Hugo belongs to the World Science Fiction Society
So today marks the opening of the Hugo nomination period. In case you don’t know, Hugos are the awards given out by the World Science Fiction Society for the best works of science fiction and fantasy first published in the previous year. They are currently given out in the following categories: Best Novel (Stories of 40,000 words or more), Best Novella (Stories of between 17,500 and 40,000 words), Best Novelette (Stories of between 7,500 and 17,500 words), Best Short Story (Stories of less than 7,500 words), Best Related Work (Works which are either non-fiction or noteworthy for reasons other than the fictional text), Best Graphic Story (Stories told in graphic form), Best Dramatic Presentation (Long and Short Forms) (Dramatized productions, divided between works longer or shorter than 90 minutes), Best Semiprozine (Semi-professional magazines), Best Fanzine (Non-professional magazines), Best Professional Editor (Long and Short Forms) (Editors of written works, divided between editors of novels or magazines and anthologies), Best Professional Artist (Professional artists), Best Fan Artist (Fan artists), Best Fan Writer (Fan writers) and Best Fancast (Audiovisual fanzines). Any nominee must have been published for the first time in the previous year, which for these awards is of course 2013. The nominations are set and voted on by the members of the award year’s Worldcon. You can become a member by buying an attending or supporting membership here. Even the supporting memberships are totally worth the money because besides being able to vote on who the award actually goes to, you get copies of all of the nominated works (not including films Dramatic Presentation) for both Hugos and the Campbell Award. That’s at least ten books and then some.
Having never sold anything I’m not eligible but a lot of really fabulous stuff is. And I’ve read a lot of it during the last year. So in the interests of trying to clarify what I want to vote for, here’s a list of Hugo eligible stuff I’ve read or seen in the last year. Unfortunately I don’t know about all of the categories so here are just most of them.
Best Novel
- Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal
- Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
- Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
- Parasite by Mira Grant
- Codex Born by Jim C. Hines
- Poison by Sarah Pinborough
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane
- White Trash Zombie Apocalypse by Diana Rowland
- NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
On a personal note, this is probably the hardest category for me to choose from because of the number of truly excellent books published last year.
Best Novella
- The B-Team by John Scalzi
Best Novelette
Best Short Story
- Homecoming by Seanan McGuire Honestly, this is probably the one I’m voting on because I’m addicted to it.
- Enyo-Enyo by Kameron Hurley
- Help Fund My Robot Army by Keffi Kehrli
Best Related Work
- The Mallet of Loving Correction by John Scalzi
- Writing Excuses
- Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer
Best Graphic Story
- Girl Genius Volume 12: Siege of Mechanicsburg by Phil and Kaja Foglio
- Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom by Bill Willingham, Lauren Beukes and Inaki Miranda
Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form
- Frozen
- Iron Man 3
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- Pacific Rim
Best Professional Editor Short Form
- John Joseph Adams (Lightspeed and several anthologies
- Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld)
- Sheila Williams (Asimov’s Science Fiction)
Best Fancast
Recent Comments