Hugos!

[psocoptera]

I think this is a great ballot, by which I mean there are lots of things on it that I nominated, and not so much dog crap that it won't be easy to just step around it. See them here. Further thoughts:

My nominees in bold, Nebula finalists in italics.

Novel
All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders
A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers
Death’s End, Cixin Liu
Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee
The Obelisk Gate, N. K. Jemisin
Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer

Too bad not to see Sinisalo's _Core of the Sun_ here with the con happening in Finland, and of course I wish more people loved Samatar as much as I do, but, look at that, I got three nominees, and everything here is something I would be happy to see win!

Prediction: All the Birds in the Sky
my first-place vote: probably Ninefox Gambit

Novella
The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire
Penric and the Shaman, by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson
This Census-Taker, by China Miéville

Four of my noms on the ballot! So satisfying. Although I mostly only put on _Every Heart_ and _Census-Taker_ because I had the slots and thought they were better than other things that might happen, but still.

Prediction: Every Heart a Doorway
my first-place vote: probably Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe

Novelette
Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex, by Stix Hiscock
“The Art of Space Travel”, by Nina Allan
“The Jewel and Her Lapidary”, by Fran Wilde
“The Tomato Thief”, by Ursula Vernon
“Touring with the Alien”, by Carolyn Ives Gilman
“You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay”, by Alyssa Wong

I liked "Touring with the Alien" but seem to have mistakenly tagged it as a short story in my notes (and on Twitter), whoops.

Prediction: "You'll Surely Drown Here" maybe?
my first-place vote: probably "The Tomato Thief"

Short Story
“The City Born Great”, by N. K. Jemisin
“A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers”, by Alyssa Wong
“Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”, by Brooke Bolander
“Seasons of Glass and Iron”, by Amal El-Mohtar
“That Game We Played During the War”, by Carrie Vaughn
“An Unimaginable Light”, by John C. Wright

I struck out on short stories! Well, I liked "Seasons" and "Game" a lot so I don't mind too much. (And I'll look forward to seeing the long list.)

Prediction: this is getting harder. "Our Talons", possibly?
my first-place vote: probably "Seasons of Glass and Iron"

Best Graphic Story
Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
Ms. Marvel, Volume 5: Super Famous, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa (Marvel)
Paper Girls, Volume 1, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image)
Saga, Volume 6, illustrated by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan, lettered by Fonografiks (Image)
The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man, written by Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Marvel)

I very much look forward to doing my reading in this category! (Perhaps I'd better start by catching up on the volumes of Saga between the last one nominated, which I thought was maybe 3, and this one...)

Dramatic Long
Arrival
Deadpool
Ghostbusters
Hidden Figures
Rogue One
Stranger Things

Am I going to watch Stranger Things for the purposes of voting in this category? Honestly I am probably not.

Prediction: Hidden Figures very closely edging it out from Rogue One
my first-place vote: Hidden Figures

Dramatic Short

Look I'm not even going to list all those TV episodes but Splendor & Misery made it on and I'm so excited! Also I look forward to watching "San Junipero".

Pro Artist
Galen Dara
Julie Dillon
Chris McGrath
Victo Ngai
John Picacio
Sana Takeda

Prediction: probably Picacio or Dillon
my first-place vote: don't know

Best Fan Artist
Ninni Aalto
Alex Garner
Vesa Lehtimäki
Likhain (M. Sereno)
Spring Schoenhuth
Mansik Yang

Holy shit I have never seen a ballot without Brad Foster and Steve Stiles. Check THAT out. I haven't been putting the vote tallies but for this one votes ranged from 39 to 121 - it continues to be true that fan artist is a category with a relatively low number of nominators. (Although I didn't get any of mine on, but from the names it sounds like we might have a couple of Finns here, that seems good?)

Best Series
The Craft Sequence, by Max Gladstone
The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey
The October Daye Books, by Seanan McGuire
The Peter Grant / Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaronovitch
The Temeraire series, by Naomi Novik
The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

I did not nominate in this category and am kind of dubious about it, but will probably vote in it because I'm a sucker. I guess I better finally start the Rivers of London books?

Prediction: Vorkosigan, come on.

John W. Campbell Not A Hugo
Sarah Gailey (1st year of eligibility)
J. Mulrooney (1st year of eligibility)
Malka Older (2nd year of eligibility)
Ada Palmer (1st year of eligibility)
Laurie Penny (2nd year of eligibility)
Kelly Robson (2nd year of eligibility)

I don't recognize any of these other people but I bet Palmer gets it on the basis of also being up for Novel. Oh, Robson turns out to be last year's "Waters of Versailles", that was cute.