77 thoughts on “2024 Hugo Finalists”

1. Congratulations to all the finalists!
   (This year may be a first: I’ve read three of the best novel finalists, and have two more.)

2. Also congratulation from me.

3. Congratulations to the finalists! Pleased to see that Chinese fans participated.

4. Discover X / ??X?? (aka Hugo X, which is what the Chinese title translates to, also now going under the name SF-X Interview it seems) is/was a series of promo videos for the Chengdu Worldcon, hosted by a member of the Chengdu concom and the Chengdu Hugo team. The first video was an interview with Ben Yalow, Dave McCarty and Helen Montgomery.

5. What a wonderful line-up! And praise to the Glasgow team for an excellent video presentation!

6. I must criticize Discover X(Yuguo X Fangtan) immediately. I believe the producer only worked on it for the duration of Worldcon 2023 in Chengdu. They submitted and uploaded their video very slowly; even I had transported one earlier.

   They have also stopped their work. No update have appeared after 2024. They said they would have produced more, but it seems like the interview was limited in a private circle. Although they claimed their video was viewed for over 40000000 times, the statistics are very suspicious.

   News and Newspaper Summary on Science Fiction Vol.20 reported it.

   The editor’s enquiry revealed that the actual performance of the Hugo X Interview’s BiliBili account and Douyin account may not be as satisfactory as it should be. The number of video plays in the Beili account generally fluctuates from a few thousand to ten thousands, with a total of about 400,000 plays, and one of the interviews was uploaded by Hugo X Files only after another user carried the video over from another website. In Douyin account, the Hugo X Interviews long video programme playback data is relatively considerable, the best performance of one of the interview programme is Liu Cixin and Guo Fan together, playback reached more than 4 million, nine videos total playback in more than 7 million. There are more than fifty short videos, which are clips of long video programmes, and the number of likes is generally dozens, so it is impossible to check the broadcast volume. The number of fans on both video platform accounts is around three thousand, with minimal interaction such as pop-ups, comments and favourites. In a way, “40 million views” is an overstatement.

   If Hugo X Interview could be nominated, I would strongly recommend my own
   News and Newspaper Summary on Science Fiction. It’s made in China too, and it is really a fan work!

7. I’m not sure Moniquill Blackgoose is eligible for the Astounding, have previously published under the name Monique Poirier in 2020.
   That’s why she was withdrawn/rescinded as a finalist for the Comprton Crook Award.

8. If someone wants to start:

   Shortstory:
   Naomi Kritzer Better Living Through Algorithms:
   https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23/

   How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub P. Djeli Clark
   https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/how-to-raise-a-kraken-in-your-bathtub/

   Mausoleum’s Children, The Aliette de Bodard
   https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-mausoleums-children/

   Sound of Children Screaming, The Rachael K. Jones
   https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/the-sound-of-children-screaming/

   Novelette:
   Introduction to the 2181 Overture, Second Edition Gu Shi
   https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/gu_02_23/

   Ivy, Angelica, Bay C. L. Polk
   https://reactormag.com/ivy-angelica-bay-c-l-polk-2/

   On the Fox Roads Nghi Vo
   https://reactormag.com/on-the-fox-roads-nghi-vo-2/

   One Man’s Treasure Sarah Pinsker
   https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/one-mans-treasure/

   Year Without Sunshine, The Naomi Kritzer
   https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-year-without-sunshine/

9. @Zimozi Natsuco
   Now I’m wondering, with how sketchy the whole affair looked to Chinese fans, how the heck did Discover X get onto the ballot?

   Maybe people put it on their ballots before the full breadth of Chengdu’s corruption was revealed & didn’t think to remove it, but that article you linked is from December ’23.

10. @cathy
    Perhaps that was a small enough publisher/print run or whatever not to count as pro publication to Dell Magazines (Astounding Award’s sponser).

11. We are aware of publications previous to 2022 by finalists Moniquill Blackgoose and Sunyi Dean, but we determined that they do not meet the threshold of professional publication needed to start the clock of Astounding eligibility.

12. Thanks StefanB.

    Wasn’t there a rule proposed against having the same entry in best novel and series? I feel there should be one.

13. I posted about “Idea” being missing from fanzine, but the listing was updated between when I noticed it and when I started this comment.

14. Moniquill Blackgoose has a pretty long list of publications under Monique Poirier, going back to 2009 at least, she definitely doesn’t qualify for the Astounding. Yeah, it’s mostly erotica, but AFAIK that still counts …

15. @bookworm1398: It was pretty soundly rejected by the 2022 Business Meeting.

16. I like how Glasgow gave specific, valid reasons for why the three nominees removed from the ballot were deemed “not eligible.” The reasons given seem quite legitimate.

    I also wish I could read ?? (Cosmo Wings) by ?? (Jiang Bo), which was removed from the Best Novel final ballot b/c it was published in 2024. Anyone know if an English translation is forthcoming? If not, perhaps publishers should take note.

17. @Bookworm: We don’t have that rule.
    We had 2 finalist last year, were individual works were finalist somewhere else.
    2022 one
    2021 two
    so it is nothing new.

18. I’ve read all of the Best Novel finalists already, and all of the English-language Novelette finalists, which clears the decks for me to catch up on a lot of other stuff. Though I shall continue to give the Best Game and Best Podcast categories a pass, because those modes just don’t work for me.

    Where are some guides to How To Weigh Best Editor?

19. Aargh. The Chinese characters in my post above got nuked and I didn’t notice in time to edit.

    Also, with regards to Moniquill Blackgoose I believe she qualifies for the Astounding Award. The award’s FAQ defines what counts as a qualifying professional work, which is any any work of fiction in SF/F genres published in a qualifying publication.

    As for a qualifying publication, it must meet one of the following criteria:

    * Copy print run of at least 10,000

    * Publications which have a nominal pay rate, particularly those designated by the award sponsor (Dell Magazines). The nominal rate was originally taken from SFWA membership requirements, which was $0.08/word with a minimum of $80 total.

    * A published work of fiction of a minimum of 40,000 words either sold to a small press or self-published for which the author can demonstrate net income of at least $3,000 within one year. Income can be in the form of advance, royalties, or some combination thereof.

    It appears Moniquill Blackgoose only published in small press anthologies with her erotica. These books wouldn’t have had 10,000 print runs (they have almost no Amazon or Goodreads reviews, supporting low print runs). They also likely paid far less than 8 cents a word, if they paid anything. Since the criteria above weren’t met, she is eligible for the award.

20. I am particularly happy about the decision to extend Astounding eligibility for Xiran Jay Zhao. (Presumably the different nature of the award meant Dell could make this decision on their own. And I guess I wasn’t the only person who nominated Zhao in hopes that they would consider doing so.)

21. Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood! I love to see that name again — and in such an amazing context.

    We’ll remember that post even though Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood has declined the nomination.

22. Congratulations to all.

    Very happy to see that Xirin Jay Zhao is on the ballot. A nice step to redress a wrong.

23. I’m surprised Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series is eligible again since it was a finalist last year and the rules state that “If a Series is a finalist and does not win, it is no longer eligible until at least two more installments consisting of at least 240,000 words total appear in subsequent years.” That’s like 3 novels worth right? Did she publish that much in the series in 2023?

24. Well, my library hold list just tripled. If they all hit at once I’ll need a shopping cart to bring them home….

25. @Philip:

    Yes. She published two full length novels in the series last year (Sleep No More and The Innocent Sleep)

26. And those two full-length October Daye novels each included a bonus novella (in the print and ebook editions, not audio), and there were also four October Daye novelettes released on her Patreon in 2023.

27. Wow she’s a machine!

28. Jason Sanford says It appears Moniquill Blackgoose only published in small press anthologies with her erotica. These books wouldn’t have had 10,000 print runs (they have almost no Amazon or Goodreads reviews, supporting low print runs). They also likely paid far less than 8 cents a word, if they paid anything. Since the criteria above weren’t met, she is eligible for the award.

    I can’t find a single review of her works out of Amazon or Goodreads on the net which is unusual, so your surmise that the print runs were small, perhaps even a great deal smaller than you suspected.

29. Heather Rose Jones: Idea got doubled up on the previous nominee’s line. I just needed to fix the formatting.

30. I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of the Astounding Award (I had no idea about the minimum 10k print run), but Blackgoose/Poirier’s first novel, Cygenic, definitely has some reviews on Goodreads.

31. Let’s see if I can actually get into Doctor Who this time…

32. Emily “Jen” should be Emily Jin (Translator in Best Novelette).

33. The Astounding Award eligibility rules are here:

    https://astoundingaward.info/

34. @Doctor Science – I tend to rank ‘best editor’ based on whose list of “stuff I was involved with last year” has the best contents.

35. David H.: I agree Monique Poirier’s first novel in 2020 did have some readers. However, my guess is that the novel also doesn’t count against her being eligible for the Astounding Award this year.

    Cygenic was published by Riverdale Avenue Books, which isn’t a traditional publisher. Instead, Riverdale Avenue is print on demand and, while they pay royalties, they don’t pay an advance. Per their FAQ page:

    Will I receive an advance? No. We are a royalty-earning publisher with generous epub, audio, and POD royalty rates. We pay our authors quarterly for sales for which we have received royalties on during the prior quarterly period.

    Since Riverdale Avenue doesn’t pay an advance, to meet the Astounding Award criteria for a qualifying publication Poirier would have had to earn a net income from royalties on sales of the novel of at least $3,000 within one year. Since the novel only has 20 reviews on Goodreads and 7 on Amazon, odds are likely the book didn’t earn anywhere close to that.

36. In looking up the Universe of Xuya series, it looks like it consists of 1 novel and a bunch of novellas and short stories, and also that most, if not all of them, are fairly standalone in nature? Does anyone who is more familiar with the series have a recommendation on which are the best entries to track down and what order they should be read in?

    Thanks in advance!

37. I feel like this (Moniquill/Monique) is a situation where it would be helpful if the Hugo admin team would chime in promptly and tell us that they looked at her previous pubs and they don’t qualify and therefore she is eligible, nothing to see here, go home. I wasn’t terribly happy the last time this pseudonym thing happened in the Astounding and am still not sure that finalist was legit. It would be nice to clear the matter up quickly so we can go on with being happy for the finalists.

    (I am assuming the Hugo team, not being oblivious, has already checked this out and determined that she is eligible, but now that it’s come up for debate, they should say that.)

38. Fiction outside of the SF/F genre does not factor in to Astounding Award eligibility. The clock on the two-year window begins with an author’s first qualifying work.

39. Susan, I’ve had most, but by no means allof the Xuya Universe fiction. I dint believe that there’s really any order to them as there’s no connect as near as I can tell between the stories and therefore no wrong way to read them.

    The two novels, The Red Scholar’s Wake and A Fire Born of Exile are very representative of that Universe.

    I add in two short stories, “On a Red Station, Drifting “ and “The Tea Master and the Detective”, both exquisite looks at both the culture and her deft hand way of shaping a character, both human and ship mind.

40. One thing about the Astounding is the clock starts with not first professional publications, but first SFF fiction publication. Thus, you have things like Lev Grossman being eligible for THE MAGICIANS even though he was already a well-established professional writer, or Andy Weir for THE MARTIAN because the clock didn’t start until its traditional publication, not its self-pub period, despite the self-pub selling massively.

    In other words, the Astounding can be weird sometimes.

41. Congrats to all the finalists.

    I already wanted to read Ms. Wells’ “The Witch King”, but I am glad to have the extra prompt.

    Regards,
    Dann
    When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. – C.S. Lewis

42. also…click

43. There’s an official Glasgow 2024 response earlier in the comments which I only now was able to get authenticated.

44. Maybe people put it on their ballots before the full breadth of Chengdu’s corruption was revealed & didn’t think to remove it, but that article you linked is from December ’23.

    I am afraid not. As I said, this is not a well-known podcast in China, most fans who attend the 2023 Worldcon might not know it at all because it wasn’t promoted widely as I have pointed out in the news report. Chinese fans may try their best to nominate fictions, games(What a pity: Honkai Startrail!) and theoretical essays. But this official achievement from a infamous company could not be accepted by fans, at least, I could not accept the nomination.
    I strongly advise to recheck nominations in this category. So weird.

45. Jason Sanford: Since Riverdale Avenue doesn’t pay an advance, to meet the Astounding Award criteria for a qualifying publication Poirier would have had to earn a net income from royalties on sales of the novel of at least $3,000 within one year. Since the novel only has 20 reviews on Goodreads and 7 on Amazon, odds are likely the book didn’t earn anywhere close to that.

    A lot of the story publications Doctor Science linked on GoodReads were published by Circlet Press. I find it hard to believe that a press run by Cecelia Tan wasn’t paying SFWA rates, but maybe it wasn’t.

46. Do I need to watch Wandering Earth I before I watch II?

47. @ Megan. That is correct, each story is independent and can be read in any order. My favorite is the Tea Master and the Detective.

    @Goobergunch. Thanks. Too bad.

48. We are aware of publications previous to 2022 by finalists Moniquill Blackgoose and Sunyi Dean, but we determined that they do not meet the threshold of professional publication needed to start the clock of Astounding eligibility.

    Did anyone else cry happy tears when they saw that a Worldcon Hugo committee posted a comment in this discussion addressing public concerns?

49. Sorry to start the “WHY WASN’T THIS NOMINATED???” conversation, but was anyone else surprised at first that Godzilla Minus One didn’t make it?

    Honestly, thinking about it: I think it was a simple lack of accessibility. I was lucky enough to catch it in theaters (in color!) but it felt like it came and went quick. Also of course, as of writing there’s still no streaming platform announced, no physical home video release in the West, and no announcement for either. A movie that gained unprecedented success in its field (and a VFX Oscar!) and there’s no legal way to watch it here. Weird.

50. Looks like a great list. Congrats to the nominees and thanks to the voters.

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