I will be posting nominations in the comments as they are announced, and will update the post this evening with a full list. You can follow along, feel free to comment, and the live stream of the announcements from Norwescon is available here for those who can stream. Amanda Green and I will be working on this together, as I have a commitment a bit later. Feel free to have fun, Squee! at will, but please refrain from catcalls. Well, ok, not vulgar ones, anyway. This is about getting ready to read & enjoy the nominees before voting on them later this summer. I’m looking forward to getting my reading list, how about you?
The nominees that follow were chosen by popular vote of members of Loncon 3 (the 2014 Worldcon), Sasquan (the 2015 Worldcon) andMidAmeriCon II (the 2016 Worldcon).
A total of 2122 valid nomination forms were received (2119 online and 3 paper).
A list of the top 15 nominees in each category, along with the number of nominations received by each, will be released after the Hugo Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 22 August, 2015 at Sasquan.
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 Marco Kloos (47North)
- Skin Game by Jim Butcher (Roc Books)
Best Novella (1083 nominating ballots)
- Big Boys Don’t Cry by Tom Kratman (Castalia House)
- “Flow” by Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, Nov 2014)
- One Bright Star to Guide Them by John C. Wright (Castalia House)
- “Pale Realms of Shade” by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
- “The Plural of Helen of Troy by 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” by Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, May 2014)
- “Championship B’tok” by Edward M. Lerner (Analog, Sept 2014)
- “The Journeyman: In the Stone House” by Michael F. Flynn (Analog, June 2014)
- “The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale” by Rajnar Vajra (Analog, Jul/Aug 2014)
- “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
Best Short Story (1174 nominating ballots)
- “Goodnight Stars” by Annie Bellet (The End is Now (Apocalypse Triptych Book 2), Broad Reach Publishing)
- “On A Spiritual Plain” by Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, Nov 2014)
- “The Parliament of Beasts and Birds” by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
- “Totaled” by Kary English (Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, July 2014)
- “Turncoat” by Steve Rzasa (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)
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 (Castalia House)
- “Why Science is Never Settled” by Tedd Roberts (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
- 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
- Jon Eno
- Nick Greenwood
- Alan Pollack
- Carter Reid
Best Semiprozine (660 nominating ballots)
- Abyss & Apex Wendy Delmater editor and publisher
- Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Association Incorporated, 2014 editors David Kernot and Sue Burtsztynski
- Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews
- Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant
- Strange Horizons Niall Harrison Editor-in-Chief
Best Fanzine (576 nominating ballots)
- Black Gate, edited by John O’Neill
- Elitist Book Reviews edited by Steven Diamond
- Journey Planet 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, 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
- Amanda S. Green
- Jeffro Johnson
- Laura J. Mixon
- Cedar Sanderson
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
*Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.
Direct administrative questions about the 2015 Hugo Awards to the Sasquan Hugo Administrators.
The Hugo voting ballot will be available to members of Sasquan online and by mail later in April.
Mad Genius Club 
139 responses to “2014 Hugo Nominations”
And we will kick it off with this photo announcement. Well-Deserved honor, sir! https://instagram.com/p/1D5xw_itGd/
In case you missed it, here is Kary English responding to Davidson and others who call for disavowal: http://karyenglish.com/2015/04/the-disavowal/
I’m always proud to call Kary my friend, but some days even more so.
Over 2000 people nominated – a record!
Notice how the last 3 years have been records according to their graph? I wonder why……
I think it’s easy to deduce. 😉
Congrats to Jason Cordova on the John W. Campbell nomination!
Super congrats, Jason! It’s a Mad Mad Genius nomination day.
The finalists are for the Campbells Wesley Chu, Jason Cordova, Kary English, Rolf Nelson,, and Eric S Raymond.
Wow, talk about stiff competition! They are some fantastic writers.
Hey, Hugo-Nominated Jason Cordova! Congratulations!
Thanks Dorothy!
Congratulations!
Best Fan Artists: Ninni Aalto, Brad Foster, Elizabeth Leggett, Spring Schoenhuth, and Steve Stiles.
Best Fan Writers: Dave Freer, Amanda S Green, Jeffro Johnson, Laura J Mixon and Laura Johnson
No – I can’t type. That last one is Cedar Sanderson
Whoot!
Congratulations!
Thanks! I was typing and laughing that I’d managed to omit my own name.
😀
Woot! Congratulations, Dave, Amanda, and Cedar!
Way to go!
Congraaaaaaaaaats!
YES!
Adventures in SF Publishing, Dungeon Crawlers Radio, Galactic Suburbia POdcast, The Sci Phi Show, and Tea and Jeopardy. for Best Fancast
Really thrilled about SciPhi Show’s nom.
Best Fanzine: Black Gate, Elitest Book Reviews, Journey Planet, The Revenge of HUmp Day, Tangent SF Online. GO UNCLE TIMMY!
Abyss & Apex, Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies for Best Semiprozine
Best Professional Artist: Judy Dillon, Nick Greenwood, Jon Eno, Alan Pollack
Best Editor Long Form, Vox Day Jim Minz, Toni Weisskopf, more that I didn’t have time to catch
Yay for Toni!
I have no idea how Vox’s editing chops are. Guess I’ll have to pick up several of the nominating works from Castalia and see! It’s a high bar, though, to clear vs. Toni…
One of those would be MY editor at DAW Books, Sheila Gilbert. Who has no online presence at all, has been in this business a long time, and is all about story story story. So…nothing against the others…but she’s got my vote! 🙂
All I can tell you is that those books published by Castalia House that I have read, I haven’t noticed any editing problems in… unlike many of those coming out of traditional publishing houses in the last 10-15 years. But frankly if I had been asked to name editors I could have only came up with two names (of non-deceased editors) and they are both on the ballot, and both work for Baen. No idea which one edits which books however.
I think that unless there is an obvious deficiency in the editing, the editing isn’t really judgeable by the reader. Authors may very well have a much different opinion of editors than readers, what readers are going to generally vote for in that category is an editors ability to pick quality stories, unless the editor falls down on the job the reader has no way of knowing how much is good editing, and how much is the author writing a story that required minimal editing.
Vox Day is back on the ballot. Oh, this is going to be lovely
I don’t remember the Rabid Puppies slate, but I don’t think he was on the SP one. I vaguely remember someone mentioning that Vox wasn’t on any of the slates in a comment but I didn’t look.
Best Editor Short Form: Jennifer Brozek, Vox Day, Mike Resnick, Edmund Schubert, and Bryan Thomas Schmidt
I will point out, just for the idiots reading this, that Vox was NOT Sad Puppies this year. That’s his massive following getting him there, not us.
Yes, if you’re looking to be mad, go look up Rabid Puppies. But congrats, Vox, you made it.
All four of the slate PLUS Vox. You can just hear the heads exploding can’t you?
Is it just my crappy connection or do they keep having issues with the lil mousey dudes mic?
And Go Flash!
Having trouble hearing and they are moving very quickly through these. Sorry… I will post the full list at the end.
Best Long Form Dramatic Presentation: Captain America Winter Soldier, Edge of Tomorrow, Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar, and the LEGO Movie
Oooh, there are some hard choices there. 🙂
That’s going to be tough to decide!
I know – looking at that list (both for Long Form Dramatic Presentation and the nominees as a whole), all I can think is that everything is awesome!*
*So sorry.**
**Not really.
I knooooooooooow~!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually I’ve whittled it down to four, and am doing the thing my hubby calls ‘choosing children’ – something I do mostly when we’re at a bookstore and I’ve a pile of books I want but I don’t have enough money for all of them. (Occasionally, when we’re looking at DVDs.)
Best Related Work: The Hot Equations, Letters from Gardner, Transhuman and Subhuman, Why Science is never settled, and Wisdom from my Internet.
Congratulations, Speaker!
Best Short Story: Good Night Stars, On a Spiritual Plain, the Parliament of Beasts and Birds , Totaled, And Turncoat.
Great! John C. Wright is in two categories.
He has a grand total of 6 nominations, which is phenomenal.
C4C
Best Novellette: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Championship B’Tok, The Journeyman, The triple Sun; Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
C4C only this time remember to check notifications
Best Novella: Big Boys don’t Cry, Flow, One Bright Star to Guide Them, Pale Realms of Shade, The Plural of Helen of Troy
Best Novel: Ancillary Sword, The Dark Between the Stars, The Goblin Emperor, Lines of Departure, and Skin Game
Wow. Is it just me or is Vox the big winner here?
Considering he wasn’t even on the Sad Puppies Slate…yup.
They don’t care. They really aren’t interested in the truth, or fairness, or…
Holy Shit! Am I the only aspiring author who wants to desperately publish something through Castalia House?
There was one other that I know of, but since they didn’t give her the time of day, much less live up to their promise of a one-month response time, they’re not in her good graces. Nor mine, for that matter. My friend sent five emails over the course of three months. I contacted them on research for my editing business the day after she gave up, and got an immediate response.
Something like 12 noms for Castalia. Isn’t something like that only supposed to happen to Tor?
Join Sasquan to vote!
https://sasquan.swoc.us/sasquan/reg.php
VD, Marko Kloos, John C. Wright, Cedar, Amanda, Kratman, Mike Williamson . . . That should get people signing up in droves to vote. 🙂
Tom Kratman short story, JC Wright many times. Butcher’s in.
Wow. There are actually two novels in the Best Novel category I’ve already read. And several short stories. Usually I’m lucky if only one shows up in the entire ballot.
Pretty cool, isn’t it? I no longer feel like my vote has just vanished into a black hole.
So, let’s see, if I counted right, that makes 49 SP3 supported nominations. More than 2100 valid ballots were cast. I say the fans have finally realized that they do have a voice in who wins a Hugo.
Now we have to keep that going and get people voting, too.
Sasquan should be grateful for the revenue. MidAmeriCon more so, because I suspect there will be a lot of new members there who joined to protest. More readers, more voters, more money for the cons… Win!
I’m being told that Larry Correia turned down a nomination this year. I appreciate his nobility, but it makes me sad.
Good for him. It’ll take some of the anti-SP focus away and squarely on where it should be, namely the nominated works.
Wanna bet?
Hell no, I am NOT taking that bet. The Hugo thread at Making Light is gearing up for a round of full-metal-jacket butthurt.
We took their Precious. We’re Nasty Hobbitses!
I said some, but not all. But in truth even if only one SP got on the ballot, they’d be just as pissed.
This is Russia, they’re Napoleon, and it’s late October of 1812.
Oh noes! Puppy-Related Sadness!
This patient needs cute & funny puppy pictures, STAT!
Did you see the bar graph at the end? Showing nominations by year? SPxx has really bumped up the nom numbers in the last several years.
I did! Screencapped it and put it in the post.
The Silent Majority is waking up, and we are not in the best of moods.
Well, if you woke up and found out the social justice gremlins have defecated all over the living room carpet, would you be in a good mood?
Making Light is getting ugly, talking about starting their own award… sounds familiar somehow.
They are welcome to do that. Encouraged, even.
Jeebus Gawd, you rarely see that kind of butthurt expressed so candidly.
Yes, the twitterverse is all thundery and lightning at the moment. I walked away a few minutes ago – waste of my time.
Yes, the total absence of graciousness is darned easy to see.
Also, there are a disappointing number of people making sudden heel-turns on what nominees they are happy to see, on account of being informed that it is wrongthink to like something that Sad Puppies or Rabid Puppies or another group likes.
Well, this is the day for harrowing Hell, but some people would rather stay dead at heart. Shrug. What can you do? Maybe they’ll wake up eventually and quit this crazy conformist stuff.
I did see one rather amusing bit, where somebody pointed out that Feehan, Robb, Harrison, and other popular paranormal romance people haven’t won any Hugos or World Fantasy Awards. It would be freaking amusing if the SJWs started campaigning for them, because romance fandom really has the numbers. 🙂
Yeah. Making Light is bad enough (examples below). I’m more interested in what our side has to say right now. The other guys are so boringly predictable.
“I’ll take my ball and go home!
“What? What do you mean, it’s not my ball? Is so!
“Is so, is so, is so!
“What?
“Fine! I’ll go get another ball, take that, and go home!”
Reblogged this on The Arts Mechanical and commented:
This is going to be Interesting. Very interesting.
Re: Dave Freer, fan writer. The post Standlee was banned on was in 2013, so is not eligible for the Hugo. So this is purely for the 2014 posts.
Anyway, I’m happy to also see Jeffro Johnson on there, his Appendix N posts have done a lot to get me into some of those writers.
Also, congratulations to everyone associated with Sad and Rapid puppies on here that I haven’t mentioned. To include, Cedar, Amanda, Vox, and Wright. Also Speaker and Kratman.
What’s the Sad Puppy count? I show 3/5 in Best Novel, 3/3 in Best Novella, but surely SOMEONE has done more tabulating than I have.
And I count 4 MGC members there.
Only two Baen nominations, both for Best Editor (long form), though. I would have to have seen that number up, BUT there’s always next year.
Technically, there’s two Baen noms for the short form as well, for the Shattered Shields anthology.
Oh, and Speaker’s related works nod.
*raises hand* Question: What does the fan writer category mean?
@BobTRF – what post was that? If its not too much trouble could I please ask for a link?
A fan writer is anybody who writes fan stuff from a fan point of view.
It is “for writers of works related to science fiction or fantasy which appeared in low- or non-paying publications such as semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electronic media during the previous calendar year. There is no restriction that the writer is not also a professional author, and several such authors have won the award for their non-paying works. The award was first presented in 1967 and has been awarded annually.”
Usually people who are nominated in the same year for both a pro work and for fan writer will refuse nomination for the fan one, but not always. Same thing with the award for fan artist vs. pro artist; Jack Gaughan refused nomination for fan artist in the year he was nominated both for that and for pro artist.
Apparently the writer for Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fanfic was trying to get a fan writer nod this year.
Heh… that really would have made some heads splodey-splode! (Writers with fear of fanfic, fans who look down on all fanficcing, Rowling lawyers sniffing the air….)
Ahh, thank you for that explanation. It was the one category I didn’t understand. Now that I know what it is I can consider the choices available.
“Does the desire to expand fandom mean we have to welcome every imaginable kind of person? I think a moment’s reflection reveals that no, we do not.” Patrick Neilsen Hayden or Bull Connor….you decide
So, the evil misogynistic anti-woman Sad Puppies placed TEN women on the ballot?
Who are apparently all white males, just like all non-compliant women and persons of color.
Nicely cuts the legs out from under them, at least.
I’m amazed how few of them have noticed that SP nominated Jim Butcher. Of course, 90% haven’t even read the list, I’m sure.
Oh, they’ve noticed. Some of them think its a sign that Butcher is a RWNJ.
But Butcher wouldn’t be there were it not for the Sad Puppies.
Not to be confused with Hip Young Lesbians of Color like John Scalzi, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and Charles Stross.
Scalzi wears more dresses than some of the women nominated by Sad Puppies.
Congrats to the Hugo nominees. Even the one’s whose politics I disagree with. Because I’m not a petulant teenager.
You owe all petulant teenagers an apology.
Sigh. I’m sorry I compared you guys to SJWs. That’s profoundly unfair.
The fine folks at Making Light: “#70 :
:: Alex R. ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2015, 06:02 PM:
Brad R. Torgersen @ 41
(….) You have brought our ugly, vicious, modern American culture wars into the Hugo process. I will be registering for a supporting membership for the first time in my life and voting everything on your slate below No Award. I will be doing this because I hate your stupid, obnoxious, bullshit. I hate the nonsensical idea that people are prejudiced against your conservatism. I hate your association with Grand Master Racist Asshole Vox Day. I hate your ballot packing and your exploitation of the Hugo rules. I hate your bringing Gamergate scum into the SF community. I hate your selfishness. I hate your complete cluelessness about the history of SF.
You have the very spoiled and childish idea that your religious and political beliefs give you license to be an asshole. You will be treated accordingly.”
Let them mourn. And if they do cross the line into harassment and bullying, shout it loud for all the world to see. Take screenshots first, though.
Love how they declare their own hate SEVEN times. 🙂
….so a girl writes a poem about how she wishes she was a dinosaur so she could gruesomely murder anyone who dares to disagree with her or be different from her was A-okay, but someone stating “Hey, maybe we should see more things people actually ENJOYED represented?” is the epitome of evil. Gotcha.
Umm, I’m confused.
What’s wrong with wanting to be a dinosaur so I can gruesomely murder anybody I want? I thought that was the pretty much the dream underlining science fiction (and lots of fantasy as well)?
We travel to another planet, or travel back in time, and either make a pet out of a T-rex (or velociraptors if you started reading post 1991), or maybe you hook up a mind control set up to your head and BECOME the dinosaur, and then take vengeance on the creeps who have made your life miserable.
Are you saying this is BAD? Yuck, I’ve been wishing for a bad thing for 50+ years then.
You BETTER not be saying it’s not POSSIBLE. Because then I’ve been wasting my time.
Maybe you are saying the bad part is that it’s a poem. I’ll give you that one. Don’t like to have to read a bunch of poetry to get to the meat.
But…please don’t scare me like that. I want to be a scary dinosaur.
Would you settle for being an irate mutated crocodile? That’s the best we can do on short notice.
Oh, my goodness gracious. You folks realize what’s happened here? An Amazon imprint – 47 North – received a Hugo Nomination!
Not just Baen, which is a recognized long-standing medium-sized press with presence in every chain bookstore out there. Not just Castalia house, which is utterly indie in its mentality but puts up a good small press front with recognized Names in its lineup. No, we’re talking the gigantic tiff of “No bookstore shall carry an Amazon imprint, because Amazon is evil!”
… which means the bookstores are now refusing to carry a Hugo-Nominated novel.
Oh, my.
Did not even get CLOSE to catching that!
BaZOOMba!
I hear the sounds of puppies baying…and they are getting closer!
Got to confirm it with my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant foxy praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, but I think I am going to HAVE to find some room in the budget for a $40 supporting membership to Sasquan.
Hot damn.
But, Marko still thinks John Scalzi is his ‘friend’.
Oh, ha! This should be even more interesting…
Over at Making Light: “#107 ::: Steve Halter ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2015, 07:11 PM:
I would be interested if Butcher was actually contacted by the SP in a way that he knew what they were. I am oddly unwilling to take the word of the SP’s that they actually did so.”
Yup, you got us. (eyeroll)
Nom, nom, nom, nom. Sad Puppies eating up the field.
Does anyone else think it’s a bit excessive that John C Wright makes up 3 out of 5 novella nominees? Don’t get me wrong, I like his work a lot. But…really? One in that category wasn’t enough?
Obviously that’s how the voting cookie crumbled, but…wow.
Michael, did you not get your instructions from the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Central?
MakingSpite insists that we are bloc voting. That we are shills, incapable of making our own choices.
The thought that a whole bunch of us liked different essays, and cast enough votes to get three on the ballot is *inconceivable *. It must be a Dastardly Plot.
Or not.
Of course it’s not a plot. That’s a silly notion and if I gave the impression that’s what I was implying, I apologize.
I guess I hadn’t thought of the potential outcomes, though, or their consequences.
Look, there can be only one winner. Seems to me, since some are discussing rule changes, that it might be worth considering a rule only allowing a person to be nominated once in a given category. Were that in play now, John would still be on the list, but two other deserving souls would be as well. The way it is, his nominations have (unintentionally) blocked people out who probably deserved full consideration on the ballot.
It’s not uncommon. 1999 had Michael Swanwick nominated three time for Short Story, and plenty of years and categories have had authors nominated twice.
The thing is, there’s no guarantee that if a writer chooses “the best one”, or if a Hugo committee does it, that it will be “the best one” according to the voters.
Of course, the voters have the right to chat and lobby with each other.
Wright has had a good writing year. They’re all worthy nominations.
I think the point is, the award is for the story, not the author. You are supposed to nominate the best NOVELLA, your not supposed to nominate the author. That is a point that the SJWers seem incapable of understanding, that the Hugo awards are for the best stories in each category, regardless of who wrote them (obviously “new author” type categories have to take into account which authors are eligible). In theory if all five of the most popular novellas in a year were written by the same author, they could completely dominate the category with every story written by them.
Actually trying to limit the nominations to one story per author, per category, could skew the results, if three of the five most popular stories were written by John, then giving to of the nominations to other authors would be promoting less popular works into the top five.
This is true. But if the goal is to get more deserving authors on the ballot, who may not have ever been able to get on the ballot before because they were ignored or otherwise passed over by the cliques, then having multiple nominations for the same person in the same category kind of defeats the purpose.
Hrm. Are you suggesting that the Hugo moderators select which nomination of a writer gets the nod? That would degrade the point of it being fan nominated a bit, if so.
If your view is that it should be only one author per Hugo to make the field more diverse in its authorial nominees, you could try and make your case to other folks doing the nominations, if I’m wrong about what you meant. Sad Puppies puts good stories up there for folks to read. John’s written several good stories, and I am enjoying one of his right now. *grin*
If the best short, novella, and novelette of the year all happen to be written by the same guy or gal, it certainly doesn’t bother *me.* I want to see the *best* of sci-fi on that nomination list. It is the works that matter, not the writer, in the end.
Sure I’m happy to see folks I like on the nomination list. Conga-Rats to all the nominees, may this year be kind to you all! But the goal is not to make this the Sad Puppies Hugo, at least it isn’t for me. It’s to find the best of the best, the stuff that a whole bunch of people from all walks of life will enjoy.
Good stories in the Hugo packet, and great stories that win are awesome for sci-fi as a whole. I don’t know that we’ll ever see an explosion of interest like Star Wars did back before I was born (just a wee bit), but if we keep getting more folks interested, keep putting our best stuff in front of potential reader’s and buyer’s eyes… Things will work out better for all.
A bigger pool of readers means the mid-listers get picked up more. Indie gets another look. Trad pub gets more readership, too. That’s a win for all. So I’m not really concerned about John’s several nominations- I just want to see the best win. If he’s the best, good on him! If not, maybe a better story gets the top spot. I will say, it’s a good time to be a reader these days. Lots of good stories out there to gobble up. *grin*
Maybe the problem is there aren’t very many novellas published? Aren’t they the length that got ‘to be continued’ in the old magazines? (By which I mean the paper magazines Dad had saved from the 50s that I read as a kid.) And since those magazines don’t exist any more–at least, I don’t see them on the library racks or the supermarket racks–it seems that novellas go to indie or to anthologies to be published, and the later are generally by request, so place a premium on authors who write to the theme and deliver on time.
If I could get a reliable, good, clean magazine: something I’d be happy if my eight-year-old picked up (because the child reads that well) I’d subscribe. But I doubt there’s such a magazine out there these days.
Ah Dan, you young pup. Let me tell you about seeing Star Wars in the theater…
Ok, so I was three at the time. It still happened! 🙂
I totally get you, man, and I agree. More good reading for all, and may the best story win, irregardless of author (yes, that’s a word. It means the same as regardless, but with a comedic intent).
But yeah, the goal ISN’T to make it a Sad Puppies Hugo. I just wonder if the rules said, perhaps, the work with the most votes for a particular author makes the cut but no others, who else might have made it to the list? And maybe I would have ended up liking their work more than John’s? It’s possible, after all.
So to answer your initial question, yes. In the manner I mentioned last paragraph, so as to minimize your (legit) fan nomination degradation concern.
And I was the first fan to get a copy of The Dark Between the Stars signed by Kevin J Anderson after the Hugo nominees were announced.
I also bought a lightsaber.
Congrats to all the nominees!
[…] I should have included a listing of the awards at the beginning: 2014 Hugo Nominations. Congratulations and good luck to all the nominees. I look forward to reading what I’ve […]
[…] “2014 Hugo Nominations” – April 4 […]
[…] Yesterday afternoon was exciting. For the first time since becoming involved in the process, I didn’t feel like my Hugo nomination had simply disappeared into a black hole. I also got the thrill of hearing my name as one of the nominations. I am honored and humbled by that. My personal involvement with organized fandom began not too long ago, but from the beginning, I felt like I’d found my home. I can remember when I was much younger, looking for the collections of ‘year’s Best SF’ in the library and devouring them. Then I started to learn that maybe I should avoid the Hugo-award winning ones, because they weren’t all that good. For a few years now, I’ve thought about changing that. I’ve advocated to get more people voting in the Hugo, educating fans that yes, this is an award they ‘can’ have a say in. […]
I have to admit that I thought the Dinosaur thing was something someone made up. I’m not glad to find out I was wrong.