Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Hugo Ballot 2023: Novels, Novellas, and More!

 


I made it! I got my Hugo votes submitted by the Sept. 30 deadline! It felt like a compressed Hugo reading season to me. Maybe it was the delay on the front end from the local Worldcon or the fact that my late summer travels and the beginning of the school year ate into my reading time, but I felt a bit rushed this year compared to previous years. I barely finished the novels and only kinda finished the novellas (you can see how I voted on the novelettes and short stories here). I skimmed the Related Works, glanced at some of the art, and went totally from memory for the Dramatic Presentations. But I did manage to vote in most of the categories. I felt especially invested in the semiprozine category this year for reasons revealed below.

How'd it go? I surprised myself with a few picks this year, especially for Best Novel, but I can say I enjoyed reading all the nominees and would be thrilled to see any of them win. Check it out below! You can see how it all turns out during the ceremony on Oct. 21 at the Chengdu Worldcon! Good luck to all the nominees!

Best Novel

1. Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree (Tor Books)
  • Nobody is as surprised to find this one at my #1 spot as I am. Yet here we are. From my review: "Why does fantasy have to be Serious Business about saving the world all the time? Why can't a battle-hardened orc put down her sword and open a coffeeshop with imported gnomish coffee? Why can't she make friends with a quiet shipbuilder, a succubus who dropped out of magic college, a rat-person pastry chef, and a dire cat who occasionally stops by? Why not make the coffeeshop cooperatively owned while you're at it? Why not, indeed!"

2. Nettle & Bone, by T. Kingfisher (Tor Books)
  • From my review: "... she [the protagonist] sets out to kill her sister's husband, which is Serious Business, but it's also kind of funny. Because, that's just the kind of book this is. I'm tempted to call this dark fantasy horror comedy. There's also something called a bone-wife (sort of a friendly necromancer), magical godmothers, and an undead bone dog. And a lovable barbarian with rippling muscles and moral clarity about what must be done. Once you get the main group together, it's hard not to love them all."

3. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
  • From my review: "One cool thing is that we get to know the hybrids created by Dr. Moreau, not just as spooky sci-fi tropes, but as people: coworkers, friends, family members, etc. In the chapters from Carlota's POV, we never really even hear much about their "animal" aspects, because to her they're family."

4. The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi (Tor Books)
  • From my review: "John Scalzi is always fun to read, and The Kaiju Preservation Society is no exception! It's interesting that we're starting to see novels set during the early pandemic. And how could a novel about Kaiju not be interesting, especially by a writer as entertaining as Scalzi?" 

5. The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books)
  • From my review: "Ultimately I think for me this premise would be a good long short story or novella, but a murder mystery in space riffing off 90-year-old films for whatever reason doesn't hold my attention for a whole novel. I do want to try some of those cocktails, though."

Left off my ballot: Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
  • This is a part of a series. I did read the first one for the Hugos a few years ago, which I thought was cool, but a bit of work to get through. Ultimately I didn't think I had the energy to continue the series. My apologies.


Best Novella

1. Ogres, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)
  • I've loved Tchaikovsky's other work (like Children of Time and Elder Race), so I was excited to read this one. And it was great! From my review: "It may sound like a gimmicky cop-out, but it's true: the less you know about this going in, the better. It's probably not what you think. And then when you think something else, it's probably not that, either. You will repeat this a few more times. I will tell you that, much like this review, most of the novella is in the second person. Which seems gimmicky, too. Until you find out why."

2. What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher (Tor Nightfire)
  • More T. Kingfisher! From my review: "It looks like a fairly standard retelling of Poe's Fall of the House of Usher. But it's that and more. I do plan to revisit Poe's story before the Mike Flanagan series comes out, but it's been awhile since I read that. But from what I remember, Kingfisher adds a lot more fungi (to delightfully horrific effect), a nonbinary narrator, a science fiction horror element, and generally a lot more plot."
3. Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
  • From my review: "I wasn't sure about this one for the first several chapters: a hardboiled detective and her girlfriend in 1940's Chicago with hints of the supernatural? Maybe fun? But also maybe: yawn... But then there were more than hints of the supernatural, and things picked up for me: magic, demons, angels, a supernatural serial killer, angelic possession, and my favorite: angelic teleportation!"
4. A Mirror Mended, by Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom)
  • Here's where the "kinda" in "I kinda finished the novellas" comes in. I started but haven't quite finished this one yet, but it's the second in a series and I did read the first one for the Hugos last year, so I kind of triangulated a rating based on having read the first one and part of this one. Will I finish it? Probably. Unless I get sucked into another dimension, or the library needs it back.

5. Into the Riverlands, by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

Left off my ranking: Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
  • McGuire is super popular, but I tried to read the first one of these many years ago and couldn't get into it. And now seven (or a million?) entries later, it just feels too late for me. My deepest apologies once again this year. Goodreads tells me there are at least two more entries on the horizon, and I imagine they will be finalists, too. I guess that makes my novella reading list a little shorter every year...


Best Novelette and Best Short Story 



Best Series

I just voted for Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series, because I love it, and left the others off. Is that fair? I'm not sure. My apologies.



Best Related Work

I always make a point to vote in this category, because I tell myself that if there is some alternate universe in which I were nominated for a Hugo, it might be this category. But then when I see the sheer amount of work that goes into the nominees in this category, I realize that this possible world must be far away from this world. Case in point: I only really had time to skim a little bit of the beginning of each nominee, but I did find what I read to be excellent in all cases. So, here's my perhaps slightly irresponsible ranking...

1. Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, by Kyle Buchanan (William Morrow)

2. “The Ghost of Workshops Past”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com)

3. Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes, by Rob Wilkins (Doubleday)

4. Chinese Science Fiction, An Oral History, Volume 1, by Yang Feng (Chengdu Times Press)

5. Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir, by Wil Wheaton (William Morrow)

6. Buffalito World Outreach Project, by Lawrence M. Schoen (Paper Golem LLC)




Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

As a nerd who watches a fair bit of TV and movies, I usually get most of the dramatic presentation categories for free (I just watched The Creator yesterday, and I fully expect to see it on this list next year; I enjoyed it, and I'll write about it soon). And this year was no different. I saw all of these except for Turning Red, which I did hear was great. But as with the Oscars, I'm afraid for me it's got to be Everything Everywhere All At Once, although as a huge Jordan Peele fan, I have to give Nope second place (both were also philosophically and visually interesting as well). I also really loved Apple TV's philosophically fascinating show Severance. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wasn't as good as the first one, but still cool. Avatar was about as silly as the first one, but even more visually stunning, which has to count for something.


1. Everything Everywhere All at Once, screenplay by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Sheinert (IAC Films / Gozie AGBO)

2. Nope, written by Jordan Peele, directed by Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures / Monkeypaw Productions)

3. Severance (Season 1), written by Dan Erickson, Anna Ouyang Moench et al., directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle (Red Hour Productions / Fifth Season)

4. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, screenplay by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, directed by Ryan Coogler (Marvel Studios)

5. Avatar: The Way of Water, screenplay by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver, directed by James Cameron (Lightstorm Entertainment / TSG Entertainment II)


Left off my ranking: Turning Red, screenplay by Julia Cho and Domee Shi, directed by Domee Shi (Walt Disney Studios / Pixar Animation Studios)




Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

It took me a few episodes to get used to it, but I loved Andor. Do I want all Star Wars to be like that? No. Star Wars should be fun and a little silly now and then, but I do appreciate that Disney has finally figured out that there's plenty of room in the Star Wars universe for different genres of shows, even super engrossing, super intense spy thrillers that look seriously at the costs and benefits of violent revolution. I adored She-Hulk, which felt like one of the first Marvel shows to know that the whole Marvel thing is a little bit silly, and that's okay. I enjoy a good breaking of the fourth wall, and if you combine that with trashing obnoxious sexist trolls, count me in. I've been loving Stranger Things all along (I'm really looking forward to the Duffer Brothers taking on an adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman once they finish; you can see someone reading it in Stranger Things!). I also loved The Expanse even if the last season or two weren't quite the same (I need to finish those books one of these days...).  I don't feel like I gave For All Mankind much of a chance (the first episode had too much jingoistic patriotism for me, but I'm told it gets much better... maybe I'll watch it while I'm waiting for Apple to make more great SF content; see also their recent show Silo, which I wouldn't be surprised to see on this list next year).

1. Andor: “One Way Out”, written by Beau Willimon, Tony Gilroy, and George Lucas, directed by Toby Haynes (Lucasfilm)

2. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: “Whose Show is This?”, written by Jessica Gao, Francesca Gailes, and Jacqueline Gailes, directed by Kat Coiro (Marvel Entertainment)

3. Stranger Things: “Chapter Four: Dear Billy”, written by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, and Paul Dichter, directed by Shawn Levy (21 Laps Entertainment)

4. The Expanse: “Babylon’s Ashes”, written by Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, Naren Shankar, directed by Breck Eisner (Alcon Entertainment)

5. Andor: “Rix Road”, written by Tony Gilroy and George Lucas, directed by Benjamin Caron (Lucasfilm)

Left off my ranking: For All Mankind: “Stranger in a Strange Land”, written by Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, directed by Craig Zisk (Tall Ship Productions/Sony Pictures Television)



Best Professional Artist

I used to do some drawing. And I like looking at pictures. Does this qualify me to vote in this category? Who knows?

1. Enzhe Zhao
2. Alyssa Winans
3. Jian Zhang
4. Kuri Huang
5. Paul Lewin
6. Sija Hong


Best Semiprozine

Remember when I said I'm unlikely to ever be nominated for a Hugo? Well, if you squint just right, I maybe kinda have been already. At least if you recall that last year (Sept. 2022-June 2023, anyway), I was an Associate Editor (aka, first reader, aaka, slush reader) for Escape Pod! Okay, so the real credit goes to the editors named below, and it's cool enough just to say that I know some people nominated for a Hugo (I even met Ben Kinney in person once). So, of course, I have to vote for Escape Pod, but having seen how the Escape Pod team works from the inside, I can honestly say they're doing a great job and totally deserve this award. And even if you don't agree with that assessment, that's okay, because the other "semiprozines" are also doing high quality work. You really can't lose with this lineup.

1. Escape Pod, co-editors Mur Lafferty & Valerie Valdes; Assistant editors Benjamin C. Kinney & Premee Mohamed, host Tina Connolly, producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht

2. FIYAH, edited by the entire FIYAH team

3. Uncanny Magazine, publishers and editors-in-chief: Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas; managing/poetry editor Chimedum Ohaegbu; managing editor Monte Lin; nonfiction editor Meg Elison; podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky.

4. PodCastle, co-Editors Shingai Njeri Kagunda and Eleanor R. Wood; Assistant Editor Sofia Barker; Host Matt Dovey; Audio Producers Peter Adrian Behravesh, Devin Martin, and Eric Valdes

5. Strange Horizons, edited by The Strange Horizons Editorial Team

6. khōréō, edited by Team khōréō




Best Fanzine

This is always a fun category, and I'm always impressed by the work people are doing here! And it's especially cool to learn more about SF fandom in China this year (one of the benefits of remembering that it's called Worldcon, not Euroamericon).

1. Chinese Academic SF Express, by Latssep and Tianluo_Qi

2. Zero Gravity Newspaper, by RiverFlow and Ling Shizhen

3. Galactic Journey, by Gideon Marcus, Janice Marcus, Tammi Bozich, Erica Frank, Arel Lucas, and Mark Yon

4. Journey Planet, by Regina Kanyu Wang, Yen Ooi, Arthur Liu, Jean Martin, Erin Underwood, Steven H Silver, Pádraig Ó Méalóid and their other co-editors.

5. Nerds of a Feather, by Roseanna Pendlebury, Arturo Serrano, Paul Weimer, Adri Joy, Joe Sherry, Vance Kotrla, G. Brown

6. Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, by Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk


Best Fan Writer

While my scrawlings here on this blog could conceivably be considered in conjunction with this category, when I see the work and dedication of the fan writers here, I'm filled with admiration and humility, realizing I'm not even in the same galaxy as these fine writers. Good work, fan writers!

1. Chris M. Barkley
2. RiverFlow
3. Jason Sanford
4. Arthur Liu
5. Bitter Karella
6. Örjan Westin



Best Fan Artist

Last but not least (at least among the categories I voted in): fan artist!

1. Laya Rose
2. Richard Man
3. Alison Scott
4. Iain Clark
5. España Sheriff
6. Orion Smith



So there you have it! I unfortunately won't be in Chengdu for the ceremony on Oct. 21 (although I may be in Glasgow next year; stay tuned). I will be eagerly awaiting the results in a few weeks. I may even try to watch it online, time difference permitting. Good luck to the Worldcon team in Chengdu and to all the nominees!
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