50 thoughts on “2024 Hugo Award Winners”

1. Excellent! And great ceremony!

2. In case anyone’s looking for it, here’s the detailed results info: https://glasgow2024.org/hugo-awards/2024-hugo-award-winners/

3. I defy anyone to look at the nomination and voting stats for Best Related Work, and the nomination stats for Best Fancast, and tell me that they don’t believe that Hugo X aka Discover X is “Finalist A”.

   And then look back at the comments me and Zimozi Natsuco made when the nominations were released back in March: https://file770.com/2024-hugo-finalists/comment-page-1/#comments

4. Congratulations to all the finalists and winners.

5. Big congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

   How sweet of the woman with the great hat to lend it to Ursula for the Hugo Ceremony! 😉

   (Did they find your other Hugo, Paul?)

6. Just a minor correction to pass on to those who prepared the award statistics report. On page 17, there is a sentence cut off without its ending, which says, “There were sufficient votes for volume 3 to”.

   In any event, though, thanks to the award administrators for getting their report out expeditiously.

7. Congratulations to all! Huzzah to Paul!

8. Congrats to Paul and Xiran. And Strange Horizons finally got their Hugo! Woot!

9. Between what I nominated, and what made the cut, “Some Desperate Glory” was the novel I had to be made to read, and I still have some issues with the book, but Ms. Tesh certainly rose to the occasion with her acceptance speech; all due congratulations!

10. Congratulations to the finalists & winners!

11. Had to leave for work not long after Paul won his first Hugo of the night but listened to parts of it. Some great speeches and great winners. I really wanted Saint of Bright Doors to win Best Novel but Some Desperate Glory was my second choice and a very deserving winner.

12. I’m very happy with all the fiction winners. I’ll confess I didn’t pay much attention to the other categories.

13. @Shrike58, for those of us who were unable to watch the ceremonies, would you be willing to paraphrase her acceptance speech?

    As with you, Some Desperate Glory didn’t make the top of my Hugo ballot, but it was a worthy nominee and a worthy winner regardless. (ALL the books nominated this year were worthy of the Hugo award; it was some of the toughest ranking I’ve had to do in years….)

14. We need pictures of the hat.

    I’m a little disappointed that “Those Old Scientists” didn’t win, but I haven’t seen the winner, so I guess I’d better do that now.

15. You don’t think it’s the hat being worn by the woman in the photo at the end of the post?

16. Congratulations to all!

17. @Joshua K.
    From the Administrator’s Report p.11:

    Volume 3 received enough votes on its own to be reported as one of the top 16 nominees.

18. For two categories (Novelette and Related Work) the staistics document says that only the first 16 are being shown and the full list of nominees requires a separate page. However, in neither case does the separtate page appear to be present.

19. Stuart Hall
    I’m seeing both on the next page for each category. First page lists them. Next page shows abrev names with nom stats.

20. John Coxon once claimed (blamed?) me for persuading him to produce his first fanzine. I don’t know whether to bask in any stray shards of reflected glory, or apologise.

21. The Youtube of the awards ceremony still works, so you can fast forward to whichever speech you want to (re)watch.

    T.Kingfisher (pictured above) won the second-to-last award of the night, so if you look for her thumbnail, you can learn some nifty sea cucumber facts and then hear from the best novel winner.

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23. Congrats to all the winners.

    Some Desperate Glory was fantastic. The only novel above No Award on my ballot

    Regards
    Dann

24. Congratulations to all the finalists and winners. A wonderful set of results. And a great hat worn by Oor Wombat!

25. The only winner that I felt was not deserving was DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THEIVES. It wasn’t unpleasant to watch, but was completely forgettable and trite. Any of the other nominees would have been worthy of a Hugo (although my personal preference is POOR THINGS).

26. @JohnS — not saying you are wrong, but you asked if there are any counter arguments. It only got 25 first place votes, after the 377 obvious bogus ballots are discarded. One presumes they all placed Finalist A first, or if clever, perhaps 2nd. However, very few ballots placed it 2nd. Indeed, most of the ballots it appears on seem to rank only along with Chinese SF: An oral history. It would win with 377 extra 1st place ballots, but that’s true of most of the ballot in most categories.

    The administrators state that they believe there could be a significant number of other false ballots they didn’t remove for insufficient evidence. But if this is Finalist A, there are few other ballots with it first, and the admins would have looked at them all.

    All candidates continue to baffle on the matter of it being worth it to spend $20,000 to buy a Hugo for the alleged finalist. Only the graphic novel of 3BP meets that test, in that that property is so strong in China that a minor boost is worth it, but that graphic novel can already advertise that 3BP (the source) is Hugo winning and I see no need to advertise that the comic is. In addition the admins say they are confident the nominee creator is not involve din the scheme. So it’s hard to find a motive for any of them. I wish the Hugo admins had not decided to be opaque about this–while some have lauded their transparency, that is only in comparison to 2023, which is not at all a high bar. Overall their transparency on this is quite poor in my view, and just invites speculation, rather than answers.

27. @Brad Templeton:

    Remember that Discover X/Hugo X is a product of Chengdu Business Daily employees, the organization that had the most representation on the concom of the Chengdu Worldcon, and whose offices were where the Chengdu Science Fiction Society org that ran the con was based (per the Business Meeting Agenda, page 87).

    Given that Chengdu was able to conjure up the funds to build a brand new venue from scratch, finding a few tens of thousands of USD for Glasgow memberships is a piffling sum. And remember all the boasting talk of how many millions (or was it billions?) of yuan in deals were done at the con – these people aren’t short of money for their pet projects.

    And a cynical person might wonder what exactly happened to the pass-along funds that Glasgow declined? I think Seattle might have received some of that money, but given how opaque the finances of the Chengdu Worldcon were, it’s easy to think a few tens of thousands of USD could be found from somewhere.

    (As an aside, note that the Chinese person co-credited on page 87 of the Business Meeting Agenda doc for the Chengdu financial report is Joe Yao aka Yao Chi, who also filled the role of co-Hugo Administrator at Chengdu, alongside Dave McCarty. Both of them have been photographed palling around together in Glasgow.)

    As for motive, why did Chengdu – and specifically Chengdu Business Daily – want to run a Worldcon in the first place? I would suggest one factor was gaining kudos, and winning a Hugo Award from a non-Chinese Worldcon would also give them that.

28. @John S / ErsatzCulture

    You took the words out of my mouth (fingers?)

    @Brad

    Chengdu spent enormous, unprecedented amounts to do everything possible to cover the convention in prestige and glory. Winning the “Chengdu Science Fiction Society” a Hugo (and for all intents and purposes Discover X was a product of the CSFS, regardless of the official creator name attached), after spending millions of yuan in putting on the Worldcon and touting the international prestige of the Hugo Awards to the local, municipal, regional, and national governmental and business interests who participated in, sponsored, or supported the convention and the bid for it, would be a feather in their cap.

    They didn’t care about monetary return, they cared about the international cachet that they had alleged the award had.

29. Looks like I got a couple of them right, at least. In any case, congratulations to the winners (and, indeed, the other finalists.) It’s been a good year on the whole.

    I’m inclined to wonder if the Mystery Woman In The Hat might be eligible next year, for her (ahem) comments about a certain person. Possibly for Best Related Work? Or, given their delivery, Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)?

30. @Lis Riba, thanks!

    Fascinating information about sea cucumbers indeed. And a Fabulous Hat.

    Tesh’s speech was indeed a call to action.

31. Thank you everyone

32. Mike Glyer: But, that person has denied it was her!

33. you be willing to paraphrase her acceptance speech?

    As noted, it’s on YouTube, but the quick summary, after the tracks to approve family and editors, Emily Tesh how that SDG will go on to be forgotten, that no-one writing a zeitgeist hitting dystopia really wants it to be relevant however.

34. @Steve Wright
    “I’m inclined to wonder if the Mystery Woman In The Hat might be eligible next year, for her (ahem) comments about a certain person.”

    The Hugos are defined as the Science Fiction Achievement Awards. Would nominating her truly recognize “achievement” in Science Fiction? Or would it just be a Morton Downey-type fist pump and cheer, slightly more refined?

    When you look at all of the things that have detracted from the prestige of the Hugos in the last few years, continuing to nominate things like this and Natalie Luhrs’ 2020 contribution just continues the trend. (Or maybe the category should just be re-titled “Best Burn”, and we can lean into it.)

35. @Laura I see only the first 16 on both pages, not the full list that that it says is on a separate page. The page you are pointing me to exists for categories that don’t say they need a separate page.

36. @Stuart Hall We only ever get the top 16. In those two categories, the first table is for listing the full titles and all creators. The second table on the next page is to show all their eph stats with only short titles. In the other catogeries there is room to do both in one table on the first page.

37. @Stuart Hall You’re misreading the document. The distinction being made is between the list (of the top 16) and the full table on the following page (also of the top 16).

38. John S / ErsatzCulture on August 12, 2024 at 2:50 am said:
    @Brad Templeton:

    Remember that Discover X/Hugo X is a product of Chengdu Business Daily employees, the organization that had the most representation on the concom of the Chengdu Worldcon,

    I don’t disagree that CBD had an interest in putting a thumb on the scale, like Science Fiction World, like Tor, etc. etc.,. but I can think of lots of reasons why Chinese people might vote for, say, a Chengdu-themed finalist, to stick it to the man as it were in response to what they likely perceived as an insult. Do you remember the anti-puppies? I was going over the published member list the other day and the number of diminutives among the Chinese names listed highly suggests even children were among those who had this reaction. This needs to be handled with respect for all involved, even if you don’t like them.

    Not saying there was no hanky panky. I don’t know. But I wish there had been due process, and the lack of it sets a horrifying precedent.

39. I am happy that the movie I disliked the least won.

40. @Brian Z: I think Chinese fans would be very justified in nominating and voting for domestic works or individuals as a way of expressing their frustrations with everything that has happened.

    However, I suspect they would be more inclined to vote for genuinely popular things like SF Fans Buma, whose newest video has 48 thousand views on Bilibili after just 10 hours.

    By comparison Hugo/Discover X has only three Bilibili videos with more views than that after over a year, and two of those feature megastar Cixin Liu. Zimozi Natsuco pointed out this lack of popularity in a comment in the 2024 Hugo Finalists thread back in March.

41. For folks who want more animal facts, T. Kingfisher will be Toastmaster at LACon V aka Worldcon 2026

42. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

    And that is, indeed, a great hat.

43. @JohnS, as I wrote, “not saying you are wrong” just outlining some questions that don’t add up perfectly. I mean, in general it makes no sense to undertake such an effort and do it so incompetently. It would take a trivial amount of research or asking somebody more in the know to do a better job of it — and yet whoever did it, didn’t. (If the allegation that real humans were recruited to buy memberships and vote them and get refunds is correct, that’s a fair bit of work, and also risk of being uncovered, negating all the work and money.)

    But yes, I get that there are forces that seem to have wanted to just barge into the fannish world and see if they can exploit it. I just expected them to be more competent about it. If your thesis is correct, the fact that there were only 25 first-place votes left for Hugo X suggests that they didn’t have a significant number of better-disguised fake votes. The letter from the Hugo admins suggested a “security through obscurity” approach, admonishing us to not talk too much about the details to avoid educating attackers. Normally I would not agree with that, but if the attackers are this stupid, perhaps there is a case for it.

    Another issue, though, is that the Hugo admins express strong confidence the nominee was not involved. If by this they mean the listed author of that podcast perhaps that’s technically true, but if, as you suggest, the podcast is really the product of Chengdu Biz Daily, then what the Hugo admins say would be more of an equivocation that they would have no reason to do, and which I don’t think they would do. Again, while some seem to think they are being transparent here, I believe the opposite, and since non-natural persons don’t have GDPR privacy rights, and the Hugo rules require no secrecy after the ceremony, I do not see strong reasons to not be transparent, other than this security-through-obscurity approach.

44. “I am just a (poor) filer
    Though my pixel’s seldom scrolled”

45. Re. speculation about pass-along funds. Note that all moneys set aside for pass-along are held by the US non-profit that was created to hold Chengdu funds and avoid the issues of moving money in and out of China. There are no Chinese officers of that corp, so I think there’s a near infinitesimal chance that any of it was used to support voter fraud at Glasgow.

46. MixMat: I love that title suggestion. Evidently I love it so much that I have used variations of it three times!

47. OGH wrote:

    MixMat: I love that title suggestion. Evidently I love it so much that I have used variations of it three times!

    Hahahaha.
    I thought of saying “I am just a filer to an above comment” and forgot what thread I was in, also forgot to reply to that comment.
    I haven’t suggested a Pixel Scroll title for ages so forgot/went to Google lyrics to “The Boxer” and well, we ended up here.
    ETA: First in 2018, and twice in 2021!

48. John S / ErsatzCulture on August 12, 2024 at 2:38 pm said:
    @Brian Z: I think Chinese fans would be very justified in nominating and voting for domestic works or individuals as a way of expressing their frustrations with everything that has happened.

    However, I suspect they would be more inclined to vote for genuinely popular things like SF Fans Buma, whose newest video has 48 thousand views on Bilibili after just 10 hours.

    I apologize for the delay in replying.

    I’m not sure what I think about the nomination stage.

    “Traditionally” nominations were made by a hardcore group who read as much of what had been published as possible, which allowed works agreed to be exceptional by dedicated readers to rise to the top. Something was then singled out to be honored and authors appreciated the gesture. There were problems, and gatekeeping was one of them, but that’s not the same as “how did that thing from Interzone get nominated – this one in Omni is more popular!”

    Social media changed that and sadly now it seems to be all about social media influencing, which can be a proxy for, as you said, “popularity,” but isn’t always.

    On that spectrum, I’m not sure where the great number of nominations for Hugo/Discover X and Chinese SF: An Oral History (including apparently many for the first volume that got disqualified) fall. I’m sure there were campaigns by the respective publishers. There was tribal pride: Chinese fans were happy there was a huge, very Chinese Worldcon and also that China’s mature SF genre gets multi-volume histories. Nothing wrong with that. I didn’t feel very offended that time I was asked to choose among five episodes of Doctor Who, either.

    But we’re talking about the final vote, and SF Fans Buma is not on the ballot. Seeing the two actual Chinese finalists (each with the tribal angle) Chinese fans certainly could have “organically” ranked one/both at the top, yet with the challenged ballots removed they both end up at the bottom

    I see the bizarre runs of member names, but only one or two dozen, and there are possible explanations that don’t require ill intent, like a club effort, lacking the right kinds of emails/credit cards, children, and that doesn’t seem to have been investigated. They didn’t all vote for Finalist A – “many” did.

    The second, much larger group have been anonymously accused of getting comped in exchange for votes (again, not necessarily all for Finalist A). That’s more or less what Larry Correia said in Sad Puppies, but fans who got compensated or got free stuff from that publisher probably didn’t see it the same way as Larry.

    I don’t find it fair to remove the ballots of hundreds without an effort to hear from the other side. Though we’ve learned from this report that removing ballots without due process happens a lot yet is kept secret. So, nice of them to tell us that it happens all the time. They’ve still set a lousy precedent.

49. SF Fans Buma was on the ballot in best fancast which Discover X was also nominated for but ruled ineligible as a pro production.

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