2013 HUGO AWARD NOMINATIONS

Yesterday, the nominations for the 2013 Hugo Awards (which will be presented at LoneStarCon 3 later this year) were announced live at several conventions and posted to to the official Hugo Awards website (where the information below was obtained).  See my commentary at the end.

Best Novel (1113 nominating ballots cast)

• 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
• Blackout, Mira Grant (Orbit)
• Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
• Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, John Scalzi (Tor)
• Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

Best Novella (587 nominating ballots cast)

• After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
• The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
• On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
• San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats, Mira Grant (Orbit)
• “The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)

Best Novelette (616 nominating ballots cast)

• “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden, PS Publications)
• “Fade To White”, Catherynne M. Valente ( Clarkesworld, August 2012)
• “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
• “In Sea-Salt Tears”, Seanan McGuire (Self-published)
• “Rat-Catcher”, Seanan McGuire ( A Fantasy Medley 2, Subterranean)

Best Short Story (662 nominating ballots cast)

• “Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard ( Clarkesworld, June 2012)
• “Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, August 2012)
• “Mono no Aware”, Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Note: Category has only 3 nominees due to the minimum 5% requirement of Section 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.

Best Related Work (584 nominating ballots cast)

• The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, Edited by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge University Press)
• Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them, Edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Sigrid Ellis (Mad Norwegian Press)
• Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who, Edited by Deborah Stanish & L.M. Myles (Mad Norwegian Press)
• I Have an Idea for a Book … The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg, Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg, edited by John Helfers (The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box)
• Writing Excuses Season Seven, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story (427 nominating ballots cast)

• Grandville Bête Noire, written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse Comics, Jonathan Cape)
• Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
• Saga, Volume One, written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
• Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (Hypernode Media)
• Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run, written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton and Goran Sudžuka (Vertigo)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (787 nominating ballots cast)

• The Avengers, Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)
• The Cabin in the Woods, Screenplay by Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon; Directed by Drew Goddard (Mutant Enemy, Lionsgate)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, Directed by Peter Jackson (WingNut Films, New Line Cinema, MGM, Warner Bros)
• The Hunger Games, Screenplay by Gary Ross & Suzanne Collins, Directed by Gary Ross (Lionsgate, Color Force)
• Looper, Screenplay and Directed by Rian Johnson (FilmDistrict, EndGame Entertainment)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (597 nominating ballots cast)

• Doctor Who, “The Angels Take Manhattan”, Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
• Doctor Who, “Asylum of the Daleks”, Written by Steven Moffat; Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
• Doctor Who, “The Snowmen”, written by Steven Moffat; directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Wales)
• Fringe, “Letters of Transit”, Written by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Akiva Goldsman, J.H.Wyman, Jeff Pinkner. Directed by Joe Chappelle (Fox)
• Game of Thrones, “Blackwater”, Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)

Best Editor, Short Form (526 nominating ballots cast)

• John Joseph Adams
• Neil Clarke
• Stanley Schmidt
• Jonathan Strahan
• Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form (408 nominating ballots cast)

• Lou Anders
• Sheila Gilbert
• Liz Gorinsky
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden
• Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist (519 nominating ballots cast)

• Vincent Chong
• Julie Dillon
• Dan dos Santos
• Chris McGrath
• John Picacio

Best Semiprozine (404 nominating ballots cast)

• Apex Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore and Michael Damian Thomas
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
• Clarkesworld, edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace and Kate Baker
• Lightspeed, edited by John Joseph Adams and Stefan Rudnicki
• Strange Horizons, edited by Niall Harrison, Jed Hartman, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Abigail Nussbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Dave Nagdeman and Rebecca Cross

Best Fanzine (370 nominating ballots cast)

• Banana Wings, edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
• The Drink Tank, edited by Chris Garcia and James Bacon
• Elitist Book Reviews, edited by Steven Diamond
• Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Emma J. King, Helen J. Montgomery and Pete Young
• SF Signal, edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester

Best Fancast (346 nominating ballots cast)

• The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
• SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester, John DeNardo, and JP Frantz
• SF Squeecast, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters) and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)
• StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

Best Fan Writer (485 nominating ballots cast)

• James Bacon
• Christopher J. Garcia
• Mark Oshiro
• Tansy Rayner Roberts
• Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist (293 nominating ballots cast)

• Galen Dara
• Brad W. Foster
• Spring Schoenhuth
• Maurine Starkey
• Steve Stiles

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (476 nominating ballots cast)
Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2011 or 2012, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)

• Zen Cho*
• Max Gladstone
• Mur Lafferty*
• Stina Leicht*
• Chuck Wendig*

*Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.

1343 valid nominating ballots (1329 electronic and 14 paper) were received and counted from the members of Chicon 7, LoneStarCon 3 and Loncon 3, the 2012-2014 World Science Fiction Conventions.

A full breakdown of the number of nominations each work cast and of the “top 15” works including those that did not receive sufficient nominations to make the ballot will be released following the announcement of the final results after the 2013 Hugo Awards Ceremony on Sunday, September 1, 2013 at LoneStarCon 3.

~~~

Editorial Commentary

For newcomers:  The Hugo Awards are named for Hugo Gernsback, often referred to as the Father of Science Fiction for his introduction of Amazing Stories as the first magazine dedicated solely to science fiction in 1926.

This year’s nominations topped out at 1,343 ballots cast, a new record for the award – but still far, far, far short of where it ought to be, considering that attendance at WorldCon last year was greater than the previous year (9,638 attending and supporting) or roughly 13% of those eligible to vote.  You can nitpick that math if you want, but you’ll still end up at the same place:  just slightly more than 10% of those eligible to vote for the Hugos actually do so.  Yes, it HAS been getting better over the past couple of years, thanks in large part to the efforts of a few people pushing for it.  But it still has to get a lot more more better.

Congratulations to ALL of the nominees from the staff and authors at Amazing Stories.  Of particular note, our own occasional contributors Steven H Silver and Chris Garcia have been nominated in the Best Fan Writer category and I urge our loyal followers who are eligible or will become eligible to vote to give them both some serious consideration.

I’d also like to give a shout out to SF Signal and crew for being nominated in BOTH the Fanzine and Podcast categories a second year in a row!

Congrats to Neil Clarke for his nominations as well.

I think the biggest shocker is – only three nominees for short story!!!???

Those making the announcement were very careful to note that this is a result of the 5% rule – meaning that in order to qualify, a short story must receive at least 5% of the overall nominations in its category.  That only three stories received the minimum suggests that either a HUGE number of short stories were nominated or very few short story nominees were put forth.  There were 662 ballots cast with at least one nomination in the Short Story category.  In order to qualify, a story would need to be present (in one of the five available slots) on 33 ballots.

Since the top 3 nominees are listed on the ballot regardless of the 5% rule, it may be that no single short story nominee received more than 32 votes – which may be a good thing or may be a sad thing.  Good if there were so many short stories deserving of nomination, sad if this instead reflects a continuation of SF’s move away from that all-important form.

If it turns out to be the former (which I certainly hope is the case) and this kind of thing persists over the next couple of years, WSFS is going to have to consider making some changes to the category – splitting it up into different categories (a nightmare!) or perhaps changing the winnowing process a bit to take the spread into consideration.

In either case – congrats again to everyone who qualified and thanks to the Hugo Awards committee for doing the hard, behind the scenes work that they do!

The Short Story category results may be speaking volumes.