188 thoughts on “Best Series Hugo: Eligible Series From 2016”

1. 3.2.1: Unless otherwise specified, Hugo Awards are given for work in the field of science fiction or fantasy appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year.

   Mike, that’s what I get by not looking it up first. I meant appear, not available. Hey, they both start with A!

   “Appear” isn’t further defined. I think it’s pretty well established that if a work “appears” on the author’s web site for anyone to read, that counts.

   But what if Annie Author gives her short story privately to her 200 Patreon supporters in October then it’s published in Strange Horizons in February? Does that count as the story “Appearing” in October?

   What if she passes the final version out to her Writers group in October? Reads it to 500 people at a convention?

   What if her publisher offers an electronic ARC for sale to the general public on their web site in the fall, then publishes the finalized e-version in January and the Hardback in February? When did the story “appear” and the clock start ticking?

2. NickPheas: Pretty sure that a single Peter F. Hamiliton, followed by two blank notebooks with his name on the cover would meet the word count requirement.

   *snort*

3. @ nickpheas

   No.

   So…you tell me I’m wrong and then you restate the essence of what my statement was, which is that Weir was still eligible for the Campbell because the Campbell doesn’t count the format of the book’s original appearance as “publication”.

   Why is it necessary that I be wrong? Did my explanation fail to have the appropriate pheromones?

4. MCA Hogarth, SFWA Vice President:
   Princes’ Game series: Amulet Rampant and Only the Open
   Her Instruments series: A Rose Point Holiday posted as a serial online.

   These are amazing, but if you aren’t reading most of her books you’re missing great stuff.

   C.E. Murphy, Urban Shaman/Walker Papers series: short story Slaying the Dragon on Patreon.

   Supporting a story available thru Patreon rarely costs more than the book itself. People can join only long enough to buy one specific story. So I have no objection to nominating based on works made available there.

   In the comments section of Whatever, Warren Buff from the committee that proposed the award explains why they left the award as open as they did. Short version: because they felt it was up to the nominators to decide on many variables. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/09/30/best-series-hugo-category-a-trial-run-in-2017-my-thoughts-on-it/#comments

5. I’ll add

   The Colours of Madeleine by Jaclyn Moriarty, A Tangle of Gold

   to the eligible list.

   There are so many series this year that I could get excited about nominating! Many of my favorite books this year were later works in a series, which normally have less of a chance of getting noticed for awards.

   (I’d expect Bujold’s Vorkosigan series to be the odds-on favorite for winning. But I’ve been wrong before.)

6. Cora: my Mom adds the Guardians trilogy by Nora Roberts.

   Both ISFDB and Amazon show only 2 books out so far. Can you point me to a third?

   The rest have been put on the list of changes to be made.

   Thanks to the people who took the time to check the list before adding suggestions, which saves me from time and effort wasted on checking duplicates.

7. @JJ – Both ISFDB and Amazon show only 2 books out so far. Can you point me to a third?

   It’s Island of Glass, due for release in December. I’ve noticed before that some things on Amazon only show up if you know the title.

8. Ninjaed by Cheryl, but yes, Island of Glass, the 3rd Guardians book, comes out in December. Here is the Amazon link.

9. And here are some more:

   The long running Undead series by Mary Janice Davidson had book 15 out in 2016, called Undead and Done.

   Karen Marie Moning published Feverborn, book 8 in her Fever series, in 2016.

   The very prolific Christine Feehan has new books in several of her paranormal romance series, namely Dark Promises and Dark Carousel, books 29 and 30 in her Carpathians series, Leopard’s Fury, book 9 in her Leopard series, Spider Game, book 12 in her Ghost Walker series, and Fire Bound, book 5 in her Sea Haven series.

10. ULTRAGOTHA: The Hugo rules were created within the matrix of a publishing culture understood by the fans and writers of the time. Even today, I doubt anybody thinks that circulating drafts or reading them aloud at cons is publication.

    Publication doesn’t have to be for payment, but distribution to a paying audience like Patreon doesn’t seem to me any less “publication” than a story in a mimeographed fanzine sent to 100 friends. The fanzine starts the clock ticking. Why not Patreon?

    It is understood that if an author makes substantial changes to a work, when it appears that is an original publication for Hugo purposes.

    The ARC issue we went through last year with Bujold’s story — SFWA treated that as 2015 publication for Nebula purposes. I don’t seem to be able to fire the memory neuron as to whether there was a ruling about the Hugos. But I see the story didn’t make the Long List — either people didn’t like it enough, or they were warned off.

11. And here is yet one more: Maria V. Snyder had a new book out in her Chronicles of Ixia series in 2016, Night Study, which is book No. 5.

12. Arifel: Kate Elliott’s Court of Fives has three installments (two books and a prequel novella, latest book is The Poisoned Blade) but may well not meet word count. Sorry I’m really bad at estimating!

    I show that series as totaling 972 pages (both novels are well over 400 pages), so at a conservative estimate of 250 words per page, it should be eligible, and I’ve put it on the list (considering the novella as a third volume which is available on Amazon).

    Also, Xuya has 23 pieces of short fiction, including 2 novellas which total 72,000 words. The remaining 21 pieces would need to average only 8,000 words each for it to qualify as a series, so I would say that it meets the word count criterium. The question is whether it would qualify as having 3 “volumes”. With only 2 novellas, I would interpret it as not being eligible. (Which is a damn shame, because I really like that series, but I have no doubt that it will have its day.)

13. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

14. @JJ

    With only 2 novellas, I would interpret it as not being eligible.

    Are those available separately? Or is length your reason for not counting anything else as a “volume”? Just curious.

15. Carl Slaughter:
    Liu Cixin – Three Body Problem
    Diane Duane – Young Wizards
    Kevin Hearn – Iron Druid
    >>> These are already on the list.

    Michael Swanwick – Darger and Surplus
    Alma Alexander – Worldweavers
    >>> The last book I can find for these is 2015.

    Stephen Brust – The Incrementalists
    Brenda Cooper – Spear of Light
    S.D. Smith – Ember Falls
    David Liss – Randoms/Rebels
    >>> These series have only two volumes.

    J.M. Guillen – The Dossiers of Asset 108
    >>> I’m going to pass on this one; self-published, not in ISFDB, 77 reviews on Amazon for the 1st volume.

16. Laura: With only 2 novellas, I would interpret it as not being eligible.
    Are those available separately? Or is length your reason for not counting anything else as a “volume”? Just curious.

    My reasoning is that I would consider a novel or a novella a “volume” (given that many of what won Best Novel Hugos in olden days were technically novellas). Novelettes and Short Stories, I would not consider a “volume”.

    YMMV.

17. I think this is my day for nitpicking. Fortunately, my day is nearly over.

    This section begins on page 68 of the agenda packet handed out at the Business Meeting, it’s in Appendix 2 and is the Report of the Series Hugo Committee:

    In this proposal, “volume” is taken to mean any story published separately from the others in a series. Hence, a trilogy of novels, an extremely long novel and two shorter pieces, a pair of long novels and a novella, or a larger number of shorter pieces might make up the requisite three volumes (and total word count) – or even a set of stories greatly exceeding the length and number requirements (a condition which we can foresee as being quite frequent in the earlier years of such an award).

    Appendices for any particular meeting may or may not be binding, but this is part of the official documentation, offered as both a committee report and further explanation of the committee’s motion.

18. @Karl-Johan Norén (apologies in advance, maybe, I don’t know if the accented ‘e’ in your surname will show up or not when I post.)
    RE: Bujold’s World of Five Gods series

    I disagree that the whole can’t be considered a series. ISTM, she’s exploring the relationship between these gods and human beings within a single world. Each ‘volume’ has, on one level, a normal plot and characters but there’s an overarching plot of human interaction with these 5 god characters. That aspect, imo, is what makes it a cohesive series. [Each time a new story comes out, one of things I’m looking forward to is finding out what and how these gods ‘manifest’ in human lives/history.]

    Oh! I just thought of a possible similarish past example…Asimov’s Foundation series, although that one has a somewhat more cohesive overarching plot, the comparison holds.

19. I believe several of Chris Nuttall’s series qualify, notably Schooled in Magic and Ark Royal.

20. The Wall of Night series by Helen Lowe.
    3rd book in the series “The Daughter of Blood” published in Feb 2016
    Publisher Harper Voyager
    Editor Kate Nintzel

    The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger
    She will be publishing a novella due out in November 2016 that is set in this world, and is a flow-on story of events that occurred in the original series.
    “Romancing the Inventor”
    Basically a story to tie up loose ends from the original series.

    The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger
    “Poison or Protect” came out in 2016 as a novella, and shows one of the former students in the series all grown up, qualified and in her trade.

21. forgot to tick the follow-up options

22. I was going to quote the same part of the business meeting agenda that Cheryl has already put up (thanks!), so instead I’ll add the online link to the document for anyone playing along at home. Also some interesting bits on definition of a series/subseries which is relevant to the Penric/Chalion question – basically it’s a weak case on setting alone but the definition is intended to allow it if that’s what the voters want.

    Sorry to introduce the Patreon debate then have nothing much to say about it…! I would hesitate to nominate the books on the basis of an inaccessible volume but that’s not the same thing as the eligibility question.

23. The third book in Rick Yancey’s The Fifth Wave series came out this spring.

24. Arifel: Sorry to introduce the Patreon debate then have nothing much to say about it…! I would hesitate to nominate the books on the basis of an inaccessible volume but that’s not the same thing as the eligibility question.

    I think it’s worth it for people to have the discussion. My personal stance is that I would consider a novel or novella in the current year a reason to put something on my personal list of possibilities; for just a short fiction entry, I would not. I realize that others will have different thresholds for what they’re willing to consider.

    Of the current list (which is up to 140 entries, and which I will ask Mike to put in the main post), I’ve read at least one book in 25 of them (and all the books in most of those 25), but there are only 10 which I would currently be willing to put on my nomination ballot. (There are a few other series which I would be willing to nominate which are not eligible this year; unfortunately, most of them will likely never be eligible).

25. @JJ: Correcting to be polite: the singular of “criteria” is not “criterium” but “criterion”. The Greek neuter ending, not the Latin.

26. David Goldfarb: Correcting to be polite: the singular of “criteria” is not “criterium” but “criterion”. The Greek neuter ending, not the Latin.

    Thank you. I did take courses at University in Literature and in Mythology, for both the Greeks and the Romans (ask me how this fit in with my Computer Science and Engineering Degree!), but I have never studied either language.

27. One good series that just started being published in America this year and three volumes will be translated by year’s end: Baccano! by Ryohgo Narita. 1930s gangster action with a lot of characters, a great sense of humor, and a twist involving alchemy.

28. De-lurking to say that I think this trial run is a great idea–thanks, Worldcon 75! I voted for the Best Series proposal at MidAmeriCon, but I had some concerns about how it would work in practice. We should know much more after this year.

    Many thanks to JJ for putting this list together. There sure are a lot of eligible series!

29. Does the Three-Body series qualify under the stricter rule? (Are the other two books >240,000 words put together?)

30. Jeff R.: Does the Three-Body series qualify under the stricter rule? (Are the other two books >240,000 words put together?)

    What stricter rule?

    ETA: Ah, I see, in that the first volume won a Hugo.

    No, it probably doesn’t.

31. If Worldcon 75 uses the stricter interpretation, the following series would be ineligible:

    Dresden Files
    Newsflesh
    Saga of Shadows
    Santi / Remembrance of Earth’s Past
    Vorkosigan Saga
    World of the Five Gods

    ETA: Although there have been 1 novel and 6 novellas in the Newsflesh series since Blackout was nominated, so it would probably still be eligible.

32. @JJ: Thanks so much for this; even though I’m not a fan of a Best Series Hugo, I’m still intrigued by the rule details, what’s eligible, etc. For example: Dresden Files wouldn’t be eligible due to … something in it winning a Hugo? Or some other reason? If the former, what did it win?

    Here are several items (one questionable) to add, if you don’t mind:

    T.A. Pratt’s “Marla Mason” series has its final book coming out via Kickstarter. Closing Doors should get to backers this year, but the general release probably won’t make it till next year. Eligible or not? (I’m still confused based on above comments, but @Mike Glyer makes a persuasive argument.) Hmm.

    The “Psycop” series by Jordan Castillo Price is eligible; the latest short (sold individually), “Wood,” came out February 23, 2016. With 7 novels of varying lengths and a bunch of shorts, the word count shouldn’t be a problem. I’m including this since it looks like (your personal feelings aside) you are listing items with something shorter than a novella as the 2016 qualifying item, but if I misunderstood, sorry.

    The “Chaos Station” series by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen is eligible; latest novel: Phase Shift (May 2, 2016). With 5 novels (Kobo says one was 76 K words; I believe they’re all similar length, going by Amazon “print pages” info), it should meet the word count.

    A Shattered Empire, book 3 of the “Sorcery Ascendant Sequence” by Mitchell Hogan, came out this year. These books appear to be large enough that I bet it passes the word count. Hmm, Kobo claims the latest book is something like 178 K words?! 😉

33. @Cora: Regarding Shadowed Souls, do you know any details about the Tanya Huff story? If her story is a “Blood” (Vicky Nelson/etc.) story, then it would extend the Blood series and make it eligible. I suspect it is from that series, but I can’t find any info other than that it’s about a female vampire that has a human lover. This sounds like it’s probably from that series. Either way, a Huff story for me and a Butcher one for my other half . . . hmm, possibly I should get Shadowed Souls. 😉

34. Kendall: Dresden Files wouldn’t be eligible due to …

    … it having been a Hugo Best Novel Finalist in 2015, and less than 240,000 words being added to the series since then.

35. @JJ: So how did taking university courses in Greek and Roman mythology fit in to your computer science and engineering degree?

36. David Goldfarb: So how did taking university courses in Greek and Roman mythology fit in to your computer science and engineering degree?

    It didn’t. Which is why I roll my eyes and say that sarcastically. My minor in French language, history, and culture doesn’t have anything to do with my major, either.

    I was in Engineering Undeclared for a year and a half because I loved and was good at math and science, but couldn’t figure out what sort of engineer I wanted to be, despite getting to sample a little of each of the flavors. My poor advisor, a kindly and unprepossessing older gentleman, would say to me every so often, “You know, we really like people to declare their specialty by this point.”

    I finally figured it out after taking semester after semester of elective Computer Science classes for a couple of years — at which point the little light came on, and I realized just how much fun I thought it was, like working a puzzle or solving a mystery. (I didn’t have so much of the headdesking experience of IT at that point yet. Which is probably a very good thing.)

    Let’s just say that I took a leetle bit longer than 4 years to get my degree. 😉

37. Hmmm, I took “If such a work has previously been a finalist…” to mean if the series itself had previously been a finalist, not just one of the individual pieces. But I suppose it doesn’t specify finalist under 3.3.X.

38. Eden series by Chris Beckett Daughter of Eden due October.
    Castle series by Steph Swainston Fair Rebel due November.
    A Memory of Flames by Stephen Deas. The Silver Kings
    The Gaia Chronicles by Naomi Foyle The Blood of the Hoopoe
    Humanity’s Fire by Michael Cobley. Ancestral Machines
    Poseidon’s Children by Alastair Reynolds. Poseidon’s Wake (US pub date was Feb 2016).

39. asked and answered, but I still object to this category.

    I hope Mike and others of our clade will tell me if I’m wrong or not, but it seems to me that while there are more novels these days, there are the same or even fewer “new ideas” being published because so much effort is going into filling the maw of the largely artificially ginned up “series” pipeline.

    SF, among the many things that it is, is supposed to be about the new and the different and the surprising and unexpected – not regurgitating the same characters in slightly different settings and circumstances over and over again.

    “Series” used to be fix-ups of shorts or the necessary breaking up of a very long piece, not a goal. It seems the same “franchise fever” that has increasingly taken over film is hitting SF literature as well.

    Or, perhaps its a consequence of the shifting of focus from “idea” to “character”? (When you invest so much effort in character, you are probably reluctant to want to have to create a new one for the next book….?)

    and on top of it all, I’m personally always averse to “change” (until I get used to it and am then inordinately enthusiastic…)

    Globally though, what I have observed is that when “marketing” begins calling the shots, diversity (and opportunity) suffer….

40. @Kendall

    Regarding Shadowed Souls, do you know any details about the Tanya Huff story? If her story is a “Blood” (Vicky Nelson/etc.) story, then it would extend the Blood series and make it eligible. I suspect it is from that series, but I can’t find any info other than that it’s about a female vampire that has a human lover. This sounds like it’s probably from that series. Either way, a Huff story for me and a Butcher one for my other half . . . hmm, possibly I should get Shadowed Souls.

    Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any more info on the Tanya Huff story than you. However, I’m planning on getting Shadowed Souls, because the line-up sounds very good, so I guess we’ll see in November.

41. For Tanya Huff fans, perhaps I should mention that she’ll be Toastmaster at Windycon in Chicago (well, Lombard, a Chicago suburb just west of the city) November 11-13. Prereg rates available until October 21). http://www.windycon.org/

42. I think ‘if such a work has previously been a finalist’ has to mean a finalist for Best Series, since ‘work’ can only refer to the series. A novel (novella, etc.) which was previously a finalist can’t get nominated again anyhow.

    Now, as to the spirit of the rule: it seems to me that its aim is to stop a few series which have a lot of fans permanently taking over this category. How a series’ constituent parts have done in other categories should therefore be irrelevant.

    Whether it’s a good thing to nominate series whose parts have already won Hugos is a different question. On the one hand, one might well think that there would be no point to this award unless it was directed to works of a rather different kind than are likely to win Hugos anyway. (And I can certainly think of series – Lady Trent, for instance, or the Invisible Library – which look like good candidates for this award, while their volumes would be less good candidates for Best Novel.) On the other hand, ‘best’ purists will say that this award is for the best series, and if a series whose individual novels have won Hugos isn’t the best, what is? On the third hand, it may be that this award will make novels in series less likely to win Best Novel (in which case we may be motivated to nominate Five Gods next time it comes up, when otherwise we might have nominated the individual volume).

    (It does seem to me that part of the motivation for this award may have been the conviction that novels in series never win Hugos, which isn’t actually true. Certainly this is motivating some of the acclaim it’s getting.)

43. steve Davidson: “Series” used to be fix-ups of shorts or the necessary breaking up of a very long piece, not a goal. It seems the same “franchise fever” that has increasingly taken over film is hitting SF literature as well.

    I disagree with characterization of sf publishing history. First, a novel published in installments is not a “series.” Second, series were typical of all kinds of magazine fiction (think, Edgar Rice Burroughs), and certainly science fiction, from the 1930s on. Jack Williamson’s Legion of Space stories. Doc Savage.

44. @ Andrew M

    I think ‘if such a work has previously been a finalist’ has to mean a finalist for Best Series, since ‘work’ can only refer to the series. A novel (novella, etc.) which was previously a finalist can’t get nominated again anyhow.

    That’s my interpretation as well. But I guess we’ll see.

    On the one hand, one might well think that there would be no point to this award unless it was directed to works of a rather different kind than are likely to win Hugos anyway.

    I’ll be very interested to see what kinds of series people nominate. There are definitely things on the list that I think are more impressive as series than as individual works (e.g., 1632, Dresden Files), but will I (and others) nominate them? Or will we mostly choose things like Bujold’s various series, in which most of the elements were plausible (or actual) Best Novel finalists? I personally think the award is a good idea either way, but others may disagree.

45. I don’t see any reference yet to the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series by Pip (Philippa) Ballantine and Tee (Thomas Earl) Morris; isfdb.org says they’re up to 5 volumes, with The Ghost Rebellion out in 2016. They’re serious steampunk (machines and conspiracies of all sizes); maybe not my #1 choice but a fun read, and the plots and people (unlike the machines) seem plausible.

    I like Huff’s Curiosity Shop books, but isfdb says the latest of those is 2014 — and I’m not sure she can take that set any further. Maybe another reason to argue that the award should be less frequent and have a correspondingly wider window for latest publication — but if I get to Helsinki it will be via flying pig.

    @steve davidson: I’d say you’re longing for a long-gone past; I remember Silverberg flaming in a Philcon GoH speech about books that said “part 1 of a trilogy” on the cover, sometime 1986-1992 based on the room the mind’s eye sees it in. IMO this took some gall after the number of Majipoor books he had done by then.

46. What about Anne McCaffrey?
    No Dragons wanted?

47. @JJ & @Cora: Thanks!

    @Cassy B.: I can’t make Windycon, but Tanya Huff will be a great Toastmaster; she’s an entertaining speaker. 🙂

    @Chip Hitchcock: I should’ve thought of the “Ministry of Peculiar Occurences”; I haven’t read it yet, but I picked up the first book not that long ago. BTW I never knew what “Tee” stood for (or that it stood for anything). New fact learned for the day; now I can relax. 😉

48. Any award for a best series that doesn’t consider Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series is meaningless in my humble opinion. I suppose the series won’t fit the criteria as listed but if so the criteria are too restricted

49. @John Lewis: Maybe you want to read the announcement linked above at the top of the post, as your comment makes no sense. This is just a list of things that people believe are eligible based on the criteria of something coming out in 2016 that is part of a series with 240K+ words, etc. It’s not an exhaustive list. If there was a Pern book published in 2016, name it.

    Note: This is not a “best series of all time” award; it’s an award for 2016 work that’s part of a series.

50. @John Lewis

    The last Pern was 2012 wasn’t it? So not eligible. The Best Series isn’t an all-time thing, it is for series which have had something published in the current year.

    Also on a general note, and I don’t want to do this but, … I believe that Gor is eligible. Plunder of Gor was published this year.

Comments are closed.