Month: March 2024

Monday I shared my Hugo nominations for novel, short fiction, and series.  Tuesday I talked about my picks for graphic story, related work, and dramatic presentation.  Yesterday I looked at my choices in the editor, pro artist, and semiprozine categories.  Today I’m wrapping up with the fan categories and the two awards which are voted on in conjunction with the Hugos.

BEST FANZINE

• Camestros Felapton
• Fantasy Book Critic
• nerds of a feather, flock together
• The Wertzone
• Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog

Yes, to me a blog is a fanzine.  Camestros Felapton has been a finalist for Best Fan Writer and Best Related Work.  In addition to fannish news and reviews, his blog hosts a weekly open thread which acts a little like a fanzine letter column.  Fantasy Book Critic is a group of book reviewers covering both traditionally published and self-published work.  They are judges in Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off.  Nerds of a feather is, of course, a six-time finalist and the 2021 winner in this category.  They continue great work with both old and new contributors.  The Wertzone is the long-running blog of 2020 fan writer finalist Adam Whitehead.  He covers pretty much everything SFF: books, movies, tv shows, and games.  The Hugo Book Club Blog is a three-time finalist in this category.  They discuss previous Hugo finalists and consider potential future finalists.

BEST FANCAST

• Kalanadi
• Kitty G Books
• SFF180
• The Coode Street Podcast

I am not a regular podcast listener with the exception of Coode Street hosted by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe.  They have been nominated a total of ten times in this category (every year but two since the category’s inception) winning in 2021.  They continue to have great interviews and discussions.  My other three nominees are all YouTube (BookTube) channels because I find it a lot easier to watch than just listen.  Rachel’s Kalanadi has been a finalist twice previously.  She actually stopped producing videos partway through 2023, but I felt there was still enough Hugo-worthy content to give her one last nomination.  (She continues to be one of the rotating hosts of a monthly BookTube Stitch & Bitch live show.)  Kitty G Books reviews mostly fantasy books including self-published and YA.  She occasionally does kid book recommendations as well thanks to her two-year-old son.  Thomas M. Wagner’s SFF180 celebrated its tenth anniversary last year.  His channel features reviews of both new and classic SFF as well as the Monday Mailbag where he opens packages of new and upcoming books sent to him by publishers.  He also does three massive videos of anticipated book releases in the upcoming year, one each for science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

BEST FAN WRITER

• Abigail Nussbaum
• Bonnie McDaniel
• Maria Haskins
• Marissa Lingen
• Rich Horton

Since I could undoubtedly fill up this category with just the contributors at nerds of a feather and still have trouble narrowing it down to five, I decided not to do any overlap between my fan writer and fanzine nominations this year.  Abigail Nussbaum has been a fan writer finalist twice and won once.  Her reviews are insightful and in-depth.  She also brings things to my attention that I don’t see covered elsewhere (at least until she mentioned it.)  I’ve come to trust Bonnie McDaniel’s reviews as her taste seems to align fairly well with mine.  Maria Haskins and Marissa Lingen are both SFF authors themselves as well as reviewers.  Maria Haskins does a monthly round-up of recommended short fiction.  Marissa Lingen does regular round-ups on pretty much everything she reads including long, short, and non-fiction along with some separate, longer reviews on individual works.  Rich Horton is an anthologist and a long-time Locus reviewer.  On his own blog, he reviews both classic SFF and newer work.

BEST FAN ARTIST

• Alison Scott
• Iain J Clark
• Laya Rose
• Marceline (@Marceline2174)
• Sara Felix

I don’t often actually listen to Octothorpe (As I said above, just not really a podcast listener, sorry!), but I love seeing Alison Scott’s episode art.  It’s just really cute and fun.  She was a finalist for the first time in this category last year.  Iain J Clark has been a fan artist finalist for the past four years.  His work appeared in 2023 issues of the fanzines Salon Futura and Journey Planet.  Laya Rose has been a fan artist finalist twice.  She continues to post fan art based on some of my favorite works.  Marceline was on last year’s Hugo longlist for fan artist.  (And fan artist was one category where the 2023 nomination stats appear to be un-fucked with.)  They caught my attention on Instagram with fan art based on Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series.  They also have original character art of a lesbian vampire and werewolf couple.  Sara Felix has been a fan artist finalist four times with a win in 2021.  She created art during 2023 for conventions and fanzines including Glasgow 2024 and Journey Planet.

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK

• Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross (Wednesday)
• Last Canto of the Dead, Daniel José Older (Hyperion)
• The Stolen Heir, Holly Black (Little, Brown)
• To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey)
• Unraveller, Frances Hardinge (Abrams)

Divine Rivals and To Shape a Dragon’s Breath have both gotten a lot of attention, and I believe they live up to the hype.  Last Canto of the Dead is a sequel to Ballad & Dagger which I nominated last year.  The Stolen Heir is the first book in a duology set in the same world as Holly Black’s previous Lodestar finalists, The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King.  (Now that I think of it, that is something else I could have nominated for the Best Series Hugo.)  Unraveller had a 2022 publication date in the UK but was not released in the US until 2023.  I was surprised not to see it on last year’s ballot since Frances Hardinge has also been a Lodestar finalist twice before.  Hopefully, it will get a second chance this year.

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER

• Angela Liu
• Judy I. Lin
• Kelsey Hutton
• Naseem Jamnia
• R.T. Ester

I believe all of these writers are in their second year of eligibility.  Angela Liu, Kelsey Hutton, and R.T. Ester impressed me with their short fiction.  Judy I. Lin is the author of The Book of Tea duology.  I nominated her last year for the Astounding Award and also nominated the first book in her duology, A Magic Steeped in Poison, for the Lodestar Award.  Naseem Jamnia is the author of The Bruising of Qilwa and was a finalist for the Astounding Award last year.

Looking forward to the finalist announcement at 3pm GMT (UTC +0) tomorrow March 29th!  What are you hoping to see on the ballot?

Monday I shared my Hugo nominations for novel, short fiction, and series.  Yesterday I talked about my picks for graphic story, related work, and dramatic presentation.  Today I’m looking at my choices in the editor, pro artist, and semiprozine categories.

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

• Arley Sorg and Christie Yant
• Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner
• Neil Clarke
• Scott H. Andrews
• Sheree Renée Thomas

These are the editors of some of my favorite and most frequently read SFF magazines. Arley Sorg and Christie Yant were co-editors of Fantasy Magazine which published its last issue in October 2023.  Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner were co-editors of the first three of Apex Magazine’s six regular issues last year.  (Lesley Conner continues as sole editor-in-chief of the magazine while Jason Sizemore focuses on Apex Books.)  Neil Clarke is, of course, editor of Clarkesworld and winner in this category for the past two years after nine previous nominations.  Scott H. Andrews is the editor of Beneath Ceaseless Skies and received his first nomination in this category last year.  He recused Beneath Ceaseless Skies from further consideration for Best Semiprozine after its tenth consecutive nomination in that category in 2022.  Last, but certainly not least, Sheree Renée Thomas is the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction which began its 75th year of publication at the end of last year.

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

• Jenni Hill
• Lee Harris
• Miriam Weinberg
• Priyanka Krishnan
• Ruoxi Chen

These are the editors of my Best Novel nominees.  Priyanka Krishnan and Jenni Hill edited Translation State by Ann Leckie.  Lee Harris edited Witch King by Martha Wells.  Miriam Weinberg edited Starling House by Alix E. Harrow.  Ruoxi Chen edited both Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh and The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang.

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

• Cynthia Sheppard
• Dan dos Santos
• Greg Ruth
• Tommy Arnold
• Tran Nguyen

These are the pro artists whose work stood out for me last year.  Cynthia Sheppard did the cover art for Witch King by Martha Wells.  Dan dos Santos did the cover art for Warrior of the Wind by Suyi Davies Okungbowa.  Greg Ruth did the cover art for Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor.  Tommy Arnold did the cover art for The Faithless by C.L. Clark.  And Tran Nguyen did the cover art for The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu.

BEST SEMIPROZINE

• Strange Horizons

There are three semiprozines that I regularly read and enjoy:  Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, and Uncanny Magazine.  As I mentioned above, Beneath Ceaseless Skies is no longer accepting nominations.  While Uncanny continues to be great, it has been nominated every single year that it has been eligible and won seven times out of those eight nominations.  On the other hand, Strange Horizons has been nominated for the past eleven consecutive years now and never won.  I really want this to finally be Strange Horizons’ year, and I’m pretty sure Uncanny will manage to be on the ballot without my help anyway.

See you tomorrow with the rest of my choices!  What were your favorites in these categories?

Yesterday I shared my Hugo nominations for the first five categories, and today I’m looking at the next five.  I didn’t get as much read or watched as I would have liked partly because of the distraction from the issues with last year’s Hugos which were revealed right before nominations opened for this year.  I had to remind myself that looking for award worthy stuff and deciding what to nominate is really the fun part that no later drama can really take away.  Here are some more of my favorites from what I did get to:

BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC

• Batman – One Bad Day: Catwoman, G. Willow Wilson and Jamie McKelvie (DC Comics)
• Earthdivers Vol. 1: Kill Columbus, Stephen Graham Jones and Davide Gianfelice (IDW)
• Love Everlasting Vol. 1, Tom King and Elsa Charretier (Image)
• The Last Count of Monte Cristo, Ayize Jama-Everett and Tristan Roach (Abrams)
• Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, and Nicola Scott (DC Comics)

While I continue to enjoy the series that have gotten repeat nominations (and some repeat wins) for this category, I try to look just a little further afield for my nominations.  Some of the creators here are still familiar names.  If we see something beyond the usual suspects on the ballot, I think Wonder Woman Historia is the most likely one of these.

BEST RELATED WORK

• A City on Mars, Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith (Penguin)
• A Traveller in Time, Maureen Kincaid Speller (Luna Press)
• All These Worlds, Niall Harrison (Briardene)
• Fear of Seeing: A Poetics of Chinese Science Fiction, Mingwei Song (Columbia University Press)
• Follow Me: Religion in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Francesca T Barbini (Luna Press)

I always like reading SFF related non-fiction books.  I was particularly excited for the review collections A Traveller in Time and All These Worlds, and I especially hope to see Maureen Kincaid Speller’s make the ballot.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

• Asteroid City (Focus Features)
• Barbie (Warner Bros.)
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount)
• LOLA (Cowtown Pictures)
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures)

LOLA was one of three movies which received eligibility extensions at last year’s WSFS Business Meeting.  I usually try to take a look at the works which receive these extensions if they seem interesting and I am able to access them.  I suspect you may have heard of my other nominations.  I’ll be very surprised if Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, sequel to Hugo winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, isn’t on the ballot.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

• “Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore”, The Mandalorian (Lucasfilm)
• “Fight or Flight”, Carnival Row (Amazon Studios)
• “Part Five: Shadow Warrior”, Ahsoka (Lucasfilm)
• “The Last Generation”, Star Trek: Picard (CBS Studios)
• “What Was Meant to Be”, The Wheel of Time (Amazon Studios)

I imagine that most of the things which are likely to be on the ballot here are shows I haven’t seen yet.  In particular, I haven’t watched The Last of Us, and I’ve heard a lot of talk about the episode “Long, Long Time”.  I never played the video game and zombie apocalypse is not my cup of tea.  But it seems like I should give the show a try anyway.

BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK

No nominations from me for this category since I haven’t a clue.  I’m still looking forward to finding out what makes the ballot here.  The special category which was run in 2021 was for Best Video Game, but this new ongoing category is for any type of game or interactive work.  I’ll be curious to see if any outside-the-box sort of things get nominated.

See you tomorrow with more of my picks.  What were your favorites in these categories?

Nominations for this year’s Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer closed on March 9, 2024.  The finalists will be announced Friday, March 29, at Levitation, the UK National Convention (Eastercon), taking place in Telford, UK.  The announcement is scheduled for 3 pm GMT (UTC +0) immediately following their opening ceremony.  Details of the final ballot process will be announced during April.  The awards will be presented at a ceremony taking place on Sunday evening, August 11, during Glasgow 2024, the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon).  They are also planning to provide free online streaming of the ceremony.

While I got most of my nominations in the evening before nominations closed, I was able to fill in some more that morning and received my final confirmation about 10 minutes before voting closed at 11 am in my time zone.  Here is what I submitted for the first five categories:

BEST NOVEL

• Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh (Tordotcom)
• Starling House, Alix E. Harrow (Tor)
• The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom)
• Translation State, Ann Leckie (Orbit)
• Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

All of these were books I was really looking forward to before they came out, and all of them lived up to my high expectations.  I feel like Translation State is the most likely to make the ballot, but I was pleased to see Witch King and The Water Outlaws were also Nebula finalists.

BEST NOVELLA

• Rose/House, Arkady Martine (Subterranean)
• The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill (Tordotcom)
• The Lies of the Ajungo, Moses Ose Utomi (Tordotcom)
• The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older (Tordotcom)
• The Navigating Fox, Christopher Rowe (Tordotcom)

Out of these, I think The Mimicking of Known Successes is getting the most attention, although The Crane Husband also got a Nebula nomination.

BEST NOVELETTE

• “Ivy, Angelica, Bay”, C.L. Polk (Tor.com, 8 Dec 2023)
• “John Hollowback and the Witch”, Amal El-Mohtar (The Book of Witches, Jonathan Strahan, Harper Voyager)
• “Saturday’s Song”, Wole Talabi (Lightspeed 156, May 2023)
• “The Year Without Sunshine”, Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny 55, Nov/Dec 23)
• “What the Mountain Takes, What the Journey Offers”, Jae Steinbacher (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 374, 26 Jan 2023)

I managed to pick two more Nebula finalists here: “Saturday’s Song” and “The Year Without Sunshine”.  I could see Naomi Kritzer making an appearance either in this category or for her short story Nebula finalist “Better Living Through Algorithms”.

BEST SHORT STORY

• “A Name is a Plea and a Prophecy”, Gabrielle Emem Harry (Strange Horizons, 14 Aug 2023)
• “Brincando Charcos (Jumping Puddles)”, Ben Francisco (Strange Horizons, 30 Oct 23)
• “Constant Ivan and Clever Natalya”, M.A. Carrick (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 373, 12 Jan 2023)
• “Fandom for Witches”, Ruoxi Chen (Fantasy 96, Oct 2023)
• “The Big Glass Box and the Boys Inside”, Isabel J. Kim (Apex 135, Jan 2023)

No overlap with the Nebula ballot for me here.  I would like to see last year’s Astounding Award finalist Isabel J. Kim make the ballot.  She also had a couple Clarkesworld stories that I heard people mention nominating.

BEST SERIES

• InCryptid, Seanan McGuire (Backpacking Through Bedlam)
• October Daye, Seanan McGuire (Sleep No More / The Innocent Sleep)
• The Craft Sequence, Max Gladstone (Dead Country)
• The Last Binding, Freya Marske (A Power Unbound)
• The Universe of Xuya, Aliette de Bodard (A Fire Born of Exile)

Yes, I nominated four previous finalists which have enough new material to be eligible again.  I think they are all still worthy.  Although, if I had thought of it, I would probably have nominated Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series instead of both of Seanan McGuire’s series.  I’ve heard quite a few people mention The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but I haven’t read that yet.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more of my choices.  What were your favorites in these categories?