Analog Magazine has announced The 2021 Analytical Laboratory Awards. The editor’s commentary on the stories, poems, and covers is at the link.

Here’s how the AnLab works: In each category, the readers listed three favorite items in descending order of preference. As the editor explains: “Each first place vote was counted as three points, second place two, and third place one. The total number of points for each item was divided by the maximum it could have received (if everyone had ranked it 1) and multiplied by 10. The result is the score listed, on a scale of 0 (nobody voted for it) to 10 (everybody ranked it first). The number in parentheses at the head of each category is the average for that category.”

NOVELLAS (3.95)

1. “Invasive Species,” Catherine Wells (4.36)

2. “The Unlikely Heroines of Callisto Station,” Marie Vibbert (4.26)

3. “The Silence Before I Sleep,” Adam-Troy Castro (4.10)

4. “Uploading Angela,” Lettie Prell (3.08)

NOVELETTES (0.82)

1. “A Shot in the Dark,” Deborah L. Davitt (1.44)

2. “Sample Return,” C. Stuart Hardwick (1.33)

3. “No Stranger to Native Shores,” Matt McHugh (1.28)

4 (tie). “The Hunger,” Marco Frassetto (1.13)

4 (tie). “The Next Frontier,” Rosemary Claire Smith (1.13)

SHORT STORIES (0.23)

1. “Heart of Stone,” Tom Jolly (0.92)

2. “The Trashpusher of Planet 4,” Brenda Kalt (0.82)

3. “The Last Science Fiction Story,” Adam-Troy Castro (0.77)

4. “My Hypothetical Friend,” Harry Turtledove (0.72)

5. “Room to Live,” Marie Vibbert (0.67)

FACT ARTICLES (2.65)

1. “Constructing a Habitable Planet,” Julie Novakova (4.21)

2. “Possible Signs of Life on Venus,” David L. Clements (2.97)

3. “Return to the Golden Age,” Richard A. Lovett (2.87)

POETRY (1.02)

1. “If,” Bruce McAllister (1.49)

2. “A Daguerreotype of the Moon,” Jennifer Crow (1.38)

3 (tie). “Quantum Entanglement,” Ken Poyner (1.23)

3 (tie). “Hidden Things,” Jennifer Crow (1.23)

4 (tie). “What We Forget,” Bruce McAllister (1.18)

 4 (tie). “When I Think of My Father,” Bruce McAllister (1.18)

COVER (2.29)

1. July/August, by Tomislav Tikulin for “The Unlikely Heroines of Callisto Station” (3.59)

2. March/April, by Maurizio Manzieri for “Flashmob” (3.33)

3. September/October, by Kurt Huggins for Kepler’s Laws (2.67)