2019 Hugos!
Aug. 27th, 2019 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraFor anyone wondering why I haven't said anything about the Hugos yet, the answer involves 1458 miles of driving, three National Parks, and most of our various siblings. I would like to highly recommend Crater Lake as one of the most stunning places I've ever seen - really up there with Yosemite in the highest rank of national parks.
But anyways, the Hugos. I was sad to miss the speeches - I don't quite understand why they can't also record the ceremony, if they're going to livestream the ceremony, but I suppose it has to do with the newfangled technological details of how these things work.
Below the cut, a bunch of thoughts about results, how well my favorites did, how well my predictions did, etc. I haven't even read up yet on what happened at the business meeting so expect a separate post about that even more belatedly.
Novel
Calculating Stars was my prediction; nice to see Spinning Silver, my favorite, place second. Also nice to see Blackfish City and Semiosis on the longlist.
Novella
Boy people sure like Murderbot - impressive that all three of them would have made the ballot if she hadn't pulled the other two! This was not my prediction or favorite but clearly I should never underestimate Murderbot again. My prediction, Tea Master, came in second; I'm amused that my top three votes took the bottom three places. Heh, I'm reminded by the longlist that we failed to get the Vorkosigan novella in the packet and now I'm going to have to decide whether I want to pay for it.
Novelette
I am flabbergasted that Only Harmless Great Thing didn't take this. Try Try Again was my first place vote so I'm not disappointed, but if there was one prediction I would have said I was sure about, it was this one. My favorite novelette of the year, What Is Eve, didn't even make the longlist, doh.
Short Story
Another case where my favorite (Witch's Guide) won instead of my prediction (Nine Negro Teeth)! Predictions not doing so hot this year. I guess more voters share my taste than I thought. But no Octo-Heist even on the longlist! Story of the year!
Series
Wayfarers! Definitely didn't see that coming. My prediction was that they were a lot of people's second or third favorite but in fact they had the lead in first-place votes. My prediction, Laundry Files, took second, so at least I'm not totally off-base about these things. I specifically thought that Xuya and Machineries might split some of the same votes; in the first round, Xuya dumped 72 into Machineries vs 54 into Wayfarers, 39 into Laundry, and 22 into Toby Daye, so, maybe somewhat? I'm surprised Xuya didn't do better, I had thought they were the other frontrunner with Laundry. From the longlist, *Earthsea* apparently narrowly missed getting a slot (with Firelight as its 2018 publication), that would have been a wild ballot. How the fuck do you compare someone's 2010s series with fucking Earthsea.
Related
This is the speech I would really liked to have get to watched live. :( I have had many different feelings about the AO3 nomination over the course of this year's nomination and voting cycle and have ended up feeling happy about it. That moment when people stood up from the audience must have been pretty great. Anyways, it was my prediction (and vote, in the end), so my predictions get another win. Interesting to see the Le Guin take second, I guess we were not quite done memorializing Le Guin yet. Also if I'm reading this right Hobbit Duology did pick up a lot of second-place votes from AO3, and Walton picked up a lot from Le Guin - the order is really jumping around as we go down-ballot.
Graphic
A win for my prediction (Monstress) if not my favorite (Sunbeam). Not a great showing for Sunbeam here. And also wow, people must have gotten something out of that Black Panther comic that I didn't.
Dramatic Long
My prediction and my vote! Nice to see Wrinkle in Time did well on the longlist.
Dramatic Short
I think it's cool that Dirty Computer did that well in first-pass first-place votes, and also that something I've actually seen and enjoyed won this category. (And it's so awesome that apparently the show/D'Arcy Carden sent a video? Like, when do the dramatics ever know or care that they're nominated (except for Clpping who are a small number of actual people rather than a giant corporate media team)? That's so neat.) Glad to see She-Ra and Steven Universe in the longlist.
Short Editor
I guess we weren't done memorializing Dozois either. Well, I'm going to go ahead and predict that Clarke will get it next year.
Long Editor
Sure!
Pro Artist
Well, Vess was my prediction.
Semiprozine
Uncanny was also my prediction, and my pick.
Fanzine
Lady Business was my second vote; disappointed Quick Sip didn't do better.
Fan Writer
Sure.
Fan Artist
Go Likhain! These outcomes are pretty close to my whole ballot here.
Art Book
We continue to really like Le Guin, as predicted, and I think we like things that were in the packet more than things that were not in the packet.
Lodestar
Welp, I predicted this. I really have no idea what people see in this book when we had Dread Nation and Tess right there, but whatever, people can like things I don't. Cross Fire just barely onto the longlist, that's something. Man, I really need to read Peasprout Chen.
Campbell NotaHugo
Wow, I did not predict this. I thought Kuang was going to take it, and I'm really surprised that of the repeats, Ng, who didn't have much new work over last time, beat Arden, who did.
So, predictions-wise, if my tallies are right, I got 9 correct (Novel, Related, Graphic, Dramatic Long, Pro Artist, Semiprozine, Fan Artist, Art Book, and Lodestar) and 6 wrong (Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Series, Short Editor, Campbell) (didn't predict in the rest), so that sounds like I'm not doing so badly, but it's not so good if you just look at the fiction categories.
But anyways, the Hugos. I was sad to miss the speeches - I don't quite understand why they can't also record the ceremony, if they're going to livestream the ceremony, but I suppose it has to do with the newfangled technological details of how these things work.
Below the cut, a bunch of thoughts about results, how well my favorites did, how well my predictions did, etc. I haven't even read up yet on what happened at the business meeting so expect a separate post about that even more belatedly.
Novel
Calculating Stars was my prediction; nice to see Spinning Silver, my favorite, place second. Also nice to see Blackfish City and Semiosis on the longlist.
Novella
Boy people sure like Murderbot - impressive that all three of them would have made the ballot if she hadn't pulled the other two! This was not my prediction or favorite but clearly I should never underestimate Murderbot again. My prediction, Tea Master, came in second; I'm amused that my top three votes took the bottom three places. Heh, I'm reminded by the longlist that we failed to get the Vorkosigan novella in the packet and now I'm going to have to decide whether I want to pay for it.
Novelette
I am flabbergasted that Only Harmless Great Thing didn't take this. Try Try Again was my first place vote so I'm not disappointed, but if there was one prediction I would have said I was sure about, it was this one. My favorite novelette of the year, What Is Eve, didn't even make the longlist, doh.
Short Story
Another case where my favorite (Witch's Guide) won instead of my prediction (Nine Negro Teeth)! Predictions not doing so hot this year. I guess more voters share my taste than I thought. But no Octo-Heist even on the longlist! Story of the year!
Series
Wayfarers! Definitely didn't see that coming. My prediction was that they were a lot of people's second or third favorite but in fact they had the lead in first-place votes. My prediction, Laundry Files, took second, so at least I'm not totally off-base about these things. I specifically thought that Xuya and Machineries might split some of the same votes; in the first round, Xuya dumped 72 into Machineries vs 54 into Wayfarers, 39 into Laundry, and 22 into Toby Daye, so, maybe somewhat? I'm surprised Xuya didn't do better, I had thought they were the other frontrunner with Laundry. From the longlist, *Earthsea* apparently narrowly missed getting a slot (with Firelight as its 2018 publication), that would have been a wild ballot. How the fuck do you compare someone's 2010s series with fucking Earthsea.
Related
This is the speech I would really liked to have get to watched live. :( I have had many different feelings about the AO3 nomination over the course of this year's nomination and voting cycle and have ended up feeling happy about it. That moment when people stood up from the audience must have been pretty great. Anyways, it was my prediction (and vote, in the end), so my predictions get another win. Interesting to see the Le Guin take second, I guess we were not quite done memorializing Le Guin yet. Also if I'm reading this right Hobbit Duology did pick up a lot of second-place votes from AO3, and Walton picked up a lot from Le Guin - the order is really jumping around as we go down-ballot.
Graphic
A win for my prediction (Monstress) if not my favorite (Sunbeam). Not a great showing for Sunbeam here. And also wow, people must have gotten something out of that Black Panther comic that I didn't.
Dramatic Long
My prediction and my vote! Nice to see Wrinkle in Time did well on the longlist.
Dramatic Short
I think it's cool that Dirty Computer did that well in first-pass first-place votes, and also that something I've actually seen and enjoyed won this category. (And it's so awesome that apparently the show/D'Arcy Carden sent a video? Like, when do the dramatics ever know or care that they're nominated (except for Clpping who are a small number of actual people rather than a giant corporate media team)? That's so neat.) Glad to see She-Ra and Steven Universe in the longlist.
Short Editor
I guess we weren't done memorializing Dozois either. Well, I'm going to go ahead and predict that Clarke will get it next year.
Long Editor
Sure!
Pro Artist
Well, Vess was my prediction.
Semiprozine
Uncanny was also my prediction, and my pick.
Fanzine
Lady Business was my second vote; disappointed Quick Sip didn't do better.
Fan Writer
Sure.
Fan Artist
Go Likhain! These outcomes are pretty close to my whole ballot here.
Art Book
We continue to really like Le Guin, as predicted, and I think we like things that were in the packet more than things that were not in the packet.
Lodestar
Welp, I predicted this. I really have no idea what people see in this book when we had Dread Nation and Tess right there, but whatever, people can like things I don't. Cross Fire just barely onto the longlist, that's something. Man, I really need to read Peasprout Chen.
Campbell NotaHugo
Wow, I did not predict this. I thought Kuang was going to take it, and I'm really surprised that of the repeats, Ng, who didn't have much new work over last time, beat Arden, who did.
So, predictions-wise, if my tallies are right, I got 9 correct (Novel, Related, Graphic, Dramatic Long, Pro Artist, Semiprozine, Fan Artist, Art Book, and Lodestar) and 6 wrong (Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Series, Short Editor, Campbell) (didn't predict in the rest), so that sounds like I'm not doing so badly, but it's not so good if you just look at the fiction categories.
