2017 Hugo Award Finalists

The finalists for this year’s Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were announced by Worldcon 75 on April 4.

The committee received 2,464 valid nominating ballots (2,458 electronic and 6 paper) from members of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 World Science Fiction Conventions, the second-highest total in history.

With six finalists in each category under a new rule taking effect this year, there is a total of 108 finalists, the most extensive Hugo ballot on record.

The announcement video featured Guest of Honor Johanna Sinisalo; graphic novelist Petri Hiltunen; writer J. Pekka Mäkelä; translator Johanna Vainikainen; Worldcon 75 Chair Jukka Halme, and other members of the Worldcon 75 team.

The final round of voting will open this coming week, and close on July 15. The 2017 Hugos will be presented at the 75th World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki, Finland, on August 11.

The finalists are:

Best Novel

2078 ballots cast for 652 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 156 to 480.

  • All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)
  • A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)
  • Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)
  • Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)
  • The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)
  • Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)

Best Novella

1410 ballots cast for 187 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 167 to 511.

  • The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle (Tor.com publishing)
  • The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson (Tor.com publishing)
  • Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com publishing)
  • Penric and the Shaman, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum Literary Agency)
  • A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com publishing)
  • This Census-Taker, by China Miéville (Del Rey / Picador)

Best Novelette

1097 ballots cast for 295 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 74 to 268.

  • Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex, by Stix Hiscock (self-published)
  • The Art of Space Travel”, by Nina Allan (Tor.com , July 2016)
  • The Jewel and Her Lapidary”, by Fran Wilde (Tor.com, May 2016)
  • The Tomato Thief”, by Ursula Vernon (Apex Magazine, January 2016)
  • Touring with the Alien”, by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2016)
  • You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay”, by Alyssa Wong (Uncanny Magazine, May 2016)

Best Short Story

1275 ballots cast for 830 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 87 to 182.

  • The City Born Great”, by N. K. Jemisin (Tor.com, September 2016)
  • A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers”, by Alyssa Wong (Tor.com, March 2016)
  • Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”, by Brooke Bolander (Uncanny Magazine, November 2016)
  • Seasons of Glass and Iron”, by Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, Saga Press)
  • That Game We Played During the War”, by Carrie Vaughn (Tor.com, March 2016)
  • An Unimaginable Light”, by John C. Wright (God, Robot, Castalia House)

Best Related Work

1122 ballots cast for 344 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 88 to 424.

  • The Geek Feminist Revolution, by Kameron Hurley (Tor Books)
  • The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press)
  • Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg, by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Fairwood)
  • The View From the Cheap Seats, by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow / Harper Collins)
  • The Women of Harry Potter posts, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
  • Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)

Best Graphic Story

842 ballots cast for 441 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 71 to 221.

  • Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)
  • Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
  • Ms. Marvel, Volume 5: Super Famous, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa (Marvel)
  • Paper Girls, Volume 1, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image)
  • Saga, Volume 6, illustrated by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan, lettered by Fonografiks (Image)
  • The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man, written by Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Marvel)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

1733 ballots cast for 206 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 240 to 1030.

  • Arrival, screenplay by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang, directed by Denis Villeneuve (21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films)
  • Deadpool, screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick, directed by Tim Miller (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Marvel Entertainment/Kinberg Genre/The Donners’ Company/TSG Entertainment)
  • Ghostbusters, screenplay by Katie Dippold & Paul Feig, directed by Paul Feig (Columbia Pictures/LStar Capital/Village Roadshow Pictures/Pascal Pictures/Feigco Entertainment/Ghostcorps/The Montecito Picture Company)
  • Hidden Figures, screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi, directed by Theodore Melfi (Fox 2000 Pictures/Chernin Entertainment/Levantine Films/TSG Entertainment)
  • Rogue One, screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, directed by Gareth Edwards (Lucasfilm/Allison Shearmur Productions/Black Hangar Studios/Stereo D/Walt Disney Pictures)
  • Stranger Things, Season One, created by the Duffer Brothers (21 Laps Entertainment/Monkey Massacre)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

1159 ballots cast for 569 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 91 to 193.

  • Black Mirror: “San Junipero”, written by Charlie Brooker, directed by Owen Harris (House of Tomorrow)
  • Doctor Who: “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Ed Bazalgette (BBC Cymru Wales)
  • The Expanse: “Leviathan Wakes”, written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, directed by Terry McDonough (SyFy)
  • Game of Thrones: “Battle of the Bastards”, written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, directed by Miguel Sapochnik (HBO)
  • Game of Thrones: “The Door”, written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, directed by Jack Bender (HBO)
  • Splendor & Misery [album], by Clipping (Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes)

Best Editor – Short Form

951 ballots cast for 191 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 149 to 229.

  • John Joseph Adams
  • Neil Clarke
  • Ellen Datlow
  • Jonathan Strahan
  • Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
  • Sheila Williams

Best Editor – Long Form

752 ballots cast for 148 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 83 to 201.

  • Vox Day
  • Sheila E. Gilbert
  • Liz Gorinsky
  • Devi Pillai
  • Miriam Weinberg
  • Navah Wolfe

Best Professional Artist

817 ballots cast for 387 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 53 to 143.

  • Galen Dara
  • Julie Dillon
  • Chris McGrath
  • Victo Ngai
  • John Picacio
  • Sana Takeda

Best Semiprozine

857 ballots cast for 103 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 80 to 434.

  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies, editor-in-chief and publisher Scott H. Andrews
  • Cirsova Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, edited by P. Alexander
  • GigaNotoSaurus, edited by Rashida J. Smith
  • Strange Horizons, edited by Niall Harrison, Catherine Krahe, Vajra Chandrasekera, Vanessa Rose Phin, Li Chua, Aishwarya Subramanian, Tim Moore, Anaea Lay, and the Strange Horizons staff
  • Uncanny Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, Julia Rios, and podcast produced by Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky
  • The Book Smugglers, edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James

Best Fanzine

610 ballots cast for 152 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 53 to 159.

  • Castalia House Blog, edited by Jeffro Johnson
  • Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Helena Nash, Errick Nunnally, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Chuck Serface, and Erin Underwood
  • Lady Business, edited by Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan
  • nerds of a feather, flock together, edited by The G, Vance Kotrla, and Joe Sherry
  • Rocket Stack Rank, edited by Greg Hullender and Eric Wong
  • SF Bluestocking, edited by Bridget McKinney

Best Fancast

690 ballots cast for 253 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 76 to 109.

  • The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan
  • Ditch Diggers, presented by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace
  • Fangirl Happy Hour, presented by Ana Grilo and Renay Williams
  • Galactic Suburbia, presented by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce and Tansy Rayner Roberts, produced by Andrew Finch
  • The Rageaholic, presented by RazörFist
  • Tea and Jeopardy, presented by Emma Newman with Peter Newman

Best Fan Writer

802 ballots cast for 275 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 80 to 152.

  • Mike Glyer
  • Jeffro Johnson
  • Natalie Luhrs
  • Foz Meadows
  • Abigail Nussbaum
  • Chuck Tingle

Best Fan Artist

528 ballots cast for 242 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 39 to 121.

  • Ninni Aalto
  • Alex Garner [See ineligibility announcement here.]
  • Vesa Lehtimäki
  • Likhain (M. Sereno)
  • Spring Schoenhuth
  • Steve Stiles [See announcement adding him here.]
  • Mansik Yang

Best Series

1393 votes for 290 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 129 to 325.

  • The Craft Sequence, by Max Gladstone (Tor Books)
  • The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey (Orbit US / Orbit UK)
  • The October Daye Books, by Seanan McGuire (DAW / Corsair)
  • The Peter Grant / Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz / Del Rey / DAW / Subterranean)
  • The Temeraire series, by Naomi Novik (Del Rey / Harper Voyager UK)
  • The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

933 votes for 260 nominees.

Votes for finalists ranged from 88 to 255.

  • Sarah Gailey (1st year of eligibility)
  • J. Mulrooney (1st year of eligibility)
  • Malka Older (2nd year of eligibility)
  • Ada Palmer (1st year of eligibility)
  • Laurie Penny (2nd year of eligibility)
  • Kelly Robson (2nd year of eligibility)

Declined/Ineligible

The following nominees received enough votes to qualify for the final ballot, but either declined nomination or were found to be ineligible.

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): Game of Thrones: “The Winds of Winter”

(No more than two episodes of any one show may be finalists in this category)

Best Professional Artist: Tomek Radziewicz

(No qualifying publications in 2016)

Best Professional Artist: JiHun Lee

(No qualifying publications in 2016)

Best Semiprozine: Lightspeed Magazine

(Not eligible)

Best Fanzine: File 770

(Declined nomination)

Best Fan Artist: Alex Garner

(Ruled ineligible on April 23, 2017)

Updated: Added “translated by Ken Liu” to the entry for Death’s End. // 04/23/2017: Best Fan Artist nominee Alex Garner was ruled ineligible. His place on the final ballot went to the next highest finisher, Steve Stiles.

325 thoughts on “2017 Hugo Award Finalists

  1. Doctor Science: I’m partway into “Rosemary and Rue” and there is nothing so far suggesting that this will turn out to be Hugo-worthy. Is there a later book in the series that will show me why it was nominated?

    I’m really not a fan of urban fantasy or of mythic fantasy — and yet that series really seems to hit my sweet spot. I probably never would have even read it if Rosemary and Rue hadn’t been part of the Hugo voter’s packet because McGuire was a finalist for the Campbell that year.

    The worldbuilding continues through each novel — and because of that, and because the intertwining plots in a given novel often have threads which reach back to events of previous novels, the individual books are probably not good as standalone novels.

    My personal opinion is that McGuire is a pretty masterful plotter, and one of the reasons I like the books so much is that I feel like I get to know the main characters pretty well — that they’re my “gang”, even if I don’t necessarily like them all.

    If you’re willing to finish the first one and read the second one, the series may grow on you. Or it may not be your thing.

    Bear in mind that McGuire has quite an avid Worldcon fanbase because she spent 10 years heavily involved in fandom, filking, and conventions before being published. Much as I enjoy most of her works, I think that fanbase tends to have an effect on the Hugos which is a little more magnified than perhaps is merited by the works themselves.

  2. @Chris M. Barkley: It’s inclusion may be allowed under the WSFS rules but that does not mean that I think it belongs on the ballot. In other words, you value your personal quirks over the efforts of the hundreds (thousands?) of people who have worked out a definition? Solipsism much? (If everything must be SF, why are there Hugos for (e.g.) fanzines?)

    @OGH: as a member of the concom that first put up what became Related Work, I think ]letting in appropriate works[ was not on our minds; it was simply that there were finally enough related works to be worth a category.

    @various: I also thought Daye #1 was ignorable. I picked up #4 (Late Eclipses) due to some combination of her Hugo-nominated (and IMO -worthy) short work and her GoH at my home convention, and liked it well enough to read all the subsequent ones. I don’t think I’d put it first in the current set of nominees, but IMO there is excellent worldbuilding; however, it’s mostly soociopolitical rather than technical.

    @JJ: I thought the Kylara Vatta series was fun after a weak start, but I wouldn’t put it up for Best Series even if it were revived to become eligible.

    @Lola: 3. Memory: Miles implodes, and survives it. One of her best books. Very character driven. As Bujold put it: “Miles hits 30. 30 hits back.”

    @NickPheas:

    Most of the Tor novella lines seem to run to 180 pages and would surely have been considered novels when books were serialized in four issues of Astounding.

    I doubt it. A 2-issue story like Schmitz’s The Lion Game needed additional material to be a book, but 3-4 issues didn’t; IIRC, Dune (>400pp in pb, or at least 2 novels) was only 7 issues. And the Tor novellas I’ve seen have been very thin 180-page (or less) books — I haven’t counted words, but I went through one at almost 4pp/min, where a standard 60’s MMPB (~400 words/page) was more like 2.

    @P J Evans: I would not be surprised if fanzines in 1965-6 ignored any controversy over LotR etc; fandom was much more … fragmented … then.

  3. Blackout/All Clear qualified as a serialized work under the rules as they stood at the time (and are about the same today) even if the first installment had been published in a previous calendar year.

    But, according to current Hugo rules, they could just as easily have been nominated separately, which would have been more natural if published in different years.

    Connie made it very clear (in print and in person) at the time that Blackout came out that it was only the first half on one singular novel, the second half of which was All Clear.

  4. Chip Hitchcock: I thought the Kylara Vatta series was fun after a weak start, but I wouldn’t put it up for Best Series even if it were revived to become eligible.

    I would agree. I was recommending it as enjoyable MilSF which is not American machismo, not for Best Series.

    It is being continued; the first book in a new subseries, Cold Welcome, comes out next week.

  5. @Paul Weimer

    “Not to be terribly an enabler, but the most practical series to read in full out of the Hugo nominees is probably Gladstone’s Craft Sequence. Especially since a kindle edition of the quintet is $12.”

    Thank you for the heads up. I just purchased the 5 books. $12 is a great deal for the five books that have a page count just north of 1,800 pages.

    The Craft Sequence and The Rivers of London series, are the two of the six series from the Best Series finalist that I am unfamiliar with. This will give me an opportunity to knock out one of the two, hopefully before the Hugo Packet is delivered.

    Amazon list the publication date of this five book set as March 14, 2017.

    Its almost as if those evil genuineness’s at TOR had a Magic Crystal Ca-Ball

  6. Not to gloat, but I got the Gladstone books for… $6? Something like that. One of those Meredith Moments moments on File770. I just saw it the other day on my Kindle and was trying to remember why I got it. Then I saw how many novels that book includes, and remembered – price, recommended by File770, and price. I may have to start on them next.

    I’ve only read the first Rivers of London book, but the second has been queued up for months now, awaiting the right moment.

    Rather than stressed, I’m getting excited at having some guidelines for my reading choices in the next few months. I’ve also been meaning to get to the Chambers, and have been flipping coins re Too Like the Lightning for months, given the polarizing views here. I decided a while back that I’d just wait and see if it was on the Hugo shortlist.

  7. @Sean Kirk, re “Ca-Ball”: Surely there’s traffic that needs playing in near you.

    🙂

  8. I’ll forgive everyone who isn’t into Temeraire eventually. Probably. 😉

    Re: novelette, I find the name extremely cute and I like it for that reason. Shallow, maybe, but good enough for me.

    @JJ

    Meredith, you may have missed all the emoji fun last year.

    I did! Good stuff.

    Re: Tallying, I’m glad to hear it. I didn’t think it ought to be too bad but it seemed worth checking.

    @Kevin Standlee

    Thanks – I’ll look forward to the report, then. 🙂

    @Dann

    Do you mostly mean the novella length? I’ve got the impression that Tor is comparatively prolific in their publication of novellas, and quantity when combined with quality counts for a lot. As for being represented in all fiction categories, well, they do publish a lot of stuff in general, and it is usually pretty good. Well-marketed, too. They don’t seem terribly over-represented to me considering their status, quality, and large output.

    For genre distribution, it isn’t possible for every subgenre to be represented on the ballot every year. There are simply too many of them. The last decade would have to be looked at as a whole to extract any reasonable data, perhaps even longer – but the impression I have is that horror is likely to be the least represented, not milsf or grimdark.

    @Kendall

    Nearing your quota for dragons already?!

    Never! But I thought I’d really rather not annoy everyone right off the bat for overdragoning the comments. (Also, I don’t seem to be able to chose spacing – ten taps of the spacebar looks like one space – so I had to give up on interpretive dragon emoji comments. Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.)

    >.> <.< 🐉 🐲 🐉

  9. Since there is a lot of talk about the Best Series Hugo so far here are my thoughts about voting for it.

    Best Series
    The Craft Sequence Read the first four of them, own the last one and will read it before I need to vote.
    The Expanse Read the first three.
    The October Daye Books Read the first two.
    The Peter Grant / Rivers of London series Read the first one.
    The Temeraire series Read all of them.
    The Vorkosigan Saga Read all of it,I think.

    And with that I feel quite confident with voting on the category. I might try to read the second London book or I might not. I was not very fond of the first one at all.

  10. @Meredith: “ten taps of the spacebar looks like one space”

    That’s a feature of HTML; it ignores consecutive whitespace characters. The traditional hack around it is to deploy nonbreaking spaces (& nbsp;), which only look like whitespace as far as HTML is concerned.

    BTW, to those buying the Craft series: the sixth/final book is a US$2.99 preorder at present, for a September release.

  11. Meredith: I don’t seem to be able to chose spacing – ten taps of the spacebar looks like one space – so I had to give up on interpretive dragon emoji comments.

    Here, let me fix that for you. 😉

    Two dragons with 10 spaces between them:
    &#128009; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&#128009;

    🐉          🐉

  12. … So the message I’m getting is that JJ and Rev. Bob actually want me to start posting in interpretive dragon emojis, which is a thing I did not see coming but fully intend to take advantage of by blaming them should anyone question it in future. 😉

  13. So I’ve looked back in my notes and confirmed that I thought that Chambers’s first book (which I read on the vigorous recommendation of at least one Filer) was very weak. (My summary starts “disconnected anecdotes, badly written.”) Is the Hugo-nominated second book conspicuously better than the first? Since I’m not expecting to vote, I’m debating whether to bother reading it.

  14. @kathodus

    “Not to gloat, but I got the Gladstone books for… $6?”

    I felt kinda bad for Max Gladstone when I paid only $12 for the five books. I was wondering how he was going to eat this month. But, $6! That’s a $1.20 per book.

    “I’m getting excited at having some guidelines for my reading choices in the next few months.”

    Yeah I usually enjoy the Hugo reading and voting 3 month period as well. Most of the time the nominated works dictate that I read outside my normal reading habits, and that is what I have always liked about the Hugos.

    @Bruce Baugh

    “Surely there’s traffic that needs playing in near you.”

    Their is but I can’t seem to find my Magic 🔮 Ca-Ball!

  15. @Sean Kirk – I just checked my amazon orders, and nope – I paid $12. Which is still an amazing deal. Honestly, for that many books, the difference between $6 and $12 is minuscule. I think that’s why I thought I’d paid less – I remembered feeling really smug about the deal.

    @Meredith – Bring on the dragons!

  16. @Andrew M: Thanks, and okay, I’ve heard that about TLtL.

    @Contrarius: I was fine with how The Fifth Season ended, and the next book had a different feel, IMHO, so the break worked for me. Of course, I’ve had books stop mid-gallop, and mid-falling-over-a-cliff, so the break in The Fifth Season was nothing by comparison!

    @Greg Hullender: Gak, 75K is a novel, not a novella, to me. I can see upping novella to 45 or 50K, and shifting a couple of other boundaries, but 75K seems totally out of wack to me.

    @Kurt Busiek: Before getting to your comment, I’d been thinking Short Story, Long Story, Novella, Novel made the most sense to me, if Novelette was renamed in the Hugo rules (not that I care much either way). First, it’s the fewest changes; second, I like the Short/Long difference to keep it very clear; third, Short Story is a very, very well-known term.

  17. @Kyra: LOL at your category list. 😀

    @Dann & @Meredith: I believe Tor (Tor itself, not [just] Tor.com, and before Tor.com anyway, probably) has the largest publishing program of any U.S. publisher. And they cover all subgenres.

    @Meredith: “overdragoning” – Heh, oh, you. As if that’s possible!

    @Rev. Bob & @JJ: Oh you’ve done it now.

    @Paul Weimer: “not five of them” – Yes. 🙂

  18. @Chip Hitchcock

    So I’ve looked back in my notes and confirmed that I thought that Chambers’s first book (which I read on the vigorous recommendation of at least one Filer) was very weak. (My summary starts “disconnected anecdotes, badly written.”) Is the Hugo-nominated second book conspicuously better than the first? Since I’m not expecting to vote, I’m debating whether to bother reading it.

    I was also not very impressed with the first book — and yes, the second book is conspicuously better. It was still not on my nomination ballot, and I’m still not fond of the narrative voice, but it is much better. It only shares two characters with the first book, and they are both substantially different in book 2; the plot structure is also very different, as are the themes being explored. IMHO this one is worth reading, but still not Hugo material in my book.

  19. @Various: Thanks to publisher freebie ebooks, World Fantasy book bags, Hugo packets, and my own good taste, I have first books in most of the series, but mostly unread. Eek! Lessee: Gladstone (1 & 2), Novik (1-3 SFBC omnibus, plus 4 & 8 were gifts), Corey (1; love the show), and Aaronovitch (1 in audio; 4 in MMPB from World Fantasy). The narrator for “The Expanse” sounds good, so I may try that; I vaguely recall not getting into the book the one time I tried. As far as the Vorkosigan series, I have several random books (argh) – details below – but I loved the one I read in 2005!

    I’m still not sure I can actually tackle Best Series. I think it’s totally unworkable as a concept. However, given I have/own* at least one in almost every series, I guess I should give it the ol’ college try! Gak. 😉 😛

    * I have trouble counting a book as owned when it was a free ebook posted by the publisher for all to download. Why is this?! When I get a free print book, I feel like I own it. Just me?

    @JJ: How did I miss the packet that year?! If I read it right, that was Aussicon 4, which I attended. Well, the audiobook narrator sounds good, so I may try audio. I only occasionally read Urban Fantasy, and usually stuff no one else seems to read, so we’ll see. 🙂 Plenty of UF sounds interesting to me, but even if I get it, it’s rarely what I reach for.

    @Vorkosigans: I got the Young Miles collection when Bujold was GoH at Gaylaxicon 2005 in Boston and loved The Warrior’s Apprentice, though I don’t remember much about “The Mountains of Mourning.” It looks like I read 130ish pages of The Vor Game (attention wandered? wasn’t getting into it? no idea) and never continued, which is weird, given how much I liked the first one in that omnibus. I think I can restart without rereading the whole first novel (I hope!).

    Heh, when I bought Young Miles, Bujold was signing stock at the book dealer, and after personalizing my copy, she accidentally personalized the next book in the stack to me (on autopilot, I guess). That’s how I bought Komarr (unread) – I’m a sucker. 😉 I also have Ethan of Athos (unread), which I know stands alone, plus Mirror Dance (unread), which doesn’t sound like it should be read in isolation (especially from the description!). I’m not sure when/why I picked up Mirror Dance (or if it was a gift???).

    So I have a sampling of Vorkosigan works to read, but I don’t really (other than Young Miles) have a good sequence. I especially don’t like Mirror Dance‘s placement in the line-up. :-/ So, thanks to the folks who’ve rec’d various arcs in the series!

  20. Some random observations —

    The following categories had clear favorites during the nominations:
    Almost 60% of nominators voted for the top pick in Dramatic Presentation Long
    Almost 50% of nominators voted for the top pick in Dramatic Presentation Short
    Roughly 50% of nominators voted for the top pick in Semiprozine

    This may in part be due to fewer options to vote on in the case of Semiprozine — the votes were distributed among 103 nominees, the least of all categories by a significant margin. However, DPL had a number of nominees comparable with many other categories (206), and DPS had one of the highest number (569), so it seems likely that there were certain nominees that were either obviously standout or widely well-known. Probably true of Semiprozine as well — 103 is still quite a few!

    Several categories had mild favorites:
    About 36% of nominators voted for the top pick in Novella
    About 37% of nominators voted for the top pick in Related Work
    Novella nominations were spread over a relatively low list of nominees (187), but the number of Related Work nominees was fairly high (344).

    In most of the other categories, about ~25% of nominators, +/-3%, voted for whatever the top pick was. Once again, there was a wide range for distribution of nominees for these, ranging from a low of 152 for fanzines to a high of 652 for novels.

    The following categories arguably had no clear favorites:
    Only about 14% of nominators voted for the top pick in Short Story.
    Only about 17% of nominators voted for the top pick in Professional Artist.
    Only about 15% of nominators voted for the top pick in Fancast.
    Only about 18% of nominators voted for the top pick in Fan Writer.

    For Short Story, this was almost certainly in part related to the wide number of options available – votes were distributed across 830 nominees! Professional Artist was also reasonably high at 387, but Fancast and Fan Writer were pretty typical at 253 and 275, respectively.

    Moral: To have the lowest chance of winning a Hugo, write a short story. To have the highest chance, edit a semiprozine. If that sounds difficult, then simply writing or directing a widely-distributed SFF Hollywood blockbuster will also give you a decent shot.

  21. @Kyra

    Hmmm, Hollywood blockbuster sounds like the easiest choice then!

    Strange Horizons got 50% last year, so they may well be the same this year.
    The semiprozine directory has about 50 entries, so I wonder who the 103 are?

  22. About 36% of nominators voted for the top pick in Novella
    About 37% of nominators voted for the top pick in Related Work

    It would be interesting to know which these were. I can think of a few possibilities. It’s possible, of course, that 36% voted for the top pick, and 35% for the second pick.

    The semiprozine directory has about 50 entries, so I wonder who the 103 are?

    They may not all have been eligible. (Indeed, we know they included Lightspeed. Probably Clarkesworld as well, and perhaps even Locus.)

  23. Kyra — That’s a fascinating analysis. May I copy it into a front-page post?

  24. @Rev. Bob

    You are putting waaayyy more into my comment than I did.

    It was a simple observation about the value of having a broad and thriving market. Couple that with a reasonable observation that everyone chooses what they read based on a different process.

    Oddly enough, I have the same opinion in the graphic novel category. And I love almost everything from Image that I’ve read!

    The point was not “what I like isn’t included and that’s wrong”. The point was more like “look at where this subset of the reading market is pointed this time around”.

    @Andy H.

    Hmmm…I’ve not read Ninefox Gambit. If it is MilSF, then this year will be even better for me.

    @Kendall

    Tor may be the largest single publisher. I think the focus on the “big five” is not the most helpful. Over the last 5 years or so, I find more memorable work coming out of the indys and smaller imprints. (Sometimes “memorable” but not in a good way, FWIW)

    Regards,
    Dann

  25. @Dann – I suspect Ninefox Gambit may not scratch the MilSF itch for fans who are very into MilSF, though the novel takes place pretty much entirely within a military setting. It doesn’t have that kinda traditional (WWII, Vietnam, being my touch points) war story feel that I associate with MilSF (because I’m not a huge reader of the genre, I could be totally getting it wrong, so take with a large pinch of salt). To give a clue as to my thought process: when I think of MilSF, I think of The Forever War, Old Man’s War, Marko Kloos’ series, etc. (there are more, but I read them long ago and am too lazy to pore through my bookshelves to remember the titles). I think of The Black Company, Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, and Graydon Saunders’ Commonweal series when I think of MilF.

  26. @Kendall I have trouble counting a book as owned when it was a free ebook posted by the publisher for all to download. Why is this?! When I get a free print book, I feel like I own it. Just me?

    I don’t feel like I “own” any ebooks. I can’t sell them to someone else. If you can’t sell it, you don’t own it.

  27. Looking at the male/female ratio in the fiction categories, I find that even though it looks a little lopsided (in favor of women this time), it’s not statistically significant at the 95% level. I mention this to counter alt-right claims that the preponderance of women shows there’s anti-male bias. It does not.

  28. I don’t feel like I “own” any ebooks. I can’t sell them to someone else. If you can’t sell it, you don’t own it.

    I can’t sell my kidney either. Do I own that?

  29. (Thank you all for the various awesome discussions!

    I am itching to write a longass defense of TLTL as not being half a book. Something I didn’t fully appreciate until I read Seven Surrenders, and figured out what divides the two.

    But not yet! Because right now it’s BIGOR, our biggest awesomest roleplaying convention, and also I’m doing all the Passover cleaning by myself! INSANITY!

    …when I recuperate, you’ll get my longass diatribe 😛 )

  30. You can sell your ebooks and your kidneys. It just takes a little more effort since it’s illegal (I’m assuming it’s illegal to sell your kidneys – never actually looked into it).

    Now that I think of it, if you had the right contacts and were discreet, you could probably sell someone else’s kidneys. And ebooks.

  31. Kyra — That’s a fascinating analysis. May I copy it into a front-page post?

    Certainly, if you like!

  32. (I’m assuming it’s illegal to sell your kidneys – never actually looked into it).

    Last time I checked, yes, it was. (I checked because I was reading a book by Judge Posner who was talking about the topic). You can donate your kidney, but you can’t sell it.

  33. @Aaron — If I trade some of my ebooks for one of your kidneys (you pick), I think I would get in more trouble than you would.

  34. @ Paul Weimar: You enabler you! (Yes, I bought the series and started the first one last night.)

    I like it so far!

    @ a bunch of people re Toby Daye series. I as not too taken by the first one, but sort of impressed enough to buy the second, and liked it more, and went for the third–now it’s on my “yes, I will buy immediately when it comes out,” because of the increasing complexity of the meta-plot, the changes in Toby herself, the fantastic relationships, plural, she’s involved in beyond the romantic one (though that’s just lovely), and the changes in the court/politics.

    @Meredith: I love love love love dragons (have you read the Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron/Rachel Bach?

    http://rachelaaron.net/series.php?SID=2

    But I tend to dislike war stories (and not that fond of “age of sail” either), and I just bounced off the first Temeraire after the first few pages. *puppy eyes and hopes to be forgiven*

    @ Various people: re military sf.

    In my almost overdue essay on Ann Leckie, I’m writing about how she queers the conventions of military sf, heh heh heh. I’m having an incredibly good time with this essay (which is for a special theme issue on worldbuilding). IN fact, I should stop hanging around reading File 770 and go back to work….*tiptoes away*

  35. Yes you can actually sell your kidneys, but not in the USA, Canada, the EU, etc.. But, I would advise some caution here and consider holding onto at least one of them.

    Kidneystalk

    http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/10-body-parts-you-can-legally-sell-for-big-bucks/

    “In countries with less stringent rules on organ ‘donation’, there is a culture of ‘donating’ organs for a cash compensation. People readily give up non-vital body parts for extra cash.”

  36. @kathodus

    Thanks for your perspective. Ninefox Gambit ended up being my first purchase for this year’s awards. So I’ll be finding out for myself presently. **yay**

    I agree that the Old Man’s War series falls easily into the MilSF arena. I’ve enjoyed the first four books quite a bit. I’ve bought The Forever War, but not had a chance to dive in. The first book from Markos Kloos’ Frontlines series bounced off of me hard for a couple of reasons. It’s MilSF, but it had a couple of hard clangers in there that took me way out of the story. I don’t expect to be back soon.

    I found a recent newcomer (JR Handley – The Legion Awakes / Sleeping Legion series) that was interesting. Not great, but good enough to recommend for people that like MilSF. I nommed him for the Campbell if that helps establish the scale of “not great but good enough” any better.

    I also recently read the first installment of Christopher Nuttall’s Empire Corps series. Now that was fantastic reading. I can’t wait to get to the next installment. I think he is up to 13 books in the series, FWIW.

    Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy certainly has some strong MilF elements. I do think that it is regrettable that Joe’s works aren’t a more prominent part of the discussion. The Grim Company is on Mount TBR.

    Someday…someday….

    —–

    Regarding kidneys, the folks over at Freakonomics have done a couple of podcasts on the subject of kidney donation systems/chains. The guy that came up with the system won the Nobel prize for work that directly impacted kidney donations. That episode inspired at least one person to donate a kidney into the system without asking for any swap. Kind of a cool story in its own right. The Freakonomics folks appear to have tons of other entries on kidneys, donations, and sales.

    Regards,
    Dann

  37. @Kyra: Interesting analysis, thanks! I’m not sure the conclusion helps me, though. 😛 😉

    @Bill: I don’t have that issue with ebooks (can’t sell equating to not owning), but I like this ebook-kidney trade! I wouldn’t let @Aaron pick, though. You might get the “bad” kidney (“South Park” reference).

    @robinareid: Heartstrikers had sort of intrigued me, but I’m not usually into YA. Do you believe it would work for a not-that-into-YA sorta person? Maybe that’s an impossible question.

    @Dann: I still feel you’re confusing “what people read” and “what they nominate.” Pointed at? Focus? I’m reminded that I’ve heard various people say (and not just here) they read author X or Y, or publisher Z, but while they enjoy their work, they don’t feel it’s award-worthy. (shrug) But yeah, the big publishers don’t stay in business by under-selling smaller publishers, methinks.

  38. OK, you know what? This might actually be pretty straightforward.
    Is Too Like The Lightning merely half a book?

    Having read the other half, I’m going to say “no.” These may be two halves a whole, but they’re distinct halves, and very different from one another. You know who did something very, very similar? Dan Simmons, in the way he split Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion.

    Hyperion builds the world, exposes the setting through the stories of each of the pilgrims. But it leaves everything open and unresolved; IIRC, they don’t even reach the object of their pilgrimage.
    The Fall of Hyperion is, in many ways, the payoff. But it’s such a different book. Entirely different structure; entirely different feel. It’s about the collapse of society; it’s about how all the elements and cultures from the first book explode together.

    Two halves of a whole, yes, but there is no question at all where one starts and the next begins. Terra Ignota, I think, does precisely the same thing.

    Too Like The Lightning is a worldbuilding novel — it hits the ground running, gives us the overview of this brave new global, individualistic society. Then it spends the rest of the book peeling back layers, showing us what’s going on behind the scenes, who the real players are, and what the game is. It’s a book of discovery, and of dawning understanding. The ending may be abrupt, but it’s perfectly in keeping with what TLTL is all about — it exposes yet another underpinning. By the end of TLTL, we know the world as deeply as any of its greatest figures.

    Seven Surrenders, on the other hand, is a novel of collapse. Now that we know how the society works, we can it shaking and trembling. In TLTL we constantly feel the we know nothing; in 7S, we feel like we understand everything, and see exactly where it’s going. Like The Fall of Hyperion, the point of 7S is to be the payoff to all we built in the first part, in such a way as to be an entirely different style of story.

    I said I’d keep this short, so I’ll leave it at that: TLTL to 7S, is as Hyperion to The Fall of Hyperion. Does that make sense to you?

  39. @Standback: Thanks, even though I haven’t read the “Hyperion” books (blush!), that was interesting to read and makes sense to me. Of course, whether I agree later, reading TLTL (and, if I like it enough, 7S after that) 😉 . . . who knows.

  40. @Kendall: Heartstrikers had sort of intrigued me, but I’m not usually into YA. Do you believe it would work for a not-that-into-YA sorta person? Maybe that’s an impossible question.

    I….didn’t think/don’t think of the series as YA (or the author, whose other books I love, as writing YA). Yes, Julian is the youngest dragon and I guess you could say it’s SHUDDER a coming of age story (blech I hate that term), but I would place it firmly in urban fantasy (there are romances but not much sex!, and a whole lot of family politics, great worldbuilding, fantastic characterization…all of which can and do occur in YA novels, of course…hmmm.

    Not sure that helps!

  41. I wouldn’t classify the Heartstrikers series as YA either.

    Coincidentally, I also love Rachel Aaron’s/Bach’s books, regardless which name she uses.

  42. @Cora: Coincidentally, I also love Rachel Aaron’s/Bach’s books, regardless which name she uses.

    Me too: they are all amazing!

  43. @robinareid & @Cora: Thanks, that is very helpful, and I am not morally opposed to “coming of age” stories. 🙂 BTW Amazon puts it under (among other things) “Teen & Young Adult,” in case you’re wondering where I got it from.

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