Hugo Awards Recommendations: Which shorts / novelettes / novellas have I missed?
It’s almost that time again: time to nominate stuff for the Hugos. I usually miss a lot of stuff throughout the year, so I like to reach out to readers to see what they’d recommend so I can create a reading list for myself. Last time, you folks recommended so much that I ended up with a 1,200-page ebook! I want to give myself a little more time for the next nominating season. So…which short stories, novelettes, and novellas should I be reading? Let me know in the comments below!
The Hugos in “Turmoil” and the Glee Crowd
There seems to be a contingent of fandom that takes pleasure in any perceived disorder in the Hugo Awards. They themselves love sf/f, often because they write in the genre themselves, but when it comes to one of the most important awards, it’s almost as if they are excited for its fall from grace, perceived or otherwise. In some cases, they declare their hope that the award simply dies; in other cases, their public displays of laughter are all the indicators one needs to determine how they feel about the Hugos. I don’t know why they take pleasure in Hugo controversies. At first, I thought it might be due to jealousy, since many of these same folks don’t get nominated in any of the categories or rarely see their own nominees appear,[1] but that would make their opinions petty and pathetic rather than detrimental. I think it goes much deeper than that; they are to the Hugos what the Joker is to Batman: they just want to see the world burn. This attitude should bother any of us who care about this genre for a number of reasons. First, while the Hugos may not be the arbiter of quality they are traditionally thought to be — indeed, they never were, being a semi-populist award from the start — they do remain an important feature of the sf/f genre. They are not, as some Hugo-lovers might suggest, the end-all-be-all of sf/f awards, in no small part because there are so many other awards which are equally important, though not necessarily as visible; the Hugos also fall short due to their very nature, which will by necessity critically alienate anyone who doesn’t value semi-populist views of what’s “best” in this genre. But they are important, even in a limited, fandom-bloc-oriented sense. The idea that these awards should die is, as such, like asking the genre to amputate its arm. Second, these awards are important to a lot of people, not just the SMoFs, but other authors, Worldcon attendees, and readers.[2] You may not agree with their views, as I often do not, but to take pleasure in the idea that something of importance to a bunch of individuals might go away or lose all significance is the worst sort of schadenfreude. The Hugos have been part of sf/f fandom for decades and were a way for sf/f fans to recognize the works they loved when nobody else would. These days, the Hugos serve a different purpose, but they remain important to a lot of people. I may not agree with the way the awards are run or how people vote for them, but I won’t begrudge the WSFS committee members or the voters for their passion for the award (if, indeed, it is passion for the award[3]). Those who enjoy seeing the Hugos mired in controversy seem to care little about the people who love what the Hugos represent in principle. This kind of sniping, fragmentary nature of fandom likewise seems counterproductive, as it necessitates the disconnection between fandom groups rather than their interaction. This, in turn, reinforces the bubble attitudes and makes change difficult. How can one expect the Hugos to change if the communities who participate in it or don’t aren’t actually talking about with one another. Fragmentation is not necessarily a good thing. It creates bubbles. Those bubbles become echo chambers. Nobody adds anything new to an echo chamber, and if you’re not adding anything new, you can’t adapt. I don’t particularly want to see the Hugos become an echo chamber. It needs to adapt with the times; to do that, people need to criticize it and participate for the love (however you want to code it).[4] If you don’t care about the awards, the reasonable response would be to simply ignore them. But the response I keep seeing is one of passive destruction. Some people want the Hugos to die, not because there is anything inherently wrong with the awards in and of themselves, but because they dislike the award for one reason or another. It’s about destruction, not construction. It’s about burning down the house for the laughs, not rebuilding the foundations. It would be one thing if the conversation were about putting more attention on other awards in an effort to add credibility to the genre; it’s entirely another to hope for the demise of any individual award simply because one disagrees with how they function, what they represent, and so on. The former is a constructive attitude; the latter is world burning. I’m one of the many who criticize the awards. While I can’t speak for all the others, I can say that my criticism comes from a position of love. I want the Hugos to be better. So do a lot of other people, especially those who have criticized the awards’ diversity, bloc voting practices, and so on. These are legitimate issues, and they should be addressed. And the best way to correct what you think are the flaws in the Hugos is to become a voting member.[5] But burning the award or taking pleasure in its demise is the kind of thing that makes fandom intolerable. This field deserves better. ————————————- [1]: In my honest opinion, some of them really deserve Hugo recognition. [2]: Not all readers, mind you. As has become clear in the discussions about the Hugos on Twitter, even readers who know about the Hugos don’t necessarily care if a book or author has won one. For me, this is a bit of a sticky area. Having involved myself in the Worldcon/Hugo universe over the last few years has reminded me that the award does not necessarily represent what I consider to be good, even though I am also a nominee on this year’s ballot — granted, I’m nominated in a very different category from literature (fancasts). [3]: As we have seen this year, there are some who vote with the intention of disrupting the process, often for political gain.
(Updated!) 2014 Hugo Nominee Ballot: The Full List + 1939 Retro-Hugo Nominees
I’ve decided to collapse everything into one post so I don’t have to drop a dozen things tonight. Due to time constraints, I have also left out a lot of the explanations and introductions for the various sections, as I wanted to do some more short fiction reading before I submitted my final ballot. Here’s the full ballot: Best Novel I feel like this is one of those categories where no matter what I do, I’ll always miss something. 2013 wasn’t a huge reading year for me, and that means there are just too many bloody novels I didn’t have time to get to. Thankfully, I got to read some exceptional books, even if they are only 1% of the things published in sf/f in 2013. My list: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Best Novella “Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com) “Martyr’s Gem” by C.S.E. Cooney (GigaNotoSaurus) Best Novelette “Monday’s Monk” by Jason Sanford (Asimov’s) “The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard (self-published) “Painted Birds and Shivered Bones” by Kat Howard (Subterranean Press) Best Short Story “The Water That Falls on You From Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com) “Effigy Nights” by Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld) “Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Clakesworld) “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com) “Walls of Skin, Soft as Paper” by Adam Callaway (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) Best Related Work Speculative Fiction 2012 edited by Jared Shurin and Justin Landon Feminist Frequency: Tropes vs. Women by Anita Sarkeesian Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Ytasha L. Womack The Agony Column by Rick Kleffel SF History Column by Andrew Liptak (at Kirkus Reviews) Best Graphic Story Batman Vol. 1: Court of Owls by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (DC) Avengers, Vol. 1: Avengers World by Jonathan Hickman and Jerone Opena (Marvel) Saga, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image) Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 1: Revolution by Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo, and Frazier Irving (Marvel) All-New X-Men, Vol. 1: Yesterday’s X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen (Marvel) Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Pacific Rim Her Elysium The World’s End Gravity Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form “The Rains of Castamere,” Game of Thrones “The Sin Eater,” Sleepy Hollow “The Midnight Ride,” Sleepy Hollow “Trou Normand,” HannibalI will explain why I picked this episode with an image.You’re welcome. “The Poet’s Fire,” The Following Best Editor (Short Form) Djibril al-Ayad Fabio Fernandes Andy Cox Neil Clarke Patrick Nielsen Hayden Best Editor (Long Form) Tim Holman (Orbit Books) Lee Harris (Angry Robot Books) Devi Pillai (Orbit Books) Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor Books) Anne Perry (Hodder) Best Professional Artist Noah Bradley Richard Anderson Sam Burley Kentaro Kanamoto Kekai Kotaki Best Semiprozine Interzone Clarkesworld Beneath Ceaseless Skies Strange Horizons Apex Magazine Best Fanzine A Dribble of Ink Pornokitsch The Book Smugglers Fantasy Book Cafe LadyBusiness Best Fancast The Coode Street Podcast The Writer and the Critic Galactic Suburbia The Incomparable The Skiffy and Fanty Show Best Fan Writer Kameron Hurley Foz Meadows Paul Weimer Abigail Nussbaum Justin Landon Best Fan Artist Euclase Yuumei / Wenqing Yan Sarah Webb Alice X. Zhang Angela Rizza The 2014 Campbell Award Benjanun Sriduangkaew Max Gladstone Brian McClellan Myke Cole John Chu —————————————— And these are my selections for the 1939 Retro-Hugos (with a lot of gaps): Best Novel The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White Galactic Patrol by E.E. Doc Smith Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson Best Novella “The Time Trap” by Henry Kuttner “The Black Drama” by Manly Wade Wellman “The Sleepers of Mars” by John Wyndham Best Novelette “The Loot of Time” by Clifford D. Simak “Reunion on Ganymede” by Clifford D. Simak “The Dead Spot” by Jack Williamson Best Graphic Story Action Comics #1 Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form A Christmas Carol (film) Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Flash Gordon: The Planet of Terror (or the whole series) Around the World in Eighty Days (radio series) The War of the Worlds (radio series) The Shadow (radio series) Best Editor, Short Form John W. Campbell, Jr. Mort Weisinger Farnsworth Wright Raymond A. Palmer T O’Conor Sloane Best Fanzine Imagination! Best Fan Writer Forrest J. Ackerman And that’s it!
2014 Hugo Nominee Ballot: Best Related Work
(Update: I ‘m going to have to change my selections; it was pointed out to me by Mari Ness that this category is only for non-fiction, which means I can’t have any collections here. Right now, I am extremely frustrated about the absence of a category for anthologies and collections.) This remains one of the ridiculous categories on the Hugo Ballot, since it is essentially a repository for all the things that don’t fit anywhere else (which is what folks have been saying as long as I can remember discussing the Hugos as something more than just “that award thing”). So my selections are going to be full of fiction collections which don’t fit elsewhere because there isn’t a “best collection or anthology” category. Here are my selections: Speculative Fiction 2012 edited by Jared Shurin and Justin Landon Despite the fact that I am one of the editors of next year’s edition, I have to say that Shurin’s and Landon’s landmark collection of criticism and commentary from the sf/f blogosphere is easily one of the most important non-fiction books released last year. This is the first time I can think of in which the web-based side of the sf/f community was recognized for its contributions on its own, and so I see this book as a necessary push toward a more digital perspective of sf/f criticism. Other folks have nominated it, so I assume they agree. Feminist Frequency: Tropes vs. Women by Anita Sarkeesian While I don’t always agree with Sarkeesian’s analysis, I find her overall work incredibly important to our field, even if she is mostly focused on video games (which are often sf/f, too). And despite the fact that a lot of really angry people keep crying about how wrong she is, her videos have sparked so much discussion about representation in video games that it’s hard to ignore the influence. Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee If there’s one collection of reprinted short stories you absolutely must have from 2013, it’s this one. Lee’s stories are vivid, original, weird, and beautiful. Some of the stories so engulfed me in their tiny worlds that I found myself yearning for more — novel-length more. After reading Conservation of Shadows, Lee became one of my favorite current short story writers. We interviewed Lee on The Skiffy and Fanty Show last year. Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Ytasha L. Womack The second I heard about this book, I became crazy excited about it. It reminded me of my days in college, when I learned about Sun Ra and other extraordinary African American writers who were doing cool stuff before I was born (or before I had learned to read); shortly after, we learned a bit about the current flock, which acted as a gateway into my interesting postcolonialism. This is a book about that world of sf/f, and so it has a special place in my heart. If you haven’t checked it out, you really shoot. We See a Different Frontier: a Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Fabio Fernandes and Djibril al-Ayad As a postcolonial scholar, I am always on the lookout for fiction collections and academic books on that very subject. Perhaps arriving unintentionally on the heels of So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy (2004) edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan, We See a Different Frontier offers a stunning collection of stories that explore the postcolonial condition through the eyes of the colonized. The academic side of me salivates when I think about this book; the fan side of me would eat the pages if it meant it could get more story out of them. The Agony Column by Rick Kleffel I nominated it last year because Kleffel’s interviews are some of the best in the business and because he doesn’t fit into the Best Fancast category. And so that’s why I’m nominating The Agony Column this year. The interviews are always informative and fascinating, and Kleffel brings together sf/f with the literary world in a way that sometimes makes me forget that I’m mostly only interested in sf/f. If you’re not a listener, you should be. Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall Much like the other Afrofuturism book on this list, Campbell and Hall’s brilliant collection of afrofuturist stories immediately made me jump with excitement. This is exactly the kind of collection I want to see gracing the bookshelves and bestseller lists. International, varied, and beautiful all around. Oh, and the stories are pretty darn good, too! SF History Column by Andrew Liptak (at Kirkus Reviews) You know you love some sf history, right? So do I. Andrew’s columns are informative, well-written, and worth reading. This essay on Washington Irving is solid. Or how about this one on Weird Tales? Or this one on Lord Dunsany? Oh, hell, just go read his column. So that’s what I’m nominating in this category. What about you?
2014 Hugo Nominee Ballot: Best Fanzine
Well, it’s that time again: nominating blogs instead of traditional zines, primarily because this is the medium I prefer to read in and which publishes the content I like reading. But enough of that. Here are my nominations: A Dribble of Ink Aidan Moher’s rather prolific blog also presented some truly awesome work in 2013, including essays from Foz Meadows and Kameron Hurley (who appear on my Best Fanwriter list) and many more. It’s a good introduction to the discourse of sf/f fandom, so if you’re not reading, give it a shot. Pornokitsch On the more “academic” side of the scale is Pornokitsch, wherein one can find the Kitschies, discussions about genre and criticism, and examinations of things not typically considered in sf/f (like pulp detective novels). That combination of things makes this one worthy of consideration for a Hugo. The Book Smugglers One of the best group blogs out there, The Book Smugglers provides reviews, news, discussions, guest posts, and more. They are also home to Smugglivus, an end-of-the-year celebration of all that is awesome about sf/f books and more. They cover a huge amount of material throughout the year; how they do it is beyond me. Fantasy Book Cafe Home to the Women in SF/F feature, now an annual exploration, FBC is another blog contributing a great deal of material to the sf/f world while also engaging in a fair amount of critical self-reflection. That criticism comes from a place of love, as in the case of the other entries on this list. Love, after all, is kind of a fannish thing. LadyBusiness This group blog is notable for its rather personal exploration of fandom from the position of fans. While they do obviously pay a lot of attention to representation issues and provide excellent reviews and insightful commentary, I think the way they move between the poles of a fandom is noteworthy. And that’s that.
2014 Hugo Nominee Ballot: Best Fan Writer
There are far too many amazing fan writers out there. This list began with 20-30 names, which I whittled down to 8. Then I flipped a bunch of 8-sided die to pick the final 5 (or something like that). So, here’s what I picked this year: Kameron Hurley One of the things I love about Hurley’s writing is the way she uses personal anecdotes and analogies to address the issues throughout our genre, particularly as they relate to representation and gender. She also writes about the writing world and much more, but I think her strongest work involves her critiques of our genre’s representation problems, particularly this essay at A Dribble of Ink. Foz Meadows She is by far my favorite feminist writer in the sf/f world. Her analysis of the SFWA fiasco last year, for example, is well worth reading, if not because you need persuading, then at least to bask in the intensity of her rhetoric and the profound analyses she provides. Her “controversial” writing style probably works against her among certain circles, but I personally think she deserves to make it to the final ballot. Paul Weimer This is my only almost-traditional fanwriter selection. I should note up front that Paul is a friend, so I’m a tad biased. That said, there’s something about Paul’s all-encompassing involvement in sf/f that I think must be recognized. He is everywhere, adding his thoughts on everything from books to commentary to sf/f history to his personal connection to genre. He’s like the singularity of the fanwriter. He writes columns for multiple websites (including one of mine — The Skiffy and Fanty Show). He tweets more than any other human being on the planet (or close to it), reads and reads and reads and just shares his love for sf/f in a way that is exhausting, but also so endearing. Genre loves Paul. It must love Paul. Abigail Nussbaum Easily one of the best reviewers in the blogosphere, Nussbaum’s detailed and well-reasoned posts are responsible for her inclusion on this list. This review of Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria, for example, is a glorious piece of work. Her many posts on films and literature are practically essential reading, so if you haven’t checked out her blog, you need to do so now. Justin Landon Remember when Justin wrote some thing about the Hugos and pissed off a bunch of people? Me, too. And it was beautiful. He writes about a lot of other things, too, such as books and what not, but I suspect he is best remembered for his criticisms of what he sees as the flaws or issues within our genre. And he has this extraordinary ability to spark conversation, which I think is hard to come by sometimes. And that’s it. So, what did you pick?