My 2015 Hugo Votes

I know you've all been wondering how I voted this year on the Hugo Award.  I usually like to get my favorites out there before the voting is closed, but I was reading right up until the day the voting closed.  I had my votes in but then it took me some time to actually write up this post.  I'm lazy.  Deal with it.

But I realized that World Con is coming up next week, so I better get this out there.  And guess what!  I'm going to be at World Con!  I will totally be in the room when the Hugo winners are announced!  So get excited for me to geek it up.  But while you're doing that, here are my votes.  Each category has more than just a vote.  For the Hugos, you rank all of the nominees in order from best to worst.

Where I could find them, I linked to where you could purchase or read the works in question.  Also, in cases where I had written a review on Goodreads, I linked to that as well.

Enjoy!


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Best Novel

I really enjoyed The Three Body Problem.  I loved that it had lots of science, but it was also kind of a mystery as I tried to figure out what the three body problem was.  Once that was figured out, it became a whole new kind of novel.  Great stuff.

1 Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (My review)
2 Skin Game by Jim Butcher (My review)
3 The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
4 The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson
5 Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (My review)

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Best Novella

I really enjoyed One Bright Star to Guide Them.  It was a tribute to fantasy that features children such as The Chronicles of Narnia but the book features children who have had such an adventure but they are now adults.  I thought it was really unique and fun.

1 One Bright Star to Guide Them by John C. Wright (My review)
2 The Plural of Helen of Troy by John C. Wright
3 Big Boys Don't Cry by Tom Kratman (My review)
4 Pale Realms of Shade by John C. Wright
5 Flow by Arlan Andrews, Sr

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Best Novelette

1 The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale by Rajnar Vajra (Analog, Jul/Aug 2014)
2 The Day the World Turned Upside Down by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Lightspeed, April 2014)
3 Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium by Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, May 2014)
4 Championship B'tok by Edward M Lerner (Analog, Sept 2014) (My review)
5 The Journeyman: In the Stone House by Michael F. Flynn (Analog, June 2014)


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Best Short Story

I was really sad that Annie Bellet withdrew her nomination for "Goodnight Stars".  That was an excellent story and I would have voted it in first place.  Nevertheless, "A Single Samurai" is a great story too, and I'm happy to give it my first place vote.  We all knew samurai were cool, but did you know they were "take down a kaiju as big as a mountain" cool?  Well, they are.  Read the story.

1 A Single Samurai by Steven Diamond (The Baen Big Book of Monsters)
2 Turncoat by Steve Rzasa (Riding the Red Horse)
3 Totaled by Kary English (Galaxy's Edge magazine, July 2014) (My review)
4 On A Spiritual Plain by Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, Nov 2014)
5 The Parliament of Beasts and Birds by John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts and Seasons)


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Best Related Work

I'm sorry there's no cover art.  It was published on a website.  Should I just put the Baen logo?

I really enjoyed "Why Science is Never Settled."  I think it's easy for people to think that all science is 100% truth and all scientists have a 100% consensus.  This did a good job of helping us remember that science is a process of discovery.  It is not settled, and it never will be settled, and that's what's fun about it.

1 Why Science is Never Settled by Tedd Roberts
2 Letters from Gardner by Lou Antonelli
3 The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF by Ken Burnside (Riding the Red Horse)
4 Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth by John C. Wright (My review)
5 Wisdom from My Internet by Michael Z. Williamson


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Best Graphic Story

It's probably not fair to the other entries that I've been obsessed with everything from Marvel Comics this year.  But I really did enjoy this comic book.  I mean, it beat out a comic about zombies.  And we all know how much I love zombies.  It's a fun coming of age story and a super hero story all rolled in to one.  It's a little confusing, because Ms. Marvel is different from Captain Marvel, but who cares?  It's a great story.

1 Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt (Marvel Comics) (My review)
2 The Zombie Nation Book #2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate by Carter Reid (The Zombie Nation)
3 Saga Volume 3 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
4 Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery written by Kurtis J. Weibe, art by Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)
5 No Award
6 Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick written by Matt Fraction, art by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)


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Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

Interstellar was easily the best movie that came out last year.  It was no contest.  However, the other movies on this list were all really good too.


1 Interstellar
2 Edge of Tomorrow
3 Guardians of the Galaxy
4 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5 The Lego Movie


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Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

"Listen" was such a good episode!  Have you ever wanted to know what's under your bed?  Do you know what it's doing there?  It's listening....

1 Doctor Who: Listen
2 The Flash: Pilot
3 Grimm: Once We Were Gods
4 Orphan Black: By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried
5 Game of Thrones: The Mountain and the Viper

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Best Professional Editor (Short Form)

Galaxy's Edge is a great magazine and Mike Resnick is a great editor.  I particularly enjoyed the issue featured above where he printed a long list story by Robert A. Heinlein.

1 Mike Resnick
2 Jennifer Brozek
3 Bryan Thomas Schmidt
4 Vox Day
5 Edmund R. Schubert

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Best Professional Editor (Long Form)

There are some great editors on this list, but Skin Game was a great book and it was edited by Anne Sowards, so she gets my number 1 vote this year.

1 Anne Sowards
2 Toni Weisskopf
3 Sheila Gilbert
4 Jim Minz
5 Vox Day
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Best Professional Artist

I have to admit that I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to art and artists.  However, I really enjoyed this picture by Julie Dillon.  I like to think that's how the ocean is.  So much awesomeness that we need to discover.

1 Julie Dillon
2 Kirk DouPonce
3 Alan Pollack
4 Nick Greenwood
5 Carter Reid


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Best Semiprozine

I've liked John Joseph Adams for a while now, and I think Lightspeed is a great magazine.

1 Lightspeed Magazine John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant
2 Strange Horizons Niall Harrison
3 Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine David Kernot and Sue Bursztynski
4 Abyss and Apex Wendy Delmater editor and publisher
5 Beneath Ceaseless Skies Scott H. Andrews
No Vote No Award
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Best Fanzine

I enjoyed the reviews in Tangent Online.  I also really enjoy Elitist Book Reviews.  I guess the point is that I enjoy fan reviews.

1 Tangent Online
2 Elitist Book Reviews
3 The Revenge of Hump Day
4 Journey Planet
5 Black Gate

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Best Fan Writer

I'm not very familiar with any of these writers, but I judged them by what was in the voter packet.  I really enjoyed Dave Freer's write up about golden age authors.

1 Dave Freer
2 Cedar Sanderson
3 Laura J. Mixon
4 Amanda S. Green
5 Jeffro Johnson
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Best Fan Artist

It's a mushroom with a beard.  How cool is that?


1 Ninni Aalto
2 Brad Foster
3 Steve Stiles
4 Spring Schoenhuth
5 Elizabeth Leggett

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The John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo)

I really liked The Lives of Tao.  I haven't gotten around to reading the sequel, but I definitely think it makes Wesley Chu worthy of the John W. Campbell award.  P.S.  if Tao wants to come live in my head and make me a super secret agent, I'd be cool with that.


1 Wesley Chu
2 Jason Cordova
3 Kary English
4 Eric S. Raymond
5 Rolf Nelson