On March 31st, nominations for both the 2016 Hugo Awards and the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards will close.
Sad Puppies IV attempted to turn their slate into a “recommendation” list this year by opening up suggestions on a dedicated page (those participating made their suggestions in the comments) and then offering to whittle the list down to ten or so finalist recommendations, that puppies were then encouraged to consider for their ballots.
Kate Paulk recently closed the comments (at the beginning of March) so that they could be compiled and a final list composed.
It’s a little late in the game, especially considering that nominators are kinda expected to read and be familiar with works they’re going to recommend (but that isn’t necessarily an impediment for organized voting), so we’ve decided to help them out a bit and give them a hand up.
We started with one of the most visible categories – Best Novel. The following list contains all of the individual works mentioned in the comments. We did not verify eligibility (although most, if not all of the works seems to meet that criteria). When judging whether or not someone recommended something, we took “Plus 1” and “Me Too” to count for a “vote”. If someone talked about a work but didn’t expressly indicate that it was something they were going to nominate, we didn’t count it.
If a “top ten” is going to be compiled, it’s pretty obvious from the counts below what we should see on the Sad Puppy IV Slate. It will be interesting to see how the final list compares.
Of particular note is Honor At Stake by Declan Finn. He wasn’t shy at all about recommending his own work and apparently working the room works! Honor came in at #2. Funny how the same thing that was done to the Hugos last year popped up in SPIV, huh?
There were some 356 comments over all. Patterns are sometimes obvious: whenever someone mentioned a previously unmentioned work, it was usually followed by a handful of “me too” comments.
Maybe there’s a reason this compiling has waited so long. Maybe (off-chance), Kate decided that if it came in too late for the majority of works to be read, the claim could be made that SPIV didn’t really influence anything. Maybe.
The process was relatively straight-forward: individual works were added to a list and then each individual mention of a work that met the above criteria was counted as a vote.
There was a lot of discussion of nominating series; these were included.
I don’t understand the need to compile a top ten: we’ve already got the “recommended reads” part done.
Nevertheless, here it is. It will be interesting to what, if anything makes it to the final ballot.
1 | Somewither | Wright | 23 |
2 | Honor At Stake | Finn | 22 |
3 | Aeronaut’s Windlass, the | Butcher | 19 |
4 | Uprooted | Novik | 19 |
5 | Long Time Until Now, A | Williamson | 16 |
6 | Seveneves | Stephenson | 15 |
7 | Nethereal | Neimeier | 13 |
8 | Son of the Black Sword, the | Correia | 11 |
9 | Fifth Season, the | Jemsin | 8 |
10 | Strands of Sorrow | Ringo | 8 |
11 | Ancillary Mercy | Leckie | 7 |
12 | Just City, the | Walton | 7 |
13 | Desert and the Blade, the | Stirling | 6 |
14 | Saturn Run | Sandford/Ctein | 6 |
15 | Aurora | Robinson | 5 |
16 | Devil’s Only Friend, the | Wells | 5 |
17 | Golden Son | Brown | 5 |
18 | Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | Yudlowsky | 5 |
19 | Raising Caine | Gannon | 5 |
20 | Dark Tide Rising Series | Ringo | 4 |
21 | Discworld Series | Pratchett | 4 |
22 | Firefight | Sanderson | 4 |
23 | Hell’s Foundation Quiver | Weber | 4 |
24 | Net of Dawn and Bones, A | Chancy | 4 |
25 | Ronin Games | Harmon | 4 |
26 | Sorcerer to the Crown | Cho | 4 |
27 | 1636: The Cardinal Virtues | Flint/Hunt | 3 |
28 | Black Wolves | Elliott | 3 |
29 | Blackbird | Boykin | 3 |
30 | Dark Forest, the | Liu | 3 |
31 | Fool’s Quest | Hobb | 3 |
32 | Nemesis Games | Corey | 3 |
33 | Shepherd’s Crown, the | Pratchett | 3 |
34 | Torchship | Gallagher | 3 |
35 | Ancillary Sword | Leckie | 2 |
36 | Angels of Attack | Kloos | 2 |
37 | Anniversary Day Saga | Rusch | 2 |
38 | Archangel | Reed | 2 |
39 | Autumn Republic, the | McClellan | 2 |
40 | Black Fleet Trilogy | Dalzelle | 2 |
41 | Bones and All | De Angelis | 2 |
42 | Call To Arms, A | Zahn/Pope/Weber | 2 |
43 | Children of Time | Tchaikovsky | 2 |
44 | Collisions of the Damned | Young | 2 |
45 | Darker Shade of Magic, A | Schwab | 2 |
46 | Distopia | Kroese | 2 |
47 | Dragon Thief | Swann | 2 |
48 | Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits | Wong | 2 |
49 | Foxglove Summer | Aaronovitch | 2 |
50 | Her Brother’s Keeper | Kupari | 2 |
51 | House of Shattered Wings, the | de Bodard | 2 |
52 | Library at Mount Char, the | Hawkins | 2 |
53 | Mechanical, the | Tregellis | 2 |
54 | Traitor Baru Cormorant, the | Dickinson | 2 |
55 | Vermillion | Tanzer | 2 |
56 | Werewolf Cop | Klavan | 2 |
57 | A Succession of Bad Days | Saunders | 1 |
58 | Alex Crow, the | Smith | 1 |
59 | Alice | Henry | 1 |
60 | Architect of Aeons | Wright | 1 |
61 | Armada | Kline | 1 |
62 | Ashes Born | Lowell | 1 |
63 | Awesome, the | Darrows | 1 |
64 | Book of Lost Doors, the | Burnett | 1 |
65 | Borrowed Man, A | Wolfe | 1 |
66 | Buried Giant, the | Ishiguro | 1 |
67 | Byrony and Roses | Kingfisher | 1 |
68 | Castaway Planet | Spoor/Flint | 1 |
69 | Cat at Bay, A | Boykin | 1 |
70 | Chaplewood | Priest | 1 |
71 | Cinder Spires, the | Butcher | 1 |
72 | Clockwork Lives | Anderson | 1 |
73 | Culmanic Parts | Sutcliffe | 1 |
74 | Cunning Blood | Duntemann | 1 |
75 | Dark Intelligence | Asher | 1 |
76 | Dark Orbit | Gilman | 1 |
77 | Dinosaur Lords | Milan | 1 |
78 | Dread Wyrm, the | Cameron | 1 |
79 | Echopes of Apollo | Thompson | 1 |
80 | Edge of Dark | Cooper | 1 |
81 | Flex | Steinmetz | 1 |
82 | Gatefather | Card | 1 |
83 | Gentleman Joe and the Red Queen | Bujold | 1 |
84 | Grace of Kings | Liu | 1 |
85 | Greek Key | Spangler | 1 |
86 | Half a War | Abercrombie | 1 |
87 | Hidden Masters of Marandur and the Assassins of Altis | Campbell | 1 |
88 | Illuminae | Kaufman | 1 |
89 | Invisiblew Library, the | Cogman | 1 |
90 | Karen Memory | Bear | 1 |
91 | Knight’s Shadow | de Castelle | 1 |
92 | Less Than Hero | Browne | 1 |
93 | Liar’s Key, the | Lawrence | 1 |
94 | Last Song Before Night | Myer1 | 1 |
95 | Life and Death | Meyer | 1 |
96 | Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Chambers | 1 |
97 | Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan | Campbell | 1 |
98 | Mind Over All | Fabian | 1 |
99 | Morte | Repino | 1 |
100 | Oncoming Storm, the | Nuttall | 1 |
101 | One Year After | Forstchen | 1 |
102 | Oracle | West | 1 |
103 | Originator | Shepherd | 1 |
104 | Pact | Wildbow | 1 |
105 | Philosopher Kings, the | Walton | 1 |
106 | Predator One | Mayberry | 1 |
107 | Providence of Fire, the | Staveley | 1 |
108 | Radiance | Valente | 1 |
109 | Radiomen | Lerman | 1 |
110 | Retrieval Artist series | Rusch | 1 |
111 | Rising, the | Tregillis | 1 |
112 | Root of Unity | Huang | 1 |
113 | Saint Odd | Koontz | 1 |
114 | Sceptre of Morgulan, the | Ryan | 1 |
115 | Shadows of Self | Sanderson | 1 |
116 | Shrivers: The Substrate War 3 | Kinnison | 1 |
117 | Signal to Noise | Moreno-Garcia | 1 |
118 | Skull of Oghren | Vainio | 1 |
119 | Skull Throne, the | Brett | 1 |
120 | Sousmission | Houlledeq | 1 |
121 | Straits of Hell | Anderson | 1 |
122 | Sword of Arelion | Green | 1 |
123 | Twice and Future Caeser: A Novel of the USS Merrimack | Meluch | 1 |
124 | Vorrh, the | Catling | 1 |
125 | War Dogs | Bear | 1 |
126 | Watchmaker of Filigree Street, the | Pulley | 1 |
127 | Water Knife, the | Bacigalupi | 1 |
128 | Welcome to Night Vale | Cranor/Fink | 1 |
129 | Whispering Swarm, the | Moorcock | 1 |
130 | Wolf by Wolf | Graudin | 1 |
131 | Yaqteenya, the Old World | Bahjatt | 1 |
132 | Zero World | Hough | 1 |
TITLE | AUTHOR(S) | NOMINATIONS |
1636: The Cardinal Virtues | Flint/Hunt | 3 |
A Succession of Bad Days | Saunders | 1 |
Aeronaut’s Windlass, the | Butcher | 19 |
Alex Crow, the | Smith | 1 |
Alice | Henry | 1 |
Ancillary Mercy | Leckie | 7 |
Ancillary Sword | Leckie | 2 |
Angels of Attack | Kloos | 2 |
Anniversary Day Saga | Rusch | 2 |
Archangel | Reed | 2 |
Architect of Aeons | Wright | 1 |
Armada | Kline | 1 |
Ashes Born | Lowell | 1 |
Aurora | Robinson | 5 |
Autumn Republic, the | McClellan | 2 |
Awesome, the | Darrows | 1 |
Black Fleet Trilogy | Dalzelle | 2 |
Black Wolves | Elliott | 3 |
Blackbird | Boykin | 3 |
Bones and All | De Angelis | 2 |
Book of Lost Doors, the | Burnett | 1 |
Borrowed Man, A | Wolfe | 1 |
Buried Giant, the | Ishiguro | 1 |
Byrony and Roses | Kingfisher | 1 |
Call To Arms, A | Zahn/Pope/Weber | 2 |
Castaway Planet | Spoor/Flint | 1 |
Cat at Bay, A | Boykin | 1 |
Chaplewood | Priest | 1 |
Children of Time | Tchaikovsky | 2 |
Cinder Spires, the | Butcher | 1 |
Clockwork Lives | Anderson | 1 |
Collisions of the Damned | Young | 2 |
Culmanic Parts | Sutcliffe | 1 |
Cunning Blood | Duntemann | 1 |
Dark Forest, the | Liu | 3 |
Dark Intelligence | Asher | 1 |
Dark Orbit | Gilman | 1 |
Dark Tide Rising Series | Ringo | 4 |
Darker Shade of Magic, A | Schwab | 2 |
Desert and the Blade, the | Stirling | 6 |
Devil’s Only Friend, the | Wells | 5 |
Dinosaur Lords | Milan | 1 |
Discworld Series | Pratchett | 4 |
Distopia | Kroese | 2 |
Dragon Thief | Swann | 2 |
Dread Wyrm, the | Cameron | 1 |
Echopes of Apollo | Thompson | 1 |
Edge of Dark | Cooper | 1 |
Fifth Season, the | Jemsin | 8 |
Firefight | Sanderson | 4 |
Flex | Steinmetz | 1 |
Fool’s Quest | Hobb | 3 |
Foxglove Summer | Aaronovitch | 2 |
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits | Wong | 2 |
Gatefather | Card | 1 |
Gentleman Joe and the Red Queen | Bujold | 1 |
Golden Son | Brown | 5 |
Grace of Kings | Liu | 1 |
Greek Key | Spangler | 1 |
Half a War | Abercrombie | 1 |
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | Yudlowsky | 5 |
Hell’s Foundation Quiver | Weber | 4 |
Her Brother’s Keeper | Kupari | 2 |
Hidden Masters of Marandur and the Assassins of Altis | Campbell | 1 |
Honor At Stake | Finn | 22 |
House of Shattered Wings, the | de Bodard | 2 |
Illuminae | Kaufman | 1 |
Invisiblew Library, the | Cogman | 1 |
Just City, the | Walton | 7 |
Karen Memory | Bear | 1 |
Knight’s Shadow | de Castelle | 1 |
Last Song Before Night | Myer1 | 1 |
Less Than Hero | Browne | 1 |
Liar’s Key, the | Lawrence | 1 |
Library at Mount Char, the | Hawkins | 2 |
Life and Death | Meyer | 1 |
Long Time Until Now, A | Williamson | 16 |
Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Chambers | 1 |
Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan | Campbell | 1 |
Mechanical, the | Tregellis | 2 |
Mind Over All | Fabian | 1 |
Morte | Repino | 1 |
Nemesis Games | Corey | 3 |
Net of Dawn and Bones, A | Chancy | 4 |
Nethereal | Neimeier | 13 |
Oncoming Storm, the | Nuttall | 1 |
One Year After | Forstchen | 1 |
Oracle | West | 1 |
Originator | Shepherd | 1 |
Pact | Wildbow | 1 |
Philosopher Kings, the | Walton | 1 |
Predator One | Mayberry | 1 |
Providence of Fire, the | Staveley | 1 |
Radiance | Valente | 1 |
Radiomen | Lerman | 1 |
Raising Caine | Gannon | 5 |
Retrieval Artist series | Rusch | 1 |
Rising, the | Tregillis | 1 |
Ronin Games | Harmon | 4 |
Root of Unity | Huang | 1 |
Saint Odd | Koontz | 1 |
Saturn Run | Sandford/Ctein | 6 |
Sceptre of Morgulan, the | Ryan | 1 |
Seveneves | Stephenson | 15 |
Shadows of Self | Sanderson | 1 |
Shepherd’s Crown, the | Pratchett | 3 |
Shrivers: The Substrate War 3 | Kinnison | 1 |
Signal to Noise | Moreno-Garcia | 1 |
Skull of Oghren | Vainio | 1 |
Skull Throne, the | Brett | 1 |
Somewither | Wright | 23 |
Son of the Black Sword, the | Correia | 11 |
Sorcerer to the Crown | Cho | 4 |
Sousmission | Houlledeq | 1 |
Straits of Hell | Anderson | 1 |
Strands of Sorrow | Ringo | 8 |
Sword of Arelion | Green | 1 |
Torchship | Gallagher | 3 |
Traitor Baru Cormorant, the | Dickinson | 2 |
Twice and Future Caeser: A Novel of the USS Merrimack | Meluch | 1 |
Uprooted | Novik | 19 |
Vermillion | Tanzer | 2 |
Vorrh, the | Catling | 1 |
War Dogs | Bear | 1 |
Watchmaker of Filigree Street, the | Pulley | 1 |
Water Knife, the | Bacigalupi | 1 |
Welcome to Night Vale | Cranor/Fink | 1 |
Werewolf Cop | Klavan | 2 |
Whispering Swarm, the | Moorcock | 1 |
Wolf by Wolf | Graudin | 1 |
Yaqteenya, the Old World | Bahjatt | 1 |
Zero World | Hough | 1 |
ETA (3/9/2016): Unranked, “recommendation list-like” version. (Alphabetical by title)
TITLE | AUTHOR(S) | NOMINATIONS |
1636: The Cardinal Virtues | Flint/Hunt | 3 |
Aeronaut’s Windlass, the | Butcher | 19 |
Alex Crow, the | Smith | 1 |
Alice | Henry | 1 |
Ancillary Mercy | Leckie | 7 |
Ancillary Sword | Leckie | 2 |
Angels of Attack | Kloos | 2 |
Anniversary Day Saga | Rusch | 2 |
Archangel | Reed | 2 |
Architect of Aeons | Wright | 1 |
Armada | Kline | 1 |
Ashes Born | Lowell | 1 |
Aurora | Robinson | 5 |
Autumn Republic, the | McClellan | 2 |
Awesome, the | Darrows | 1 |
Black Fleet Trilogy | Dalzelle | 2 |
Black Wolves | Elliott | 3 |
Blackbird | Boykin | 3 |
Bones and All | De Angelis | 2 |
Book of Lost Doors, the | Burnett | 1 |
Borrowed Man, A | Wolfe | 1 |
Buried Giant, the | Ishiguro | 1 |
Byrony and Roses | Kingfisher | 1 |
Call To Arms, A | Zahn/Pope/Weber | 2 |
Castaway Planet | Spoor/Flint | 1 |
Cat at Bay, A | Boykin | 1 |
Chaplewood | Priest | 1 |
Children of Time | Tchaikovsky | 2 |
Cinder Spires, the | Butcher | 1 |
Clockwork Lives | Anderson | 1 |
Collisions of the Damned | Young | 2 |
Culmanic Parts | Sutcliffe | 1 |
Cunning Blood | Duntemann | 1 |
Dark Forest, the | Liu | 3 |
Dark Intelligence | Asher | 1 |
Dark Orbit | Gilman | 1 |
Dark Tide Rising Series | Ringo | 4 |
Darker Shade of Magic, A | Schwab | 2 |
Desert and the Blade, the | Stirling | 6 |
Devil’s Only Friend, the | Wells | 5 |
Dinosaur Lords | Milan | 1 |
Discworld Series | Pratchett | 4 |
Distopia | Kroese | 2 |
Dragon Thief | Swann | 2 |
Dread Wyrm, the | Cameron | 1 |
Echopes of Apollo | Thompson | 1 |
Edge of Dark | Cooper | 1 |
Fifth Season, the | Jemsin | 8 |
Firefight | Sanderson | 4 |
Flex | Steinmetz | 1 |
Fool’s Quest | Hobb | 3 |
Foxglove Summer | Aaronovitch | 2 |
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits | Wong | 2 |
Gatefather | Card | 1 |
Gentleman Joe and the Red Queen | Bujold | 1 |
Golden Son | Brown | 5 |
Grace of Kings | Liu | 1 |
Greek Key | Spangler | 1 |
Half a War | Abercrombie | 1 |
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | Yudlowsky | 5 |
Hell’s Foundation Quiver | Weber | 4 |
Her Brother’s Keeper | Kupari | 2 |
Hidden Masters of Marandur and the Assassins of Altis | Campbell | 1 |
Honor At Stake | Finn | 22 |
House of Shattered Wings, the | de Bodard | 2 |
Illuminae | Kaufman | 1 |
Invisiblew Library, the | Cogman | 1 |
Just City, the | Walton | 7 |
Karen Memory | Bear | 1 |
Knight’s Shadow | de Castelle | 1 |
Last Song Before Night | Myer1 | 1 |
Less Than Hero | Browne | 1 |
Liar’s Key, the | Lawrence | 1 |
Library at Mount Char, the | Hawkins | 2 |
Life and Death | Meyer | 1 |
Long Time Until Now, A | Williamson | 16 |
Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Chambers | 1 |
Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan | Campbell | 1 |
Mechanical, the | Tregellis | 2 |
Mind Over All | Fabian | 1 |
Morte | Repino | 1 |
Nemesis Games | Corey | 3 |
Net of Dawn and Bones, A | Chancy | 4 |
Nethereal | Neimeier | 13 |
Oncoming Storm, the | Nuttall | 1 |
One Year After | Forstchen | 1 |
Oracle | West | 1 |
Originator | Shepherd | 1 |
Pact | Wildbow | 1 |
Philosopher Kings, the | Walton | 1 |
Predator One | Mayberry | 1 |
Providence of Fire, the | Staveley | 1 |
Radiance | Valente | 1 |
Radiomen | Lerman | 1 |
Raising Caine | Gannon | 5 |
Retrieval Artist series | Rusch | 1 |
Rising, the | Tregillis | 1 |
Ronin Games | Harmon | 4 |
Root of Unity | Huang | 1 |
Saint Odd | Koontz | 1 |
Saturn Run | Sandford/Ctein | 6 |
Sceptre of Morgulan, the | Ryan | 1 |
Seveneves | Stephenson | 15 |
Shadows of Self | Sanderson | 1 |
Shepherd’s Crown, the | Pratchett | 3 |
Shrivers: The Substrate War 3 | Kinnison | 1 |
Signal to Noise | Moreno-Garcia | 1 |
Skull of Oghren | Vainio | 1 |
Skull Throne, the | Brett | 1 |
Somewither | Wright | 23 |
Son of the Black Sword, the | Correia | 11 |
Sorcerer to the Crown | Cho | 4 |
Sousmission | Houlledeq | 1 |
Straits of Hell | Anderson | 1 |
Strands of Sorrow | Ringo | 8 |
Succession of Bad Days, A | Saunders | 1 |
Sword of Arelion | Green | 1 |
Torchship | Gallagher | 3 |
Traitor Baru Cormorant, the | Dickinson | 2 |
Twice and Future Caeser: A Novel of the USS Merrimack | Meluch | 1 |
Uprooted | Novik | 19 |
Vermillion | Tanzer | 2 |
Vorrh, the | Catling | 1 |
War Dogs | Bear | 1 |
Watchmaker of Filigree Street, the | Pulley | 1 |
Water Knife, the | Bacigalupi | 1 |
Welcome to Night Vale | Cranor/Fink | 1 |
Werewolf Cop | Klavan | 2 |
Whispering Swarm, the | Moorcock | 1 |
Wolf by Wolf | Graudin | 1 |
Yaqteenya, the Old World | Bahjatt | 1 |
Zero World | Hough | 1 |
Tasha: at your request I’m adding that version of the table to the post.
Thanks. Maybe it will help some people see the difference. I think the animosity would go way down on a list looking like the 2nd.
From your post 7 levels of recommending:
1. First list is R7
2. Second list is R4
That’s a pretty big jump. Would you agree with my reclassification? To make it really help the list should be compiled as suggestions are made and links to the post with the list should be shared regularly 1-3 months before nominations end.
Tasha: I pretty well explained the methodology – but don’t mind people pointing out things and/or providing additional information.
Of course, none of this would be necessary or even interesting to do if the slate had been a recommendation list: months ago people could have started reading recommendations that interested them.
What you say is true but this wasn’t a win/lose situation: I took a few minutes to demonstrate that the Fannish thing to do is pitch in and help out; that information such as this should be freely shared without attached bias; to get an indication of where things might be going after March; that impatient individuals (or those who actually like to read the things they might nominate) could do for themselves without having to organize a political party to do so; to illustrate some points; to satisfy curiosity; to…….
I would have left the ranking off, put the list in alphabetical order, still included the column with how many recommend. That would show how you could take what they were creating and turn it into a recommendation list as many clubs and organizations do this.
People participating on the SP4 website have been able to read recommended books. We don’t know how many lurkers have been on the site reading but not commenting.
SP4 Website stats of interest from google analytics and WordPress separately:
1. Number of unique visitors & # return visitors
2. Number of pages visited by typical visitor
3. Length of time for typical page visited
4. Top 10 pages visited & their stats (# unique visitors, average length of visit, # return visitors)
No “good dead” goes unpunished. I see your being critiqued for compiling the entries exactly as they were made instead of cleaning them up. As well as for the items on the list. The comments on File 770 were to be expected. Some days you can’t win.
Ringo’s Strands of Sorrow and Ringo’s Dark Tide series is really the same entry since he only released on eligible work in that universe this year – which is SoS – yielding 12 votes total.
I’m also not real sure that John would accept a nomination.
He has been nominated before. However, since he belongs to a Hugo-outgroup, he would never win a Hugo. He will, however, continue to merrily sell scads of books.
Quick nod to the compiler, Steve D., for the early list of named recommendations and their votes.
Basically, Kate’s going to have the “official” one compiled in the next day or so.
Re: scads of books, I picked up the anthology he edited in EARC form, Friday.
John has in recent years said a few rude things about WorldCon. Likewise, MadMike voted Noah Ward on every nomination last summer, including his own.
Dex, saying rude things about Worldcon will not and can not affect how nominations for his works are handled.
RE the above “Hugo ‘outgroup'”; believe what you want, but there ain’t no such thing. There are works that a majority settle on, eventually, and there are works that they don’t.
Continuing to view this process as a game of high school clicks does no one any good service.
It’s a hint as to how John might react to being nominated. Larry Correia and Brad Torgerson, for example, have said that they will never accept another Hugo nomination.
I asked MadMike about nominating “A Long Time Until Now”. He replied, “My reaction will depend on Worldcon’s, if it happens.” He did vote Noah on his entire ballot last year.
Rat Seal,
sales do not impact nor should they have any bearing whatsoever on the awards, nomination considerations or even discussion on the subject.
“Ancillary Sword” isn’t eligible. It was nominated, and didn’t go anywhere, last year, mainly because it stunk. As it turns out, it was a case of Two Towers Syndrome — middle volume of a trilogy frequently has a lot of side-story and little action.
“Ancillary Mercy” is eligible. While Leckie did manage to pull out a credible ending for the trilogy, there’s a bunch of stuff that I’d put higher on the list.