Library Chicken: Hugos Are Coming, Here, Gone!

My First WorldCon!

I think I've signed in. I've got discord up. I'm looking at the schedule. I've lost the main page and I have to reregister to get back! No, that doesn't break anything, whew. I shall remember bookmarks this time...

(A week disappears)

That was really fun! My first WorldCon! I went to a lot of panels, chatted with a lot of people, and managed to go to parties, fan tables, the exhibit hall, artist and dealer areas, and even poked into a filking circle to listen for a while. I had downloaded the homework file so I could vote responsibly on all the Hugos, but I waited too long to start all the reading so I didn't quite get to everything. Better luck next time, me!

Best Novel (read)

Not my top pick, but no arguments. It would be hard to go wrong with this list. I like the diversity -- space empires, near-future Earth science fiction, contemporary fantasy, portal fantasy, space necromancers, and a degenerating space colony. There were love stories, although hmm, nobody got a HEA, although one is still hopeful. And almost everybody was young, as I guess is average for the genre.

The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK)
The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)

Best Novella (read)

OK, this was my bottom pick but it was still a strong novella. The language was lovely enough. I thought Chiang, McGuire, and Solomon all had stories with a stronger punch, and Solomon also had very evocative language.

“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books)
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Novelette (read)

I thought it was a bit too much message, not enough character, but still a good story.

“Omphalos”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019)
“For He Can Creep”, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019)
Emergency Skin, by N.K. Jemisin (Forward Collection (Amazon))
“The Archronology of Love”, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019)
“Away With the Wolves”, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019)

Best Short Story (read)

OK, I admit it, I wimped out and put the hopeful story on top. Good job other Hugo voters.

“Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019)
“As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019)
“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019)
“Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)
“A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019)

Best Series

This is a tough category, although a worthy one, because if I haven't been keeping up with the series already it's hard to judge. So I gave up but now have a reading list. I'll push the Expanse books higher up my TBR pile.

InCryptid, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)
The Expanse, by James S. A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Wormwood Trilogy, by Tade Thompson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Luna, by Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
Planetfall series, by Emma Newman (Ace; Gollancz)
Winternight Trilogy, by Katherine Arden (Del Rey; Del Rey UK)

Best Related Work

On this one as well I did not manage to finish enough of the works to think I could judge. I did manage to watch Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin during the Hugos and thought it was great, and the acceptance speech made a change in the world (they renamed the award) so I'm guessing the other options are good as well. They are on my reading list...

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry
“2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech”, by Jeannette Ng
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, by Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)
Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, by J. Michael Straczynski (Harper Voyager US)
Joanna Russ, by Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press (Modern Masters of Science Fiction))
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, by Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square)

Best Graphic Story or Comic (read)

So, as I was rating I refused to read any previous volumes because I don't really like reading comics online anyway and it seemed a bit much to expect me to wade through 8 previous tomes to judge your newest entry. Maybe that's why my favorite pick (Die) came in last in the voting. The winner lost points with me because I was lost some suspension of disbelief when all the nice accepting people had no qualms about the alien inadvertently doing genetic experimentations on them, even as they blamed each other for pregnancies. Like, I have questions.

Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)
LaGuardia, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin (Berger Books; Dark Horse)
Paper Girls, Volume 6, written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image)
Mooncakes, by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil (Oni Press; Lion Forge)
The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: “Okay”, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)
Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (watched)

My top pick won! I watched Good Omens with my sons last summer and enjoyed it a lot. I didn't watch US, because it looked scary, but I think that's fair because if you make something I don't want to watch, I'm not going to vote for it no matter how good it is. Russian Doll was fun but all the smoking repelled me. The superhero movies were fun.

Avengers: Endgame, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Studios)
Captain Marvel, screenplay by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios/Animal Logic (Australia))
Good Omens, written by Neil Gaiman, directed by Douglas Mackinnon (Amazon Studios/BBC Studios/Narrativia/The Blank Corporation)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, screenplay by Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams, directed by J.J. Abrams (Walt Disney Pictures/Lucasfilm/Bad Robot)
Us, written and directed by Jordan Peele (Monkeypaw Productions/Universal Pictures)
Russian Doll (Season One), created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler, directed by Leslye Headland, Jamie Babbit and Natasha Lyonne (3 Arts Entertainment/Jax Media/Netflix/Paper Kite Productions/Universal Television)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (watched)

I'm happy with this.

The Mandalorian: “Redemption”, written by Jon Favreau, directed by Taika Waititi (Disney+)
The Good Place: “The Answer”, written by Daniel Schofield, directed by Valeria Migliassi Collins (Fremulon/3 Arts Entertainment/Universal Television)
The Expanse: “Cibola Burn”, written by Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck and Naren Shankar, directed by Breck Eisner (Amazon Prime Video)
Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar”, written by Jeff Jensen and Damon Lindelof, directed by Nicole Kassell (HBO)
Doctor Who: “Resolution”, written by Chris Chibnall, directed by Wayne Yip (BBC)
Watchmen: “This Extraordinary Being”, written by Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson, directed by Stephen Williams (HBO)

Best Editor, Short Form ??

I have no idea how to judge this. I liked some of the stories?

Neil Clarke
Ellen Datlow
C.C. Finlay
Jonathan Strahan
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form ??

I have even less idea how the judge this. I left it blank.

Sheila E. Gilbert
Brit Hvide
Diana M. Pho
Devi Pillai
Miriam Weinberg
Navah Wolfe

Best Professional Artist (looked at)

I am completely unqualified to judge this. That didn't stop me from casting my ballot!

Tommy Arnold
Rovina Cai
Galen Dara
John Picacio
Yuko Shimizu
Alyssa Winans

Best Semiprozine (read)

These were fun to read! Sadly, I also had to learn how to pronounce FIYAH from people making fun of how G.R.R. Martin did it.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies, editor Scott H. Andrews
Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya, assistant editor Benjamin C. Kinney, audio producers Adam Pracht and Summer Brooks, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart
Fireside Magazine, editor Julia Rios, managing editor Elsa Sjunneson, copyeditor Chelle Parker, social coordinator Meg Frank, publisher & art director Pablo Defendini, founding editor Brian White
FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, executive editor Troy L. Wiggins, editors Eboni Dunbar, Brent Lambert, L.D. Lewis, Danny Lore, Brandon O’Brien and Kaleb Russell
Strange Horizons, Vanessa Rose Phin, Catherine Krahe, AJ Odasso, Dan Hartland, Joyce Chng, Dante Luiz and the Strange Horizons staff
Uncanny Magazine, editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, nonfiction/managing editor Michi Trota, managing editor Chimedum Ohaegbu, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

Best Fanzine (read)

I think I am looking for different things from a fanzine.

The Rec Center, editors Elizabeth Minkel and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw
The Book Smugglers, editors Ana Grilo and Thea James
Galactic Journey, founder Gideon Marcus, editor Janice Marcus, senior writers Rosemary Benton, Lorelei Marcus and Victoria Silverwolf
Journey Planet, editors James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Alissa McKersie, Ann Gry, Chuck Serface, John Coxon and Steven H Silver
nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Adri Joy, Joe Sherry, Vance Kotrla, and The G
Quick Sip Reviews, editor Charles Payseur

Best Fancast (listened to)

These ended up being a lot of fun to listen to on my walks (and later my runs, as I became a runner during the pandemic). That prejudiced me a bit against Rousseau, since I had to sit down to watch her, but when I did I ended up liking here a lot. I would prefer a podcast though.

Be The Serpent, presented by Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske and Jennifer Mace
Our Opinions Are Correct, presented by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders
Claire Rousseau’s YouTube channel, produced & presented by Claire Rousseau
The Skiffy and Fanty Show, presented by Jen Zink and Shaun Duke
Galactic Suburbia, presented by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce and Tansy Rayner Roberts, producer Andrew Finch
The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolf

Best Fan Writer (read)

Cora is the best at telling me what I might want to read.