March 3, 2015

My Complete 2015 Hugo Awards Nominations Ballot (Finished on 3/10/15)

SF/F Commentary

Reading Time

It’s that time again. Hugo Awards time. Since the nomination period closes on March 10th, 2015, I figure it’s time to start sharing my ballot with the world.

Note: this list is extremely incomplete and will be periodically updated as I find things to add to unfilled categories. Categories are also subject to change. If you have suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments (seriously; I’m very scatterbrained at the moment, so I’m missing all kinds of things).

Here goes:

Best Novel (Just Let Me Nominate 12 Novels…)

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
Memory of Water by Emmi Itaranta
Breach Zone by Myke Cole
The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

Best Novella

Scale Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Immersion Press)
Grand Jeté (The Great Leap) by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Press)
Where the Trains Turn by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Tor.com)
The Mothers of Voorhisville by Mary Rickert (Tor.com)
Hath No Fury by Kat Howard (Subterranean Press)

Best Novelette

“From the Nothing, With Love” by Project Itoh (Phantasm Japan)
“The End of the End of Everything” by Dale Bailey (Tor.com)
“Among the Thorns” by Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com)
“Reborn” by Ken Liu (Tor.com)
“The Bonedrake’s Penance” by Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

Under consideration:

“Three Partitions” by Bogi Takács (Giganotosaurus)

Best Short Story

“A Whisper in the Weld” by Alix E. Harrow (Shimmerzine)
“Autodidact” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Clarkesworld)
“A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide” by Sarah Pinsker (F&SF)
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” by Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous)
“Makeisha in Time” by Rachael K. Jones (Crossed Genres)

Under consideration:

“Never the Same” by Polenth Blake (Strange Horizons)
“Resurrection Points” by Usman T. Malik (Strange Horizons)

Best Related Work

Jodorovsky’s Dune (dir. Frank Pavich)
Special Needs in Strange Worlds (SF Signal; ed. Sarah Chorn)
Speculative Fiction 2013 (Ana Grilo and Thea James)
Rocket Talk (Justin Landon; Tor.com)

Best Graphic Story

Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal (G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona)
The Wake (Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy)
Saga Vol. 3 (Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples)
Saga Vol. 4 (Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples)
Uncanny X-Men: The Good, the Bad, the Inhuman (Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo, and Kristafer Anka)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

Interstellar (dir. Christopher Nolan)
Snowpiercer (dir. Bong Joon-ho)
Edge of Tomorrow (dir. Doug Liman)
Big Hero 6 (dirs. Don Hall and Chris Williams)
Guardians of the Galaxy (dir. James Gunn)

Reconsidering: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (dirs. Anthony and Joe Russo)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

“Tempest Fugit” from Sleepy Hollow (Season One)(written by Mark Goffman; dir. Paul Edwards)
“Turn, Turn, Turn” from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season One)(written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; dir. Vincent Misiano)
“The Watchers on the Wall” from Game of Thrones (Season Four)(written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss; dir. Neil Marshall)
“The Children” from Game of Thrones (Season Four)(written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss; dir. Alex Graves)
“The Last Stand” from Legend of Korra (Season Four)(written by Michael Dante Dimartino; dir. Melchior Zwyer)

Best Editor (Long Form)

Anne Perry (Hodder & Stoughton)
Jenni Hill (Orbit UK)
Lee Harris (Angry Robot Books)
Amanda Rutter (Strange Chemistry and Angry Robot Books)
Julian Pavia (Crown/Broadway)

Best Editor (Short Form)

Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld)
Andy Cox (Interzone)
Julia Rios (Strange Horizons and Kaleidoscope)
Alisa Krasnostein (Kaleidoscope)
Ellen Datlow (Tor.com)

Best Professional Artist

Under consideration: Sam Burley, Richard Anderson, Galen Dara, and Noah Bradley.

Best Semiprozine

The Book Smugglers (Ana Grilo and Thea James)
Interzone (ed. Andy Cox)
Strange Horizons (ed. by a legion)
Giganotosaurus (ed. Rashida J. Smith)
Crossed Genres (eds. Bart R. Leib, Kay T. Holt, and Kelly Jennings)

Best Fanzine

A Dribble of Ink (Aidan Moher)
Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together (TheG and Vance Kotlra)
Bookworm Blues (Sarah Chorn)
Ecdysis (Jonathan Crowe)
Lady Business (Renay, Ana, and Jodie)

Under Consideration: SFF Mistressworks (Ian Sales)

Best Fancast

Doorway to the Hidden World (Jeffrey Pelton, who is totally not Kevin Lux)
The Incomparable (Jason Snell)
The Book Was Better (???)
The Writer and the Critic (Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond)

Best Fan Writer

Sarah Chorn
Paul Weimer
Foz Meadows
Abigail Nussbaum
Natalie Luhrs

Best Fan Artist

Alice X. Zhang (OMG YES)
Finnian MacManus (OMG YES)
euclase (some of the best still lifes ever)
Evankart (loving the Winter Soldier work)
Sandara (more beautiful art; should be making book covers)

The John W. Campbell
(YES IT IS A FUCKING HUGO SHUT UP) Award

S.L. Huang (author of Zero Sum Game)
Benjanun Sriduangkaew (author of Scale Bright)
Usman Malik (author of “Resurrection Points”)
Brian McClellan (author of the Powder Mage Trilogy)
Michael J. Martinez (author of The Enceladus Crisis)

———————————

Disclaimer (because we need these now, given the current Hugo Awards climate):

This list reflects what I think are worthy works. It is not intended for any sort of logrolling. It is not my effort to tell anyone “this is what you should vote for.” Vote for whatever the hell you want. My only hope with this list is that it introduces some folks to things they might otherwise have missed (or that it will reveal gaps in my reading/viewing that need filling).

2 Responses

Ted Cross says:

March 6, 2015 at 6:14 am

Thank you for including Martiniere on your list of Pro Artists! His work in 2014 was amazing.

Reply
1. Shaun Duke says:
  
  March 6, 2015 at 1:08 pm
  
  I've yet to be disappointed by his work, to be honest.
  
  Reply

Shaun Duke

Shaun Duke is an aspiring writer, a reviewer, and an academic. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Rhetoric and Writing at Bemidji State University. He received his PhD in English from the University of Florida and studies science fiction, postcolonialism, digital fan cultures, and digital rhetoric.

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Dr. Shaun Duke, Professional Nerd

Editor. Writer. Professor. Host.