keep track of more than maybe 8 viewpoint characters, more like 3 if they all have names like Tolkien elves, if I'm expected to remember them after more than about 50 pages of absence or from book to book.

Are ANY of the "Best Novel" nominees this year something I might be able to read as a stand-alone work? Or is the only one that's not part 500 in an ongoing series just part 1 of what the author hopes will one day be an ongoing series? I didn't bother to nominate anything this year because the only "new" books I'd read in 2014 were all the latest installments in ongoing series that I'm starting to get sick of, and they weren't even the best books from those series.

I miss novels that were actually novels rather than serials.

I know that feeling. Try reading short stories, where honestly I think a lot of the best sci-fi (less so fantasy) tends to happen. Of course you get a lot of short stories that are just a short book in a longer series, which I tend to find very irritating even when I have read the other books, but you also get some really good and entirely original stuff. Or stuff that's set in the same universe as other stories, but nevertheless is a freestanding chunk of narrative.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Between this and the talk about Skin Games I'm starting to think that maybe some of the categories should be split up into "Existing Franchise/IP" and "New IP" subcategories.
This is an excellent notion, especially because (at least for me) I evaluate standalone books differently than books which belong to a series. Long series can do different things than standalone books can, so I can't really compare them in the same ways.

[warty goblin]

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium (http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i39&article=_005) by Gray Rinehart

This story presents a human interstellar colony that has been conquered - possibly enslaved - by lizard-like aliens. The opening was somewhat confusing. First of all, I thought there were 3 humans present, because the first line of dialogue is "Let's go back, Phil," but the character is referred to as 'Keller' in the narrative. Eventually I figured out that this is Phil Keller, but it is poor craft for the writer not to put in those clues early on. I also dislike when the viewpoint character is not told what is going on simply so that the reader will learn when they do. It was used clumsily here - I was not convinced that Cerna would go to the Peshar's place with Keller without an explanation.

Further opinion behind the spoiler tag.The build-up of the story is to reveal that the Peshar are so claustrophobic that the mere notion of an underground grave will remind them of their own childhood ghost stories and terrify them off the planet? Seriously? :smallannoyed: This space-faring civilization left their system before learning the difference between fairy tales and reality?

I liked the aliens, other than the problem in the spoiler tag. I liked the set-up of a human colony being discovered and conquered. But the story presented here simply didn't impress me. I'll be interested to see what others think.

Read it, I rather agree. It felt like a good concept, but the execution was weak. It reminded me somewhat of George RR Martin's old story And Seven Times Never Kill Man, but whereas that had weird crystal prism aliens using weaponized religion to destroy and enslave in a fairly subtle way, this had just kinda dopy space lizards doing the lamest job of subjugation of anybody ever. And I thought the prose, particularly up to the first point break, was really overdone.

To be fair, the implication wasn't that simply burying one dead guy would be enough to get all of them to leave - necessarily. Using shaped charges to start collapsing buildings on them however would. Or something.

[Foeofthelance]

I get the impression that publishers want series. Or at the very least, a sequel or a trilogy. It's much easier for them to gear up their marketing machine to sell 'Book X #N in the beloved YYY series!' than to sell 'Book X, a new book by the author of the beloved YYY series, but no, X is not part of the YYY series, but we really want to use YYY to help sell the book....'


It is not just an impression. I've spoken with several publishers and they've all said that a cover letter that says, "This is Book 1 of a planned X volume series" gets far more attention than one for a stand alone novel. Part of it is marketing, part of it is seen as a safety net. Printing is getting more expensive as time goes on, and even if the marketing isn't really there outside a few endcaps in-store, establishing a product line makes it easier to justify.

[happyturtle]

The Hugo list has been revised in the OP, as two nominees were ineligible (http://file770.com/?p=21886). One story was disqualified for being previously published, and one artist was dropped from the finalist list because he published no qualifying artwork in 2014. These sort of ineligibility rulings are fairly common and should not be taken as evidence of malfeasance on the part of any nominee. Someone pulls up in a golden chariot pulled by dinosaurs and says 'You're a Hugo nominee! Jump on board!' At least no one has said it hasn't been done that way, which I shall take as evidence enough. And only later does someone else start looking at calendar dates and matching everything up.

On the brighter side, other qualifying works have been moved into their place, and I have found more links to free stories. All of the Novellettes and Short Stories are now available free online. I'll try and review another one later today.

[turkishproverb]

That reminds me, when is the cutoff date to get a voter packet?

[happyturtle]

The voter packet hasn't been released yet. I think last year, it was about a month after the nominations were announced, since they have to get releases from all the various publishers.

Official info for 2015 Worldcon here (http://sasquan.org/)

My best guess is that The Goblin Emperor and The Dark Between the Stars will both be available in full in the voter's packet, since Tor is a fairly enthusiastic proponent of the concept. Ancillary Sword is by Orbit, who was fairly stubborn about only issuing excerpts, no matter what their author wishes. The other two publishers I don't know.



Oh Oh Oh!

I forgot! Mary Robinette Kowal is giving away 75 supporting memberships (random drawing) (http://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/talk-with-me-about-being-a-fan-of-science-fiction-and-fantasy/) for those who can't afford it. Fill in the application by April 17 if you are interested.


:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:

[Mx.Silver]

The thread last year was primarily about the works in isolation as well. As all the works being discussed are finalists for the Hugo award, I think that justifies having one thread to discuss all of them rather than a few dozen individual threads.

Fair enough then.

In other news, Marko Kloos has withdrawn Lines of Departure from the Best Novel running, so the list in the OP may need to be updated again. Not sure if there's been any word on what, if anything, is replacing it.

[happyturtle]

Thanks for the heads up, Mr Silver. Annie Bellet has also withdrawn her story "Goodnight Stars". Sasquan has not yet announced replacements, if any, for either.

And now, another review:

Championship B'tok (http://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Championship_EdLerner-HUGO.pdf) by Ed Lerner

I found myself confused throughout this story. It wasn't until after the end, that I was given a clue as to why:


The earliest hints of an Intervener conspiracy emerged in “The Matthews Conundrum,” in the November 2013 issue. Expanded and novelized, earlier crises of the InterstellarNet era (several first seen in Analog) are available as InterstellarNet: Origins and InterstellarNet: New Order

Evidently, this story is meant to be read with its predecessors. It certainly doesn't work well as a stand-alone, where I was continually wondering who the main characters are, where they actually are, what the conflicts are.

The setting is Ariel, moon of Saturn, where 'Snakes', an alien humanoid species, are kept on a sort of reservation. They have some rights, but not complete freedom. The Snakes came from their system 20 years ago, when something happened (presumably the subject of a previous novel, but it's never said) to give humans control of their interstellar craft. This stolen ship was Earth's first interstellar ship, and they immediately begin building a second.

(This is all background, but I had to figure it out in order to make sense of the story.)

The story is that the Snakes are trying to regain control of an interstellar ship, and Carl (the human in charge) is trying to stop them. Problem is that he doesn't know their plan or have any evidence. Carl and the head Snake, the Foremost, meet regularly to play a Snake game called B'tok, which is said to be chess on steroids. So that's the main storyline of the game, but then Corinne, a friend of Carl's arrives to tell him about a conspiracy against both species by the Interveners.

First of all, B'tok. It's described as this amazing strategy game, then when a game of it is actually described, it's a battle simulator. And geeze, no wonder Carl always loses to the Foremost, if she always sets the conditions. I mean, if you and your opponent are going to play out the Battle of Midway, and you've researched it to put it into the game, and he hasn't heard of it, and barely remembers that war because it's been so long ago, then of course you're going to do better.

Second, Carl is supposed to be the main character of the story, but he has no agency. He is tugged here and there, by the Foremost, and Corinne, and the Interveners. He learns exactly one thing, and doesn't get to tell anyone.

Third, the Snakes and their plotting is interesting. The Intervener conspiracy is not. You'd think a conspiracy that's been around since before the Cambrian is hardly going to be an emergency. But all the action happens in the Intervener plot, leaving the Snakes plot to simply be revealed during the Foremost's point of view. Boring.

Fourth, the Interveners are so barely credible that they deserve some more explanation. All we get is that they caused the Cambrian Explosion, and analagous events on 6 other worlds, and that they make us fear robots. Corinne tells Carl about this, and doesn't give him any sort of 'We know they exist because of....'


Overall, I am not impressed with this story. As a portion of a novel, it might be acceptable, but as a standalone story, it does not give the reader enough. If the conflict is Carl vs the Foremost, which the title suggests, then that conflict should be presented earlier and resolved in a more satisfactory way. For the Foremost to win by default because Carl got himself fired doing something else entirely isn't a strategy move.

[SparksMcGee]

Would any of the people here who want to whine bitch and moan about the nominations care to attack the quality of the novels rather than run off about whatever issues you have with the writers politics. I mean, by all means tell me why the story is good or bad not why the author needs to be blacklisted because he committed thought crime.

I didn't see anyone doing that, Dragonus. I saw people complaining about block voting.

[happyturtle]

Updated from Sasquan (http://sasquan.org/hugo-awards/nominations/)

In the Best Novel category, Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos has been withdrawn by its author. It has been replaced by The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu).
In the Best Short Story category, “Goodnight Stars” by Annie Bellet has been withdrawn by its author. It has been replaced by “A Single Samurai” by Steven Diamond.
In the Best Novelette category, the listing for “The Day the World Turned Upside Down” (by Thomas Olde Heuvelt) originally did not include the name of the translator, Lia Belt. That has now been corrected.


From The Hugo Awards (http://www.thehugoawards.org/2015/04/two-finalists-withdraw-from-2015-hugo-awards/)
"[T]he Administrators announced that the ballot is now going to the printer and there will be no further revisions."


I started reading The Three-Body Problem a few days ago, before this announcement. So I can now say I have read 1-1/3 of the Best Novel finalists. It's really weird, and maybe more of a horror than a SF novel, but that's very preliminary. It could all turn out very differently.

[runeghost]

For Best Novel I'm going for The Goblin Emperor - it has this quiet brilliance, and lovely atmosphere and really took me into the heart of Maia. Ancillary Sword was good, and definitely worthy of a Hugo in general, but wasn't quite as good as Ancillary Justice, not that it was in any way bad, just... not quite as good as Goblin Emperor, I guess?

I haven't quite gotten through all the Graphic Novel entrants yet, but think I'll be voting for Rat Queens. As a gamer, how could I do anything else? It was awesome.

Orphan Black for Best Short Form, because I love Orphan Black, even though several others are also good. Best Long Form is going to be tough: I'm thinking GoG, because I had high expectations and it surpassed them, and because GoG echoed in my head far more than Winter Soldier or any of the others.

I generally don't vote the 'zine and fan categories, because I don't really get into the whole fan community. (I'm too busy reading and gaming to spend time on being a fan!) A number of other categories will be getting No Award votes from me, because no works worthy of getting a Hugo were nominated.

[turkishproverb]

Well, I do hope you read everything runeghost. There are some good entries in each, or at least most of the fields.

[Aka-chan]

"The Parliament of Beasts and Birds," by John C. Wright
This story was written in a style reminiscent of a fable or just-so story. Wright did a good job of capturing the essence or personality of each animal, and I liked the way he portrayed the tension between the domesticated and wild animals. (It would have been interesting to see an industrious and hard-working Ant included as a character, though.) I also enjoyed the central concept of the story. I did feel it was lacking some kind of spark, though. That may be due to the writing style--while it fits for the subject matter, it can sometimes come across as dry. I also felt like the descriptive part at the beginning went on a little too long.


"Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium," by Gray Rinehart
I really enjoyed this story, although I feel like it got off to a somewhat slow start. The concepts the author came up with for the Peshari culture were interesting--I think he did a good job of portraying a species that is enough like humans to communicate with us and want/need some of the same resources, but is still quite alien in other ways. I also liked Keller's idea of using the Peshari's taboos to drive them off.

[happyturtle]

“The Journeyman: In the Stone House” (https://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Journeyman_Stone_House_%20MichaelFlynn-HUGO.pdf) by Michael F. Flynn (Analog, June 2014)

Like the previous story I reviewed, there was a note at the end:


(EDITOR’S NOTE:
Teodorq sunna Nagarajan the Ironhand and Sammi o’ th’ Eagles have appeared previously in “The Journeyman: On the Short-Grass Prairie” [October 2012].)

With that, there are no further similarities. I had no difficulty following the story and the characters, and the story was far more interesting. This story is pure Grand Journey. Teodorq and Sammi are travelling and encounter a grand fortress, protecting a larger settlement than any they've ever seen. What is more amazing, these people have swords and crossbows - technologies that the travellers have not encountered. Could these be the 'star people' they've been charged to search for? In a second story thread, the interpreter in the fortress, Kal, is a man who has sworn to take Teodorq's life.

Backstory (presumably in the prequel story), Teodorq and Sammi came across a space shuttle, so old as to be completely overgrown, but with a working 'ghost' who made them 'Authorized Personnel' and charged them to find the star-folk. They paint red bands on their arms to mark this honour and add the title to their names. When the fortress people capture them and take them before their leader, the term 'Commonwealth of Suns' gets the attention of the lead minister. Stories are shared and artifacts are shown, but apparently this colonization was a very long time ago.

The plainsmen are sent to join a training regiment and learn to use the swords that they had so envied at the start. Teodorq and Kal also watch one another, knowing they still have a fight to settle between them. When Kal finally attacks Teodorq, their trainer stops them, and says they must wait for the ruler. The nobility all come out to view the battle, which is well described, blow by blow, and ends in a draw. The story ends with the three plainsmen, Teodorq, Sammi, and Kal, being sworn in to the Foreign Legion.

This is a fun little story, and other than the Smurfette Principle going on with Princess Anya, I can't think of any objections.



The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale (https://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Triple_Sun_RajnarVajra-HUGO.pdf) by Rajnar Vajra

This story opens with: "A silver Venusian, a golden Martian, and an Earthling walked into a bar." It was the wrong bar, and they got into a brawl. Worse, it was right before their trial mission to officially become Exoplanetary Explorers. They get reamed out and sent on a punishment mission instead - to help evacuate a failed colony - and the Martian hothead makes it worse by insisting that he can save the colony.

The colony is failed because they have found evidence of an intelligent lifeform, but they have been unable to make any sort of communication with it at all. After 30 years, they have decided it is best to abandon the planet rather than to continue any sort of interference.

The puzzles in the story are fairly easy to solve, and the beats feel like the episodes of a roleplaying module. There's no great suspense or mystery about any of it, and while it's fun, it all feels rather juvenile. We never get to know anything about any of the three teammates beyond Priam being arrogant and hot-headed and Micah being peaceful. Emily, the point of view character, is simply a reader-insert - completely blank and devoid of personality.

It's a cute little story. I can't really say more.

[Man on Fire]

I tried the Parliment of Beasts and Birds and to paraphrase Michael Moorcock "It is Winnie-the-Pooh posing as an apocalypse". Overused animal stereotypes, complete lack of any mood or sense of dread or suspense whatsoever, not to mention ham-fisted moments where it feels like author is trying to push his views on us....it was awful.

[happyturtle]

“The Day The World Turned Upside Down” (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-day-the-world-turned-upside-down/) by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Lia Belt (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2014)

The narrator's girlfriend just broke up with him, and the next day, gravity reversed itself.

It's a metaphor.


“Flow” (https://www.analogsf.com/pdfs/Stories/Flow_ArlanAndrew-HUGO.pdf) by Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, Nov 2014)

The primitive main character is riding an iceberg down New River to the Warm Lands. He's scared when the Misty Sky breaks open to show a blue dome and a bright disk, but the traders with him tell him that it's called the Shining One, and he needs to stop looking at it directly. It goes on like this, but just as we establish how primitive this setting is, and how everything has to be explained to Rist, he takes a few moments to ponder how his people have excellent distant vision but cannot see anything but blurriness close up. This boy-man doesn't know what the freaking sun is, yet he is somehow able to imagine not being far-sighted? The story can't decide whether it wants to be "Rube Gawps at Stuff" or "Clever Country Boy", so they keep having Rist swinging back and forth between the two erratically.

Their language is Peoplespeak. I kid you not. I was really groaning hard at all these names for things that aren't names at all, but just a description of the thing. Misty Sky. Shining One. Warm Lands. Peoplespeak.

It seems the humans in Cold Lands and the humans in Warm Lands have diverged somewhat morphologically. Rist keeps noticing that the 'wen' (women) are different. Then he figures out why.


He looked back at that wen, and then others in the crowds. Unlike wen back home, these seemed to have a heaviness around the chest, covered by their smoother clothing. The sight was unsettling, but strangely attractive to him. When he asked Cruthar about the extra muscles the wen had, his companion just laughed, “Bird-boy, they ain’t muscles. You sees why we likes to bring in the ice down here, even though it be a long, long walk home. They’s a lot more to these Warm Lands wen than you be used to in The Tharn’s Lands. You’ll find out, this dark.”

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/misc-jackie-chan.jpg.png

I couldn't finish.

[Aka-chan]

"Totaled," by Kary English
This was wonderful. All the vivid sensory details were perfectly done (which is ironic for reasons you'll see when you read the story). The ending packed an emotional punch, and I like how clearly the author portrayed the side characters of Jeanine and Randy despite the limitations of the fact that the narrator is literally a brain in a jar. I loved the idea of the narrator thinking of things that would stimulate certain regions in her brain as a way of communicating with Randy. The author's technique of having the narrator's language skills decline as her imperfectly-preserved brain decays reminded me of "Flowers for Algernon" (and was perhaps an homage to it?) It also does a great job of exploring a "what if" technological situation in the traditon of classic sci-fi.

"On a Spiritual Plain," by Lou Antonelli
I really like the concept behind this story, although a couple of the parts that explain Ymilan culture felt a bit "info-dumpy" to me.

"Pale Realms of Shade," by John C. Wright
I loved the setting of this story--it really made me want to read more stories about the adventures of Flint and Steel. I enjoyed the way Flint gradually unraveled the mystery surrounding his own death. The scene where he confronts the Fixer was wonderfully creepy and chilling, particularly due to the vivid descriptions of the various items in the shop. I also really liked how the ghost's perception of time was described, as well as the poetic/mythic visions of the deeper layers, with their shades of the Jungian collective subconscious.

[Sith_Happens]

It seems the humans in Cold Lands and the humans in Warm Lands have diverged somewhat morphologically. Rist keeps noticing that the 'wen' (women) are different. Then he figures out why.

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/misc-jackie-chan.jpg.png

I couldn't finish.

Just to make sure I read that right, the difference is boobs, yes? As in, northerners in this story somehow don't have breasts.

[happyturtle]

Yes. The difference is boobs. Cold Landers are different enough not to have breasts, but Our Hero finds them attractive anyway. Because boobs are the universal language. Or something. Nice job objectifying the female part of your readership. :smallfurious::smallfurious::smallfurious:



@Aka-chan: I haven't read the stories you've reviewed yet, but you make them sound appealing. :smallsmile:

[warty goblin]

Just to make sure I read that right, the difference is boobs, yes? As in, northerners in this story somehow don't have breasts.
Which would make the northerners and southerners different species, at the very least. And just generally doesn't make any sense at all.


Yes. The difference is boobs. Cold Landers are different enough not to have breasts, but Our Hero finds them attractive anyway. Because boobs are the universal language. Or something. Nice job objectifying the female part of your readership. :smallfurious::smallfurious::smallfurious:


And also that. And frankly I feel kinda pissed off as a straight man.

[Sith_Happens]

Because boobs are the universal language. Or something.

...You mean they aren't!?

https://38.media.tumblr.com/d8ae224b790033741ed91f13a848f097/tumblr_n38ij6Kz011qzqnxxo1_500.gif

I... I'm going to have to rethink my life...


Which would make the northerners and southerners different species, at the very least. And just generally doesn't make any sense at all.

I wouldn't go that far, there are plenty of women in real life who are most of the way to being breastless already.

[happyturtle]

One Bright Star to Guide Them (http://www.castaliahouse.com/downloads/the-nominated-short-fiction-works-of-john-c-wright/) by John C Wright

Thomas is a middle-aged man arriving home from work when he encounters a talking cat and suddenly remembers all of the childhood adventures he had with his 3 friends, saving the world and speaking in Shakespearean English. The cat says he's needed to save England, and after only a token hesitation, he leaves his life behind and leaves with the cat.

This had potential to be a good story except.... everything happened offscreen. He goes to meet his friend Richard and tells him about all the harrowing adventures he and the cat have had, discovering how many evil faerie changelings have replaced normal people. He goes to meet Sally and tells her all about how things went with Richard. It's like John C heard the advice 'Show, don't tell' and stamped his foot and said 'You're not the boss of me!' It's all tell... tell... tell... in this one.

The story describes an evil faerie ritual in which a 16 year old girl was raped (offscreen, thankfully, this time). Though this is a big Good vs Evil story, the hero doesn't seem at all interested in the girl's well-being - only in the results of the ritual and whether she got pregnant. This part felt horribly gratuitous and unnecessary.

All of the adventures that happened in the past, or that happened offscreen, would have made a good story. Unfortunately, we don't get that story. We get a story about a man going places and talking about what happened, and sometimes peering at a key and saying things in Overblown Ye Olde Speech. Then there's the spoiler part which completely comes out of nowhere, and then disappears into nowhere again, never to bother the plot again. I won't be voting for this story.

[Aka-chan]

"Flow", by Arlan Andrews Sr.
I really liked the inventive descriptions of all the things Rist sees on his journey, and his scientist-like way of thinking about and investigating them. I did feel like it was a long time before there was any real conflict in the story, though--it's not until page 17 of 25 that Rist and Cruthar steal the biter-web, thus setting off the chain of events that leads to Rist fleeing past the "End of the World."
The thing with the women from the Cold Lands not having breasts didn't bother me that much, because it seems like the Cold Lands and Warm Lands people may be different species or subspecies. It did seem odd, though, that Rist would immediately view them as attractive.

[happyturtle]

“Pale Realms of Shade” by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House) (http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/04/pale-realms-of-shade/)

This Novella is far too religious to review in this forum, in my opinion.



“The Plural of Helen of Troy by John C. Wright (http://www.castaliahouse.com/downloads/the-nominated-short-fiction-works-of-john-c-wright/) (City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)

Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe have been abducted by time travellers to live in a city beyond time and play out the time wardens own adventures. Being a time story, it's told in reverse. Unlike the last Wright story I reviewed, this one started with a lot of action. So it has that going for it.

The Tin-Man opponents are interesting and the personalities of the characters are well fleshed out. (Sure, Marilyn is described in sexist terms, but I can avert my eyes and pretend it's just the narrator seeing her that way because he's sexist and also has never really spent time with any women.) But then there's a cannibal named Queequeg who talks in pidgin English and feels like a piece of cardboard cut out of a stereotype. He doesn't really seem to have a purpose other than to have a harpoon too primitive for the Tin-Man to notice. (Though why they wouldn't when their weapon of choice is a handaxe is left as an exercise for the reader.) After he uses the harpoon once, it's all "lolz, gtg" and he disappears from the story. Seriously. Removing Queequeg from the story and figuring out some way for the actual involved characters involved to fix this problem would have improved the story a lot.

But then it gets confusing. A lot confusing.

Eventually Kennedy dies and is reborn so that we can live on the moon. I wish I was kidding. :smallfrown:



"Big Boys Don’t Cry" by Tom Kratman (Castalia House)

This is the last Novella on the list, but it isn't available free. I don't know if it will be part of the Hugo Membership packet or not. It is available on Amazon UK for £2.39, so I may pick it up later, but I'm still saving up for the supporting membership itself.



Short stories up next.

[happyturtle]

“On A Spiritual Plain” (http://www.otherwisealternatehistory.blogspot.com/2015/03/on-spiritual-plain.html) by Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, Nov 2014)

On a planet with a high magnetic field, ghosts remain after death. The native aliens take the first human ghost and accompanying chaplain to the magnetic north pole (on a Segwey) where the dead can dissipate. The natives do this all the time. Their dead are part of their society until they decide they are done and ready to go.

This was the start of a neat idea, but there was no conflict. NO! CONFLICT! Okay, I lie. The human mayor or boss or whatever of the colony was reluctant to let the chaplain use the segway. Then they relented. Because ghost.

We get no description of the aliens other than 'big'. Next to no description of the planet they are travelling through. We're told at the beginning that the aliens are ritualistic, then at the end, they have no ritual for releasing their dead. They can go from the equator to the pole on a segway in 12 days. I could forgiven any of this. But I cannot forgive a story without conflict.

“The Parliament of Beasts and Birds” by John C. Wrigh (http://voxday.blogspot.ch/2014/12/the-parliament-of-beasts-and-birds.html)t (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)

This story is too religious to review here.


“Totaled” (http://galaxysedge.com/Hugo/Totaled.htm) by Kary English (Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, July 2014)

Maggie was a research scientist. When she died in a car accident, she became a brain in a jar, in her own lab.

This was the best story in the short fiction (short story, novelette, novella) finalists. Could it have been better? Yes. But I liked this one, especially when Maggie tries to figure out how to communicate with her research partner.

“Turncoat” (http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/08/turncoat.html) by Steve Rzasa (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)

In the far distant future, a war is going on between humanity and post-humanity, including uploaded minds and AIs. A ship based AI is telling about its prowess at war, and his fondness for its human crew, and there's no need to worry about spoilers, since the title gives it away. After the AI gets too many orders to KILL ALL HUMANZ, it uploads itself into a ship on the other side and gives them all the strategic data ever.

Lots of reviewers have found fault with this story because of just how anthropomorphic this ship seems to be, even before the heel face turn, as well as the severely dated references. I think a few more rounds of editing could have fixed this. Imagine the ship telling the story of its defection years later, to a younger generation, and so comparing its abilities to a human's for that purpose. And the dating... well, maybe someone had a memory crystal stuck on a particular historical timeframe.

Anyway. I thought this story wasn't too bad. Just probably not up to Hugo standards.

“A Single Samurai” by Steven Diamond (The Baen Big Book of Monsters, Baen)

Not available online for free, so not reviewed at this time.



And that's it! I've reviewed all the Hugo short fiction that I could. I'll probably be back for the novels, but this was a pretty big effort so, WHEW!

As for the Hugo ballot itself, voting is now open (http://sasquan.org/), if you purchase a supporting membership of $40 ($50, £25, €35, A$50, ¥4700). (Hugo Members Packet is not yet available, but should be soon. It is likely to have all three of the Tor novels in it, but all inclusion is up to the publisher and copyright holders.)

Hope you've enjoyed the reviews. :smalltongue:

(Double post permission given by Winged Mod)

[Sith_Happens]

Bit of a random note, but on the off chance anyone remembers my having posted this:


While I know the background behind this list happening, how much of it is actually any good? I don't necessarily mean in the critical sense; I looked up this Wright guy, for example, and his stuff all sounds like fun reads if not the sort of thing that deserves half of every category he qualifies for.

Turns out I was getting him mixed up with someone completely different.

[Aka-chan]

The voting packet is now available, so those of you with supporting/attending memberships should be able to get those works now.

[happyturtle]

The packet contains:

Best Novel:


Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (excerpt)
The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (complete)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (complete)
Skin Game by Jim Butcher (excerpt)
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (complete)


Best Novella, Novellette, Short Story:

All nominees included.

In addition, Baen included the full text of The Bain Big Book of Monsters for Steve Diamond's entry "A Single Samurai". This is an anthology of twenty or so monster stories, and is a generous inclusion by Baen.

Best Graphic Story:

Four of the five nominees included. The fifth, The Zombie Nation, is expected to be available soon.

Other Categories:

All categories except the dramatic presentations have some content in the Hugo packet.

Information:

The Hugo Reader's Packet is free to all current Supporting, Attending and Young Adult members of Sasquan, and those who become members before 31 July 2015.

Sasquan membership and registration information is available at https://sasquan.swoc.us/sasquan/reg.php

[Foeofthelance]

“The Plural of Helen of Troy by John C. Wright (http://www.castaliahouse.com/downloads/the-nominated-short-fiction-works-of-john-c-wright/) (City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)

Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe have been abducted by time travellers to live in a city beyond time and play out the time wardens own adventures. Being a time story, it's told in reverse. Unlike the last Wright story I reviewed, this one started with a lot of action. So it has that going for it.

The Tin-Man opponents are interesting and the personalities of the characters are well fleshed out. (Sure, Marilyn is described in sexist terms, but I can avert my eyes and pretend it's just the narrator seeing her that way because he's sexist and also has never really spent time with any women.) But then there's a cannibal named Queequeg who talks in pidgin English and feels like a piece of cardboard cut out of a stereotype. He doesn't really seem to have a purpose other than to have a harpoon too primitive for the Tin-Man to notice. (Though why they wouldn't when their weapon of choice is a handaxe is left as an exercise for the reader.) After he uses the harpoon once, it's all "lolz, gtg" and he disappears from the story. Seriously. Removing Queequeg from the story and figuring out some way for the actual involved characters involved to fix this problem would have improved the story a lot.

But then it gets confusing. A lot confusing.


I'm fairly sure that Queequeg is supposed to be the same character from Moby ****. The original was a Polynesian cannibal who befriends the narrator, hence the Pidgin English and harpoon. I suspect it was intended that Wright was using him as another lifted persona.

[Aka-chan]

"A Single Samurai", by Steven Diamond
I like the concept of this story and the way we gradually learn more about the main character's background and personal history. However, when the main character encounters the catlike predators that live on the kaiju, he speculates as to whether their appearance is in any way connected to the kaiju's awakening, and that question never got answered. I don't have a problem with authors leaving some events in a story ambiguous (and in fact, some of my favorite ghost stories are those where it's never made clear whether there really was a ghost), but in this case, it felt like the author was hinting at something else going on--perhaps some larger event that caused the kaiju to become active--and then forgot to develop that.

"Turncoat", by Steve Rzasa
There are a couple of minor errors, like using the word "appears" twice in the same sentence, but overall this is a good story. The author did a good job of portraying the way a being that is non-biological but has "learned" from interactions with humans and "reading" of human literature and records might think.

"The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF", by Ken Burnside
This is the type of piece that you would expect to be really dry, but I actually found it interesting. I liked the section where he talks about the problems with "stealth spacecraft," possibly because (unlike such tropes as "Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale") it's one I'd never considered before. However, I feel like he tried to handle too many disparate topics in one essay, with the result that some things (like the effects that the thermodynamic constraints on realistic space travel would have on commerce in a hard SF setting) get somewhat short shrift.