2026 Hugo Ballot!

 

The Hugo Award Ceremony is happening next week on Sunday, August 30! Sadly, I won't be traveling to Los Angeles for this year's Worldcon. I did plenty of conference travel in the last year (I maxed out my 25-26 travel budget to go to last year's Worldcon in Seattle and then went through a lot to fund a trip to India in May). Also, this year's Worldcon also happens after school starts, which makes it even trickier for me than usual.

Despite these excuses, I bought a supporting membership, which entitles me to vote. I've been voting for the Hugos since 2017, and it's always a fun experience. I usually discover some things I may not have experienced otherwise, which was especially true this year. 

Back in 2017, I figured out Three Principles of Hugo Voting (riffing on Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics):

1. Works that are more ground breaking in the field in their construction, plot, characters, setting, ideas, etc. are to be preferred as are works that are neither sequels nor works by authors who have won Hugos in recent years.
2. Works that delve more deeply into philosophical content are to be preferred.
3. Works that are just plain fun and enjoyable are to be preferred as long as such preference does not conflict with the first or second principles.

I don't know if I've ever consistently applied these principles any more than Asimov's robots ever consistently apply the three laws (maybe my "zeroth law' is "just have fun with it"). Still, I do have these principles in the back of my mind when I vote. I do find myself leaning more into my general preference for science fiction over fantasy as of late. Is that fair? I don't know, but we do seem to be tipping back toward an ascendance of fantasy the last few years, so maybe I'm trying to maintain a balance in the force of my fellow nerds.

I've already posted reviews of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novel as well as Best Novella, Novelette, and Short Story. But inquiring minds like yours want to know: how did I vote? See below in my full Hugo ballot! I'll find out if I picked any winners on August 30!

2025 Hugo Ballot

 

I meant to post a bunch of reviews along the way as I did this year's Hugo reading, but the summer sort of got in the way. Oh, well. I still may write longer reviews for some of these and post them here (I did get to some of the novels in June), but since Hugo voting was due last night, I figured I'd just post my full ballot with a few general explanations while it's fresh in my mind. You can find short reviews for most of these on my 2025 Hugo Goodreads shelf.

Note that I didn't vote in all the categories. It's just too much (it's like taking on a part-time job!), and I don't feel all that qualified to judge some of the categories. Still, I managed to vote in most of the categories this year. See the Hugo website for the full list of categories and nominees.

As usual, I'm loosely following my principles of Hugo voting that I'm most interested in works that somehow break new ground in the genre, have some philosophical element, and/or are just plain enjoyable. Maybe other Hugo voters go on vibes, which are impossible to entirely eliminate, but I try reward things that are on the whole doing something new and interesting.

I'm thrilled to be attending Worldcon this year where I'll be on a panel and doing an academic track presentation as part of the Science Fiction and Philosophy Society. Maybe I will see you in Seattle at this year's Hugo ceremony on August 16!

New Little Kings: You Like It Darker by Stephen King

 

Stephen King has been publishing short story collections since the 1970's, and they often include some of his best work (my favorite is "The Jaunt" from Skeleton Crew). I don't know if any of the stories in You Like It Darker are destined to rank among my favorites, but I really loved a few of these stories and I think they're all at least pretty good. I'm happy to report that Uncle Stevie has not lost his Shine when it comes to short stories. 

Hugo Ballot 2023: Short Stories and Novelettes!

 

It's Hugo reading season! The voting deadline is coming up on Sept. 30! There was a bit of a delay in releasing the list of nominees and the Hugo packet, and then summer travels and the beginning of the fall semester happened to me ... so, how am I doing?

I'm almost done with the novels. I may or may not get to all the novellas (sad, I know!). But I have now finished the novelettes and short stories.  Maybe because this year's Worldcon will be taking place in Chengdu, China, there are more finalists from China than usual! Unfortunately I won't get to China this year, but Worldcon will be in Glasgow, Scotland next year, and I'm hoping to attend in person as part of the Science Fiction and Philosophy Society (stay tuned for details).

Anyway, overall I thought there were some great novelettes and short stories this year. The novelettes in particular were really difficult to rank (reading the Hugo nominees in the last several years has taught me that I seem to enjoy the novelette-length short fiction best: enough space to dig in, but it's still not too long). Here are my rankings and what I thought about this year's short stories and novelettes!

Movie and TV Mini-Reviews: The Boogeyman, Yellowjackets, Star Trek: Picard, Beavis & Butt-Head, and More

As the prophecy of a recent post foretold, I'm back with some short reviews of movies and TV I've been watching lately. I'm including The Boogeyman, Yellowjackets, Star Trek: Picard, Beavis & Butt-Head, John Wick 4, Sinister, Insidious, and X. These reviews get weirdly impressionistic, so if you're looking for elaborate plot summaries and the like, you may be disappointed. Just the mood I'm in these days, I guess. Enjoy!

"Unfrozen Eons Drown the Future": My New Short Story on The Weird Tales Podcast!

My short story "Unfrozen Eons Drown the Future" is now live on The Weird Tales Podcast! You can listen to it on most podcast services. Check out the details here.

Mini-Reviews of Spooky Stuff for Spooky Season, Part Two

 

Here at Examined Worlds, er, we don't say stuff like, "here at Examined Worlds." But if we did, and if there was a "we" beyond you and me, dear reader, I'd say something like, "Here at Examined Worlds, we consider spooky season to be a state of mind, not a month on the calendar."

And that's why I'm posting Part Two of my "Mini-Reviews of Spooky Stuff for Spooky Season" in the middle of November, a week before US Thanksgiving (although I may revisit some of my Thanksgiving horror favorites soon!). Enjoy!

Hugo Results 2022!

 

I didn't make it to Chicago in person for Worldcon this year, but I did watch most of the Hugo ceremony online. You can find the results here.

It looks like I did pretty well this year picking winners. You can see my picks here and here. I picked the winner for Best Short Story, Novelette, and Novella. 

I was starting to feel like I had my finger on the pulse of the Hugo voters, but then I didn't pick the winner for Best Novel. I really liked all the novel nominees so I can't complain. While I personally didn't like A Desolation Called Peace quite as much as its predecessor A Memory Called Empire, I'm glad to see Arkady Martine win another Hugo.

I'm an Associate Editor at Escape Pod!

I have a new job! Don't worry, I'm still doing my philosophy job full time. But I have a new side gig as an Associate Editor (aka, "slush reader") at Escape Pod!

Hugo Ballot 2022: Novelettes and Short Stories

Uncanny Magazine: Source of half the nominees in this post!

Now that I've posted about my picks for novels and novellas for this year's Hugo awards, here are my picks for Best Novelette and Best Short Story. I did manage to read all of these (except for one I couldn't get into), but I usually do well with the short fiction in that regard. Hopefully I'll get to some of the other categories soon. I even listened to some of the podcast nominees this year--a personal best! The voting deadline is Aug. 11, so I'd better get to it.

Hugo Results 2021

The Hugo awards ceremony took place last night at DisCon III in Washington, DC. You can see a list of the winners and finalists here. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

(If you really want to dig into the weeds, here are the full stats on nominations and the stats on voting.)

Still the Novella King: If It Bleeds by Stephen King

 

Good job, Uncle Stevie!

I've loved King's previous novella collections, especially Different Seasons, although Full Dark, No Stars is really good, too (Four Past Midnight, which I somehow missed, is next on my list). If It Bleeds is the only one of these to have a title story, but you have to admit it's a pretty good title for a Stephen King book.

Hugo Ballot 2021: Short Stories and Novelettes

 

I've been voting for the Hugos for several years now, and I always put it off until it's too late to finish everything. In my defense, there's a lot of stuff on those ballots. Ballots are usually due around July, but since Worldcon was postponed until December this year, ballots aren't due until November 19. You would think that giving me another few months than usual would help , but since November is a busy time in my academic calendar, this didn't help as much as you'd think. In fact, it probably hurt. I'll be rushing to finish the main fiction categories, and may not get to as many categories as usual. Oh, well.

But I did have the foresight to sit down and read all the short stories and novelettes over a few weekends in September and October. And here's how I'm voting, based on the Three Principles of Hugo Voting that I came up with several years ago. And see here to see the full list of finalists.

Tales from the Dark Half: Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

I've been delving into King's shorter works lately, and this collection of novellas (and maybe one novelette or short story) is great stuff. Full Dark, No Stars is maybe not quite up there with Four Seasons, but it's definitely in that direction.

Motley Crew of Little Kings: Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King

 

I recently started calling Stephen King short stories "little Kings." 1993's Nightmares and Dreamscapes is another great collection of little Kings. It's an interesting (and long: almost 900 pages!) collection with shades of both King's earlier and later career. I can't do justice to every story in this humble review (did I mention it's long?), but I will say there were some nice gems here and the one I was most looking forward to, "Crouch End," did not disappoint.

Little Kings Undiminished: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

 

I've been enjoying Stephen King's short fiction lately, and I continued to do so with 2015's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.

While there were a couple stories ("little Kings" as I recently called them) I didn't care for as much, I enjoyed the vast majority of this 2015 collection, which shows that King's more recent short stories are up there with his early collections like Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. 

A Murder of Little Kings: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

 

I was thinking of a cute title for this post, and my first idea was that a Stephen King short story could be called a "little King." A collection of them should have a catchy collective name, and "murder" (as a "murder" of crows) was too good to pass up. Anyway, here's the review....

Black History of the Future: Reading Delany, Mosley, and Butler

 

While you should read Black science fiction authors during all months, I figured Black History Month 2021 was a good chance to read books on my list by Black authors. Besides, I did another Black History Month post back in 2016, so I was overdue for another one. 

Please enjoy these reviews of Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany, Futureland by Walter Mosley, and Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler!

(Note: the title of this post is inspired by another book you should read: How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin.)

Hugo Reading 2020: Short Stories

Luckily the deadline for Hugo voting has been extended to July 22. I'm still working on the novels, but I have read the short stories! You can see what I thought about the novellas here and the novelettes here.

Here are this year's nominees for Best Short Story (defined as a story under 7,500 words).

Hugo Reading 2020: Novellas

Three of this year's Hugo nominees for Best Novella

Every year since I started voting for the Hugos in 2016, I've told myself that next year I'm going to start reading earlier. And every year, like clockwork, I fail to do so. I've got until July 15 to finish this year, so I'm procrastinating according to plan.

I've grown fond of novellas lately: long enough to get into a story, but not so long as to grow tiresome. You've got to start someplace, so this seemed like as good a reason as any to start with the novellas this year.