Warm-Up to Hugo Nominations 2016

Cafe Society
1

I have never nominated anything for a Hugo, mostly because I never thought I’d read broadly enough to really have an opinion. But I’d like to fix that. I’d like your help collecting recommended reading for the 2016 Hugo Awards. First let’s look at the categories.

■Best Novel: 40,000 words or more.
■Best Novella: 17,500 to 40,000 words.
■Best Novelette: 7,500 to 17,500 words.
■Best Short Story: less than 7,500 words.
■Best Related Work: nearly anything but anthologies
■Best Graphic Story: comic book, graphic novel, webcomic, etc.
■Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): 90 minutes or longer (excluding commercials).
■Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): less than 90 minutes long (excluding commercials).
■Best Editor (Long Form): This is the first of the person categories, so the Award is given for the work that person has done in the year of eligibility. To be eligible the person must have edited at least 4 novel-length (i.e. 40,000 words or more) books devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy in the year of eligibility that are not anthologies or collections.
■Best Editor (Short Form): To be eligible the person must have edited at least four anthologies, collections or magazine issues devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy, at least one of which must have been published in the year of eligibility.
■Best Professional Artist:
■Best Semiprozine: must have produced at least 4 issues, at least one of which must have appeared in the year of eligibility and pays its contributors and/or staff actual money, but only a nominal amount.
■Best Fanzine: a minimum of 4 issues, at least one of which must have appeared in the year of eligibility - not pro or semi-pro.
■Best Fancast: Awarded for any non-professional audio- or video-casting with at least four (4) episodes that had at least one (1) episode released in the previous calendar year.
■Best Fan Writer: Can be published in fanzines, semiprozines, mailing lists, blogs, BBSs, etc. Any work in professional publications should not be considered.
■Best Fan Artist: Same as above for art.

[continued on following post]

2

The following comments may be out of order relative to the list above. And I’m still thinking the form of this thing through. I’m pretty sure that it won’t fit neatly into one thread.

For **Best Professional Artist **and Best Fan artist, I’ve never had any trouble voting. You get good examples in the voting packet and I could tell what I liked and what I liked better. I would have no clue what to nominate.

The fanzine A Dribble of Ink reviews book covers when new SFF books are published. That’s about the only place I’d know to look for SFF art. If someone knows other places to look, please post them. Also if someone wants to start a Years Best SFF Art thread, I will gladly link to it.

For the big, regular awards (novel, novella, novelette, and short story) it’s kind of straightforward. The novels, especially, fit into a You Have to Read This New SFF Novel type of thread. Which could be this thread. Although for finding short stories, I probably need a list of subscriptions I ought to be signing up for. If I really want to grit my teeth, I’d need to look for self publishing sites and review sites.

Best Related Work is a grab bag. It’s going to have to be its own thread. I don’t even want to think about it, here.

The two Editor awards - who digs in enough to know who to nominate? I’m not even sure where to dig. Although the short Editor is magazines and anthologies. In my mind, that should be easier to compare than the long form. I can guess what an editor is doing, there, more than I can with people who are editing novels.

[continued again]

3

Quicker comments.

Best Graphic Story - probably deserves its own thread. (Oh, no! I’ll have to read comics and webcomics. I’ll have to ask people to make recommendations!

Best Dramatic Presentation Long and Short could go together. Apparently in past years the Short has been dominated by Doctor Who episodes.

Best Semiprozine and Best Fanzine can go together. I will have to find a clue.

Best Fancast - definitely going to need help with this one.

Best Fan Writer - here, too.

Anyone who feels like they can grab a category and run with it, feel free. If you’re recommending things, I’d appreciate it if you can include a reference to the category to make it easy to search and find by keywords.

Thanks ahead of time.

4

Interesting thread idea! I haven’t read enough new stuff to have much to say, but I did some spelunking around on the internet. I found two blogs (with a lazy search) that had some lists. I don’t know these blog authors, so I’m not vouching for their taste, but it’s often easier to start with something!

Rebekah Golden

Chaos Horizon

Novels common to both lists are:

The End of All Things by John Scalzi
Armada by Ernest Cline
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
The Fifth Season (The Broken Stone #1) by N.K. Jemisin
The Just City (Thessaly #1) by Jo Walton

5

I’d suggest Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings. I haven’t read it, but Liu has been producing some of the best short stories in the field that past few years, and this is bound to be a contender. (Liu did take home Hugo this year as translator for The Three-Body Problem, and has a couple of others for short stories)

6

As for some of the other categories:

Best Editor (Short Form)
You need to consider Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld and Mike Resnick of Galaxy’s Edge. Clarke has been publishing some high-quality fiction for several years, with several Nebula and Hugo Winners. Galaxy’s Edge has consistently high quality fiction. Clarke is more literary, but both are doing fine work.

There are also the big three markets: Analog (Trevor Quachri), Asimov’s (Sheila Williams) and F&SF (C. C. Finlay). Williams has won a few times, but Quachri and Finlay both took over in the past year. Quachri seems to be changing the director of Analog a little bit.

John Joseph Adams has been nominated several times without a win. He edits Lightspeed and has a bunch of anthologies out every year. I don’t care much for the stories he chooses, but there’s no doubt he’s doing something right.

Ellen Datlow is a perennial candidate. She does anthologies, including the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror series.

7

Alas, no longer. The series ended in 2008. It was far and away my favorite source for short stories; Windling and Datlow were great at finding gems.

I recently read Uprooted, and while it was pretty fun, I’m not sure I’d put it at Hugo level. The Library at Mount Char was the very next book I read and might be a contender: it’s gory and nasty and very funny for those as likes gallows humor. Neither is especially science-fictiony; Uprooted is 100% fantasy, whereas Mt. Char is more like Star Wars, making sciency noises but a fantasy at heart. Gaiman’s short story collection? I know I’m in a minority, but I like Gaiman the person a lot more than I like him as a writer. He rarely does much for me. There’s a particular story in Trigger Warnings that I especially liked (about a treasure hunter), but I didn’t even finish the collection, having lost interest.

8

By the way, thanks for that list, jsgoddess! I’m seeing a lot of names on there who’ve written stuff I loved, and knowing they have new books out gives me a list to take to the library.

If you’ve not read books by these folks, I highly encourage you to seek them out:
Clair North
N.K. Jemisin
Ken Liu
Ann Leckie
James S.A Corey
Nnedi Okorafor

9

I agree that Uprooted deserves to be on the Best Novel list. I haven’t read most of the others on the lists yet. I hope to get my hands on the Jemisin soon. I did read The Library at Mount Char and think it had too many flaws to be on the list. [Side note, this is the second thread where LHOD and I seem to read the same books but flip their personal rankings around :)]

I’m not sure if this is in the Novelette category or Novella but I also enjoyed Bujold’s Penric’s Demon short from her Chalion universe.

10

Heh, The Library at Mount Char is next on my list - a total “cold buy” of the old-fashioned kind (saw it in a bookstore, read the cover, thought it worth a risk).

Here’s hoping it’s good.

11

Claire North’s First Fifteen Lives of Harry North was one book I read this year and it was fantastic. I second the suggestion to read it. It sounded a little too Time Traveller’s Wife to me and I kept putting it off.

I also second the Jemisin and Leckie suggestions. I didn’t like the Corey books as much as I like the books by Daniel Abraham. They are slow but I’d suggest them as well. (If you don’t know, James S.A. Corey is the pen name for a collaboration between Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).
I haven’t ready anything yet by Nnedi Okorafor but I do have her upcoming book on hold at the library.
I’d also suggest Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni if you haven’t read that before.
Finally, I love anything by Ilona Andrews but I don’t think they are Hugo worthy. They are books I re-read with great characterization and tight prose but I don’t think they do anything new.

One other note on the Hugo Nominations. You don’t have to read widely or even fill out a full list for the Nominations. If the only thing you thought Hugo worthy was a single short story then list that and leave everything else blank.

12

Sweet! People are interested!

Thanks jsgoddess. I’m going to check out those links.

Thanks to RealityChuck for the editor information. I’m way behind in that category. Also, you started my list of magazines to subscribe to. I’ll check the Hugo rules, too, to see if a short story qualifies if it was in a magazine in a previous year but anthologized this year.

Left Hand of Dorkness, thanks for the novel notice and for the Gaiman short story collection. I’ll check both out. And I’ll check out Amara’s novella suggestion (unless it’s a novellette). I agree that you don’t have to have read broadly to know that you love something and want to nominate it.

Novels in 2015:
Armada by Ernest Cline
The End of All Things by John Scalzi
**The Fifth Season **(The Broken Stone #1) by N.K. Jemisin
First Fifteen Lives of Harry North by Claire North
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
The Just City (Thessaly #1) by Jo Walton
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Short Stories:
(collection) Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

Novelette or Novella:
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold

Recommended authors not on the novel list:
Clair North
Ann Leckie
James S.A Corey
Nnedi Okorafor
Daniel Abraham
Ilona Andrews

Thanks again, everyone. This is great.

I know that just before nominations open, John Scalzi runs a blog post on nominations for the Hugo. Any commenter can cheerlead for any work, even their own. I’m slow, though, so by then it’s too late for me to start thinking about candidates.

13

I’m sorry-I went off on a tangent.
The Golem and Jinniand First 15 lives of Harry August (I had a typo in the original post) are older books. They are not eligible this year.

Ancillary Mercy is coming out later this year and it may be a contender for best novel. Prachett has his very last book (Shepherd’s Crown** coming out next week and that may also be in the running for best novel.

Are you also interested in suggestions for the Campbell Award - Best New Writer?

14

I’m loving many of these suggestions, but I want to say that I read Armada and if it’s a contender for best anything besides “Most Disappointing Sophomore Attempt” then I’m going to get a new hobby.

15

This is another lazy list . . . lists. I went through A Dribble of Ink (Hugo winner for fanzine) and pulled all the articles on cover art and short story collections that they’ve printed this year.

I’m fuzzy on qualifying year for art. There are some articles that I left off because the book isn’t going to come out until next year. But the covers are completed and the art has been shown online. shrug

Best Professional Artist:

Richard Anderson is doing art for a lot of covers. Empire Ascendant, Sunset Mantle, The Last Mortal Bond, and also “The Builders” by Daniel Polansky and Time Salvager by Wesley Chu

Tommy Arnold did the cover for Cover Art for Skyborn by David Daglish - A Dribble of Ink .

The article didn’t list the artist (apparently it’s “the Gollancz art team”) for the UK release of Twelve Kings, which was released in the US under the name Twelve Kings in Sharakhaiwith a cover by Adam Paquette.

Marc Simonetti did the cover for The Death of Dulgath.

Someone named Summers, working for Hodder & Stoughton, did a new cover for a re-release of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.
by ?? Summers

Gollancz in-house designer Graeme Longhorns did the cover for the UK release of Shattered Wings. The artist for theUS releasewas not named.

Bands of Mourning will be released in 2016 - no artist listed

Jackie Morris did the cover for Fool’s Quest.

Alejandro Colucci did the cover for The Thorn of Emberlain.

John Harris did the cover for Ancillary Mercy. It’s from the same piece of art that produced the covers for Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword, so it may not qualify. I think he’s busy enough to have produced other covers this year.

The cover art for Small Angry Planetwas listed as the same art as when it was self published. No name given.

Julie Dillon did The Best of Kate Elliot, a **short story **collection.

I liked the art for the cover of Karen Memory, but don’t see an artist listed.

Art not on book covers:

Veronique Meignaud

Andy Fairhurst

Theo Prins art

Sharks Den

John Hutchinson art

Lauren Saint-Onge
**Short Story Collections (with editors where listed): **

The End Has Come is the final volume of a tryptich of short story collections on the theme of the end of the world as we know it. The previous collections are The End is Nigh and The End Is Here. Edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey.

Tide of Shadows and other stories by Aidan Moher—Hugo Award-winning editor of A Dribble of Ink. It looks self-published, but I’m going to give it a try because I like the fanzine.
Related Work and Editor (short):

Speculative Fiction 2014, a collection of reviews and commentary. This is the third volume in a Hugo Award-nominated series, edited by Renee Williams and Shaun Duke.

16

Thanks for updating. I’ll fix the list, probably tomorrow. Feel free to point out anything I’ve listed that doesn’t qualify or is in the wrong category.

I didn’t add the Campbell Award because I couldn’t remember if we can nominate for it along with the Hugo nominations, but I think that we can. So suggestions for the Campbell Award are very welcome.

17

It’s counted from date of first publication, so if it was published in 2014, it doesn’t qualify for next year.

Best Fanzine is usually given to the usual suspects, but in any fair ballot, Ansible should be the leading candidate for its coverage of the Puppies, which let you see what both sides were saying.

I’m a bit biased (I review for them), but I think Tangent Online deserves to be considered. The editor, Dave Truesdale, has made it his mission to review every piece of short fiction published each year; it’s been in business since the 80s. You can also read the reviews to give you ideas about what you might want to read and at the end of the year they put together an extensive recommended reading list.

18

I freakin’ loved this one. Far better than Ready Player One and just a good, old-fashioned story (in the good way–the prose doesn’t get in the way of the characters or the plot) with a twist about how being genre savvy isn’t always to your advantage. This story, assuming that the Puppies really are about diversity of story and storytelling over artsy-fartsy poetry, should shut the Puppies up.

The Just City (Thessaly #1) by Jo Walton
I started this and loved it but got distracted by a new (to me) book by something else* and set it down. I’ve got to get back to it now that you reminded me. If the last 3/4ths is as good as the first 1/4, it’ll be well worth a nomination.
*I realized that there was a “new” Garrett book out (Glen Cook) about a year and a half ago that I missed.

19

Then it is pistols at dawn, sir! :wink:

I really enjoyed it.

20

I picked this one up at random from the library and really, really enjoyed it. Her next book, Touch, was written this year. It was a lot of fun. I don’t know if it was award-worthy, but I wouldn’t be sad to see it win.

The first three Corey books were wonderful, IMO, the most robust traditional space opera I’ve read in forever. (I’m excluding Leckie from this because hers is so wonderfully weird). I didn’t enjoy the fourth one as much, but it was all right. Maybe I’m just worn out on those characters.

Only thing I’ve read by her is Who Fears Death, read it a month ago or so. It was pretty intense–postapocalyptic fantasy set in an Africa that suffers from a lot of the same ills as modern Africa (genocide, child soldiers, clitoridectomies, rape as a war tactic, etc.). But it’s quite good.

Yes! That would have been an excellent nominee for last year.