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Hugos 2014 - countdown to the vote


MinDonner

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Cos the other thread got closed before I've read half the nominees.

Read Ancillary Justice yesterday, after giving up on The Lives Of Tao (which was oooo-kaaay, just clunky and not very compelling); AJ is almost certainly getting my vote unless one of the others is spectacular.

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I am behind on actually reading, but it is bugging me more than I expected that the files are not tagged properly. For example, I have "A Rumour of Angels" in my library. Great. But it's not one of the Novelette nominees. Presumably it's for an editor, short form, but which one*?! Argh. I'd rather there were one format for each file -- though I appreciate the work, calibre can do this for me -- and that they were properly noted, so that I know which goes where without digging through my unzipped folder structure or searching out each one online.

Similarly, Beth Welsh may have collated the files, but she is not an editor under nomination nor one of the listed authors. Luckily those titles contain the actual editors' names, at least.

*Datlow.

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Good point; I haven't started whittling down my vote properly yet largely because I rather dread the hassle of trawling through the downloads in search of categories; it's enough of a pain having to rummage through What's on my Kindle to find the entries I've not read yet...

Halfway through the Samatar novel now; it's beautiful but... sorta dull? Will certainly finish it cos the journey is pleasant enough, but I don't care that much about what actually happens.

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Saga gets my vote for Graphic Story, with Girl Genius a close second. Time is a bit gimmicky, and Meathouse Man shouldn't be on the ballot at all; the art is nice enough, but pretty much the entire story is told via the captions - it just doesn't work as a comic, and there was no point adapting the original short story in this format.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I voted. Have you?

I just voted. I voted for these (if I don't mention a story it's because I didn't read it):

Best Novel:

1 - Ancillary Justice - it's not perfect (the ending isn't as strong as some of the earlier parts of the novel, some of the supporting characterisation is a bit flat) but it had some great ideas and was an entertaining read.

2 - The Wheel of Time - difficult to compare a 14-novel series to a single book, especially when it's a series of such variable quality as WoT.

Novella:

1 - Six-Gun Snow White - I think novella was the strongest of the shorter categories and I'd narrowly put this as the winner. I really liked Valente's writing and it is a fun story.

2 - Wakulla Springs - the SF elements seemed very minor but it was a good story that did a good job of showing the different time periods and had some good characterisation. I thought the last section felt a bit weaker than the earlier parts of the story.

3 - Equoid - the Lovecraftian horror elements are genuinely creepy at times and the finale is tense. Sadly, some of the rest of the story is a bit lacking with Stross rehashing jokes that were only vaguely amusing in earlier Laundry stories and characterisation has never been his strong point. Aside from the Lovecraft bits Ben Aaronovich does this sort of thing much better.

Novelette:

1 - The Waiting Stars - probably my favourite of all the shorter works, an excellent SF story with some interesting ideas and world-building and good characterisation.

2 - The Lady Astronaut of Mars - can't think of much to say about it, but it was good.

3 - The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling - the narrator is meant to be a technology journalist so maybe it's a deliberate choice that the writing is generally dull with the odd interesting idea. The second part of the story about the young boy learning to read was better.

Short Stories:

1 - If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love - I'm not really sure what to pick out of three of these. This is an effective story, starts off seeming silly but by the end has more emotional impact than any of the others in this categories.

2 - The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere - a fairly unremarkable story aside from the interesting gimmick of the titular falling water

3 - Selkie Stories Are For Losers - nicely written but felt a bit insubstantial

4 - The Ink Readers of Doi Saket - too whimsical to be taken seriously, but also not all that entertaining, felt a bit pointless.

Best Drama (Long)

1 - Gravity - perhaps debatable whether it's really SF (although some of the orbital mechanics are definitely not based on real-world science), but it was a tense and entertaining film and a rare example of 3D being used well

2 - Catching Fire - a good adaptation with a fine cast

3 - Iron Man 3 - a lot of entertaining bits in the film but like the previous two let down by weak villains and a disappointing finale.

Best Drama (Short)

1 - The Day of the Doctor - Impressively managed to live up to most of the 50th Anniversary hype. Very entertaining and a good choice of plot, even if it's best not to think too much about some parts of the plot.

2 - The Rains of Castamere - should probably rewatch this sometime, I can't really remember what's in this episode other than the Red Wedding which was appropriately horrific

3 - Variations Under Domestication - Orphan Black might be the best SF show on at the moment. I think this episode was possibly the most amusing of the series so far, but other episodes in the series had more dramatic impact

4 - The Name of the Doctor - some really good moments in this, but frustratingly nonsensical in terms of the plotting.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some categories where I would have preferred a different winner, but all in all a nice and positive list of winners. There seems to be hope for the genre and even the worldcon community.

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