Month: July 2020

2020 Hugos: Best Short Story

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CoNZealand’s virtual Worldcon is now in full swing, and the 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony will be shown online at 11 am on August 1st NZST (UTC +12, 7 pm on July 31st EDT).  Today I’m taking a closer look at the finalists for Best Short Story.  I had read all but one of these before the finalists were announced.  While none made my own ballot, I think they are all strong stories, if rather grim.

“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing” by Shiv Ramdas was also a finalist for the Nebula Award.  This is Ramdas’ first Hugo nomination.

A powerful man forces a seemingly powerless old woman to make him one of her magical dolls to give to his wife.  My favorite part of this story is the opening scene between grandmother and grandson as she crafts a doll for him with his assistance.  It makes the ending extremely bitter sweet.

“As the Last I May Know” is S.L. Huang’s first Hugo nomination.

In order to prevent the country’s leader from unconsidered use of a weapon of mass destruction, the launch code is implanted in the body of a child.  The story really fleshes out the the child herself, the teacher who has raised her for this task, and the leader who would have to kill her and makes the relationships between them very believable.

“Blood Is Another Word for Hunger” by Rivers Solomon is also a finalist for the World Fantasy Award.  Solomon is on the ballot this year in the Best Novella category as well.  They were nominated twice for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (formerly known as the John W. Campbell Award).

A slave girl murders the family of women who owned her creating a rift which allows another long-dead girl to be reborn through her.  The story is surreal and brutal, but ultimately ends with hope of building a new life.

“A Catalog of Storms” by Fran Wilde was also a finalist for the Nebula and the Locus awards.  Wilde is on the ballot this year as a finalist for the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book as well.  She has two previous Hugo nominations for her short fiction.

A young woman watches her older sister leave home against their mother’s wishes to join the weathermen who have the ability to fight the storms that plague their community and eventually become part of the storms themselves.  She hides her own potential talent and desire to follow her sister’s path.  At the risk of sounding like I’m being punny, the story has a fitting nebulous and atmospheric quality.

“Do Not Look Back, My Lion” by Alix E. Harrow was also nominated for the Nebula, the Locus, the World Fantasy, and the Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press awards.  Harrow is last year’s winner in this category and is also on this year’s ballot for Best Novel.

A healer is tired of watching her revered warrior wife and their children seek glory in the endless battles for their country.  The extensive world-building here almost begs to be expanded into a novel or more, and I’d definitely read that.

“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island” by Nibedita Sen was also nominated for the Nebula Award.  Sen is on the ballot as a finalist for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer as well.

This was the only story here I had not read before the finalists were announced.  Structured just as the title indicates, the story trusts the reader to deduce the truth about these women from these tantalizing suggestions.  The writing deftly shifts in style to mimic each type of resource, and it is impressive how much is conveyed in such a short piece.

We have three first-time finalists and three authors familiar to Hugo voters.  My favorite story here went easily in the first spot, but the remaining five were extremely hard to rank.  It came down to how much I connected with each one.  Here’s what I decided on:

  1. “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019)
  2. “As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019)
  3. “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019)
  4. “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
  5. “A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019)
  6. “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)

Will last year’s winner defend her title?  Or will it go to someone completely new here?  What do you think?

2020 Hugos: Best Novelette

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Today I’m looking back at the Best Novelette finalists for the 2020 Hugos.  Two of my five nominations made the ballot, and I had two more I needed to read after the finalists were announced.

“The Archronology of Love” by Caroline M. Yoachim was also nominated for the Nebula and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial awards.  Yoachim was previously a Hugo finalist for Best Short Story.

This was on my longlist.  The protagonist leads a team on an investigation into the deaths of a group of colonists which included her own life partner.  They do so with a technology which allows them to physically enter a record of the past events.  I found the story very touching with an intriguing concept.

“Away With the Wolves” is Sarah Gailey’s third Hugo nomination for her short fiction.  They previously won a Hugo for Best Fan Writer, and they were a finalist for Best Related Work as well.  Gailey was also a past finalist for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (formerly known as the John W. Campbell Award).

This was one of my own nominees.  The main character is a werewolf who deals with chronic pain while in human form.  But in her wolf form, she’s causing problems that the other villagers are getting tired of dealing with.  What I really loved here was the beautiful depiction of friendship between the protagonist and her best friend, between the friend and the protagonist in wolf form, and finally between two wolves.

“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye” by Sarah Pinsker was also nominated for the Nebula, the Locus, and the World Fantasy awards.  Pinsker has three previous Hugo nominations for her short fiction.

When this showed up on the Nebula list, I was surprised I had forgotten about it because Pinsker’s stories are often favorites.  I had to skim back over this one to remember how it went.  A mystery writer stumbles onto a murder mystery while in a remote location trying to avoid distractions from finishing her next book.  The atmosphere is impressively creepy, but I found the resolution unsatisfying because it was so unexpected.

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin was also a finalist for the Locus Award.  This is Jemisin’s seventh Hugo nomination including her historical three consecutive wins for Best Novel.

This was one of the two I still needed to read after the finalists came out.  I borrowed it through Kindle Unlimited which gives you access to both the ebook and audio narration by Jason Isaacs.  Written in second person, you are on a mission to retrieve a resource from Earth guided by an AI implanted in your brain.  The AI is astonished to see that Earth is recovered from the ruin that was left behind and is especially disgusted by the people of diverse races, genders, and abilities.  The second person point of view was enhanced by listening to the audio version, but I was more than ready to get that obnoxious AI out of my head long before it was over.

“For He Can Creep” by Siobhan Carroll was also nominated for the Nebula, the Locus, and the World Fantasy awards.  This is Carroll’s first Hugo nomination.

This was the other one of my own nominees that made the ballot.  A cat living in asylum is determined to protect a poet from the Devil and his demons.  The characterization of our main cat character is an absolute delight.  I love the story even more after finding out it’s inspired by the real life of the poet Christopher Smart.

“Omphalos” by Ted Chiang is one of eleven total Hugo nominations including three wins that Chiang has received for his short fiction.  It has already won the Locus Award and is a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.  He is a previous winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer and is on the ballot this year in the Best Novella category as well.

This was the other novelette finalist that I had yet to read when the finalists were announced.  In a world where there is significant empirical evidence for divine creation only a few thousand years ago, an expert in these studies comes into knowledge of an astronomical discovery which shakes her faith in God.  I liked this one more than Chiang’s nominated novella, but I wasn’t really wowed.

The first two spots went to my own nominees.  I loved both of them, but the wolves edged out the cats.  I enjoyed the concepts in the next two.  But the first of them didn’t quite make my ballot, and the second wouldn’t have either if I had read it in time.  Surprisingly two of my favorite authors wind up in the last two places with stories that just didn’t work for me this time.  Here’s how I ranked them:

  1. “Away With the Wolves”, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019)
  2. “For He Can Creep”, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019)
  3. “The Archronology of Love”, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019)
  4. “Omphalos”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
  5. “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019)
  6. Emergency Skin, by N.K. Jemisin (Forward Collection (Amazon))

Will the first time finalist creep in on little cat feet and win this one over names more familiar to Hugo voters?

 

2020 Hugos: Best Novella

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Today I’m looking back at the Best Novella finalists for the 2020 Hugos.  Two of my five nominations made the ballot, and I only had one novella left to read after the finalists were announced.  My other three nominees were from paid magazines:  “New Atlantis” by Lavie Tidhar (Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/Jun 2019), “Waterlines” by Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s, Jul/Aug 2019), and “The Work of Wolves” by Tegan Moore (Asimov’s, Jul/Aug 2019).  The two from Asimov’s were available online, and all three were on the Locus Recommended Reading List.  I’ll be curious to see if any of them appear on the Hugo longlist.

“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” appeared in Ted Chiang’s Exhalation collection and is one of eleven total Hugo nominations including three wins that Chiang has received for his short fiction.  It was also a finalist for the Nebula and Locus awards.  He is a previous winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (formerly known as the John W. Campbell Award) and is on the ballot this year in the Best Novelette category as well.

This was the only novella finalist that I had yet to read, and I think I’ve only read one other story from Chiang prior to the two on the ballot this year.  In a world otherwise like our own, there are devices which allow one to temporarily communicate with an alternate reality in which a different choice led to a different life.  The premise is well-written and thoroughly explored, but it just didn’t hold much interest for me.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon has already won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror.  It was also a finalist for the Nebula and Locus awards and on the honor list for the Otherwise Award (formerly known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award).  Solomon is on the ballot this year in the Best Short Story category as well, and they were a two-time past finalist for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer.

This came very close to making my nomination ballot.  If I had one more spot, this would have been my pick.  I really enjoyed the world-building which further develops the same premise which the group Clipping (Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes) had in their Hugo-nominated song of the same name.  Solomon presents us with an elaborate culture based on the idea of the pregnant slaves thrown overboard during the Middle Passage giving birth to mermaids.  But I ended up feeling like I wanted to like the story itself more than I actually did.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark was also a finalist for the Nebula and the Locus awards.  Clark was on the Hugo ballot last year in both the Best Novella and Best Short Story categories.

I thought this story was good but didn’t stand out enough to make my own nomination ballot.  It gives us a glimpse of a fascinating alternate twentieth century Cairo with djinn and automatons, but this particular story of the investigation into the titular tram car didn’t really grab me.  I would love to see more in this setting though.

In an Absent Dream is Seanan McGuire’s fifth Best Novella nomination out of twenty total Hugo nominations between her own name and her Mira Grant pseudonym.  This is the fourth book in the Wayward Children series, and all four have received Best Novella nominations with a win for the first.  (I expect an appearance in Best Series once the required word count is met in a few more installments.)  McGuire is also on the ballot this year for Best Novel and Best Series.  She is a past winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer and a two-time Hugo winner for Best Fancast as well.

This was on my own nomination ballot.  These stories of children who discover portals to other worlds continue to delight me.  I found the Goblin Market where everything is negotiated for fair value, the ability to go back and forth between the Market and one’s own world until turning eighteen, and the fact that our protagonist’s father has traveled to the Market before her provided some fascinating new twists on the overall setting.  I was also pleased to finally learn the backstory on one of the minor characters from the first book.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone has already won the Nebula, the Locus, and the British Science Fiction Association awards.  It was also nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Kitschies Red Tentacle, the Aurora Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.  El-Mohtar is a past Hugo winner for Best Short Story, and Gladstone is a previous Hugo finalist for Best Series.

I imagine the authors had a ton of fun writing this, passing the story back and forth like their protagonists traded letters, and challenging each other to create evermore elaborate situations.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much fun reading it.  I had to push myself to make it though, and I just wasn’t sold on the enemies-to-lovers romance between these two agents on opposite sides of a conflict which I never really understood.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers was also a finalist for the Nebula and the British Science Fiction Association awards.  Chambers is a past winner of the Hugo for Best Series and two of the books in that series were finalists for Best Novel as well.

The other one of my nominees which appeared on the ballot, I went into this with high expectations from Chambers’ Hugo winning Wayfarers series, and I was not disappointed.  It does an excellent job of portraying this small family-like group of scientists as they study four very different planets.  Their love of scientific discovery and their care for one another comes through clearly and was incredibly moving.

My first two spots went to my own nominees which were really tough to choose between.  Surprisingly I went with the science fiction story where I often favor fantasy.  It could have easily gone the other way, and I’ll be just as happy with either winning.  Next we have the two stories I liked for their world-building, but not enough from them to make it onto my own ballot.  Finally, two stories that were well-written but didn’t really work for me.  Here’s what I ended up with:

  1. To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
  2. In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
  3. The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
  4. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
  5. “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
  6. This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books)

Not gonna lie, I rather This Is How You Lose the Time War didn’t take home another win.  Maybe In an Absent Dream, the one story it hasn’t come up against yet, will triumph instead.  What do you think?

2020 Hugos: Best Novel

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Now that Hugo voting has closed, I’m going to take a look back at the finalists for Best Novel and share my thoughts.  Four out of my five nominations made the ballot, and I only had one left to read after the finalists were announced.  My one nominee which didn’t make the ballot was The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie.  It was a Best Fantasy Novel finalist for the Locus Awards, and I imagine we’ll see it on the Hugo longlist.

The City in the Middle of the Night is Charlie Jane Anders’ second nomination for Best Novel.  It has already won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and is on the shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.  Anders also appears on the ballot this year as a co-host of the Hugo Award winning fancast Our Opinions Are Correct, and she previously won the Hugo for Best Novelette as well.

I went into this with high hopes that it would be one of my nominees after how much I enjoyed Ander’s previous Best Novel finalist, All the Birds in the Sky.  The world-building is fascinating and ambitious, but I found the characters frustrating.  I wish we had gotten to titular city sooner and focused more on the efforts to bridge the chasm between its inhabitants and the human society.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir has already won the Locus Award for Best First Novel and the William L. Crawford Award, presented by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first book of fantasy fiction.  Muir’s debut novel was also a finalist for the Nebula.

This was the one finalist here that I didn’t bother to read before nominations closed.  I was a little leery of the massive hype, and the promise of skeletons and necromancy didn’t intrigue me.  Of course, it had no trouble making the ballot without me, and I’m happy it did.  It was a hell of a lot of fun, and I look forward to the sequel although I was a little disappointed in the ending.

The Light Brigade is Kameron Hurley’s first Hugo nomination for fiction writing, but she has previously been honored for her non-fiction.  She has won Hugos for both Best Related Work and Best Fan Writer, and she was a finalist for Best Related Work again.  This book was also a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and is on the shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

One of my own nominees, Hurley levels up with a classic yet fresh take on military science fiction combined with an intricate time travel narrative.  There is a wonderful camaraderie between characters which never loses sight of the fact that they are at different points in their relationships due to the tangled timelines.  A puzzle box of a story that unlocks a satisfying conclusion.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine has already won the Compton Cook Award, presented by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society for the best first novel in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres.  It was also a finalist for the Nebula and the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and it is on the shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Another of my own nominees, this is, as others have said, in the vein of Ann Leckie and Yoon Ha Lee: a space empire as seen from an expert outsider and someone who’s struggling with integrating individual and collective selves.  This stands alone, but I am really looking forward to the next book.

Middlegame is Seanan McGuire’s fifth Best Novel nomination out of twenty total Hugo nominations between her own name and her Mira Grant pseudonym.  This book has already won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.  She is also on the ballot this year for Best Novella and Best Series.  She has three previous Hugo wins: one for Best Novella and two for Best Fancast.  She has definitely lived up to the promise of winning the Campbell Award for Best New Writer (now renamed the Astounding Award).

This one was also on my nomination ballot.  Like Hurley, McGuire is taking her writing to the next level and playing with timelines but in a fantasy setting.  Anecdotally, I’ve seen a few people who are big fans of her ongoing urban fantasy series not as enthusiastic about this one.  On the other hand, those, like me, who know her mostly from the Wayward Children novellas, generally seemed to enjoy it more.  Written to stand alone, I was excited to hear recently that there will be a sequel.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow was also a finalist for the Nebula and the Locus Award for Best First Novel.  It made the shortlists of the Compton Cook, the William L. Crawford, and the Kitschies Golden Tentacle awards for debut novels as well.  She previously won the Hugo for Best Short Story and has been nominated in that category again this year.

This was one of my highly anticipated books after loving Harrow’s Hugo-winning short story “A Witch’s Guide to Escape.”  For whatever reason, I almost didn’t get to it in time but immediately had to add this one to my nominating ballot.  It is a beautifully written combination of so many things I adore: portal fantasy, a book within the book, a wonderful dog companion, great characterization and relationships.

We have three experienced novelists taking their writing to new heights and three debut novelists whose work is already award worthy.  My first spot easily goes to my favorite read from 2019.  My other nominees were tough to decide amongst for the next three slots.  It came down to my preference for fantasy over science fiction and seeing a little more polish in experienced versus debut novelist.  The fifth spot went to the one I liked but not as much as my own nominees.  For sixth place, the interesting world-building pulled me through in the face of some frustrating characters.  Here’s how that shook out:

  1. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
  2. Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
  3. The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
  4. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK)
  5. Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
  6. The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)

Tell me who you would like to see win or who you expect will win.

2020 Hugos: My Final Ballot

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Voting for the Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer closed last night.  The winners will be presented by CoNZealand in a virtual ceremony at 11 am on August 1st NZST (UTC +12, 7 pm on July 31st EDT).  Here is how I ranked the finalists:

Best Novel

  1. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
  2. Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
  3. The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
  4. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK)
  5. Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
  6. The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)

Best Novella

  1. To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
  2. In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
  3. The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
  4. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
  5. “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
  6. This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books)

Best Novelette

  1. “Away With the Wolves”, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019)
  2. “For He Can Creep”, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019)
  3. “The Archronology of Love”, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019)
  4. “Omphalos”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
  5. “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019)
  6. Emergency Skin, by N.K. Jemisin (Forward Collection (Amazon))

Best Short Story

  1. “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019)
  2. “As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019)
  3. “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019)
  4. “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
  5. “A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019)
  6. “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)

Best Series

  1. The Expanse, by James S. A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
  2. InCryptid, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)
  3. Winternight Trilogy, by Katherine Arden (Del Rey; Del Rey UK)
  4. Planetfall series, by Emma Newman (Ace; Gollancz)
  5. Luna, by Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
  6. The Wormwood Trilogy, by Tade Thompson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Best Related Work

  1. Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry
  2. The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, by Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square)
  3. Joanna Russ, by Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press (Modern Masters of Science Fiction))
  4. The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, by Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)
  5. Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, by J. Michael Straczynski (Harper Voyager US)
  6. “2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech”, by Jeannette Ng

Best Graphic Story or Comic

  1. The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: “Okay”, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)
  2. Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image)
  3. Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)
  4. Paper Girls, Volume 6, written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image)
  5. LaGuardia, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin (Berger Books; Dark Horse)
  6. Mooncakes, by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil (Oni Press; Lion Forge)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

  1. Good Omens, written by Neil Gaiman, directed by Douglas Mackinnon (Amazon Studios/BBC Studios/Narrativia/The Blank Corporation)
  2. Us, written and directed by Jordan Peele (Monkeypaw Productions/Universal Pictures)
  3. Russian Doll (Season One), created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler, directed by Leslye Headland, Jamie Babbit and Natasha Lyonne (3 Arts Entertainment/Jax Media/Netflix/Paper Kite Productions/Universal Television)
  4. Captain Marvel, screenplay by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios/Animal Logic (Australia))
  5. Avengers: Endgame, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Studios)
  6. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, screenplay by Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams, directed by J.J. Abrams (Walt Disney Pictures/Lucasfilm/Bad Robot)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

  1. The Expanse: “Cibola Burn”, written by Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck and Naren Shankar, directed by Breck Eisner (Amazon Prime Video)
  2. Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar”, written by Jeff Jensen and Damon Lindelof, directed by Nicole Kassell (HBO)
  3. Watchmen: “This Extraordinary Being”, written by Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson, directed by Stephen Williams (HBO)
  4. The Good Place: “The Answer”, written by Daniel Schofield, directed by Valeria Migliassi Collins (Fremulon/3 Arts Entertainment/Universal Television)
  5. The Mandalorian: “Redemption”, written by Jon Favreau, directed by Taika Waititi (Disney+)
  6. Doctor Who: “Resolution”, written by Chris Chibnall, directed by Wayne Yip (BBC)

Best Editor, Short Form

  1. Sheila Williams
  2. Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
  3. Ellen Datlow
  4. Jonathan Strahan
  5. C.C. Finlay
  6. Neil Clarke

Best Editor, Long Form

  1. Brit Hvide
  2. Navah Wolfe
  3. Sheila E. Gilbert
  4. Diana M. Pho
  5. Devi Pillai
  6. Miriam Weinberg

Best Professional Artist

  1. Tommy Arnold
  2. Galen Dara
  3. Alyssa Winans
  4. Yuko Shimizu
  5. Rovina Cai
  6. John Picacio

Best Semiprozine

  1. Fireside Magazine, editor Julia Rios, managing editor Elsa Sjunneson, copyeditor Chelle Parker, social coordinator Meg Frank, publisher & art director Pablo Defendini, founding editor Brian White
  2. FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, executive editor Troy L. Wiggins, editors Eboni Dunbar, Brent Lambert, L.D. Lewis, Danny Lore, Brandon O’Brien and Kaleb Russell
  3. Uncanny Magazine, editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, nonfiction/managing editor Michi Trota, managing editor Chimedum Ohaegbu, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky
  4. Beneath Ceaseless Skies, editor Scott H. Andrews
  5. Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya, assistant editor Benjamin C. Kinney, audio producers Adam Pracht and Summer Brooks, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart
  6. Strange Horizons, Vanessa Rose Phin, Catherine Krahe, AJ Odasso, Dan Hartland, Joyce Chng, Dante Luiz and the Strange Horizons staff

Best Fanzine

  1. nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Adri Joy, Joe Sherry, Vance Kotrla, and The G
  2. Quick Sip Reviews, editor Charles Payseur
  3. The Book Smugglers, editors Ana Grilo and Thea James
  4. Galactic Journey, founder Gideon Marcus, editor Janice Marcus, senior writers Rosemary Benton, Lorelei Marcus and Victoria Silverwolf
  5. Journey Planet, editors James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Alissa McKersie, Ann Gry, Chuck Serface, John Coxon and Steven H Silver
  6. The Rec Center, editors Elizabeth Minkel and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Best Fancast

  1. Claire Rousseau’s YouTube channel, produced & presented by Claire Rousseau
  2. Our Opinions Are Correct, presented by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders
  3. Be The Serpent, presented by Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske and Jennifer Mace
  4. Galactic Suburbia, presented by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce and Tansy Rayner Roberts, producer Andrew Finch
  5. The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
  6. The Skiffy and Fanty Show, presented by Jen Zink, Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer, Alex Acks, Trish Matson, David Annandale, and The Skiffy and Fanty Crew

Best Fan Writer

  1. Adam Whitehead
  2. Cora Buhlert
  3. Bogi Takács
  4. Paul Weimer
  5. James Davis Nicoll
  6. Alasdair Stuart

Best Fan Artist

  1. Iain Clark
  2. Ariela Housman
  3. Grace P. Fong
  4. Elise Matthesen
  5. Meg Frank
  6. Sara Felix

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo)

  1. Riverland, by Fran Wilde (Amulet)
  2. Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen)
  3. The Wicked King, by Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
  4. Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee (Disney/Hyperion)
  5. Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan)
  6. Minor Mage, by T. Kingfisher (Argyll)

Astounding Award for Best New Writer, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo)

  1. R.F. Kuang (2nd year of eligibility)
  2. Tasha Suri (2nd year of eligibility)
  3. Sam Hawke (2nd year of eligibility)
  4. Emily Tesh (1st year of eligibility)
  5. Nibedita Sen (2nd year of eligibility)
  6. Jenn Lyons (1st year of eligibility)

Let me know how you voted or which of the finalists you’re rooting for.