81 thoughts on “2022 Hugo Award Finalists”

1. Nice to see four books and Camestros Felapton’s book-length Debarkle saga as five of the six nominees in Best Related Work.

   In semiprozine, how does Strange Horizons have that ginormous list of individuals and something called The Strange Horizons Editorial Collective to credit? That’s a lot of cats to herd.

2. Congratulations to the finalists! (Look at all those Filers!)

3. Congrats to all the Finalists

4. And congratulations to you, Paul! This is a big day!

5. Congratulations!

6. And it’s so great to see Chris Barkley and Cora Buhlert up for the award!

7. Congratulations to all the finalists, but particularly Paul, Cam and Chris. It’s an honour to be nominated alongside so many great people.

8. No word on the voting deadline? I have a lot of stuff to read and watch before then!

9. An exciting list – and some of them I even nominated. Congratulations to Cora, Charles, Cam, Paul, Ursula and all the rest.

10. Just to follow… click.

11. Congratulations Cam, Cora, Paul and Chris Barkley!!

12. HEY!

    WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!! I have been NOMINATED for a Hugo Award!

    WooT!!!!!

    I would like to take a moment to THANK the people who helped and inspired me to this historic nomination; My Esteemed Editor, Mike Glyer and the LOVE of My Life, Juli Marr!!!!!

    And I also want to offer my congratulations to Cora Buhlert (HA! I KNEW WOULD BE NOMINATED) and my other fantastic and honorable peers in the Fan Writer Category!.

    Best Wishes,
    Chris B.

13. The short story nominee “Unknown Number” by Blue Neustifter is a Twitter thread that can be read here:

    https://twitter.com/Azure_Husky/status/1420177932518137862

14. Congratulations to all the Finalists! What an exciting list. I’m looking forward to digging in to the works I haven’t seen/read/listened to!

15. I hope either Arcane or Lower Decks wins the Dramatic Short award. It would be nice for animation to get some recognition.
    And am I the only one who didn’t like A Memory called Empire and couldn’t understand how it could win the Hugo for that year? I found the writing lacked style, the names were silly, and the logical inconsistencies wrecked the story. To the point were I have no interest in any further books in the series.

16. Congratulations to Paul, Cora, and Chris!

    Related Works is interesting because of the autobiographical works within. Also, It is worth noting that Emily St. James’ “How Twitter can ruin a life” is the revelatory article about Isabel Fall. While I am not fond of short articles in Related Work, I think that the historical importance of the St. James piece absolutely makes it a worthy nominee for this category.

17. If you have hopes of seeing your short fiction nominated, be sure to be published in Uncanny Magazine. Or so it appears.

18. The absolutely best thing with the Hugo Awards is pressing “like” on all tweets from finalists who at last can tell everyone. I hope they are all showered with love this day.

19. Congratulations to the finalists!

20. I thought that would hit tomorrow, congratulation to all the nominees, that is a good ballot.

21. Congratulations to all the finalists! Related Work looks particularly strong this year.

22. Library holds and/or recommendations deployed. It looks like I’ll be able to access a lot of the Best Related category this year and won’t have to wait for the packet.

23. Iain says And am I the only one who didn’t like A Memory called Empire and couldn’t understand how it could win the Hugo for that year? I found the writing lacked style, the names were silly, and the logical inconsistencies wrecked the story. To the point were I have no interest in any further books in the series.

    Huh. I though it one of the most brilliant novels I’ve read in a very long time. I read it in one very long gulp.

    The naming structure made sense as long as you realise how intensely bureaucratic the empire is even down to the naming of individuals.

    Her second novel in the series will get my Hugo vote.

    Now listening to a bit of pulp, the second of Simon R. Green’s Gideon Sable novels, A Matter of Death and Life. Not Hugo material but then not everything need be does it?

24. @ Cat Eldridge

    Huh. I though it one of the most brilliant novels I’ve read in a very long time. I read it in one very long gulp.

    Totally agree with you about A Memory Called Empire. In all ways.

25. I’m grinning from ear to ear. Obviously very happy (and somewhat intimidated by the other finalists) for BRW. I really think it is a great year for the category and it’s extra exciting because of that.

    Also really happy for that roster for Fan Writer. I’ve only been awake long enough to feed the cat and make some coffee, so more thoughts later.

26. Supergratz, Cam and all the finalists!

27. Iain says And am I the only one who didn’t like A Memory called Empire and couldn’t understand how it could win the Hugo for that year?

    I loved A Memory Called Empire and if I recall correctly it was towards the top of my ballot that year. I didn’t enjoy this year’s A Desolation Called Peace as much as the first one but I still thought it was good.

    I sympathize though – I remember disliking The Three Body Problem intensely and couldn’t understand why people loved it.

28. I haven’t the pleasure to know Cora Bulert (although I’ve seen her words and I hope to meet her in Chicago) but I am thrilled to see Chris Barkley up there–and as everybody who reads File 770 knows, he’s a great guy and he’s paid a lot fannish dues.

29. I too was really pleased to see Arcane: The Monster You Created on the best drama, short form list. (In my ‘humble’ opinion we need a third, whole series drama form Hugo. It alway made sense that TV shouldn’t be viewed in the same way, or forced to compete against movies. But I also think that it makes no sense to force individual episodes of a good series to compete against each other.) MRA I am delighted to see an anime get Hugo level respect, and also delighted to see Arcane, in particular, acknowledged. I know some fans who had to be talked into trying it, because they hadn’t care for the game. I’m not a gamer, but I’m an anime fanatic, and it was a fine, fine show.

30. @Chris M. Barkley
    Congratulations again, Chris. I’m so thrilled to share a ballot with you.

    You were two days early with congratulations, but not wrong.

    @michaele
    I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make Chicon, but if I can, I hope to meet you there.

31. Congrats to all the nominees, and especial congrats to the Filers!

32. I love A Memory Called Empire. I own Desolation, but have only read up to p.323, when a crucial plot development happens in such a stupid, unbelievable way that I couldn’t go on. Now that it is (as I predicted) on the ballot, I’ll try pushing through that point.

    I predicted Hail Mary was going to be on the ballot & I fear it will win. “Fear” because Weir is extremely careful & nerdy about astrophysics & engineering…yet doesn’t acknowledge any life scientists, even though the central conflict is about microbiology. And it shows. The biology/biochem/etc is all handwavium. It really chaps my ass, as a life scientist, when “hard” scientists & engineers think “softer” science isn’t difficult or scientific.

33. For the first time, precisely NONE of my novel nominees made the ballot. I nominated:

    Black Water Sister; Zen Cho
    Shards of Earth; Adrian Tchaikovsky
    Leviathan Falls; James S. A. Corey
    The Witness for the Dead; Katherine Addison
    Noor; Nnedi Okorafor

    I only made very spotty nominations for the rest of the ballot, but ALL of them made it in. I have no idea what this means.

    At least I’ve read all of the Novel nominees, and only have to do a little refreshing to finish up the Series nominees, so I’ll have a good deal of time to cover the rest of the ballot.

34. Congratulations to the finalists!

35. @ Doctor Science

    I predicted Hail Mary was going to be on the ballot & I fear it will win. “Fear” because Weir is extremely careful & nerdy about astrophysics & engineering…yet doesn’t acknowledge any life scientists, even though the central conflict is about microbiology. And it shows.

    I don’t think that Weir will win. Near-future SF has not been in vogue for a while and in my mind, the success of A Memory Called Empire will temporarily put Martine ahead. This time around, I am going to be paying attention to the lower-profile nominees in the hope that I can give them a push.

36. What’s the deal with a Twitter thread being nominated as a short story? What special interest group got it on the ballot? Who is Blue Neustifter? The link posted above goes to an account under the name Bi Dyke Energy @Azure_Husky
    (Or maybe I’m just an old fogey who doesn’t understand modern publishing–who knows? it might be the greatest story since Nightfall.)

37. Arno: Well, I just tracked down “Unknown Number” and read it, and I rather like it. It’s presented in the format of phone texts, no images, so it wouldn’t need to belong in Best Graphic Story. I think that “special interest group” begs the question — it’s insulting.

38. Not at my best today, so I may not be completely accurate, but I think the last time a story from the three print magazines was on the ballot was 2018, and the last time one won was 2012.

39. Gratz to all the winners finalists! (Argh) (Serves me right to be halfway through thinking through the next paragraph before finishing the first sentence)

    The twitter-published story in question went viral – it was extremely popular, and it was, if I recall correctly, retweeted by a number of people who are engaged in and popular with Hugo-voting fandom, including former finalists and winners. So I suppose if “people who use Twitter and also vote on the Hugos” is a special interest group, that’s who it was, but at that point the definition of “special interest group” would be so broad as to be totally meaningless.

40. Cat Valente is nominated in 3 of the 4 fiction categories (all but Novel).
    How often has that happened?
    Has an author ever had finalists in all 4 in a single year?

41. What Meredith said.

    I just read “Unknown Number”. It a good story & I think it a worthy finalist.
    https://twitter.com/Azure_Husky/status/1420186321100869633

    Twitter is a strange beast & things can sometimes catch lightning & go viral. It is not a stretch to think that a Twitter story that goes viral (and be shared by the Hugo nominating community) can garner enough nominations to make the final ballot.

42. Arno: People are entitled to enjoy their Hugo nominations on announcement day. I’m not going to host this mudslinging.

    However, I think you also have an outdated idea about how things come to be Hugo Awards finalists. Twenty years ago it was rare for creators to publicly ask for votes — and the fan culture up to that time gave negative feedback to those who did. Now the campaigning that used to be criticized is regarded as mandatory. I don’t have the latest figures, but in 2020 Cat Rambo listed 230 writers’ eligibility posts (“Round-up of Awards Posts by F&SF Writers, Editors, and Publishers for 2020”.) In addition, creators regularly ask for awards votes from people who follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. The gate that used to exist has been broken down for some time.

    And in a way your complaint about something you haven’t heard of making the ballot — which is one of the evergreen complaints — shows why creators are making this effort. There’s a lot of good work being produced right now. More than any but the most voracious readers can keep track of.

43. Lis Riba: Technically two different authors, but Seanan McGuire and Mira Grant between them were nominated in three out of four fiction categories in 2013. I don’t remember someone going 4-for-4 — perhaps a diligent researcher will surprise us.

44. Looks like women have had their 6th straight dominant year in nominations in the professional writing categories of Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Best Series, Lodestar, and Astounding with 33 of the nominations compared to 7 for men and 2 for non-binary individuals. Will be interesting to see if it is another clean sweep for statues for women this fall.

45. I have Thoughts about some of the Hugo nominees, but today is decidedly not the day to air them.

    Congratulations! to all and especially so to the Filers.

46. Congratulations to all the finalists! Excellent to see the nominations of Cora, Chris and Camestros.

    Now to begin reading (and re-reading)!

47. Congratulations to all the nominees!

    I, for one, like it when stories/authors I’m not already familiar with are on the ballot. It means something new to read. It’s how I find new faves.

    I have a lot of reading to do!

48. @Michael re: voting deadline With a Sep 1-5 convention, I’d guess July 31. But that is just a guess.

    @Iain Yup, looks like you are the only one. I loved A Memory Called Empire. It was one of my own nominees that year. Haven’t gotten to the sequel yet and am very pleased to see it here (as I hoped.)

    @Lorien Gray That was me with 3 Body as well.

    @Arno I haven’t read “Unknown Number” yet but I had seen a few trusted sources recommend it. I like to see stories use experimental formats like this so looking forward to reading it. It’s also availble on facebook.

49. That’s six times for me as a finalist with Journey Planet for Best Fanzine. Each year, I’m surprised and grateful to Mr. Bacon and Mr. Garcia for letting me play in their sandbox. My imposter syndrome is flaring up as I read through the list of awesome names across all categories, however. Congratulations to all! I just got done bouncing around sites, spending over $300.00 so I can catch up and make informed decisions.

50. I thought the opening of 3BP was utterly enthralling and award-worthy in and of itself. Unfortunately, it was a finalist – and I tried to read it, it was my first voting year – when I was still taking a medication that made it hard to focus on anything that wasn’t utterly enthralling or precisely tailor-made for my personal reading preferences (and even then…), and, well, I think I DNF’d. (Also, I wasn’t entirely aware, at the time, due to the fun and wide-ranging cognitive impairment going on due to that medication, that that was a problem I was having. Along with memory problems!) I really need to give it another go, medication-free.

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