Hugo Finalists!

[psocoptera]

Hugo Finalists! Whole thing under a cut but you can see them here if you just want the list without my opinions.

Quick overview - lots of good stuff, a couple of (possibly-longshot) omissions that hurt, nothing that jumps out to me as especially weird.

Also, this is not my predictions post, I need to read more first. :)

Best Novel

The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders
Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley
A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow

I've read half and two of them were my noms. I'm third right now in a long library queue for Ten Thousand Doors so would like to congratulate myself on having gotten in on that in a timely fashion. Light Brigade wasn't on my to-read list but it's Hurley so seems likely to be worthwhile. Perhaps I'll even enjoy Middlegame, who can say.

Best Novella

“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang
The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark
In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers

I've read four, nominated two. I'm not excited about Absent Dream being another prequel rather than sequel, but I enjoyed the last one more than I thought I would. And I liked the Deep song a lot...

Best Novelette

“The Archronology of Love”, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019)
“Away With the Wolves”, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019)
“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019)
Emergency Skin, by N.K. Jemisin (Forward Collection (Amazon))
“For He Can Creep”, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019)
“Omphalos”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation)

None of my nominees, but I've read all of them except for the Jemisin story, which seems likely to be good and I'll be very pleased to get in the packet. I seem to have missed in my tagging that "Away With the Wolves" was a novelette, vexing. I recced that, and Blur, and Omphalos, although I think I also thought that was a short story. :/

Best Short Story

“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019)
“As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019)
“Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
“A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019)
“Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019)
“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)

I've read all of these, and "Ten Excerpts" was one of my nominees. (I think the Harrow was the only other one I actually recced.)

Best Series

The Expanse, by James S. A. Corey
InCryptid, by Seanan McGuire
Luna, by Ian McDonald
Planetfall series, by Emma Newman
Winternight Trilogy, by Katherine Arden
Wormwood, by Tade Thompson

Serieseses! I didn't nominate any, although I've read and enjoyed that Arden trilogy. Not sure what I'll end up doing about these reading-wise; I think I have books from the Newman and Thompson series on my to-read list, I have already bounced off The Expanse and InCryptid, and I've never even heard of Luna.

Best Related Work

Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, by J. Michael Straczynski
Joanna Russ, by Gwyneth Jones
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, by Mallory O’Meara
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, by Farah Mendlesohn
“2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech”, by Jeannette Ng
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry

Sure. [ETA: inclined to say this should go to Ng for cultural impact (as I recall it was her speech that got the award renamed)]

Best Graphic Story or Comic

Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)
LaGuardia, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin (Berger Books; Dark Horse)
Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image)
Mooncakes, by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil (Oni Press; Lion Forge)
Paper Girls, Volume 6, written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image)
The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: Okay, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)

I'm so sad we couldn't get Chronin onto this list. It's so good and I loved it so much. Also, what are the odds of my reading *8* prep-work volumes of WicDiv to be able to appreciate a volume 9. Not high, even less high with the libraries closed.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Good Omens
Russian Doll (Season One)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Us

I nominated Captain Marvel and Good Omens and I suppose that there were in fact a bunch of people who really liked Endgame and Rise of Skywalker, so fine. Can I possibly find time to watch Russian Doll? It sounds so interesting, but there's so much compared with a movie. (And I suppose I'll watch Us the way I watched Get Out, reading a detailed synopsis first so I can handle it...)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

The Good Place: “The Answer”
The Expanse: “Cibola Burn”
Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar”
The Mandalorian: “Redemption”
Doctor Who: “Resolution”
Watchmen: “This Extraordinary Being”

I'm also sad we couldn't get the Steven Universe season five finale onto this list, which remains one of the best things I've ever seen on television. Also I'm officially excusing myself from this category this year; if I'm going to manage any tv, I think it'll be Russian Doll because I definitely want to vote in that category.

Best Editor, Short Form

Neil Clarke
Ellen Datlow
C.C. Finlay
Jonathan Strahan
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Sheila Williams

Sure!

Best Editor, Long Form

Sheila E. Gilbert
Brit Hvide
Diana M. Pho
Devi Pillai
Miriam Weinberg
Navah Wolfe

I nominated half of these people!

Best Professional Artist

Tommy Arnold
Rovina Cai
Galen Dara
John Picacio
Yuko Shimizu
Alyssa Winans

I nominated four of these people, and also really like Shimizu's work!

Best Semiprozine

Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Escape Pod
Fireside Magazine
FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction
Strange Horizons
Uncanny Magazine

Cool!

Best Fanzine

The Book Smugglers
Galactic Journey
Journey Planet
nerds of a feather, flock together
Quick Sip Reviews
The Rec Center

Yay Quick Sip!

Best Fancast

Be The Serpent
Claire Rousseau’s YouTube channel
The Coode Street Podcast
Galactic Suburbia
Our Opinions Are Correct
The Skiffy and Fanty Show

I have permanently excused myself from this category, but I'm including it here in case anyone is curious and doesn't want to go look separately.

Best Fan Writer

Cora Buhlert
James Davis Nicoll
Alasdair Stuart
Bogi Takács
Paul Weimer
Adam Whitehead

Yay Bogi Takács!

Best Fan Artist

Iain Clark
Sara Felix
Grace P. Fong
Meg Frank
Ariela Housman
Elise Matthesen

Sure!

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer
Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge
Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee
Minor Mage, by T. Kingfisher
Riverland, by Fran Wilde
The Wicked King, by Holly Black

I've read four of these and nominated one, which would have been two if I had already read Catfishing. Looking forward to the Hardinge!

Astounding Award for the Best New Science Fiction Writer

Sam Hawke (2nd year of eligibility)
R.F. Kuang (2nd year of eligibility)
Jenn Lyons (1st year of eligibility)
Nibedita Sen (2nd year of eligibility)
Tasha Suri (2nd year of eligibility)
Emily Tesh (1st year of eligibility)

I nominated Tesh and Sen, and off the top of my head I'm not sure who Hawke, Lyons, or Suri are, so that's exciting. (And I'm in another well-planned library queue for Kuang's second book.)

Comments

[psocoptera]

Why does Jenn Lyons have books listed on goodreads from 2013 and 2014 if she's Astounding-eligible? I'm confused.

[glynhogen]

My guess is the earlier work didn't cross the $3K threshold. World Weaver is small, and it looks like There Be Candlelight was self-run.

[psocoptera]

Ah, that makes sense, I forgot there was a threshold for that.

[glassonion]

There's actually not *that* much of Russian Doll compared to a movie: it's eight "half hour" episodes, so at most it's 4 hours, but they might be TV-length-half-hours too. So, yes, it's more than a movie, but it's not nuts.

[psocoptera]

That's cool, that is a little better than I thought. We did manage to watch Good Omens, it must be possible.

[mst3kforall]

> Hugo Finalists! Whole thing under a cut but you can see them here if you just want the list without my opinions.

I appreciate this (haven’t read through it yet), but your opinions are what make the lists for me. I’ve discovered a lot of interesting stories/books/authors from you! You have single-handedly enticed me into reading again;-)