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Hugos 2020: Nominations
In Best Novel 6 women and no men were nominated (is that a first).... Tor had a great night with 4 of the best novel nominees, 2 of the novellas, and appearances in novelette and short stories.
I have read three of the best novel nominees and two of the Novellas.
I don't believe it has happened before. Last year was 5 women and one man.
File 770 has links to stories that are available online...http://file770.com/where-to-find-the-...
Sad that The Future of Another Timeline and S&L weren't nominated. Glad to see The Expanse and Luna in the best series category. Ted Chiang is my fave for the novella category.I read all except 3 novels, 3 novellas and 2 novelettes so there are still many to read from the package ( though I miss skip some since it's part of a series that I don't follow).
Still bummed there is no physical worldcon, but that's for the best.
I would have loved to have seen The Expanse miss the ballot this year because (assuming it does not win) it almost certainly not going to be eligible when the final book is published and I think that would have been the perfect time to honor the full and completed series.Also - down ballot in the fan categories - I am absolutely thrilled that my friend Paul Weimer is a finalist for Fan Writer for the first time! (and that the blog I co-edit, Nerds of a Feather, is a finalist for the fourth time! I briefly and awkwardly got to meet Tom and Veronica at the Losers Party two years ago, which was fun)
Of the stuff on this list that I’ve read, none of them rise to the level of Hugo award for me. Maybe I’ve missed something brilliant, but it feels like a weak year for me.I would swap out The Light Brigade for Velocity Weapon and still maintain an all-woman slate.
So to cover all novels we would have to read 2 Swords and 2 Lasers, right? Would that work?
Jan wrote: "So to cover all novels we would have to read 2 Swords and 2 Lasers, right? Would that work?"Yes, you're right, unless someone wants to shake things up and read another Hugo-nominated novella. ⊙ω⊙
I've already read three of the Novel and one of the Novella nominees (and it's not this month's pick).
Still need to read Ten Thousand Doors out of the novels, but between S&L and my own picks I don't think I've ever read this many nominees before the announcement. It's an interesting slate.
Went for a walk this morning and listened to N.K. Jemison's Emergency Skin which is even more impactful being read by 
Mark wrote: "Went for a walk this morning and listened to N.K. Jemison's Emergency Skin which is even more impactful being read by Lucius Malfoy Jason Isaacs."Jason Isaacs is amazing with accents! If I hadn't heard that he was reading it at the beginning, I never would've recognized him.
I'm currently loving his work on Star Trek: Discovery. He (kind of) did a Scotty impression on the episode I just watched. He was also really good as an American in his 2012 TV series "Awake" & in "The OA". He recently did the voice of the Skeksis Emperor in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
I listened to the whole Forward Collection because I saw that this story was nominated. It wasn't my favorite story in the collection, but it was superbly performed. I loved Summer Frost the best. It had shades of the films "Ex Machina" & "Her" both of which I liked a lot.
I'm in to read the novels. I've already read 2, so 4 to go. Just ordered them from my local bookstore.
Hugo 2020 finalist novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers is on sale for $1.99 @ Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/Be-Taught-If-F...
Finished all of the Hugo novel nominees! A fun exercise.Echoing Trike a bit, I didn't find any of the noms to be absolute standouts this year. Usually there are one or two that really catch me. On the other hand I thought they were all really good, and if you are a SF/F fan (how could you not be, if you are reading the S&L forums???), I would recommend them all.
I particularly liked:
The City in the Middle of the Night
Middlegame
Gideon the Ninth
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
And would be happy to see any of those win. I enjoyed the other two:
The Light Brigade
A Memory Called Empire
But not as much.
I previously thought that Gideon the Ninth was the favorite, but I've downgraded that a bit since it didn't win the Nebula. On the other hand, the Nebula winner (A Song for a New Day) isn't a nominee, for whatever that means. I feel like there is some buzz for A Memory Called Empire? I guess I basically have no idea at this point.
What do you guys think?
I've now finished all the best novel nominees. I personally enjoyed Gideon the best, but I don't know that it's the best book. I liked Memory much more than I expected, and Middlegame was compelling to me as well as well.The City in the Middle of the Night was my least favorite, but that is because it wasn't to my taste, and not an assessment of the quality of the book.
Iain wrote: "Best Novel
The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders
Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley
A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow
Best Novella
“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation: Stories)
The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark
In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers
"
I’ve now read as many of the nominees as I am likely to get to. I won’t be reading the McGuire novel and novella because her writing isn’t for me. I didn’t care for the last Anders novel (although I really like many of her short stories), so I have no eagerness to read that one. I haven’t gotten to either The Deep or Tram Car, but the others I’ve read.
So of the novels I’ve read, I really enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which would be my pick. It’s the “safe” choice because it isn’t doing anything outré when it comes to style as Gideon the Ninth does, or create a completely different world like A Memory Called Empire, but I liked it all the same.
In novellas, Chiang walks away with it. That whole collection is terrific, and they’re mostly thematically linked, so if you like one you’ll probably enjoy the others. I was disappointed by the Chambers book because I felt the ending was a cop-out, and Time War was just okay for me.
I only have Middlegame left to read of the novels. I've enjoyed them all. The City in the Middle of the Night was the book that surprised me the most. It was excellent. Way better than All the Birds in the Sky imho. I mean, I enjoyed ATBITS but to see Anders get so much hype and comparisons to LeGuin with this book had me rolling my eyes. I was wrong.
Thank goodness, we are given more time to read the nominees.Voting deadline extended to July 22nd.
https://twitter.com/CoNZealand/status...
Maybe I'll have more time for the fanzines, editors, and who knows even Astounding and Lodestar.
I've read 4 out of the 6 best novel nominees, and of those Gideon the Ninth was my favorite by far.I've only read 2 of the 6 best novella nominees, and though I greatly enjoyed them both, I would root for This Is How You Lose the Time War. I would definitely like to give The Haunting of Tram Car 015 a try sometime, though.
I had some thoughts on the worldcon location posted here. But since Ruth started up a whole thread about it, I just moved them over there.
Incomparable podcast discusses the Hugo noms they didn't already discuss in the Nebula nom episode: https://www.theincomparable.com/thein...
Tamahome wrote: "Incomparable podcast discusses the Hugo noms they didn't already discuss in the Nebula nom episode: https://www.theincomparable.com/thein..."Good recommendation. I "discovered" the Incomparable award review podcasts a year or two ago, perhaps recommended by someone on this forum? If you've read the nominees, and listen to SFF podcasts, you should listen! If you haven't, what are you doing on this forum?
The Sword & Laser numbersSword & Laser didn't make the 2020 cut which was 40 nominations, and more people are nominating fancasts than fanzines.
Sword & Laser Hugo nominations (X votes of Y ballots cast)
2020 29 of 394
2019 41 of 464
2018 44 of 497 (Qualified as a finalist)
2017 48 of 690
2016 75 of 1267
2015 45 of 668
2014 29 of 396
2013 13 of 346
2012 -
Sword & Laser Hugo votes (X first round votes of Y ballots cast)
2018 149 of 909
Total nominations Best Fanzine vs Best Fancast
2020 233 394
2019 297 464
2018 393 497
2017 610 690
2016 1455 1267
2015 576 668
2014 478 396
2013 370 346
2012 329 328
2020 voting stats at
https://conzealand.nz/wp-content/uplo...
Best novel winner Arkady Martine was on the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. https://geeksguideshow.com/2020/07/25... The host usually reads the author's book and reads other author interviews of them. She's been reading sf all her life. She got her pen name Arkady from the clone characters in Chris Moriarty's Spin State. She has a wife. She got incredibly lucky getting her first novel published. She had a friend in the industry who tweeted about it.
Nerds of a Feather did not win the Hugo Award for Fanzine (we missed it by 4 votes this year), but we did publish our would-be acceptance speech anyway. Check it out and stick around for the end.
Repost from the Quickburns;Do we know why Ann Leckie declined the nomination for Raven Tower for the Hugo for Best Novel?
Silvana wrote: "The ceremony: https://youtu.be/7yGPBIQvs0Y"This is minus lots and lots of reminiscing. I think it's a bit over half the length of the actual ceremony. (Probably also minus some of the technical glitches.)
Serendi wrote: "Silvana wrote: "The ceremony: https://youtu.be/7yGPBIQvs0Y"This is minus lots and lots of reminiscing. I think it's a bit over half the length of the actual ceremony. (Probably also minus some of..."
Believe me, watching it live in its full, unabridged not-glory was excruciating. The tech glitches was kinda funny tho.
Wow, scrolling through Twitter shows a *lot* of people are seriously hating GRRM’s hosting. That’s an incredible amount of venom; he must’ve been pretty terrible. Martin may have succeeded in cancelling himself.
It seems he spent a lot of time talking about the good ole times of fandom when everything was smaller (which was seen as yearning for a time when the Con was just for white men), John W. Campbell (which he must have known would be seen as an affront when Ng was nominated for the speech that lead to the renaming of the award) and mispronouncing names (even though every nominee had to hand in a pronunciation guide).All in all people feel he was deliberately demonstrating to the new diverse nominees that they don't belong at the table...
Really? The guy who wrote the hippy masterpiece The Armageddon Rag is now double plus ungood? Strange universe we live in. Thought he was a staunch puppy critic too, but now he's canceled?FWIW I also remember conventions of old being more fun, but although memory is dim over the decades I recall them being bigger. Larger dealer rooms with more fun merchandise. Big film rooms that had a smattering of classics and silly stuff like "Gravity Shortage." A'course it's not so much the fault of conventions when you can buy whatever specialty stuff you want online, and the need to see a classic outside the home is substantially lessened for the same reason.
I went to Worldcon in 2018 and it seemed much less fun than, say, Noreascon II or LA in 84. Who can forget the rat with the slogan "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign"? And I saw Repo Man there - for the fifth time. Worldcon 2018 seemed to be in the wrong venue as panels routinely overflowed. I don't recall that at earlier conventions. The opportunities for interaction with fellow fans reduced by a lame Con Suite.
Granted, I haven't been to many conventions in the interim, but I do recall a coupla-sentence interaction with George R.R. Martin at one of them, probably LA in 84. He wasn't the grizzled "GRRM of Game of Thrones" then but rather a hippy in a poet shirt. And a hunk and a half as I recall, got quite the attention. Friendly then. Probably would be friendly in person now as well, except he's mobbed all the time due to Game of Thrones.
So yeah, I remember conventions of the past as being more fun too. Maybe it's just nostalgia. Can't imagine trying to cancel Martin over this, but here we are.
I was reading the comments about his performance and it does sound pretty bad. I don’t know that it was malicious so much as tone deaf, but considering everything currently happening it’s not a good look.To put it in terms Martin’s generation would understand, it’s like hosting the 1969 Oscars and praising the 1968 film The Green Berets and calling its star John Wayne “a solid family man” in the midst of the Vietnam war protests while Wayne’s third marriage was ending because he was cheating on his wife.
Maybe don’t do that given the tenor of the times and the reality on the ground.
Hey Trike. Don't Compare GRRM to John Wayne.
John (Taloni) wrote: "Really? The guy who wrote the hippy masterpiece The Armageddon Rag is now double plus ungood? Strange universe we live in. Thought he was a staunch puppy critic too, but now he's cance..."He was an asshole. Doesn't matter what he wrote years ago, the man was a terrible host, made points that at best can be called tone-deaf and rambled on and on and ... on.
Silverberg was a jerk too.
Neither of these guys seemed to get the point of their jobs at the con which was to move things along, celebrate the nominees and put the spotlight on them. Instead, they seemed to want to spotlight themselves and others like them from the good old days. Hell, Martin couldn't even be bothered to pronounce the names of nominees and winners correctly. On a prerecorded bit.
Martin is past it, should shut up and write. Silverberg... has he written anything in a decade?
But this is on the NZ con organizers too. If you want to feature the diversity of SF, why feature these two? And... the bits were pre-recorded....they could have edited things.
Stephen wrote: "Hey Trike. Don't Compare GRRM to John Wayne."I didn’t.
Does the S&L hosts get the name of authors pronounced right? I wait for you, Rick to jump on them and call them names.
Stephen wrote: "Does the S&L hosts get the name of authors pronounced right? I wait for you, Rick to jump on them and call them names."Try not to be such a jerk, Stephen. We're not talking a podcast here; for most of the nominees the Hugo awards are a huge night, incredibly important to them (esp the first time nominees) and if someone can't be bothered to pronounce their names correctly, it's inexcusable especially in GRRM's case since he was sent a pronunciation guide.
A basic duty of hosting the Hugos is pronouncing the names of the nominees and winners correctly and if he or any other host can't be bothered to do the basics correctly, they should decline to host.
PS: Again, this was all pre-recorded so the con organizers screwed up too, by not vetting this and asking for re-records where GRRM screwed up.
asking you a question makes me a jerk?
Stephen wrote: "asking you a question makes me a jerk?"It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
Stop pretending you were just posing a query.
What and Rick can name call ? is that a question. Or have you forgotten how question marks work?
Stephen wrote: "What and Rick can name call ? is that a question. Or have you forgotten how question marks work?"Everyone can see what you’re doing and that you are doing it on purpose.
Trike wrote: "Everyone can see what you’re doing and that you are doing it on purpose."Are you sure? Tone is hard to be sure of on the internet. I can read the original comment several ways and at least one of them is a gentle reminder that no one is perfect, including our hosts.
Rick wrote: "if someone can't be bothered to pronounce their names correctly, it's inexcusable especially in GRRM's case since he was sent a pronunciation guide."I agree with the statement, but GRRM tells he wasn't sent a pronunciation guide - see here http://file770.com/2020-hugo-awards/c...
I don't know if he tells the truth either
I would say criticizing someone doesn't automatically equal "cancelling" because maybe the people criticized can learn from it. And really, progressives can mess up too. I personally wouldn't call GRRM a racist but I would call him at least tone deaf and a bit too much focused on himself and the history of the awards.
If you give someone a Hugo for a speech that asks the science fiction community to come to terms with the fact that Campbell was a racist, it's just not a good look to repeatedly claim during the same ceremony how important that man was...
As someone with a polysyllabic last name I can tell you that mispronunciation is pretty common. it's not a big deal. I get over it.Something like the Hugo's where it's a big event and there's time to prepare it does seem a little careless but let's not forget that there were probably huge demands and a lot of course corrections and added stress with covid and trying to do the first virtual Hugo Award ceremony.
I look at a lot of the reactions to this year's Hugo's and I cant help but wonder if things would be a little calmer if we didnt all have our anxiety dialed up to 11. It's a natural reaction, the world's gone crazy the last 6 months. It's okay. Not every celebrity is secretly evil. Not every slight needs to be followed by a revolution.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XIc...
Jan wrote: "Repost from the Quickburns;Do we know why Ann Leckie declined the nomination for Raven Tower for the Hugo for Best Novel?"
Ann talks about this in a recent blog post
https://annleckie.com/2020/08/03/the-...
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Armageddon Rag (other topics)The Armageddon Rag (other topics)
Spin State (other topics)
Gideon the Ninth (other topics)
This Is How You Lose the Time War (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Arkady Martine (other topics)Chris Moriarty (other topics)
Becky Chambers (other topics)
The Hugo nominations are out!!! Discuss...
Best Novel
The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK)
Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
Best Novella
“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation: Stories(Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books)
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
Best Novelette
“The Archronology of Love”, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019)
“Away With the Wolves”, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019)
“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019)
Emergency Skin, by N.K. Jemisin ( Forward Collection (Amazon))
“For He Can Creep”, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019)
“Omphalos”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation: Stories (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
Best Short Story
“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019)
“As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019)
“Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
“A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019)
“Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019)
“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)