154 thoughts on “What Did You Nominate for the 2017 Hugos?

  1. I am a little late to the game but here are some of my nom’s for this year.

    Novel:

    – Babylon’s Ashes; James S. A. Corey; Orbit / USA

    – The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home; Catherynne M. Valente; Feiwel and Friends / USA

    – The Core of the Sun; Johanna Sinisalo and translated by Lola Rogers; Grove Press/Black Cat / USA

    – The Spider’s War; Daniel Abraham; Orbit / USA

    – The Obelisk Gate; N. K. Jemisin; Orbit / USA

    Novella:

    – Every Heart a Doorway ; Seanan McGuire; TOR / USA

    – The Lost Child of Lychford; Paul Cornell; TOR / USA

    – The Census-Taker; China Miéville; Del Rey / USA

    – The Last Days Of New Paris; China Miéville; Del Rey / Subterranean Press / USA

    – Penric and the Shaman; Lois McMaster Bujold; Spectrum Literary Agency / USA

    Related Work:

    – Then: A History of Science Fiction Fandom in the UK: 1930-1980; Rob Hansen; Ansible Editions / United Kingdom

    – The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction ; Neil Gaiman; William Morrow / HarperCollins

    – Bandersnatch: Lewis, Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration; Diana Pavlac Glyer; Kent State University Press

    – Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg; Alvaro Zinos-Amaro and Robert Silverberg; Fairwood Press

    – Spectrum 23: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art ; John Fleskes; Flesk Publications

    Series:

    – The Dark Tower; Stephen King (Beryl Evans); Charlie the
    Choo-Choo: From the world of The Dark Tower; Simon & Schuster

    – Vorkosi-verse ; Lois McMaster Bujold ; Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen ; Baen

    – Wild Cards; George R. R. Martin, Melinda Snodgrass, & 50+ other
    Authors; High Stakes; TOR / Bantam / Baen

    – The Dagger and the Coin; Daniel Abraham ; The Spider’s War ; Orbit

    – The Expanse; James S. A. Corey; Babylon’s Ashes ; Orbit

  2. Possibly of some interest, a look at how well the straw poll lines up with the actual results. Looking at the ranked longlist in August will tell us more, of course. I’ve cut down the RSR and Arifel lists a bit for brevity (thanks to both for tallying) and kept to the written fiction categories for now. (I also believe the tallies miss two or three late declarations, but adding those wouldn’t affect much)

    Best Novel (45)
    * Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee, (21)
    * The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemison, (17)
    * All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders, (11)
    * Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer, (11)
    Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff, (10)
    City of Blades, Robert Jackson Bennet, (8)
    * A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers, (7)
    Informocracy, Malka Older, (6)
    (Cut 6 novels on 5 and 4 votes)

    The top 4 were accurate predictions, Closed and Common Orbit came in 7th, no filer love for Death’s End.

    Novellas
    * Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (21)
    * The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson (14)
    * Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold (11)
    * The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (10)
    The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell (10)
    * A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson (9)
    Cold-Forged Flame by Marie Brennan (8)
    Brushwork by Aliya Whiteley (7)
    Runtime by S.B. Divya (7)
    The Coward’s Option by Adam-Troy Castro (6)
    * This Census-Taker by China Miéville (6)
    What We Hold Onto by Jay O’Connell (6)
    (Cut 4 stories on 4 or 5 votes)

    With the exception of This Census Taker, the Filer straw poll is pretty uncanny. Did TCT get over the transom with Rabid help? Given the general popularity of Mieville I don’t think that’s a given yet.

    Novelettes
    * The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon (11)
    Foxfire, Foxfire by Yoon Ha Lee (10)
    * Touring With the Alien by Carolyn Ives Gilman (10)
    * You’ll Surely Drown Here if You Stay by Alyssa Wong (10)
    Blood Grains Speak Through Memories by Jason Sanford (8)
    The Dancer on the Stairs by Sarah Tolmie (8)
    Polyglossia by Tamara Vardomskaya (7)
    Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine (6)
    Finnegan’s Field by Angela Slatter (5)
    Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (5)
    Teenagers from Outer Space by Dale Bailey (5)
    * The Art of Space Travel by Nina Allan (5)
    The Future is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente (5)
    * The Jewel and her Lapidary by Fran Wilde (5)
    (Cut 3 stories on 4)

    I speculated on a filer bias for Red Wombat, but I was wrong (and delighted to be as well!) Filers call 3 correctly, but Allen and Wilde are further down the list.

    Short Stories
    Red in Tooth and Cog by Cat Rambo (10)
    * Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies by Brooke Bolander (9)
    * Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar (8)
    * That Game We Played During the War by Carrie Vaughn (8)
    Terminal by Lavie Tidhar (6)
    And Then, One Day, The Air Was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald (5)
    Things With Beards by Sam J. Miller (5)
    43 Responses to “In Memory of Dr. Alexandra Nako” by Barbara A. Barnett (4)
    Das Steingeschöpf by G.V. Anderson (4)
    Laws of Night and Silk by Seth Dickinson (4)
    The High Lonesome Frontier by Rebecca Campbell (4)
    Touch Me All Over by Betsy James (4)
    (Cut 7 stories on 3)

    Filers fail on Wong and Jemisin, but I suspect that’s more due to the volatility of this category than anything else, and they certainly got mentioned during the year. Filer fave Red in Tooth and Cog doesn’t make the Hugos though.

    Best Series (38)
    Thessaly, Jo Walton, (12)
    * Vorkosigan Saga, Lois MM Bujold, (11)
    * The Craft Sequence, Max Gladstone, (9)
    Memoirs of Lady Trent, Marie Brennan, (7)
    * The Expanse, James SA Corey, (7)
    * Rivers of London, Ben Aaranovitch, (7)
    * Temeraire, Naomi Novik, (6)
    Fractured Europe, Dave Hutchinson, (6)
    (Cut 4 on 5 and 4 votes)

    Filers get Thessaly wrong, but do pretty well on everything else apart from October Daye.

    Best New Writer (Campbell)(30)
    * Ada Palmer, (11)
    * Laurie Penny, (10)
    * Malka Older, (8)
    K.B. Wagers, (8)
    * Kelly Robson, (7)
    Tamara Vadomskaya, (7)
    (Cut 5 on 6-4 votes)

    Filers are clearly an enclave of love for K.B. Wagers, but miss Sarah Gailey (except me, she was a last minute change on my ballot for, umm, Kelly Robson. So I got that wrong and right at the same time!)

    So, as with last year the predictive value of the F770 straw poll is decent but not infallible. The matches are better in the longer categories than the short, but short/novelette are always more volatile anyway so that seems reasonable. No real wider meaning, just that we’re a fair cross-section of the electorate but with some gaps.

  3. @Mark (Kitteh!): I started reading your comment and I was like “compare to WHAT?!” Then I re-read your intro another time or two and realized, “Oh, carp, the Hugo noms must be out, and I’ve been a many-hours meeting followed by real work, so I forgot about it!

    ::scurries off to look at results – will return::

  4. @Mark (Kitteh): I just remembered to come back to your Filers-as-straw-poll analysis. Thanks for the run-down. I guess Filers are the secret cabal after all*, not Tor – who knew?! I mean, uh, as you say, we’re a fair cross-section, etc. 😉

    * Kidding. KIDDING!

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