Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures is OUTSTANDING; October Sky is a long-time favorite movie of mine, although I haven't watched it in years, and this is, I think, even better. Sheer delight and excellence. To talk briefly about one mildly spoilery aspect ( Read more... )

I would like to particularly point out that it was officially released in 2016, making it Hugo-nominable in the nominations that have just opened! "But historical fiction isn't science fiction", you say - let me point out that Apollo 13 was a finalist and October Sky made the long list, so clearly some Hugo voters consider these kinds of movies eligible.

nominating for 2017 Hugos - initial thoughts on novels and movies

People who care about my fiction recs may have noticed that I haven't recommended much 2016 short fiction. Well, I haven't given up yet, but in fact I have quite a bit of work between me and nominating short fiction. However, I've read a bunch of this year's novels this year, and I thought I'd start with those in case any other nominators wanted to check out any of my picks.

So going through my tags, here's the quick list I put together of 2016 eligible books I've read:

The Raven and the Reindeer
A Closed And Common Orbit
Goldenhand
Obelisk Gate
Swarm
Sleeping Giants
Last Days of New Paris
Too Like The Lightning
Company Town
The Core of the Sun
Necessity
All The Birds In The Sky
The Census Taker
Ninefox Gambit
Winged Histories
League of Dragons
Carry On
The Raven King
Tell the Wind and Fire
Burning Midnight

Of which here is what I'm right now thinking about nominating, with comments:
A Closed And Common Orbit - Becky Chambers - semi-sequel to "Long Way to a Small Angry Planet". Powerful premise & execution.
Necessity - Jo Walton - third in trilogy about magically creating Plato's Republic.
Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee - first in trilogy about space-empire strategy and treachery.
Winged Histories - Sofia Samatar - semi-sequel to A Stranger in Olondria, brilliant, gorgeous fantasy.
The Core of the Sun - Johanna Sinisalo - Finnish dystopia. I'm not sure I would be nominate it if Worldcon weren't in Finland but I did really enjoy it and it just seems like it would be awesome to have a Finnish author end up on the ballot. All The Birds In The Sky is probably my runner-up.

In Graphic works, The Nameless City and Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling, although I don't think either will be familiar to enough nominators to make the longlist. (I think all of my novel noms have a shot at the longlist, being either authors who have gotten some Hugo traction before (I think, although I now can't find evidence of this for Yoon Ha Lee), or, in the case of Sinisalo, hypothetically riding a wave of Finnish noms.)

In Dramatic Long, Hidden Figures, Arrival, Ghostbusters, and, I dunno, Rogue One and maybe Star Trek Beyond or X-Men Apocalypse or something? Presumably one of the big franchise movies will win, I just like the idea of trying to get some other stuff onto the ballot. I have not started looking the Locus list, what other people are recommending, etc, so all of this is subject to change as I am reminded of things I've forgotten or try to game my nominations to support things that are both awesome and have a chance.