# 2017 Hugo Nominations are Out **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741 "2017-04-04T16:37:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/21 "2017-04-05T10:53:15Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I stopped reading modern sf more than a decade ago. Switched over to nonfiction. I have only a nodding acquaintance with the field. …kinda like Zen [dog-fighting](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/have_a_dog_in_this_fight), then. Far out, man. Marvy. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/22 "2017-04-05T10:58:21Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It doesn’t bother me if I don’t recognize this year’s Hugo nominees because I don’t feel it necessary to read science fiction that has just been published. I’m always several years behind. No problem! I read around 50-100 novels a year, mostly SF and fantasy, and tend to choose them by browsing the “new books” shelves at various libraries. By now, having read this way for about 30 years, I’ve read a pretty decent chunk of the fantasy/sf out there (by no means a majority, but you get what I mean). Reading new stuff is the surest way I have to find something exciting and surprising; and it also lets me understand and participate in threads like this :). ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/23 "2017-04-05T11:32:06Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > No problem! I read around 50-100 novels a year, mostly SF and fantasy, and tend to choose them by browsing the “new books” shelves at various libraries. By now, having read this way for about 30 years, I’ve read a pretty decent chunk of the fantasy/sf out there (by no means a majority, but you get what I mean). Reading new stuff is the surest way I have to find something exciting and surprising; and it also lets me understand and participate in threads like this :). Now I want to be **Left Hand of Dorkness** ’s friend on Goodreads. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/24 "2017-04-05T12:05:02Z")
While I liked the film quite a bit, I’m confused why HIDDEN FIGURES is in the running for Dramatic Presentation. There are no scifi or fantasy elements in it. Is it because it’s a celebration of nerds (directly) and space (indirectly)? Sent from my SCH-I435 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/25 "2017-04-05T12:09:25Z")
I’m mostly pleased with the list (far less slate-style shenanigannery, from what I can tell), even though my own short story didn’t make the cut. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/26 "2017-04-05T12:15:45Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > While I liked the film quite a bit, I’m confused why HIDDEN FIGURES is in the running for Dramatic Presentation. There are no scifi or fantasy elements in it. Is it because it’s a celebration of nerds (directly) and space (indirectly)? The Hugo for Dramatic Presentation is for “dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects” - and historically, the Hugo voters have included “stuff about space travel” in the “related subject” category - leading to Hugos for “Apollo 13” and for news coverage of the actual Apollo 11 mission. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/27 "2017-04-05T13:19:12Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > What of it is so obscure? In every previous year, there are anywhere from 2 to 5 authors of the Best Novel nominations list that I at least recognize (and would have at the time), which is a contrast to this year. I thought this _might_ mean _something_; I just didn’t know what. For instance, are they all new-ish authors who haven’t published much before now? Or have they been producing a lot, but until now it’s mostly been under the radar? And if so, whose radar (just mine? the bestseller lists’? the casual SF fans’?), and why? > [@](#): > > China Mieville and Lois McMaster Bujold, both enormous names, put out short books. Yeah, those are examples of the kind of “enormous names” that I thought were conspicuously missing from the Best Novel list. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > NK Jemisin is freakin amazing, though (and **Thudlow Boink** , you should do yourself a favor and pick up something by her, hers is a name you should be familiar with). Thanks for the recommendation. Like **Wendell Wagner** , I don’t necessarily read what’s newly published, when it’s still new. But I would kinda like to be at least somewhat aware of who the “big names” currently working in SF (and various other genres) are (partly just so I don’t feel ignorant, and have some idea of what people are talking about, and partly so that I can check some of them out when I get a chance). ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/28 "2017-04-05T13:34:57Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Huh. I read it, but almost didn’t finish it; it just didn’t capture my attention hardly at all. I only vaguely remember what it was about. Different strokes! > > NK Jemisin is freakin amazing, though (and **Thudlow Boink** , you should do yourself a favor and pick up something by her, hers is a name you should be familiar with). **The Obelisk Gate** would be a worthy winner. > > I look forward both to **Death’s End** –having loved the previous two in the series–and **A Closed and Common Orbit** –having just finished the first book in that series. The first one is delightful. > > Haven’t heard of the other two nominees for novel; are they worth reading? > > Of the novellas, I’ve only read two. First, **This Census-Taker**. I’m a huge fan of Mieville at his best, but I didn’t think this was him at his best. The ending left me annoyed. > > **A Taste of Honey** , though, is well worth reading. It’s the second thing I’ve read by Wilson, and I really like his style. Unlike Mieville’s novella, this one ends really well. **A Closed and Common Orbit** is every bit as delightful as **A Long Journey…** was, but it is not a sequel so much as a story within the same universe. Nevertheless, I just finished it and I loved it very much. It is also a tale that would set the Puppy faction off, but that has nothing to do with my love it. **To Like the Lightning** has not got many mentions here, but this was one of my favorite books in a long time. Very good worldbuilding. Is **Arrival** not already a lock to win Dramatic Presentation? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/29 "2017-04-05T13:44:05Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > For instance, are they all new-ish authors who haven’t published much before now? Or have they been producing a lot, but until now it’s mostly been under the radar? And if so, whose radar (just mine? the bestseller lists’? the casual SF fans’?), and why? Let’s see–_A Closed and Common Orbit_ by Becky Chambers is a sequel to _The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet_. (A highly Firefly-ish book that gets a heap of praise but I found merely “okay.”) It is her second book. _Death’s End_ is the third book in a trilogy–the first, Three Body Problem, won a Hugo in a year contaminated by puppy droppings (I personally, found 3BP to be a very weak book and never bothered with the two sequels.) The author [is a giant in China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Cixin). but his books have just recently began to be translated into English. _The Obelisk Gate_ is a sequel to 2016’s Hugo Winner _The Fifth Season_ and [the author’s 7th novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._K._Jemisin#Novels). [_Ninefox Gambit_](http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/06/17/the-big-idea-yoon-ha-lee/) and [_Too Like the Lightning_](http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/05/11/the-big-idea-too-like-the-lightning/) also get lots of praise. (I haven’t read either–Ninefox is on my TBR pile, Too Like doesn’t sound like my bowl of Ancillary-served tea.) All definitely well on the radar of the highly-involved heavy readers who are the nominating and voting pool for the Hugos. ---
**Author:** ![Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambrosio_Spinola)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/30 "2017-04-05T14:39:35Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Let’s see–_A Closed and Common Orbit_ by Becky Chambers is a sequel to _The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet_. (A highly Firefly-ish book that gets a heap of praise but I found merely “okay.”) It is her second book. _Death’s End_ is the third book in a trilogy–the first, Three Body Problem, won a Hugo in a year contaminated by puppy droppings (I personally, found 3BP to be a very weak book and never bothered with the two sequels.) The author [is a giant in China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Cixin). but his books have just recently began to be translated into English. _The Obelisk Gate_ is a sequel to 2016’s Hugo Winner _The Fifth Season_ and [the author’s 7th novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._K._Jemisin#Novels). [_Ninefox Gambit_](http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/06/17/the-big-idea-yoon-ha-lee/) and [_Too Like the Lightning_](http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/05/11/the-big-idea-too-like-the-lightning/) also get lots of praise. (I haven’t read either–Ninefox is on my TBR pile, Too Like doesn’t sound like my bowl of Ancillary-served tea.) > > All definitely well on the radar of the highly-involved heavy readers who are the nominating and voting pool for the Hugos. All true, and since you didn’t mention _All the Birds in the Sky_ I’ll go ahead and point out that this is Charlie Jane Anders’ first novel, but she’s well known for short fiction (including a Hugo award for best novelette in 2012). I was surprised to find that I’d already read five of the six best novel nominees (not _Too Like the Lightning_) - this rarely happens these days. Honestly doesn’t seem like an especially strong year, although I more or less enjoyed all of them I wouldn’t be giving any of them an unqualified recommendation. I’d probably give the nod to _All the Birds_ though, because (1) it’s the only one that’s not part of a series or trilogy, and (2) although it was rough in spots the best parts of it were perfect, which may reflect Anders’ strengths as a short form writer. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/31 "2017-04-05T15:00:41Z")
> [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](#): > > All true, and since you didn’t mention _All the Birds in the Sky_ I’ll go ahead and point out that this is Charlie Jane Anders’ first novel, but she’s well known for short fiction (including a Hugo award for best novelette in 2012). Oops, forgot to mention that one. She also [was a writer at IO9](https://kinja.com/charliejane). ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/32 "2017-04-05T15:39:17Z")
> [@chorpler](#): > > Now I want to be **Left Hand of Dorkness** ’s friend on Goodreads. 🙂 Heh–sorry to disappoint. Years ago I made an account and rated about 70 books before getting bored; now I visit the site about once a year or so, and hardly ever review anything. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/33 "2017-04-05T15:40:46Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Let’s see–_A Closed and Common Orbit_ by Becky Chambers is a sequel to _The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet_. (A highly Firefly-ish book that gets a heap of praise but I found merely “okay.”) It is her second book. _Death’s End_ is the third book in a trilogy–the first, Three Body Problem, won a Hugo in a year contaminated by puppy droppings (I personally, found 3BP to be a very weak book and never bothered with the two sequels.) The author [is a giant in China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Cixin). but his books have just recently began to be translated into English. Interesting–I really enjoyed Chambers’s first book, and I thought any one of three or four different big ideas in 3BP was astonishing enough to hang an entire novel around, and the surfeit of them was just like candy. Not great characters by any means, but boy oh boy did it scratch the hard SF itch. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/34 "2017-04-05T15:51:53Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > …kinda like Zen [dog-fighting](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/have_a_dog_in_this_fight), then. Far out, man. Marvy. And yet even as a casual observer I knew enough to say that calling the sources obscure and the names unrecognizable reflected the poster and not the field. Hmmm. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > No problem! I read around 50-100 novels a year, mostly SF and fantasy, and tend to choose them by browsing the “new books” shelves at various libraries. By now, having read this way for about 30 years, I’ve read a pretty decent chunk of the fantasy/sf out there (by no means a majority, but you get what I mean). Reading new stuff is the surest way I have to find something exciting and surprising; and it also lets me understand and participate in threads like this :). Yeah, I used to be this way. I got into it during the New Wave, when the field exploded. The field almost imploded around 1960. Most of the magazines had died but there weren’t yet good outlets for novels. Avalon was the only hardback line exclusively for sf and that was fourth-rate. No exclusive paperback lines existed except for the Galaxy Novels and they put out exactly three new books hidden among porn titles. Only the few established names could sell to mainstream publishers. Writers were fleeing the field. Then this huge influx of young writers. Zelazny, Delany, Le Guin, Wilhelm, Disch, and Lafferty appeared within a couple of years, and Ellison and Silverberg stopped writing garbage filler, and the similar collection of British names made waves. Suddenly paperback lines appeared and magazines rebounded and serious critics discovered the field again, after having done so in the early 50s. If you didn’t pay attention to the newest of the new you lost everything that made the field worth your time. Sure, going back and reading the classic names was worthwhile, but most of them were still around and rejuvenating their writing to catch up. SF, like most everything else, has cycles like this. Cyberpunk created another one in the 1980s. Fantasy took a huge jump at the turn of the century. Maybe we’re having another one today with writers from around the world finding it easier to get published and recognized in English. And maybe it’s time for me to plunge back in and see if this is another revolution. Maybe not, with the comments here mostly damning with faint praise, but maybe that time is coming. In the meanwhile, I’m trying to read every robot story ever published in roughly chronological order so I can write a chapter on those for my book. It’s not like I’ve abandoned the field. It’s just not fun right now. Most of those stories are of historical interest only. The field really deserved its bottom-of-the-barrel reputation in the old days. Oh, I did happen to read _Three Body Problem_ because of all the praise. I agree with Darren. Barely slogged my way through it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/35 "2017-04-05T20:48:52Z")
_The Three Body Problem_ has some great sequences (notably the description of the Cultural Revolution) but overall was good but not great. Just for the heck of it, I compared the short fiction nominees to those on the [Tangent Online Recommended Reading List](http://tangentonline.com/news-mainmenu-158/3356-tangent-online-2016-recommended-reading-list). One novella, three novelettes, and three short stories from the list made it to the ballot. A couple of the novellas were not reviewed since they were from sources that didn’t make it obvious they were novellas. One in the novelette and one in the short story category were not reviewed because they were not in pro markets. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/36 "2017-04-05T21:37:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _The Three Body Problem_ has some great sequences (notably the description of the Cultural Revolution) but overall was good but not great. Agreed. I actually started to get a bit bored of it around 3/4th of the way through. The stilted dialogue really started to annoy me. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/37 "2017-04-09T17:44:46Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Agreed. I actually started to get a bit bored of it around 3/4th of the way through. The stilted dialogue really started to annoy me. I wondered how much of the stilted dialog was due to translation. Often translated dialog comes across that way to me. Anyway, I just finished **A Closed and Common Orbit** , the sequel to **A Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet**. It’s a very different book from Chambers’s first–though set in the same universe with a tiny bit of character overlap, it’s not a picaresque novel, and it’s not nearly as funny. That said, I loved the first one, and thought this one was even better, finishing the whole book in less than a day. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/38 "2017-04-09T18:53:45Z")
Haven’t read any of them. Big SF fan who can’t stand fantasy, which is so proliferant (which should be a word) now that it’s hard to find actual SF titles with all that stuff about vampires, etc crowding the shelves. But yeah, I haven’t “kept up” either. I look to see if my faves have something new out, the once that aren’t dead that is. If not, I’m off to the used section. ---
**Author:** ![Amara\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@Amara\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amara_1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/39 "2017-04-09T19:22:50Z")
Really enjoyed **Ninefox Gambit**. It was one of the best things I read last year. It took two tries to get into it but it was definitely worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741/40 "2017-04-09T19:24:55Z")
> [@Amara\_1](#): > > Really enjoyed **Ninefox Gambit**. It was one of the best things I read last year. It took two tries to get into it but it was definitely worth it. Me, too (as I mention above). I’m looking forward to the sequels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-hugo-nominations-are-out/783741.md?page=3)