2008 Hugo Award Winners!

The Hugos were awarded last night at Denvention, and these are your winners. (As I did last year, I'm comparing the actual winners to my predictions -- and, without checking either set, I'm confident that I got most of them wrong.)

NOVEL: The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins; Fourth Estate)
I waffled a bit, but basically predicted Chabon would win. So I'll count this as a hit.

NOVELLA: "All Seated on the Ground", Connie Willis (Asimov's Dec 2007; Subterranean Press)
I said Connie Always Wins, and I was right.

NOVELETTE: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", Ted Chiang (F&SF Sep 2007)
I predicted that it would go to Greg Egan for "Dark Integers," after thinking about the Chiang story as the front-runner, so I clearly balked and got it wrong.

SHORT STORY: “Tideline", Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's Jun 2007)
I thought Swanwick's story would win, though I did say that I thought Hugo voters were still mostly print-magazine readers, and so print-mag stories would take these categories. But, in picking the wrong print-mag story, I still got it wrong.

RELATED BOOK: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press)
Never underestimate the appeal of fannishness; Brave New Words is a big, impressive dictionary with words like "fanac" and "gafiate" in it; I guess the Hugo voters couldn't resist the egoboo. I was hopefully leaning towards Barry Malzberg's Breakfast in the Ruins, but I forgot the corollary of Connie Always Wins: Barry Always Loses.

DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: LONG FORM: Stardust (Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Paramount Pictures)
I predicted Heroes, but I guess fandom has collectively soured on that show. Stardust is nothing special -- it's far less than the fine book it was based on -- but I guess the Gaiman Effect has a halo.

DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: SHORT FORM: Doctor Who: "Blink" (Written by Stephen Moffat. Directed by Hettie Macdonald. BBC)
I predicted the one Torchwood episode would win, mostly because I don't have or want any knowledge of this stuff. I was wrong. (For those keeping track, I'm now 2-and-5.)

EDITOR, SHORT FORM: Gordon Van Gelder
I predicted the voters would be conservative and give it to Ellen Datlow again (instead of honoring someone equally worthy who has never won a Hugo); they were instead either slightly more conservative (because F&SF is older, or because Gordon won this category last year) or slightly less (because Gordon didn't originally win this until after Ellen did). It counts as a loss either way, but I do hope this doesn't turn into a Best Van Gelder Award. (Because Gordon is the best Van Gelder imaginable.)

EDITOR, LONG FORM: David G. Hartwell
Again, the Hugo voters fall into their unfortunate pattern of just voting for the same (excellent, and eminently respectable) nominee year after year. I was hoping it would go to Ginjer Buchanan, but I didn't reckon on the immense inertia of fandom.

PROFESSIONAL ARTIST: Stephan Martiniere
I predicted John Picacio; I was wrong. Martiniere hasn't won yet, so I'm thrilled to see him get it. (I was never very fond of computer-generated cover art until Martiniere came along.)

SEMIPROZINE: Locus, Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong & Liza Groen Trombi
Did anyone ever have any doubt? Finally, a category I got right; though a chimp could have gotten this one right. Hugo folks, either retire this category or do something; it's really silly at this point.

FANZINE: File 770, Mike Glyer
Even though Glyer thinks I'm a twerp, I'm happy to see him win. I predicted this one, as well.

FAN WRITER: John Scalzi
As I predicted; I'm looking forward to poring over the voting results to see if the race was as tight as I thought it would be.

FAN ARTIST: Brad Foster
And this is as I predicted as well. Hey, if I'm so uninformed about the fan categories, how come I called all of them correctly and hardly any of the others? (Or is it just that I knew a little too much to be really cynically dispassionate with the pro awards?)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (Not a Hugo): Mary Robinette Kowal
This is a surprise; I'd predicted Scott Lynch. Short-fiction writers supposedly don't win this very often -- though there are a number of notable exceptions like Michael Burstein and Jay Lake -- so I should probably make an effort to read some of Kowal's stuff.

And those are the winners; I went six and nine on my predictions. If I were a baseball team, I'd be the Padres. I think I'm going to have to claim this as a rebuilding year.

The fan arguments about what should have won, and about which works are a travesty to the very idea of a Hugo begin...now.