2016/1941 Hugo Votes

This year the Hugo committee decided to do another Retro Hugo Award.  The year they are retroactively awarding is 75 years ago in 1941.  Unfortunately, I was not a very good reader this year.  Normally, I would try to vote in every category for both 1941 and 2016.  But I didn't do all the homework.  So here are all the categories that I voted in.  There were some very good works this year.


1941 Best Novel

Slan was a lot of fun.  A little bit dated, but it was basically X-Men.  How could I not love it?

1               Slan by A.E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec 1940)
2               Kallocain by Karin Boye (Bonnier)
3               Gray Lensman by E.E. "Doc" Smith (Astounding Science-Fiction, Jan 1940)
4               The Ill-Made Knight by T.H. White (Collins)
5               The Reign of Wizardry by Jack Williamson (Unknown, Mar 1940)

1941 Best Novelette

Does my bias for Heinlein show?  Probably.   This was a really fun story about a neat technology.  I agree.  The roads must roll.

1               The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940)
2               Blowups Happen by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, Sept 1940)
3               Vault of the Beast by A.E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1940)
4               It! by Theodore Sturgeon (Unknown, Aug 1940)
5               Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates (Astounding Science-Fiction, Oct 1940)

1941 Best Short Story

My bias for Asimov is even greater than my bias for Heinlein.  But Robbie is his first robot story.  That's some serious history.  

1               Robbie by Isaac Asimov (Super Science Stories, Sept 1940)
2               Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, Jan 1940)
3               Martian Quest by Leigh Brackett (Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb 1940)
4               The Stellar Legion by Leigh Brackett (Planet Stories, Winter 1940)
5               Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges (Sur, 1940)



2016 Novelette

This was a hard one.  But I really liked Stephen King's story.  It was pretty unique, and a bit frightening.

1               Obits by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)
2               Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)
3               Flashpoint: Titan by CHEAH Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
4               What Price Humanity? by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
5               And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb 2015)


2016 Short Story

I really liked this story.  Stories about artificial intelligence are always a lot of fun.

1               Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer ( Clarkesworld, January 2015)
2               Seven Kill Tiger by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
3               Asymmetrical Warfare by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)
4               No Award

My Nominations for the 2016 Hugo Awards

I just got an email from the administrators of the Hugo Award.  It turns out that all nominations are due tomorrow.  So I finally sat down and figured them out.  As always, my reading of new stuff is a little bit sparse, so even though I can nominate up to 5 in each category, I don't have 5 works in most categories.  But,  I do have some great ones even if the slate isn't full.  Here they are.  I linked to where you could get these works where possible.  I also put a link to my review on the ones where such exists.

Best Novel
The Dark Forest is the sequel to last year's Hugo winner.  I am loving the series and looking forward to the third.  It's one of the most unique science fiction stories I've read in a long time.  Of course, the other two I nominated are excellent as well.

The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin (My review)
Chimera by Mira Grant (My review)
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs (My review)

Best Novella:
The New Mother was fascinating and a little bit frightening.  An excellent story.  Of course, Rolling the Deep is about scary mermaids.   Both are excellent.

The New Mother by Eugene Fischer -  Asimov's April/May 2015
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant (My review)

Best Novelette:
Pareidolia by Kathleen Bartholomew and Kage Barker  - Asimov's March 2015

Best Short Story:
When Your Child Strays From God by Sam J. Miller -  Clarkesworld July 2015
Tuesdays by Suzanne Palmer  - Asimov's March 2015
Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer - Clarkesworld January 2015
Holding The Ghosts by Gwendolyn Clare - Asimov's March 2015

Best Graphic Story:
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 3: Crushed  by G. Willow Wilson

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form):
Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
The Martian 
Jurassic World  
Terminator: Genisys
Avengers: Age of Ultron 

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form):
Doctor Who - The Zygon Inversion 
Doctor Who - The Zygon Invasion 
Agents of Shield - Melinda 
Grimm - Wesenrein 
Agents of Shield - Afterlife 

Best Professional Editor (Short Form):
Ellen Datlow 
Hank Davis 
Sheila Williams 
John Joseph Adams 

Best Professional Editor (Long Form):
Toni Weisskopf

My Nominations for the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards

For the past few years, I've been an active participant in the voting and nominating process for the Hugo Awards.  As you may or may not know, part of the rules that govern the Hugo Awards say that if there was a year where there was a World Con but there were no Hugo Awards given, there can be Retro Hugo Awards 75 years later.  That means that in 2016, we get to retroactively give awards for 1941.

The 1941 awards are given for works published in 1940.  I haven't read a ton from 1940, but there are a few gems I need to nominate.

So here are all of my nominations for the 1941 Retro Hugo Award.

Best Novel

1. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt

I only have one nominee in this category, because, well, that's all that I have read from 1940.  But I really did enjoy Slan.  It kind of reminded me of the X-Men.  It's about super powered people that are at war with regular people.  It's a bit dated.  It's supposed to be in the far future, and yet people don't even have personal communication devices of any sort.  Nevertheless, it's a really fun read, and I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I read it in 1940.

Best Novelette

1.  Half-Breeds on Venus by Isaac Asimov, Astonishing Stories, December 1940
2. Half-Breed by Isaac Asimov, Astonishing Stories, February 1940

Both of Asimov's Half-Breed stories are excellent.  These are some of the few Asimov stories that deal with aliens.  Later in his career, he settled on a galaxy populated only by humans from earth.  It's fun to see some of his earlier dabbling in the pulp style alien stories.  Interestingly, the first story, Half-Breed does have aliens, but at it's core it's a story about racism, which was probably a big deal to Asimov, as a Jewish person in the 1940s.  It's probably the deeper of the 2 stories, but Half-Breeds on Venus has telepathic amphibians and Venusian dinosaurs, so it's hard to beat that.

Best Short Story

1. Robbie / Strange Playfellow by Isaac Asimov, Super Science Stories, September 1940
2. The Callistan Menace by Isaac Asimov, Future Fiction, July 1940
3. The Magnificent Possession by Isaac Asimov, Astonishing Stories, April 1940
4. Homo Sol by Isaac Asimov, Astounding Science Fiction, September 1940
5. Ring Around the Sun by Isaac Asimov, Future Fiction, March 1940

Strange Playfellow (later published as Robbie) is Asimov's first robot story.  That alone deserves some kind of recognition.  And, it's a cute little story that Asimov wrote to combat the sentiment within science fiction that our technology would destroy us.  Eventually, he expanded that idea into the Three Laws of Robotics, but none of these stories feature the Three Laws.   Another of my favorites from this list is The Callistan Menace.  It's another fun alien story that takes place in our solar system.

As you can see, I didn't nominate in every category.  It turns out my reading from 1940 is somewhat limited.  Do you have a favorite science fiction work that I need to read and nominate?  Feel free to share it.

The Hugo Awards

I got to attend the Hugo Awards.

Before I had ever heard of the Oscars, or the Pulitzer Award, I was happily hunting down winners of the Hugo Award.  It has always meant the most excellent science fiction that was written in a given year.  My entire purpose in attending World Con was so that I could sit in that room and celebrate the best science fiction of the year.

I wish I could say it was everything I dreamed it would be.

It was a great experience, don't get me wrong.  I was excited just to be in the same room with a few of my heroes.

This is me happily sitting in my seat a good 45 minutes before it actually started.  I was excited.

I loved the pure love of the genre that was shown on stage.  I felt like David Gerrold did a great job as the MC.  He made totally nerdy jokes that made me laugh out loud.  He had enjoyable banter with various individuals on stage.  He even had a dalek come on stage to help present an award. (And the funniest part of the night was when the dalek left the stage saying, "I have to urinate!")  (It's funny because it sounds like exterminate.  I'm not sure if that's as clear in writing as it was in hearing it.)  (I know, when you have to explain the joke it ruins it.  Bear with me.)

Unfortunately, there was some sadness that went along with my experience.

You see, this year the Hugo Awards got way too political.  There was a conservative group of authors that had made a list of works that they felt were worthy of the award.  Enough people agreed with them that their list dominated the list of nominees this year.

Since I'm a big fan of science fiction, I had seen the list on their blogs and I had read many of the works.  Some of them I thought were great and I had nominated them myself.  Others I didn't like, so I hadn't nominated them.

There were those within the science fiction community who felt that putting works on a list was a mean, bad thing to do and so there was a big movement among them to not read any of the works and instead vote for "No Award", which basically means that you feel none of the works are worthy and you would prefer that no award be given in that category.

With that background, I can now explain the part of the Hugo Awards that made me a sad, sad boy.  I knew that there was a possibility that several categories would have no award given.  I really hoped that wouldn't be the case, but I knew it was possible.

Things were going along well.  I was enjoying the awards, the acceptance speeches, the nerdy banter, it was all great.  But then the first no award was given.  If I remember correctly, it was for best editor.  The crowd erupted in a cheer.  A guy sitting near me sounded like he would explode when he yelled, "YEEEAAAAH!!" at the top of his lungs.  That's when I knew that politics had become more important than literary merit.

You see, there's a reason that "No Award" is an option.  If there really are terrible nominees that aren't worthy of the award, there's nothing wrong with voting that way.  But if that's how I felt about the nominees in a particular category, I would vote that way and then feel sad that there hadn't been better options to vote for.  I would not be shouting for joy at the glee I felt because I had taken the award away from someone.  These people were happy that they had beaten back the big mean conservatives who had the nerve to say they liked certain works.  To make matters worse, they were punishing the nominees themselves just because of who happened to like their work.  Does that even make sense to anyone?

As the night went on, no award kept coming back.  It wasn't in every category, but it was in too many.  My mom kept looking at me to make sure I wouldn't cry or anything.  She knew how excited I was to be there and how sad I would be to attend an award ceremony with no awards.

Mom pointed out that when an award was given, someone would come from back stage to hold the trophy before the envelope was opened.

When the time came for the novel to be awarded, the individual emerged from back stage holding the little rocket trophy.  I was so relieved.  The novel category is the one I care most about.  I think I really would have cried if there had been no award.

And then, my favorite novel actually won!  The Three Body Problem was the winner of the 2015 Hugo for best novel.  I think I was as excited about that as the other dude was about the no award earlier in the evening.

This was the first book to win that wasn't originally published in English.  It had been originally published in Chinese.  The author (Liu Cixin) wasn't able to attend, because he was home in China.  But the translator (Ken Liu) spoke and it was super cool.  My favorite part was when he read some words that the author had written which praised him as a translator.  He had to stop and tell us that he felt awkward about reading the praise for himself.  His awkward humility just made me happy.

In the end, I was able to go home happy.  I was sad that there had been too much politics, but I could at least feel happy in knowing that my favorite book won in the most important category.

I don't know when I'll go again, but I'd really like to.  Next time, can we all agree to just read the works and vote on our favorites regardless of whether or not we like someone else that said it was a good work?

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



 

My 2015 Hugo Award Nominations

For the past couple years, I have participated in the voting process for the Hugo Award, which is science fiction's most prestigious award.  Each year, members of the World Science Fiction Society select their favorite science fiction and fantasy works that were published the previous year.  They can nominate up to 5 works in each category, and then a list of the top five nominees are published and the society then votes on their favorites from those nominees.

During the past 2 years, I've read or watched each of the finalists, and then voted on my favorites.  However, I haven't participated in the actual nomination process.  I suppose that's because it often takes me a few years to read new works, which means that I don't feel caught up enough to select favorites.  However, this year I decided to just jump in.  And while I still didn't have enough favorites to put 5 in every category, I think I came up with a good list of works.  Below is the list of works that I nominated in each category.  Where possible, I linked to a place where you could obtain each work.  (Usually, it's Amazon, but one story was available to read online.)

I know there has been some political disagreement around the nominating process.  For anyone who is confused about how it works, the flowchart below shows how I chose my nominated works.

(Full disclosure:  There are a couple I haven't finished yet, but I'm familiar enough with them to say that I enjoy them and feel they are worthy of the award.)

Also, you'll probably notice that my primary source of short fiction is Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.  I admit that my breadth of new fiction is small.  But I enjoyed each of these works.

Without further ado, here are the works I nominated this year:

Best Novel
Symbiont by Mira Grant - Orbit
The Unhappening of Genesis Lee by Shallee McArthur - Sky Pony Press
Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia - Baen
The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan - Disney-Hyperion

Best Novella
The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell by Mira Grant - Orbit Books
Each in his prison, Thinking of the key by William Preston - Asimov's April/May 2014
One Bright Star to Guide Them by John C. Wright - Castalia House
Big Boys Don’t Cry by Tom Kratman - Castalia House

Best Novelette 
The Common Good by Nancy Kress - Asimov's January 2014
Diary of a Pod Person by Emily C. Skaftun - Asimov's October/November 2014
Blood Wedding by Robert Reed - Asimov's July 2014
Of Finest Scarlet Was Her Gown by Michael Swanwick - Asimov's April/May 2014

Best Short Story
Static by William Jablonsky - Asimov's January 2014
Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer by Megan Grey - Fireside Fiction
The Talking Cure by K.J. Zimring - Asimov's April/May 2014
The Plantimal by Ken Liu and Mike Resnick - Asimov's March 2014
A Single Samurai by Steve Diamond - Baen Big Book of Monsters

Best Related Work
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
Interstellar
Edge of Tomorrow
X-Men: Days of Future Past 
The Giver
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
The Walking Dead - The Grove
Grimm - The Grimm Who Stole Christmas
Grimm - Blond Ambition
The Walking Dead - No Sanctuary
Doctor Who - Into the Dalek

Best Professional Editor (Short Form)
John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Sheila Williams
Ellen Datlow
Hank Davis

Best Professional Editor (Long Form)
Toni Weisskopf

Best Semiprozine 
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show  

Best Fanzine 
Elitist Book Reviews - Steve Diamond  
Drink Tank - Chris Garcia  

John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo) 
Shallee McArthur - The Unhappening of Genesis Lee 

Hugo Award Voting 2014

Have I mentioned that I love science fiction?  If I haven't, then that's extremely embarrassing, because I love it.  I decided last year to participate in the voting process for the Hugo awards (an award given to science fiction and fantasy where most categories deal with literature, but there are movies and a few other categories as well.)  I had so much fun last year that I decided to do it again this year.  It took a lot of reading to familiarize myself with all of the nominees, but it was totally worth it.

With the Hugo, you don't just vote for your favorite, you rank them in order.  There is some really fancy software that runs to tally the votes based on the rankings given.  I think it's a way better system than just voting for one.  I think the United States could learn from this system so that third party candidates wouldn't end up hurting the candidate they are most similar too.  But that's a totally different issue.

Here are my votes in each category.  Starting with the most important which is the novel category.

Edit:  Since they have now announced the winners, I went back and bolded the winners.  My votes still remain unchanged.


Best Novel

I really, really, really liked Parasite.  It's a zombie novel, it's a medical thriller, but mostly it's just a good sci-fi read.  It was the easy choice for first for me.

I have to admit that I didn't read any of The Wheel of Time.  I voted it last because I just didn't feel like it fit in this category.  They should have a series category that gives out an award once a decade or something, but it just doesn't make sense to have a fifteen book series in the novel category.

1 Parasite by Mira Grant
2 Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia
3 Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
4 Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
5 The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
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Best Novella

This one was between The Chaplain's Legacy and Equoid.  I liked them both so much.  The Chaplain's Legacy dealt with spirituality among aliens, with the balance between war and peace, and what it means to be civilized.  Equoid was funny and it had really cool monsters.  They're so different, yet I liked them both so much.  Ultimately, The Chaplain's Legacy won out for me.

1 The Chaplain's Legacy by Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jul-Aug 2013)
2 Equoid by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)
3 The Butcher of Khardov by Dan Wells (Privateer Press)
4 Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Press)
5 Wakulla Springs by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10-2013)
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Best Novelette

I liked all of the stories in this category, but The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling really stood out among the others.  It was a story about a cool new technology and how it disrupts society, but it was also a story that shows about the difference between facts and feelings, and that feelings are just as valid and true as facts, even if they distort our view of the facts.

1 The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang (Subterranean, Fall 2013)
2 The Waiting Stars by Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky, Candlemark & Gleam)
3 The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com / Tor.com, 09-2013)
4 The Exchange Officers by Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jan-Feb 2013)
5 Opera Vita Aeterna by Vox Day (The Last Witchking, Marcher Lord Hinterlands)
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Best Short Story

Normally, for a short story, I would include the cover art of the magazine it was printed in.  But it's a story about the author's husband turning into a dinosaur, so it just made sense to include a picture of me being a dinosaur.

This story was so fantastic.  It was like my constant day dream as an 8 year old.  But, on top of being a story about the transformation of man to dinosaur, it actually turned out to be emotional and powerful in the end.  Soooo good!

1 If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky (Apex Magazine, Mar-2013)
2 The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)
3 Selkie Stories Are for Losers by Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons, Jan-2013)
4 The Ink Readers of Doi Saket by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 04-2013)
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Best Related Work

This book is super interesting.  It's all about writing, but it is filled with fun illustrations, interesting anecdotes and various other things to make it a very exciting look at the writing process.

1 Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer, with Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image)
2 Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary by Justin Landon & Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
3 Writing Excuses Season 8 by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson ()
4 We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)
5 Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It Edited by Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damian Thomas (Mad Norwegian Press)
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Best Graphic Story

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not that into comics.  I considered not voting in this category, since it is the category that I'm least familiar with, and I have not read any of these works in their entirety.  However, The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who is super fun, and it gets my vote.

1 The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Jimmy Broxton (Doctor Who Special 2013, IDW)
2 Girl Genius, Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
3 Time by Randall Munroe (XKCD)
4 Saga, Volume 2 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
5 The Meathouse Man adapted from the story by George R.R. Martin and illustrated by Raya Golden (Jet City Comics)
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Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

I thoroughly enjoyed every entry in this category.  You know when I put an Iron Man movie in last place, that this was a solid category.  However, I absolutely loved Gravity.  My wife walked in while I was watching it and said, "This movie seems so boring."  But, in my mind there is nothing more terrifying than the idea of being lost in space, and Sandra Bullock did an excellent job of playing that terrifying role.

1 Gravity
2 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
3 Pacific Rim
4  Frozen
5  Iron Man 3
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Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

Episodes don't have cover art, so you get a picture of my wife and I coming out of the Tardis.

The Day of the Doctor was SUCH A GOOD EPISODE!  I wish I could vote it in all of the first 3 categories or something.  It is so far above the other contenders.  Unfortunately, the only way to really differentiate how far ahead it is would be to vote the others under no award, and that wouldn't be fair, because they are still worthy contenders.  Nevertheless, I really hope The Day of the Doctor wins.

1 Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor
2 Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor
3 The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
4 An Adventure in Space and Time
5 Orphan Black: Variations under Domestication
6 Game of Thrones: The Rains of Castamere
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Best Editor (Short Form)

This category is normally the "best magazine" category, because the editors are usually magazine editors.  Since Asimov's and Clarkesworld are 2 of my favorite magazines, you'd think one of them would be a shoe in to win.  But The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination is such a great collection that I couldn't not vote for John Joseph Adams in first place.

I've taken the liberty of putting a publication that I'm familiar with in parentheses so that you can see at least one thing that I judged them on.

1 John Joseph Adams (The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination)
2 Sheila Williams (Asimov's)
3 Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld)
4 Ellen Datlow (All the Snake Handlers I Know are Dead)
5 Jonathan Strahan (Edge of Infinity)
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Best Editor (Long Form)

There are loads of books that Toni Weisskopf has edited that I have enjoyed.  I just happened to pick the one that was nominated for the Hugo this year to illustrate why I voted for her.  But I could have picked half a dozen others.  I went ahead and linked books that I was familiar with to Goodreads.  Unfortunately, the last 2 were people that I couldn't find a book I had read to judge them by, so I just judged them by my familiarity with the companies they work for.

1 Toni Weisskopf (Warbound by Larry Correia)
2 Ginjer Buchanan (Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross)
3 Lee Harris (The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu)
4 Liz Gorinsky (Tor)
5 Sheila Gilbert (DAW)

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Best Professional Artist

I wish I was more familiar with the artists, but as with last year, I judged them completely by what was included in the voter's packet.  How can you not love a robot that looks like he's singing in the rain?

1 John Picacio
2 Julie Dillon
3 Daniel Dos Santos
4 Galen Dara
5 John Harris
6 Fiona Staples

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Best Semiprozine

The semiprozine category is another category where I'm not super familiar with the nominees.  However, I did look over what was included in the voter packet and I enjoyed Interzone the most.

1 Interzone
2 Lightspeed Magazine
3 Strange Horizons
4 Apex Magazine
5 Beneath Ceaseless Skies
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Best Fanzine
You'll notice that the two fanzines I put in the first 2 places are book review blogs.  What can I say?  I really like books.  The fact that I got to briefly meet the guy who runs Elitist Book Reviews at a convention last year might have just pushed that one over the top for me.

1 Elitist Book Reviews
2 The Book Smugglers
3 Journey Planet
4 A Dribble of Ink
5 Pornokitsch
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Best Fan Artist

As with the professional artist above, I judged this one mainly from the voter's packet.  This picture is just too fun to not get my vote.

1 Brad W. Foster
2 Sarah Webb
3 Spring Schoenhuth
4 Steve Stiles
5 Mandie Manzano
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The John W. Campbell Award

I didn't actually vote in this category.  I hadn't read enough of the nominees by the time voting closed, so I didn't cast a vote.  However, I have since made myself much more familiar with them, and this is how I would have voted, had I had the time to finish these works.  The Lives of Tao was just so much fun.  Don't you just want an alien inside your brain that teaches you the wisdom of the ancients as well as how to be a secret agent?

There aren't specific works nominated, since this is a category for best new author.  But I went ahead and showed you a work that I had read of theirs that I used to judge them by.

1  Wesley Chu (The Lives of Tao)
2  Ramez Naam (Nexus)
3  Max Gladstone (Three Parts Dead)
4 Sofia Samatar (Selkie Stories Are For Losers)
5 Benjanun Sriduangkaew (The Bees Her Heart, The Hive Her Belly)

My 1939 Retro Hugo Votes

As you may or may not know, one thing I enjoy doing every year is reading all of the Hugo nominated works, and of course, voting on my favorites.  The fun thing about the Hugo award is that anyone can join the World Science Fiction Society and be a part of choosing the winners.  (If you're not familiar with the Hugo Awards you can read last year's post about my votes where I explained what they are in a little more detail.)

This year is special because, in addition to awarding the 2014 works, they are also doing Retro Hugos for the year 1939.  I'm still working on seeing how many of the categories I can read for 2014, but I've officially decided my votes for 1939.  For the ones that are on Goodreads, I've included links to my reviews.  (A few of my reviews aren't written yet, but I still linked to where they will be.)

Edit: Now that the awards have been announced, I have highlighted the actual winners in red.  Of course, my votes still remain in their original order.

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Best Novel

This was a fun category.  Sword in the Stone was one of my favorite movies as a child, and despite the novel being totally different, I loved it just as much.

1 The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White (Collins)
2 Carson of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Argosy, February 1938)
3 Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith (Astounding Stories, February 1938)
4 Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (The Bodley Head)
5 The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson (Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1938)

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Best Novella

When I was fifteen years old, I bought Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrails.  When I see the above picture of The Thing, I really wanted to read the story where it came from.  For some reason, I never got around to it, until  I read these nominees.  Did my excitement to read it tip the odds in that story's favor?  Possibly.  But it's a really scary story, and a fun concept.

1 Who Goes There? by Don A Stuart [John W. Campbell] (Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1938)
2 A Matter of Form by H. L. Gold (Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938)
3 Sleepers of Mars by John Beynon [John Wyndham] (Tales of Wonder, March 1938)
4 The Time Trap by Henry Kuttner (Marvel Science Stories, November 1938)
5 Anthem by Ayn Rand (Cassell)

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Best Novelette

Dead Knowledge is a really fun story.  It's a mystery.  Why has this civilization died?  But when you find out the answer, it turns into a (mild) horry story as well.  Good stuff.

1 Dead Knowledge by Don A. Stuart [John W. Campbell] (Astounding Stories, January 1938)
2 Rule 18 by Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1938)
3 Hollywood on the Moon by Henry Kuttner (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938)
4 Pigeons From Hell by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, May 1938)
5 Werewoman C. L. Moore (Leaves #2, Winter 1938)

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Best Short Story

I love dogs.  Naturally, I was going to love a story about what  man's best friend does after mankind has ceased to exist.  Don't worry, our best friends remain faithful to us even in our absence.

1 The Faithful by Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1938)
2 Helen O'Loy by Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938)
3 Hyperpilosity by L. Sprague de Camp (Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1938)
4 How We Went to Mars by Arthur C. Clarke (Amateur Science Stories, March 1938)
5 Hollerbochen's Dilemma by Ray Bradbury (Imagination!, January 1938)

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Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

This category normally refers to TV shows, at least in the modern age.  In 1939, it is dominated by radio plays.  I think I enjoyed War of the Worlds and A Christmas Carol equally, but the famous panic that War of the World caused when they thought it was real tipped the scale for me.  I had to vote for a panic inducing play.

I feel a little bit bad because I didn't actually watch R.U.R.  It turns out they didn't actually preserve a copy, so you can't find it anywhere.  It is famous for inventing the word "robot" but Isaac Asimov said, "Capek's play is, in my own opinion, a terribly bad one, but it is immortal for that one word. It contributed the word 'robot' not only to English but, through English, to all the languages in which science fiction is now written."  I figure I can trust the Grand Master of science fiction and vote it last on his word.

1 The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Written by Howard Koch &; Anne Froelick, directed by Orson Welles (The Mercury Theater on the Air, CBS)
2 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Written & directed by Orson Welles (The Campbell Playhouse, CBS)
3 Dracula Bram Stoker Written by Orson Welles and John Houseman, directed by Orson Welles (The Mercury Theater on the Air, CBS)
4 Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. Written & directed by Orson Welles (The Mercury Theater on the Air, CBS)
5 R. U. R. by Karel Čapek Produced by Jan Bussell ( BBC)

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Best Professional Artist

I wasn't familiar with any of these artists, so I voted based solely on the voter's packet.  I don't know what is going on in the picture below, I just know it's awesome and deserves my vote.

1 Alex Schomburg
2 Frank R. Paul
3 Virgil Finlay
4 H. W. Wesso
5 Margaret Brundage