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Eligible Works for Hugo Worldcon 2016 - Deadline 31st March!

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beniowa Council Member

beniowa

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Posted

All of that is certainly true.  But EPH is complicated enough, and EPH+, with all the possible additions they were talking about on File 770. threatens to make it even more complicated.  I'm really not sure that this is the way to go. 

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felice Council Member

felice

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1 hour ago, Contrarius+ said:

People aren't prescient. They have to wait for actual data in order to make the most efficient plans.

Yes, EPH helps, but we had sufficient data last year to see it wasn't enough (see previous threads on this forum), because non-Puppy nominations are too widely spread, at least in some categories.

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Lily Valley Council Member

Lily Valley

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On 5/13/2016 at 0:57 PM, Contrarius+ said:

Glad you liked it! It was one of my favorites, though IMHO it got too sappy at the climax and resolution.

Did like it.  This is a quote malfunction, but glad to see one of your picks at the Nebula platform.  I am interrupting this programming to tell you that I am off to read Rachel Swirsky's "If you were a butt, my butt."  The embuttening.

I know you're jealous.

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HexMachina Council Member

HexMachina

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Posted
On 20 May 2016 at 0:51 PM, Maia said:

I thought this:

http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2016/05/interview-timothy-talking-cat/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+amazingstoriesmag%2FNhSh+%28Amazing+Stories%29

was pretty funny and apropos.

Only quoting you because I think it was you who was interested in the locus nominees, but the results are out. Uprooted won the fantasy category, Ancillary Mercy won SciFi, Grace of Kings won Zfirst novel, The Shepherds Crown won Young Adult

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Maester Llama Landed Knight

Maester Llama

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Thanks. Good winners; good nominees!

 

I've read everything on the sf list other than the Wolfe -- I am a mutant heretic in that I don't get along with Wolfe's stuff at all. As to the other four, I think they're all worthy nominees and a win for any of them would make sense to me since they all do one thing or another beautifully, but Ancillary Mercy is my choice too, pretty definitely. In the fantasy category I've read everything but the Hand, and I'd probably choose between Uprooted, Karen Memory, and The Fifth Season depending on what mood I was in -- I like The House of Shattered Wings quite a bit and think it has wicked atmosphere, but it doesn't wholly cohere for me in terms of plot and character arc. So another good choice there imo, though it'd be nice to see The Fifth Season win a couple of these award contests where it's matched up against its buddy-in-awesome Uprooted. I've only read two of the first novels so far, Liu's Grace of Kings and Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown, and I'd have gone with the Cho here, I'm pretty sure, but Grace of Kings does a lot of things wonderfully and it makes sense to me as a choice. Young adult is the only category in which I have not read the winner [I'm saving this last Pratchett], so I dunno, though I've read everything else in the category and think either Abercrombie, with perhaps a slight edge for Half the World, or the Older would be very worthy -- I think Daryl Gregory is hardcore but for some reason Harrison Squared didn't do that much for me.

 

It's very nice to see award / honour lists, like this and the Nebula for the most part, where we might argue back and forth pleasantly about the merits of our favourites and mumble about things we might have liked to see listed, but all the nominated books are strong in some way and there are no clearly bad choices. Represents the strength and breadth of the field very encouragingly!

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marcaramini Freerider

marcaramini

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23 hours ago, Maester Llama said:

 

I've read everything on the sf list other than the Wolfe -- I am a mutant heretic in that I don't get along with Wolfe's stuff at all.

Lots of people don't jive with Wolfe, especially his later stuff, where enjoyable surface narrative took a backseat to subtext. He's my favorite author of all time, but he isn't for everybody. Have you tried any of his short fiction? It is less of an investment.

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beniowa Council Member

beniowa

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BEST NOVELLA

  • Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
    • There’s a lot to like about this story; I especially liked the cultural stuff.  However, like Xray said last year, while it starts off strong, it kind of goes off the rails when the aliens show up, and the resolution is way too easy.  If you can get past all that, it’s a decent story. 

  • The Builders by Daniel Polansky (Tor.com)
    • Redwall meets Unforgiven, ergo a rather dark tale of revenge and betrayal with talking anthropomorphic animals.  I liked it a lot, but suspension of disbelief might be an issue for some readers. 

  • Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)
    • Believe it or not, this was my first Bujold, and it was a delightful little story.  Not as deep as I might have liked, but it is very well written.  A contender for the top spot. 

  • Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)
    • Raises some interesting thoughts about the world of gaming, though I felt Sanderson didn’t really go far enough exploring them.  Still, a solid and entertaining read. 

  • Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon)
    • Being a novella it doesn’t have the slow buildup of Reynolds’ novels so the story just dumps you right in.  Once you get into it, it’s a pretty good story.  I liked it, but it won’t be my top choice.

BEST NOVELETTE

  • “And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead” by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb2015)
    • Journal of Impropriety describes this as “a rom-com with lots of guns and profanity”.  It could have been interesting, but the world-building is sacrificed to focus on a character I didn’t really care about. 

  • “Flashpoint: Titan” by CHEAH Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
    • The first of three stories from the same Military SF anthology (really, Vox Day?).  Story is almost entirely about space battles and is way too long.  Very heavy handed in its warnings about an extremely aggressive China. 

  • “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)
    • Really good fantastical story about class issues in Beijing.  My top choice for the category.

  • “Obits” by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)
    • It’s a King story so of course it’s a little creepy.  I didn’t care for the beautiful-woman-takes-advantage-of-geek shtick, but at least that part didn’t go where I thought it would.  The story also didn’t end as badly as I expected. 

  • “What Price Humanity?” by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
    • The second Military SF story from Castalia and it was even worse than the first.  Badly written with idiotic characters and huge plot and logic holes.  It also came across as badly wanting to be the next Ender’s Game.  

BEST SHORT STORY

  • “Asymmetrical Warfare” by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)
    • So I guess this is a SF comedy about militaristic starfish who find out humans aren’t like starfish at all.  This joke’s too long and not particularly funny. 

  • “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)
    • Internet search engine becomes sentient and tries to help people by bombarding them with ads.  Interesting I guess, but the A.I. felt like a jerk and I didn’t care for the victim-blaming.

  • “If You Were an Award, My Love” by Juan Tabo and S. Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)
    • This isn’t a story at all, rather an anti-Scalzi and anti-SJW rant.  I can’t believe it took two people to write this.  A drunken monkey could have written a better story.  No Award for sure.

  • “Seven Kill Tiger” by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
    • The final story from Vox Day’s anthology and the second in it to warn against Chinese aggression.  Does VD think that having Asian authors doing the writing will give legitimacy to his message? 

  • Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)
    • Uh, I’m not a fan of erotica.  Or at least not gay dinosaur porn.  That being said it’s almost better written than the other short stories…

All the novellas were decent to great; a huge improvement from 2015.  I definitely agree with Lily that the novelettes were weaker than the novellas.  And Short Story was the weakest of all.  Frankly, I’m almost tempted to vote No Award for the whole category, though I’m also tempted to vote for the Tingle. 

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HexMachina Council Member

HexMachina

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On Monday, May 09, 2016 at 4:25 AM, beniowa said:

Has anyone seen this about the Dragon Awards?  It was announced last month, but I just saw it in this month's Locus magazine.

http://awards.dragoncon.org/2016/04/04/official-press-release/

Apparently, Dragon Con will indeed have their own awards, which, like the Gemmells, anyone can nominate and vote for.  You just have to register online .  These are the categories:

  • Best science fiction novel
  • Best fantasy novel (including paranormal)
  • Best young adult/middle grade novel
  • Best military science fiction or fantasy novel
  • Best alternate history novel
  • Best apocalyptic novel
  • Best horror novel
  • Best comic book
  • Best graphic novel
  • Best episode in a continuing science fiction or fantasy series, TV or internet
  • Best science fiction or fantasy movie
  • Best science fiction or fantasy PC / console game
  • Best science fiction or fantasy mobile game
  • Best science fiction or fantasy board game
  • Best science fiction or fantasy miniatures / collectable card / role-playing game

Just bumping this comment as I received my ballot today by email. I think there is too much overlap in some of the categories. NK Jemisin's Fifth Season appears in two categories for example (fantasy and apocalyptic)

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Gormenghast Council Member

Gormenghast

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So predictable as every year, but this time a good novel won.

But I really can't understand how that Sandman miniseries won. I've always been a fan of the main series, but that mini is a trainwreck (beside also managing to break the continuity). I guess the art can do wonders to hide how crap is the writing, so I could see how it could earn some love just by artistic bruteforce.

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Seli Council Member

Seli

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

Were there any Alfies?

Yes, at least one I know of.

Letters to Tiptree got the Best Related work one.

eta: full list via file770 (http://file770.com/?p=30403&cpage=8#comment-470453

First, look at this for Alyssa Wong for best Short Story….

Best Fan Writer – Alexandra Erin

Best Related Work – Letters to Tiptree

Best Graphic Novel – Bitch Planet Vol 1

Special Award – Locus Magazine.

Best Artist – Julie Dillon

Best Fanzine – Journey Planet

Special Award – Black Gate

Best Fancast – Tea and Jeopardy

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Maia Council Member

Maia

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Posted

A very decent haul this year, despite everything! Pretty happy about most of the winners and the rest, while they wouldn't be my choice,  aren't embarassing, at least. Of course, quite a bit of worthy stuff _was_ still prevented from competing by a slate, so the battle isn't won (yet? - hopefully).

On to 2017!

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DreamSongs Council Member

DreamSongs

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I am also disappointed that neither Marc or Jeffro were able to beat out the 'No Award' win in Best Related Work.  I am not a Gene Wolfe fan or a gamer, but the bits of their writing that I read demonstrated a passion for what they were doing and scholarship.

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David Selig Council Member

David Selig

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5 hours ago, Gormenghast said:

So predictable as every year, but this time a good novel won.

But I really can't understand how that Sandman miniseries won. I've always been a fan of the main series, but that mini is a trainwreck (beside also managing to break the continuity). I guess the art can do wonders to hide how crap is the writing, so I could see how it could earn some love just by artistic bruteforce.

Sandman was written by Neil Gaiman. The Hugo voters love him and I am sure a lot of them voted for it just based on name recognition. The other nominated authors and works don't seem nearly as well known.

Also Vox Day told his minions to vote for Sandman.

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