Hugo Nominations!

It's an interesting list this year -- and I don't mean that in the Chinese-curse sense, but that the nominators have rallied behind some things cynical Andy Wheeler would not have expected. Further thoughts and sarcasm will be embedded after each category below...


Best Novel

• The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)
• Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
• Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor; Analog Oct. 2006-Jan/Feb. 2007)
• The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor)
• Halting State by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit)

I've actually read four of these -- everything but Brasyl. It would be really interesting to see Chabon win, but I suspect it will be Stross or Scalzi. (And I'd be happy with any of those three.)

Best Novella

• "Fountains of Age" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's July 2007)
• "Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov's Feb. 2007)
• "Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard (F&SF July 2007)
• "All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis (Asimov's Dec. 2007; Subterranean Press)
• "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe (F&SF April 2007)

Haven't read a single one of them. (This is the time of year when I'd usually be frantically reading Year's Bests for the old job, but not this year.) I predict...Rusch will win. Why? Why not?

Best Novelette

• "The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea ed. by John Klima, Bantam)
• "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (F&SF Sept. 2007)
• "Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (Asimov's Oct./Nov. 2007)
• "Glory" by Greg Egan (The New Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)
• "Finisterra" by David Moles (F&SF Dec. 2007)

Two Greg Egan stories! It's like 1995 all over again! I've only read "Glory," which I don't remember well. I'm going to guess that Chiang will take it.

Best Short Story

• "Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, ed. by George Mann, Solaris Books)
• "Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's June 2007)
• "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod (The New Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)
• "Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's April/May 2007)
• "A Small Room in Koboldtown" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's April/May 2007; The Dog Said Bow-Wow, Tachyon Publications)

In this category, I've read a whopping two stories. I think I'm pulling for Bear here, because she deserves a rocketship of her own. But the Swanwick story was quite good.

Best Related Book

• The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Glyer; appendix by David Bratman (Kent State University Press)
• Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium by Barry Malzberg (Baen)
• Emshwiller: Infinity x Two by Luis Ortiz, intro. by Carol Emshwiller, fwd. by Alex Eisenstien (Nonstop)
• Brave New Words: the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press)
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)

The Arrival and Breakfast in the Ruins are both killer in their own ways, and Brave New Words seems quite impressive, though I've only just started poking through it. Under my usual expectations for this category -- the book by or about the oldest fan-favorite always wins -- I'm going to assume the Emshwiller retrospective will take it.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Enchanted Written by Bill Kelly, Directed by Kevin Lima (Walt Disney Pictures)
• The Golden Compass Written by Chris Weitz, Based on the novel by Philip Pullman, Directed by Chris Weitz (New Line Cinema)
• Heroes, Season 1, Created by Tim Kring (NBC Universal Television and Tailwind Productions Written by Tim Kring, Jeph Loeb, Bryan Fuller, Michael Green, Natalie Chaidez, Jesse Alexander, Adam Armus, Aron Eli Coleite, Joe Pokaski, Christopher Zatta, Chuck Kim, Directed by David Semel, Allan Arkush, Greg Beeman, Ernest R. Dickerson, Paul Shapiro, Donna Deitch, Paul A. Edwards, John Badham, Terrence O'Hara, Jeannot Szwarc, Roxann Dawson, Kevin Bray, Adam Kane
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Written by Michael Goldenberg, Based on the novel by J.K. Rowling, Directed by David Yates (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Stardust Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures)

How does one choose among four movies and one season of a TV show? This category has a serious apples-and-oranges problem this year. (Of course, I don't like the "dramatic" categories in the first place, so I'm not unbiased.) I haven't seen Heroes, so I can't judge it. I suspect Stardust, which was flawed in ways extremely sentimental people (for which read: Americans) will love, will carry the day.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Battlestar Galactica "Razor" written by Michael Taylor, directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá and Wayne Rose (Sci Fi Channel) (televised version, not DVD)
• Dr. Who "Blink" written by Stephen Moffat, directed by Hettie Macdonald (BBC)
• Dr. Who "Human Nature" / "Family of Blood" written by Paul Cornell, directed by Charles Palmer (BBC)
• Star Trek New Voyages "World Enough and Time" written by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree, directed by Marc Scott Zicree (Cawley Entertainment Co. and The Magic Time Co.)
• Torchwood "Captain Jack Harkness" written by Catherine Tregenna, directed by Ashley Way (BBC Wales)

Oh look! It's "Worlds Enough and Time" again! The Hugos have no required "professional" status, so I'll only be mildly dismissive of it as the exceptionally fannish, backwards-looking thing that it is. I haven't seen any of these, and don't ever intend to. I'll expect Torchwood to take it, if only because it's the first show to come to fandom pre-slashed.

Best Professional Editor, Short Form

• Ellen Datlow (The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's), Coyote Road (Viking), Inferno (Tor))
• Stanley Schmidt (Analog)
• Jonathan Strahan (The New Space Opera (Eos/HarperCollins), The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 1 (Night Shade), Eclipse One (Night Shade))
• Gordon Van Gelder (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
• Sheila Williams (Asimov's Science Fiction)

As I said last year, if the voters look at the list of nominated stories in the above categories, Sheila Williams is the obvious winner. However, this category seems to be ruled by a complicated calculus of time-in-saddle and how much a particular person is "due," so I suspect Schmidt may finally win this year. In any case, it's nice to see Strahan representing fresh blood in this category.

Best Professional Editor, Long Form

• Lou Anders (Pyr)
• Ginjer Buchanan (Ace/Roc)
• David G. Hartwell (Senior Editor, Tor/Forge)
• Beth Meacham (Tor)
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor)

I think this category is being used by Hugo voters to work down the list of "people who should have gotten one a while ago, but didn't" -- at least, I hope that's the case, and that it's not going to settle down to going to the same one or two people ad infinitum like Best Artist and the old Best Editor did. In that case, it's either Buchanan or Meacham, and both are equally deserving. (Actually, they're all equally deserving, but I doubt Anders will get it this year, since Hugo voters have been horribly conservative in the Editor categories.)

But I will note that the last chance for Ellen Asher to win a Hugo has quietly slipped by the wayside. Bad form, Hugo voters.

Best Professional Artist

• Bob Eggleton (Covers: To Outlive Eternity and Other Stories (Baen), Ivory (Pyr), & The Taint and Other Stories (Subterranean))
• Phil Foglio (Covers: Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures, Vol. 2 (Meisha Merlin), What's New (Dragon Magazine Aug. 2007), Girl Genius Vol. 6-Agatha Heterodyne & the Golden Trilobite (Airship Entertainment))
• John Harris (Covers: Spindrift (Ace), Horizons (Tor), The Last Colony (Tor))
• Stephan Martiniere (Covers: Brasyl (Pyr), Mainspring (Tor), Dragons of Babel (Tor))
• John Picacio (Covers: Fast Forward 2 (Pyr), Time's Child (HarperCollins/Eos), A Thousand Deaths (Golden Gryphon))
• Shaun Tan

The information above makes it look like the artists are being nominated for those specific works, which may be confusing to voters. But this is a reenergized and interesting category for the first time in ages -- who would have expected Foglio again? Or Shaun Tan? I'll be rooting for Tan, but all of these guys are worthy.

Best Semiprozine

• Ansible edited by David Langford
• Helix edited by William Sanders and Lawrence Watt-Evans
• Interzone edited by Andy Cox
• Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
• The New York Review of Science Fiction, edited by Kathryn Cramer, Kristine Dikeman, David Hartwell & Kevin J. Maroney

One e-mail newsletter, one web fictionzine, one print fictionzine, one print newszine, and one print criticalzine. Congratulations! The widest category in the Hugos has managed to cover every possible iteration. And Locus will once again win the award for Best Locus.

Best Fanzine

• Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
• Challenger edited by Guy Lillian III
• Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia
• File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
• PLOKTA edited by Alison Scott, Steve Davies, & Mike Scott

The fifty people who still read fanzines will vote in ways that I can't predict. Maybe Steve Silver will finally win?

Best Fan Writer

• Chris Garcia
• David Langford
• Cheryl Morgan
• John Scalzi
• Steven H Silver

Langford is always funny, and is a treasure of the SF world. But can't we let someone else -- any of these other deserving people -- win this time?

Best Fan Artist

• Brad Foster
• Teddy Harvia
• Sue Mason
• Steve Stiles
• Taral Wayne

Is it my imagination, or is this category always basically identical? And, if so, how come I can't remember who usually wins?

After a bit of research, I now believe that, since Frank Wu is now a "dirty pro," Teddy Harvia will start winning this category again.

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer (Not a Hugo, But an Incredible Facsimile of One)

• Joe Abercrombie (2nd year of eligibility)
• Jon Armstrong (1st year of eligibility)
• David Anthony Durham (1st year of eligibility)
• David Louis Edelman (2nd year of eligibility)
• Mary Robinette Kowal (2nd year of eligibility)
• Scott Lynch (2nd year of eligibility)

The quirk here is that only SFF publications count, so an established novelist like Durham is competing with people brand-new to publishing. (Not that he'd get any edge in wooing Campbell voters simply because he wrote some historical novels, but it's an interesting distinction I hadn't noticed before.)

I still think this is Lynch's category to lose, but Abercrombie could surprise me -- as could Edelman, especially if all of the "I only like science fiction" crowd take up his banner. Kowal is a short-fiction writer, and those only win this category when they're immediate superstars bestriding the field. And Armstrong only has one interesting novel from a smaller press to his name, so it's a bit surprising to see him here.

Those are your Hugo nominees for 2008; if you're a member of Denvention 3, now is the time to start reading/watching so that you can vote. (I'm currently not a member, though I realized just this week that I'll finishing up a business trip in Anaheim the day Worldcon starts, so it would be cheaper than I expected. Anyone want to tell me any good reasons to go to Denver?)