Hello everyone, and HAPPY SUNDAY! The Hugo Awards have been announced, the Smugglers are back from their travels, and all is well in the universe. Let’s get down to business, shall we?
The 2016 Hugo Awards
As you may have heard, this year’s World Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention, aka MidAmeriCon 2 (#MAC2), has just come to a triumphant close. Last night, the Hugo Awards were announced, long-list statistics were revealed! The awards are among the most prestigious in the speculative fiction community, all the more powerful because they are fan-nominated and voted upon. The past two years, however, have been controversial (to say the least) as a small contingent of fans–the right wing Sad Puppies, and their more extremist and vitriolic counterparts, the Rabid Puppies–have employed slate nomination and voting tactics to stuff the ballot to works they deemed appropriate. Despite the best efforts of the Puppies, in 2015 “No Award” won the day and the larger voting pool rejected the slate ballot. In 2016, we are thrilled to say that once again the Puppies’ slates were rejected–voters cast their support for works such as N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season and Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, Hao Jingfang’s “Folding Beijing”, and “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer.
That’s right–four of the five major award categories went to women, and three of those women are people of color. The fifth award, for Best Related Work, went to “No Award.” We count that a success.
Here are the winners (indicated in bold):
BEST NOVEL (WORKS 40,000 WORDS AND ABOVE)
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)
Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
BEST NOVELLA (SHORT WORKS BETWEEN 17,500 AND 40,000 WORDS)
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
The Builders by Daniel Polansky (Tor.com)
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)
Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)
Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon)
BEST NOVELETTE (SHORT WORKS BETWEEN 7,500 AND 17,500 WORDS)
Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)
And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb 2015)
Flashpoint: Titan by CHEAH Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
Obits by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)
What Price Humanity? by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
BEST SHORT STORY (SHORT WORKS LESS THAN 7,500 WORDS)
Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)
Asymmetrical Warfare by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)
If You Were an Award, My Love by Juan Tabo and S. Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)
Seven Kill Tiger by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)
BEST RELATED WORK
No Award
Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986 by Marc Aramini (Castalia House)
The First Draft of My Appendix N Book by Jeffro Johnson (jeffro.wordpress.com)
Safe Space as Rape Room by Daniel Eness (castaliahouse.com)
SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by Vox Day (Castalia House)
The Story of Moira Greyland by Moira Greyland (askthebigot.com)
BEST GRAPHIC STORY
The Sandman: Overture written by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III (Vertigo)
The Divine written by Boaz Lavie, art by Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka (First Second)
Erin Dies Alone written by Grey Carter, art by Cory Rydell (dyingalone.net)
Full Frontal Nerdity by Aaron Williams (ffn.nodwick.com)
Invisible Republic Vol 1 written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, art by Gabriel Hardman (Image Comics)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM
The Martian screenplay by Drew Goddard, directed by Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions; Kinberg Genre; TSG Entertainment; 20th Century Fox)
Avengers: Age of Ultron written and directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Ex Machina written and directed by Alex Garland (Film4; DNA Films; Universal Pictures)
Mad Max: Fury Road written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris, directed by George Miller (Village Roadshow Pictures; Kennedy Miller Mitchell; RatPac-Dune Entertainment; Warner Bros. Pictures)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt, directed by J.J. Abrams (Lucasfilm Ltd.; Bad Robot Productions; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM
Jessica Jones: “AKA Smile” written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Studios; Tall Girls Productions; Netflix)
Doctor Who: “Heaven Sent” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay (BBC Television)
Grimm: “Headache” written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, directed by Jim Kouf (Universal Television; GK Productions; Hazy Mills Productions; Open 4 Business Productions; NBCUniversal Television Distribution)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: “The Cutie Map” Parts 1 and 2 written by Scott Sonneborn, M.A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy, directed by Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller (DHX Media / Vancouver; Hasbro Studios)
Supernatural: “Just My Imagination” written by Jenny Klein, directed by Richard Speight Jr. (Kripke Enterprises; Wonderland Sound and Vision; Warner Bros. Television)
BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM
Ellen Datlow
John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Jerry Pournelle
Sheila Williams
BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM
Sheila E. Gilbert
Vox Day
Liz Gorinsky
Jim Minz
Toni Weisskopf
BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
Abigail Larson
Lars Braad Andersen
Larry Elmore
Michal Karcz
Larry Rostant
BEST SEMIPROZINE
Uncanny Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, and Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky
Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews
Daily Science Fiction edited by Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden
Sci Phi Journal edited by Jason Rennie
Strange Horizons edited by Catherine Krahe, Julia Rios, A. J. Odasso, Vanessa Rose Phin, Maureen Kincaid Speller, and the Strange Horizons staff
BEST FANZINE
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Castalia House Blog edited by Jeffro Johnson
Lady Business edited by Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan
Superversive SF edited by Jason Rennie
Tangent Online edited by Dave Truesdale
BEST FANCAST
No Award
8-4 Play, Mark MacDonald, John Ricciardi, Hiroko Minamoto, and Justin Epperson
Cane and Rinse, Cane and Rinse
HelloGreedo, HelloGreedo
The Rageaholic, Razo?rFist
Tales to Terrify, Stephen Kilpatrick
BEST FAN WRITER
Mike Glyer
Douglas Ernst
Morgan Holmes
Jeffro Johnson
Shamus Young
BEST FAN ARTIST
Steve Stiles
Matthew Callahan
disse86
Kukuruyo
Christian Quinot
THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2014 or 2015. (Not a Hugo Award.)
Andy Weir *
Pierce Brown *
Sebastien de Castell *
Brian Niemeier
Alyssa Wong *
* Finalists in their second year of eligibility.
Congratulations to the winners! And, if we’re going to be sticklers about things, in the longlist statistics that were released following the awards, we see that there’s other cause for celebration! Had Puppy shenanigans not have occurred, The Book Smugglers would have made the ballot for Best Semiprozine–and we also saw strong representation for Fangirl Happy Hour, as well as authors Sunil Patel, Isabel Yap, and S.L. Huang on the John W. Campbell Award ballot. NEXT YEAR.
An Amazon Giveaway & Sale
We currently have two sales going on, plus an Amazon giveaway! Sky Ranger, book 2 in the Extrahuman Union series, is just $2.99 through this weekend. Haven’t read Broken (book 1) yet? No problem! You can grab a copy of Broken for just $0.99 this weekend as well. Also, our first ever Quarterly Almanac is available as an ebook for just $4.99 this weekend as well–we highly recommend you pick up a copy!
Finally, last week we released our newest short story in our ongoigng superhero season of fiction. Superior by Jessica Lack is available to read for free now, but you can ALSO enter to win a copy from our Amazon giveaway here.
This Week on The Book Smugglers
AND FINALLY, down to this week’s regular business! On Monday, we are thrilled to post an Inspirations and Influences essay from Susan Jane Bigelow on the third and penultimate book in the Extrahuman Union series, The Spark.
On Tuesday we open up submissions for our next season of short stories in 2017, with the theme GODS AND MONSTERS.
Wednesday, we kick things up a notch with our review of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child–the screenplay AND the stage play.
Thursday, Ana reviews The Race by Nina Allan; Thea reviews Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers.
And on Friday we close out the week over at Kirkus with Ana’s review of Ghost Talkers.
Until tomorrow, we remain…
Bulbasaur by RJ Palmer
~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers
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