#hugo nominees

[always-coffee]

2024 Hugo Nominees

They're out! And the video is delightful:

Congrats everyone! I am so thrilled for all my friends!

#hugos #hugo nominees #2024 hugos #glasgow #SFF #Youtube

[glencadigan]

Like the above picture says, about halfway through the Hugo Awards nomination season I discovered that The Life and Art of Dave Cockrum is eligible in the Best Related Work category. If you’re a voting member of the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon, please consider nominating it! You’d be in good company!

#hugo awards #hugo nominees

[countzeroor]

Book Review: She Who Became The Sun

Book Review: She Who Became The Sun

It’s time to review the last of the Hugo Nominees that were on my shortlist – She Who Became The Sun By Shelly Parker-Chan (more…)

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#2020s in books #fantasy #Hugo Nominees #wuxia

[frontlinebicepsoftheninth]

the locked tomb is a Hugo Award finalist for best series and nona the ninth is a finalist for best novel!

this makes ntn a double finalist (edit: as in for both the nebula and hugo awards) like gideon the ninth, as well as being the first time the series has been nominated as a whole! winners are announced in october

#i am holding out for a win!! #tlt #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #ntn #hugo awards #edit note gtn was actually the double nominee not htn! #sff

[eilooxara]

All right I'm going to try She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan based on almost nothing besides availability and being a Hugo nominee but let's see how it goes

#eilooxology #Eilooxara reads #Hugo nominee means almost nothing they keep nominating Becky fucking chambers

[bansenshukai]

here is my recommended reading order of novik's work:

Spinning Silver

Uprooted

and then interchangeable between Temeraire series (9 books) or The Scholomance (3 books), depending on whether you like pride and prejudice but instead of romance it's the platonic perfection of a bond between man and dragon or YA fantasy where the magic school is trying to kill you (a series that restored my faith in a genre)

#naomi novik #book rec #actually author rec #all her books are very different imo #a rarity for an author #like seriously. so different. but spinning silver is the nebula winner and hugo nominee and a buncha other awards for a good reason #that being said i think temeraire might be my fav. practically a comfort series at this point. lawrence and temeraire got me in a chokehold #i honestly think you cannot judge that series until you've read all nine books #because its like. the best series ever. i've never felt the plot development and character development grow and expand so organically #and seamlessly across NINE FUCKING BOOKS and then WRAP UP AMAZINGLY SATISFYINGLY #like. oh my god. thinking about it has me on the floor

[highladyluck]

I actually appreciate that when I went on tumblr to try to see other people roasting a book I thought was badly written, all I found was people who loved it and who thought the things I saw as obvious flaws were great. (Also to be fair I also love an alien friend so I could relate to the ‘I would die for [alien friend]’ posts.)

It’s not going to change my mind about the writing but I am inspired by tumblr’s ability to find treasure where I see trash. I think that’s sweet!

#I will not tag the book #but it’s a 2022 Hugo nominee

[secularbakedgoods]

so it looks like the (largely American and Canadian) Hugo awards administration team for 2023 was compiling political dossiers on nominees to determine whether they should be disqualified as finalists. which is infuriating for all sorts of ideological reasons, but also the dossiers aren't even good. so much of what supposedly disqualified these nominees was half-remembered, or based on hearsay, or just outright wrong. like look at this shit:

i'm not the world's biggest Iron Widow fan, but Zhao's work deserved to win or lose on its own merits. not because someone on a committee who clearly hadn't read the book, who didn't remember the title, and who couldn't even spell their name right got scared of the deep state and put them on a blacklist.

#hugo awards 2023

[neil-gaiman]

I don't think you should get to go on here and post about how the evil Chinese government influenced book award nominations for ideological reasons and then later reblog something that reveals that this was all a distraction to keep all the Chinese language ballots that got thrown out for racism reasons a secret and everyone is just supposed to give you a pass?

That's nice.

As one of the people directly affected (episode 6 of my show Sandman would have got enough votes to be on the Hugo ballot, but was mysteriously removed as "ineligible"), I've been posting and reblogging the information that we've had as we've been getting it.

One of the best things about getting to blog in real time is that as more information comes in you get to reblog that.

Originally, what we knew from what people were saying or implying was that there was censorship going on.

We knew that a book, two people and a TV show had been removed from the nominee list before the final ballot. But nobody was talking on the record.

Then one of the Hugo Committee broke ranks, leaked emails and spoke to Jason Sanford and Chris M. Barkley, who released this report:

The most shocking part of the story, from the leaks, is that Dave McCarty, the adminstrator, appears to have thrown out hundreds, perhaps thousands of Chinese votes, claiming that they were a "slate". (Something that he doesn't have the authority to do, any more than he had the authority to mark things inexplicably ineligible.)

I hope this helps.

#bless your soul

[jscalzi]

What's Up With Babel and the Hugos?

There’s a new controversy with this last year’s Hugo Awards, involving, among other things, a number of potential nominees declared ineligible for not-at-all-clear reasons, including R.F. Kuang’s novel Babel, which was a presumed front runner before the finalist lists came out. Rather than try to explain the controversy myself (I have been away this weekend and am still catching up), I am going…

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[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

The Hugo Awards nominating statistics don't add up

tl;dr Along with works arbitrarily being deemed ineligible for the Hugo Awards the underlying numbers for the nominating data don't add up. The nominating statistics are junk.

Yesterday the Hugo nominating statistics for 2023 were released. Initial discussion focused on several nominees including R.F. Kuang's Babel being deemed ineligible for seemingly no reason.

After people started looking at the actual statistics a number of oddities were apparent. Heather Rose Jones has released a blog post with some graphs neatly illustrating this.

She suggests a number of hypothesis for what's going on: bloc voting, certain nominees below the cut-off being omitted or the one I now think must be true "The math is bogus. That is, the reported nomination statistics include large numbers of nominations attributed to the "top group" that do not arise from an actual nomination process."

In a previous post I discussed Peter Wilkinson's comment that showed that there are mathematical impossibilities in the statistics:

As (I think) a quite separate final remark for now, I think I have found a small mathematical impossibility in the Best Novel nomination statistics as given. Because of the way EPH works, every valid ballot gets counted in the first round of an EPH count, but ballots get eliminated as and when the last nominee on the ballot gets eliminated. It is therefore quite impressive that, of the 1,637 ballots received for Best Novel, 1,652 remained after all but the final 15 candidates had been eliminated.

To elaborate on this each nominators is given a single point divided equally between the works they nominate. In the first round the number of points equals the number of nominators.

In subsequent rounds if a work is eliminated the point is redistributed between the nominators remaining nominees. If no nominees remain it isn't redistributed. In essence the number of points represents the number of nominators who have nominees remaining on the ballot.

The number of points should never be higher than the number of nominators.

The only explanation I can see is that the statistics are made up.

Following on from Peter Wilkinson's comment Marshall Ryan Maresca ran the numbers for all categories:

His results match the ones I have previously checked. I posted about novel and fanwriter in the previous linked post and had checked novella as well.

I've now checked the other two categories where he showed the result is over 100% and my numbers add up to the same as what he has shown.

I've posted my workings below for reference.

First lets look at best novel which had 1637 nominating ballots:

My calculation matches what Peter and Marshall found.

Best novella had 1393 ballots:

This again matches Marshall's result and is the only category I checked where the points sum to less than 100% of the ballots.

Best short story has 1500 ballots but 1568.96 nominating points, again matching Marshall's results:

Best fan writer which I discussed yesterday has the largest relative difference with only 241 people nominating but 364.01 nominating points (again matching Marshall's results).

Finally let's look at the Lodestar which had 280 nominating ballots:

Again my result matches what Marshall found.

Heather Rose Jones has illustrated why the nominating statistics are anomalous. Peter Wilkinson showed that the numbers for best novel reflected a mathematically impossibility.

Yesterday after seeing Wilkinson's comment I ran the numbers and got the same result and found the even larger discrepancy in the fan writer category.

Marshall Ryan Maresca separately saw Peter Wilkinson’s comment and went through the categories much more systematically and has shown several are unusually high and that four have impossible numbers based on the reported number of ballots.

I've double checked the categories where Marshall demonstrated that there were over 100% of votes being reported and got the same results.

I do not see how the above is possible without extra votes being added to the totals. The math doesn't add up.

#hugo awards #cut for length

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Hugo Drama

Hugo Gernsback: hey everyone its me, hugo gernsback Gernsback: editor of Amazing Stories and namesake of the hugo awards Gernsback: perhaps you've heard of them? Clive Barker: oh buddy Barker: buddy Barker: we've heard all about them ha ha

Stephen King: they're named after you? i thought they were named after victor hugo Gernsback: ha ha a common mistake Gernsback: but that's fine Gernsback: i'm not mad at all that victor hugo keeps getting the credit Gernsback: i think its funny Gernsback: in fact i'm laughing

Gernsback: ah yes my precious hugo awards! Gernsback: the most prestigious award in science fiction and fantasy! Gernsback: a place for serious business Gernsback: certainly no room for shenanigans here Gernsback: no room for tomfoolery Gernsback: no room for clownish buffoonery

Gernsback: The Hugo -- an award whose very name rings with integrity & honor!   Gernsback: it is no mere nebula! no paltry clarke! Gernback: the stoker, the howard, the lambda - none can compare! Gernsback: the L Ron hubbard writers of the future award? pah! dust before the hugo!

Gernsback: only the choicest cuts of science fiction and fantasy would ever achieve the lofty hugo award Gernsback: an award forever untainted by shenanigans or hijinks! Gernsback: now to take a big sip of coffee and read this  file 770 report!

Gernsback: what the--?! Gernsback: my beautiful hugos!!! tainted by the foul stench of corruption!!! Clive Barker: yeah boy i bet victor hugo's just sick about it Gernsback: Barker: just sick about what they did to his award Gernsback: Barker: ha ha Poe: clive leave him alone

Gernsback: my hugo!!! you were supposed to be a thing of beauty... not this monstrosity! Dean Koontz: gosh he's so sad about his award Koontz: do you think it would cheer him up if i gave him my nickelodean kids choice award? Poe: i think that would be a very nice gesture dean

Chris M Barkley: [thrusting microphone] Mr gernsback! mr gernsback! a statement for the press? Jason Sanford: [thrusting microphone] how do you respond to the allegations about your award mr gernsback? Gernsback: confound these intrepid newshounds of the 4th estate!

Gernsback: [wiping brow] don't worry, we will be taking measures to fix this Barkley: what are you going to do mr gernsback? Sanford: the people demand an answer mr gernsback! Gernsback: we'll uh Gernsback: we'll nominate an essay called 'Dave McCarty Can Fuck Off Into the Sun'

Gernsback: what a debacle! i cannot believe my good name will now forever be associated with such shady practices! HP Lovecraft: hey when are you gonna pay me for my story you ran? Gernsback: new phone, who dis?

Gernsback: you know who this really hurts? Gernsback: worse than the nominees secretly disqualified for politics? Gernsback: worse than the entirety of Chinese science fiction secretly disqualified for being Chinese? Gernsback: worse than the winners whose awards are now tainted?

Gernsback: the person that this hurts most of all Gernsback: is clearly bitter karella Gernsback: for reasons i can't articulate Gernsback: everyone should immediately go and heap conciliatory praise on bitter karella Gernsback: truly the most wronged person of all

Bitter Karella: [bravely holding back tears] no no it's not about me Bitter Karella: [voice cracking] my only thought is for the hugo community who has been through... so much... Bitter Karella: [stoically gazing into distance] they're the REAL heroes

Gernsback: look how bitter karella keeps a brave face... for our sake! King: god bitter karella is so brave... and so modest! Poe: truly a great goblin Poe: possibly the greatest Koontz: why? what did they do? Poe: dean! show some respect!

#midnight pals #the midnight society #midnight society #stephen king #clive barker #edgar allan poe #dean koontz #hp lovecraft #hugo gernsback #bitter karella #jason sanford #chris m barkley

[countzeroor]

She Who Became the Sun: Book Review

She Who Became the Sun: Book Review

This weekend is Worldcon, and several weeks before the convention (basically the week before I got COVID), I finished reading the last of the novels that were up for Hugo Awards that weren’t part of a series that I hadn’t already started reading – She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan – a novel inspired by wuxia fiction, inspired by the rise of the Hongwu Emperor. It’s an… interesting…

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#2020s in books #2020s in Hugo Award Nominees #fantasy #wuxia

[my-hand-that-will-not-harm-you]

Ancillary Justice and The Goblin Emperor really only have imperialism and interesting linguistics in common, but it is a bit of a trip to read one after the other

#Hugo and Nebula nominees are like ‘this is at least partially about the intersection of language and power’ #‘The emperor’s pronouns if you will’ #book posting

[bob-artist]

You: Eisner winner, Printz Honor, NYT Bestseller, Hugo nominee

Me:

#how did this happen haha

[sixth-light]

13 books tag game, tagged by @amemoryofwot

1) Last book I read:

Starter Villain by John Scalzi, in an effort to 1) get back on my Hugo nominee completionist bullshit and 2) give him a second go, since I was deeply unimpressed by the first one a few years ago. It was...you know the thing about how badly-written books can help you learn more about writing than well-written ones? That!

2) A book I recommend:

I am metaphorically grabbing everybody I know by the collar and telling them to read Some Desperate Glory, unless the subject matter isn't for them which is fair, but it's so good.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

I distinctly remember finishing Gideon the Ninth at like 11pm because I couldn't wait until morning, which must be seen in the context of me being asleep by 10pm every night of my life I get a choice in the matter.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more)

I went through a solid decade of reading Hogfather every Christmas and I've probably got a few more left in me.

5) A book on my TBR

I've got Mary Beard's latest book, Emperor of Rome, on reserve at the library.

6) A book I’ve put down

Tried The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart last year because it was blurbed well and I was in a fantasy mood, and got like...twenty pages in. It didn't leave enough of an impression for me to remember exactly why, just a general 'I don't care about these characters' vibe.

7) A book on my wish list

Kate Elliott is being very kind about progress updates in her newsletter and I want her to have the time she needs...but I am also chewing at the bit for Lady Chaos.

8) A favourite book from childhood

I was SO into Redwall as a kid. First fanfic I ever wrote.

9) A book you would give a friend

This is hard because I always want to rec specific books to specific people, I sincerely believe there's no generic book which is good for everybody. Um, maybe All Systems Red since Murderbot seems to resonate with a wide audience?

10) The most books you own by a single author

(Physical books only) An ACTUAL single author? Anne McCaffrey for sure. An alleged single author? I own 36 Trixie Belden Mysteries books.

11) A nonfiction book you own

Storm over Mono, which is a really interesting account of the fight to save Lake Mono in California, a scientifically interesting and historically and ecologically unique place.

12) what are you currently reading

Technically between books but I'm about to start The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older. I liked the first one fine but it didn't grab me grab me, so we'll see how it goes.

13) what are you planning on reading next?

My mostly-science book club is going retro and reading Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman which I have been putting off because I have Heard Things about Richard Feynman...but also I gotta gird my loins and get onto it.

I have not been around Tumblr enough lately to think of who to tag but with 100% sincerity, if you see this and it starts the wheels turning in your head about books you've read lately and so on, you're it!

#books #book recs