Rabid Puppies 2017 Arrives

Vox Day posted his Rabid Puppies 2017 slate for the Hugo Awards today. Reacting to the E Pluribus Hugo rules change, designed to limit the effectiveness of slate voting, Day has changed his strategy from seeking to monopolize the ballot to focusing support on one or two choices in most categories to assure the Rabid Puppies will leave their mark on the ballot.

The rules are different this year, and so tactics have to change accordingly. One year sooner than anticipated, the Hugos are no longer about single-party domination or single-author award-pimpage, they are now divided between three to five major factions, of whom Tor and Rabid Puppies are merely the most obvious. In order to ensure a seat at the table as a faction, it’s now important to limit nominations to one per category in the bigger categories, and an absolute maximum of three in the smaller ones. Two will likely prove to be the optimal number in any category outside the five fiction categories, which this year includes the new Best Series category in addition to the usual four….

BEST NOVEL

  • An Equation of Almost Infinite Complexity by J. Mulrooney (Castalia House)

BEST NOVELLA

  • “This Census-taker” by China Miéville

BEST NOVELETTE

  • “Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex” by Stix Hiscock

BEST SHORT STORY

  • “An Unimaginable Light” by John C. Wright (God, Robot, Castalia House)

BEST SERIES

  • Arts of Dark and Light by Vox Day

BEST RELATED WORK

  • Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie by Ralph McQuarrie (Abrams)
  • The View From the Cheap Seats, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

  • none

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

  • Anthony Marchetta, independent [Editor of God, Robot from Castalia House]
  • P. Alexander, Cirsova (*)

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

  • Vox Day, Castalia House

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

  • Deadpool

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

  • “The Winds of Winter”, Game of Thrones, Miguel Sapochnik, David Benioff & D. B. Weiss

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

  • Tomek Radziewicz
  • JiHun Lee

BEST SEMIPROZINE

  • none
  • Cirsova (*)

BEST FANZINE

  • Castalia House blog
  • File 770

BEST FANCAST

  • The Rageaholic by Razorfist
  • Superversive SF

BEST FAN WRITER

  • Jeffro Johnson (Castalia House blog)
  • Morgan (Castalia House blog)

BEST FAN ARTIST

  • Alex Garner
  • Mansik Yang

BEST NEW WRITER (Campbell Award)

  • J. Mulrooney

Vox Day also said Rabid Puppy picks for the Dragon Awards will be provided later this year.

[Update 03/05/2017: Vox Day subsequently made some changes. The additions are marked (*) and the deletions with strikethroughs.]

87 thoughts on “Rabid Puppies 2017 Arrives

  1. JJ on March 5, 2017 at 9:04 pm said:

    Anne Goldsmith: I am also bewildered by the inclusion of This Census-taker.

    You have to remember that VD doesn’t actually read books, and he has no idea what’s been very good this year. So he had to pull something out of the air based on whatever little buzz he had managed to see. I imagine he thinks that Mieville is someone that SJWs will vote for regardless of the work. If so, he is mistaken.

    Vox often praises Mieville – maybe because he does enjoy his books or maybe as yet another token see-I’m-open-minded-&-will-praise-a-lefty-if-they-r-good.

  2. I recall he was a big fan of Embassytown despite Miéville’s politics. I’d be surprised if Ted could read his earlier novels though – King Rat struck me as rather heavy-handed and I’m quite leftwardly inclined.

  3. Mark Richards>

    I’m guessing that “Stix Hiscock” is VD’s replacement for Chuck Tingle

    that Hiscock seems to be Tingle done straight*…

    * in both senses of the word.

  4. I remember VD calling Mievielle once one of the most imaginative (*) writers around, “despite the politcs”. So he probably does like his books. And for him Mievielle is the proof, that he (VD) does not judge an author because of his politcs. Its a bit the equivalent of “I have a black friend, so Im not racist”, but well, at least I think its an honest inclusion.

    I nearly laughed at the party-Part though. Tor is a party and Rabid puppies are as well and they are the main antagonists in the battle for the Hugo? Someone, please draw a comic strip about that!

    (*) or was it “imaginary”?

    @Oneiros: King Rat definitly wasnt Mievielles best book. It was his first novel, so it can be excused. Although Iron Rail was more heavy handed…

  5. The party conflict between Tor (publishers of Ann Leckie, etc.) and the Rabid Puppies has been a well known fact in canine circles for some time; what interests me is the emergence of other parties. what are they?

    I guess he will continue producing lists, and they will have less and less relevance, but this will not stop him. Suppose he did not have the history he has, and he now produced a list, saying ‘Here is some stuff from Castalia House which is eligible for the Hugos this year. And in categories where Castalia has nothing, here are a few things I like.’ We would have thought it a bit crass, but not seriously disturbing. It will gradually just fade into the landscape of recommendation lists.

  6. I wouldnt describe Tor as a party or a faction. They are a publisher.
    The Rabids are a faction. So are the sad puppies. There maybe other smaller groups, but even the impact of the Sads is small, so I doubt they have any impact at all. Tor is not a factoion, because -to my knowledge – they dont organise any voting or even discuss titles. Yes, the rabids dont like them (and probably vice versa), but that doesnt mean they activly engage in voting against the pupies in the Hugos.

    I guess from VDs point of view the Filers may be a faction or the Black Gaters or the Good Readers… But of course they dont slate and hence are no faction.

  7. The party conflict between Tor (publishers of Ann Leckie, etc.)

    Leckie is not published by Tor. Her novels were published by Orbit.

  8. @Peer Sylvester: Agreed there – I read it after The City & The City and Embassytown had already blown me away and went in expecting maybe a little too much from a first novel. It was decent, and I think it showed potential, but he’s definitely improved (a hell of a lot) as a writer since then.

  9. “King Rat definitly wasnt Mievielles best book”.

    I prefered it to his newer ones.

  10. Leckie is not published by Tor. Her novels were published by Orbit.

    Not in the alternate universe where the puppies reside.

  11. Yes, I specifically wrote ‘publishers of Ann Leckie, etc.’ to show that I meant the alternate universe Tor (often known as TOR, but not by VD on this occasion) rather than the real one. And while the real Tor is indeed a publisher, not a party or a faction, the alternate universe Tor is well known for acting as a party, to boost Tor authors such as Ann Leckie.

  12. @Andrew M

    That’s the alt-history TOR who buy up memberships for all their employers, and get everyone they don’t like blacklisted, and created the editor Hugo just for themselves, and keep on pretending they haven’t gone bust under the weight of Scalzi’s advance…. right?

  13. Mark: Yes, that’s the one.

    Meanwhile, I see there have been some changes.

    Deletion of File 770 makes sense, given that it has withdrawn. Deletion of Marchetta possibly shows a recognition that he is not eligible? (In view of some things that happened in previous years, it’s not clear to me that warning them of what is not eligible would do much harm, but better be on the safe side, I guess. I can’t say what things that happened in previous years, unfortunately.)

    Does anyone know anything about Cirsova?

  14. @Andrew M

    Marchetta only had one credit so wasn’t eligible – I suppose we shouldn’t be amazed that VD didn’t even check these things beforehand…
    Cirsova is a new-ish semi-prozine in the “pulp revival” mold and is somewhat puppy-adjacent. Based on their first issue I’d say they were neither great nor terrible – so not remotely good enough for a nomination on their merits considering the strength of the field, but not a total joke nomination like some others.

  15. Andrew M: Deletion of Marchetta possibly shows a recognition that he is not eligible?

    Yes. Someone in comments at Vox Popoli explained to Day why Marchetta was ineligible.

  16. The Cirsova editor would probably do well to say nothing until the list of nominees comes out and then publicly decline the nomination at that point. That would gain them lots of good publicity–much better than what you get from being voted under No Award. Publicity that would cost a lot if you had to pay for it.

    In the past, people who quietly declined the nomination generally got no reward for doing to. Contrast how Thomas Mays withdrew “The Commuterafter it appeared on the finalist list, and he got endless praise for it, but Jonathan Moeller quietly declined the nomination for his “Hyperspace Demons,” and got virtually no thanks (although he earned my personal admiration).

    Of course this is mostly due to the fact that we don’t see people who declined the nominations until after the Hugo Awards have already been presented, but the difference in effect is stark.

    Likewise, declining too early means that Vox Day has a chance to update his list. Since his crew can turn on a dime, even announcing you don’t want a nomination just 24 hours before the deadline isn’t good enough.

    The right strategy is to sit tight, wait until the list comes out, and then decline the nomination–always assuming that you believe Vox Day is the only way you wound up on the list. If you’re pretty sure you’d have made it anyway, then obviously you should accept–unless you have some other reason to decline. (E.g. you’ve won a lot of Hugos and want to give other people a chance.) 🙂

  17. VD has said he’s a big fan of Mieville, Iain M Banks and Tanith Lee. So there’s a few. Makes me wonder if he tries the newer lefty and feminist authors, maybe it’ll turn out he loves them too.

  18. Greg Hullender: The Cirsova editor would probably do well to say nothing until the list of nominees comes out and then publicly decline the nomination at that point.

    The Cirsova editor has been tweeting Hugo eligibility reminders at puppies, superversives and pulp revolutionaries for weeks. They are not going to turn down a nomination. Consider this exchange:

    https://twitter.com/thebencheah/status/838739986048417794

    https://twitter.com/cirsova/status/838752374697111552

    Getting in the Hugo packet is a business objective:

    https://twitter.com/cirsova/status/838578972837494784

  19. @Jonathan Edelstein

    I don’t know that this demonstrates the effectiveness of EPH at fighting slates so much as it demonstrates that Vox doesn’t think he has the numbers to pull it off. Rather than be humiliated by not getting anything onto the ballot, he wants to get something on there.

    Even though, you know, he doesn’t care. He’s too cool for those old Hugos, it’s all about the Dragon Awards, now. Those are still gameable because of how poorly-secured they are where you’ll find all the cool kids these days.

  20. FYI: the domain sadpuppies5.com was registered on 2-14-17, is sitting at a host but is not showing anything other than a place-holder page.

    Registered through a proxy as well.

    Kinda a little late to put something up at this point….

  21. Third comment on File 770 – still nervous as a jackrabbit. You all must be a very intimidating bunch!

    I just have to share that, honestly, I am at a loss to understand why I (anyone?) would want to read something titled “Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex.”

    Seriously.

  22. @Kimberly: that’s the joke. Also it’s a poor taste jab at a previous Hugo finalist, If You Were a Dinosaur My Love. As was the Tingler that Ted decided to game onto the Hugo awards last year, but he got pounded in the butt by that bad decision, so I guess this time he’s gone for someone he can control (or at least won’t instantly, hilariously and relentlessly mock him)

  23. @Kimberly: Don’t be nervous, people are very friendly here. Your only real danger is getting buried under book recommendations. 🙂

  24. @Robert Adam Gilmour

    The Cirsova editor is a gamergater who’s been on the Castalia blog so he probably won’t decline.

    @Mike Glyer

    The Cirsova editor has been tweeting Hugo eligibility reminders at puppies, superversives and pulp revolutionaries for weeks. They are not going to turn down a nomination.

    Ah. I hadn’t realized that. Thanks. I had taken his posts saying he didn’t want to be tied to just the puppies at face value.

  25. Mike Glyer: The Cirsova editor has been tweeting Hugo eligibility reminders at puppies, superversives and pulp revolutionaries for weeks. They are not going to turn down a nomination.

    Yeah, he’s the one who was here a few days ago, denying up and down that he was a Puppy, because he apparently thinks that the only place Filers hang out on the Internet is File770 and they’re too stupid to know better. He reads and comments on the Puppy blogs all the time.

  26. Jeffro Johnson and Deadpool were the only two I’ve either read/seen – and both were worthy nominees. I don’t plan to read the other recommendations.

  27. @Eric Franklin: I agree that’s his thinking. Which indicates that he doesn’t understand how EPH works. I’m fine with that.

  28. I think it may be a bit more complex than that. It’s true that, if he has enough support to get one thing nominated per category under EPH, he would still be able to get one thing nominated per category if he had presented a complete slate. But it looks better not nominating more things than you can get shortlisted; getting one out of five of your picks on the ballot is unimpressive.

  29. @David Goldfarb

    @Eric Franklin: I agree that’s his thinking. Which indicates that he doesn’t understand how EPH works. I’m fine with that.

    Shhh! Don’t help him out. Wait until after nominations close.

  30. How smart is our Voxy?

    Could he be only nominating one per category to try to stop the ratification of EPH+ and other modifications to the system so he can go for the three or four per category that it’s been suggested he’s capable of getting and be able to do that both next year and 2019?

    If he pushes hard this year, the he guarantees that further changes get ratified.

  31. If that were the case he wouldn’t have nominated a porn story for Best Novelette. That makes the strongest possible argument for ratifying 3SV in Helsinki.

  32. three to five major factions, of whom Tor and Rabid Puppies are merely the most obvious.

    I’m trying to decide whether this is proof that 1) Vox is completely out of touch with reality; 2) RP is just a smokescreen and he’s got some secret shenanigans ready to pull; or, always popular, 3) both.

    (Three to five! So specific and yet so vague!)

  33. VD: three to five major factions, of whom Tor and Rabid Puppies are merely the most obvious

    I think it’s just the same-old excuses about how they’re only doing what Sekrit SJW Cabals have already been doing for years, so cheating on the Hugos is perfectly okay, and why is everyone complaining?. 🙄

  34. Pingback: 2017 Hugo Awards Presented Amid Puppy In-Fighting - Women Write About Comics

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