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Feb. 12th, 2015
I think I'm finally done with this and can move on to posts about what I'm actually nominating!
Crossed Genres
Daddy's Girl, Eleanor R. Wood. Very sweet, but nice.
The Semaphore Society, Kate Heartfield. Disabled teens online.
Makeisha In Time, Rachael K. Jones. Okay, so Crossed Genres may be a bit on the ... sentimental side? But there's some enjoyable stuff here.
Space Travel Loses its Allure When You've Lost Your Moon Cup", Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. Ahahaha.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Goatskin, K.C. Norton. I like shapeshifters.
Heaven Thunders the Truth, K.J. Parker. Quality fantasy.
The Moon Over Red Trees, Aliette de Bodard. Historical fantasy set during the French occupation of Vietnam.
Butterfly House, Gwendolyn Clare. Didn't love where this one ended, but I like the rest of it.
By Appointment To The Throne, Alter S. Reiss. I liked this whodunnit about exiles and religious rivalry and magic drugs.
Rappaccini's Crow, Cat Rambo. Kind of a mishmash of elements, but the crow itself is a good antagonist.
The Unborn God, Stephen Case. This one has an interesting house and an interesting god.
Silver and Seaweed, Greg Linklater. I like underwater adventures.
The Bonedrake's Penance, Yoon Ha Lee.
The Breath of War, more Aliette de Bodard. I'm often interested in dark sisters and magical twins and things like that.
Pilgrims, Ann Chatham. Felt like an authentically medieval voice somehow (even if someone else's middle ages).
Other
To Whatever, Shaenon Garrity, ahahahahaha.
King Tide, Alison Wilgus. Simple yet powerful (and very contemporary, like I think we could put this one in a science fiction time capsule and whoever opened it would be like "yup, the '10s". I like that.)
Toad Words, a short piece Ursula Vernon posted to her Tumblr.
Lysistrata of Mars, Tory Hoke. I accidentally left this off my Strange Horizons list but quite liked it.
Crossed Genres
Daddy's Girl, Eleanor R. Wood. Very sweet, but nice.
The Semaphore Society, Kate Heartfield. Disabled teens online.
Makeisha In Time, Rachael K. Jones. Okay, so Crossed Genres may be a bit on the ... sentimental side? But there's some enjoyable stuff here.
Space Travel Loses its Allure When You've Lost Your Moon Cup", Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. Ahahaha.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Goatskin, K.C. Norton. I like shapeshifters.
Heaven Thunders the Truth, K.J. Parker. Quality fantasy.
The Moon Over Red Trees, Aliette de Bodard. Historical fantasy set during the French occupation of Vietnam.
Butterfly House, Gwendolyn Clare. Didn't love where this one ended, but I like the rest of it.
By Appointment To The Throne, Alter S. Reiss. I liked this whodunnit about exiles and religious rivalry and magic drugs.
Rappaccini's Crow, Cat Rambo. Kind of a mishmash of elements, but the crow itself is a good antagonist.
The Unborn God, Stephen Case. This one has an interesting house and an interesting god.
Silver and Seaweed, Greg Linklater. I like underwater adventures.
The Bonedrake's Penance, Yoon Ha Lee.
The Breath of War, more Aliette de Bodard. I'm often interested in dark sisters and magical twins and things like that.
Pilgrims, Ann Chatham. Felt like an authentically medieval voice somehow (even if someone else's middle ages).
Other
To Whatever, Shaenon Garrity, ahahahahaha.
King Tide, Alison Wilgus. Simple yet powerful (and very contemporary, like I think we could put this one in a science fiction time capsule and whoever opened it would be like "yup, the '10s". I like that.)
Toad Words, a short piece Ursula Vernon posted to her Tumblr.
Lysistrata of Mars, Tory Hoke. I accidentally left this off my Strange Horizons list but quite liked it.
my 2015 Hugo nominations - novelettes
Feb. 12th, 2015 05:27 pmA recap of novelettes (minus the five Giganotosaurus ones I liked but am not considering nominating):
Saltwater Economics, Jack Mierzwa. Field biology at the Salton Sea.
The Djinn Who Sought To Kill The Sun, Tahmeed Shafiq. Classic-feeling fantasy.
Giants, Peter Watts. Reprint from a 2014 source. Far-future space exploration story.
*Wine, Yoon Ha Lee. Dark SF-or-maybe-high-fantasy.
The Dead Star, The Satirist, and the Soldier, Rachel Sobel. Big-R Romantic tragedy.
Reborn, Ken Liu. Aliens in Boston; memory and accomodation.
*The End of the End of Everything, Dale Bailey. Art and death.
*The Litany of Earth, Ruthanna Emrys. Humanist Lovecraft story.
*The Colonel, Peter Watts. Interstitial between Blindsight and the sequel. Serious science fiction.
*The Last Log of the Lachrimosa, Alastair Reynolds. Space adventure-horror, meh ending.
The five in bold are the ones I think I'm nominating.
In many ways the piece of fiction that brought me the most joy this year was Sarah Rees Brennan's "Wings In The Morning" in Monstrous Affections, which I would *totally* nominate if it were a novella, but my best guess based on number of pages (I asked SRB for a wordcount but never heard back) is that it's a novelette, and - I'm not sure I want to use one of my novelette slots? Let me digress for a minute about my philosophy of nominating. Certainly my own personal reading pleasure is a major factor, but I also see the Hugos as an ongoing conversation in SFF fandom, and so I'm looking for works for the Hugos that I think everyone (for, you know, large-percentage values of "everyone") might like, or that I think everyone *ought* to read; works I want to send forward to readers in the future as representing SFF today, or that I think the future *will* consider significant and I want us in the present to look smart by recognizing contemporarily. As much as I am crazy fannish about that SRB story, I don't think it's as interesting a contribution to the bigger conversation as the rest of these. Also, I'm interested in applying my nominations where they might actually push something over the line into making the ballot, because I like having things I like on the ballot. "Wine" and "The Colonel" made the Locus 2014 recommended reading list, which is a sign of possible ballot potential. "Litany of Earth" also made the Locus list and I'm a little tempted to swap it out for "Reborn" which didn't, although Ken Liu is very ballotable in himself. Anyways, this is where I am right now with novelettes.
Saltwater Economics, Jack Mierzwa. Field biology at the Salton Sea.
The Djinn Who Sought To Kill The Sun, Tahmeed Shafiq. Classic-feeling fantasy.
Giants, Peter Watts. Reprint from a 2014 source. Far-future space exploration story.
*Wine, Yoon Ha Lee. Dark SF-or-maybe-high-fantasy.
The Dead Star, The Satirist, and the Soldier, Rachel Sobel. Big-R Romantic tragedy.
Reborn, Ken Liu. Aliens in Boston; memory and accomodation.
*The End of the End of Everything, Dale Bailey. Art and death.
*The Litany of Earth, Ruthanna Emrys. Humanist Lovecraft story.
*The Colonel, Peter Watts. Interstitial between Blindsight and the sequel. Serious science fiction.
*The Last Log of the Lachrimosa, Alastair Reynolds. Space adventure-horror, meh ending.
The five in bold are the ones I think I'm nominating.
In many ways the piece of fiction that brought me the most joy this year was Sarah Rees Brennan's "Wings In The Morning" in Monstrous Affections, which I would *totally* nominate if it were a novella, but my best guess based on number of pages (I asked SRB for a wordcount but never heard back) is that it's a novelette, and - I'm not sure I want to use one of my novelette slots? Let me digress for a minute about my philosophy of nominating. Certainly my own personal reading pleasure is a major factor, but I also see the Hugos as an ongoing conversation in SFF fandom, and so I'm looking for works for the Hugos that I think everyone (for, you know, large-percentage values of "everyone") might like, or that I think everyone *ought* to read; works I want to send forward to readers in the future as representing SFF today, or that I think the future *will* consider significant and I want us in the present to look smart by recognizing contemporarily. As much as I am crazy fannish about that SRB story, I don't think it's as interesting a contribution to the bigger conversation as the rest of these. Also, I'm interested in applying my nominations where they might actually push something over the line into making the ballot, because I like having things I like on the ballot. "Wine" and "The Colonel" made the Locus 2014 recommended reading list, which is a sign of possible ballot potential. "Litany of Earth" also made the Locus list and I'm a little tempted to swap it out for "Reborn" which didn't, although Ken Liu is very ballotable in himself. Anyways, this is where I am right now with novelettes.
my 2015 Hugo nominations - short stories
Feb. 12th, 2015 08:17 pmThe stories I marked as "might nominate":
Storytelling for the Night Clerk, JY Yang. Personality archiving and the State.
*How to Get Back to the Forest, Sofia Samatar. The best dystopia story I've read in ages.
No Lonely Seafarer, Sarah Pinsker. Intersex kid vs sirens.
Stone Hunger, N.K. Jemisin. Kinetic magic.
*Passage of Earth, Michael Swanwick. Alien autopsy.
A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Proposed Trade-Offs for the Overhaul of the Barricade, John Chu. Parental expectations and magic engineering.
Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land, Ruthanna Emrys. Judaism as portal fantasy.
Economies of Force, Seth Dickinson. The machines are running the show.
Jackalope Wives, Ursula Vernon. They dance in the light of the moon.
My likely nominees in bold.
Stories on the Locus list are starred. "Storytelling for the Night Clerk" placed fourth in the Strange Horizons reader poll - last year second place in the reader poll wasn't enough to get a story I really loved onto the Hugo ballot (but the first place story did make it on).
More patterns of bias: it makes me happy that I have something on my nomination list from Strange Horizons. It makes me happy that a bunch of the authors I'm nominating are women.
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carpenter, I know you're reading this, bonus story for you: Still Life, With Oranges, John P. Murphy. Like Replay but inverse.
Storytelling for the Night Clerk, JY Yang. Personality archiving and the State.
*How to Get Back to the Forest, Sofia Samatar. The best dystopia story I've read in ages.
No Lonely Seafarer, Sarah Pinsker. Intersex kid vs sirens.
Stone Hunger, N.K. Jemisin. Kinetic magic.
*Passage of Earth, Michael Swanwick. Alien autopsy.
A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Proposed Trade-Offs for the Overhaul of the Barricade, John Chu. Parental expectations and magic engineering.
Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land, Ruthanna Emrys. Judaism as portal fantasy.
Economies of Force, Seth Dickinson. The machines are running the show.
Jackalope Wives, Ursula Vernon. They dance in the light of the moon.
My likely nominees in bold.
Stories on the Locus list are starred. "Storytelling for the Night Clerk" placed fourth in the Strange Horizons reader poll - last year second place in the reader poll wasn't enough to get a story I really loved onto the Hugo ballot (but the first place story did make it on).
More patterns of bias: it makes me happy that I have something on my nomination list from Strange Horizons. It makes me happy that a bunch of the authors I'm nominating are women.
carpenter, I know you're reading this, bonus story for you: Still Life, With Oranges, John P. Murphy. Like Replay but inverse.my 2015 Hugo nominations - novellas
Feb. 12th, 2015 08:31 pmJust the one:
Grand Jete (The Great Leap), Rachel Swirsky. The limits of nerd Rapture.
I'll be curious to see what ends up on the ballot here, since I haven't read most of what's on the Locus list. I wasn't thrilled with any of "Where the Trains Turn", "The Things We Do For Love", "The Mothers of Voorhisville", or "The Black Sun", although I suppose if we get another "Butcher of Khardov" on the ballot I'm going to be sad I didn't nominate all four of those.
Grand Jete (The Great Leap), Rachel Swirsky. The limits of nerd Rapture.
I'll be curious to see what ends up on the ballot here, since I haven't read most of what's on the Locus list. I wasn't thrilled with any of "Where the Trains Turn", "The Things We Do For Love", "The Mothers of Voorhisville", or "The Black Sun", although I suppose if we get another "Butcher of Khardov" on the ballot I'm going to be sad I didn't nominate all four of those.
my 2015 Hugo nominations - pro artists
Feb. 12th, 2015 09:02 pmI conveniently seem to have noted five pro artists while trawling the online publication world, sounds like a slate of nominees to me!
Ashley Mackenzie.
Anna and Elena Balbusso. (They did the Goblin Emperor cover.)
I really liked this one cover but not so much the rest of Lake Hurwitz's portfolio, but will probably still nominate them.
Galen Dara is my favorite non-Julie Dillon pro artist right now.
Paula Arwen Friedlander, cut paper illustration.
Possibly I should nominate Julie Dillon instead of Lake Hurwitz - she's just so amazingly good - but I also have a strong bias towards not just giving awards to the same people over and over again. Man, I don't know.
Ashley Mackenzie.
Anna and Elena Balbusso. (They did the Goblin Emperor cover.)
I really liked this one cover but not so much the rest of Lake Hurwitz's portfolio, but will probably still nominate them.
Galen Dara is my favorite non-Julie Dillon pro artist right now.
Paula Arwen Friedlander, cut paper illustration.
Possibly I should nominate Julie Dillon instead of Lake Hurwitz - she's just so amazingly good - but I also have a strong bias towards not just giving awards to the same people over and over again. Man, I don't know.
my 2015 Hugo nominations - dramatic, long
Feb. 12th, 2015 09:17 pmAka "movies". By the way, sorry to anybody feeling drowned in Hugo posts - the good thing is I'll run out of categories eventually ::grin::.
I definitely want to nominate How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Book of Life, and Big Hero 6. Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men: Days of Future Past were both fine, enjoyable movies but neither made me say "oh, yeah, that should get a Hugo". But I think I will nominate Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Oh, hey, I could nominate the Lego movie! Sure, why not. Apparently I have been wholesale convinced that animated movies can and often are the best SFF of the year ::grin::.
I definitely want to nominate How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Book of Life, and Big Hero 6. Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men: Days of Future Past were both fine, enjoyable movies but neither made me say "oh, yeah, that should get a Hugo". But I think I will nominate Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Oh, hey, I could nominate the Lego movie! Sure, why not. Apparently I have been wholesale convinced that animated movies can and often are the best SFF of the year ::grin::.
my 2015 Hugo nominations - graphic
Feb. 12th, 2015 10:17 pmOkay, this is the hardest category for me for figuring out eligibility (that I actually vote in, at least), but I *think* all of O Human Star Volume 1, Strong Female Protagonist Book One, and Nimona count as 2014 publications. (If Nimona doesn't make the ballot, I think we can nominate it again in 2016 in its paper manifestation.)
I have a month: should I try to see what of Captain Marvel or Ms. Marvel I can get from the library? I feel like some random stuff has made the ballot in this category in the past so I would enjoy having five things to nominate. Please, suggest things!
I have a month: should I try to see what of Captain Marvel or Ms. Marvel I can get from the library? I feel like some random stuff has made the ballot in this category in the past so I would enjoy having five things to nominate. Please, suggest things!