Wednesday, January 27, 2010

My Hugo Pre-Ballot Draft

Yesterday I mentioned that I would post the draft form of my 2010 Hugo Nomination Ballot. I've still got a little more than a month to submit the ballot and there are two novels in particular I hope / want to read before I do so (The Windup Girl and The Red Tree). I'm struggling a bit with most of the other categories as I'd like to get five nominees per category, but I don't know what I'm missing.

Anything with a *** is something I consider a lock to get my nomination. Everything that doesn't have it...I don't know. I will, of course, post my final ballot when I submit it.

Novels
***By the Mountain Bound, by Elizabeth Bear
***Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest
Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson
***Finch, by Jeff VanderMeer
The Quiet War, by Paul McAuley
City Without End, by Kay Kenyon

Novella
***“Getaway”, by Emma Bull (Shadow Unit)
“The Language of Dying”, by Sarah Pinborough (PS Publishing)
“Starfall”, by Stephen Baxter (PS Publishing)

Novelette
***“First Flights”, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor.com)
***“Eros, Philia, Agape”, by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com)
***“It Takes Two”, by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)

Short Story
***”Snow Dragons”, by Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
“Swanwatch”, by Yoon Ha Lee (Federations)
“…That Has Such People In It”, by Jennifer Pelland (Apex Digest)
“Bespoke”, by Genevieve Valentine (Strange Horizons)
“The Carnivale of Abandoned Tales”, by Caitlyn Paxon (Shimmer, #10)

Best Editor – Short Form
***Jonathan Strahan
***John Joseph Adams
***John Klima
George R. R. Martin
***Ann VanderMeer

Best Editor – Long Form
Beth Meacham
***Lou Anders
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
***Jeremy Lassen
***Ann Groell
***Liz Gorinsky
Juliet Ulman

Best Semi-Prozine
***Electric Velocipede
***Shadow Unit
***Fantasy Magazine

John W. Campbell
J. M. McDermott
Peter V. Brett

Professional Artist
***Raphael Lacoste (The Windup Girl)
Fred Gambino (Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 3)
***Richard Powers (Eclipse 3)
Raymond Swanland (An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat)
***Melanie Delon

Best Graphic Story
DMZ: No Future, by Brian Wood
Fables: The Dark Ages, by Bill Willingham
***Unknown Soldier: Haunted House, by Joshua Dysart
The Walking Dead: Fear the Hunters, by Robert Kirkman
I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly
***Air: Flying Machine, by G. Willow Wilson

Best Fan Writer
Larry Nolan
Adam Whitehead
Abigail Nussbaum
Me? (I mean, what the hell, it's not like anyone else is going to nominate me)

16 comments:

  1. Okay, I will let my ignorance shine and ask what the very last category is... Best Fan Writer and how does the nominations work. I am clueless, when it comes to the awards and I need a lecture on this.

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  2. This is a good idea, I think. I will probably do the same later this week.

    Harry: The award definition is: "Any person whose writing has appeared in semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electronic media during the previous calendar year" So broadly speaking, any fan who is writing for love and not money. Note that they don't have to be writing *about* sf, even, although fan writer nominees often (usually?) are.

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  3. Niall: That includes blogs, right? Sweet. :) Thank you for the explanation. I need to write down the dates of these awards.

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  4. Ahem. I would gladly fill that fourth spot on your ballot, Joe.

    ;)

    More seriously, great list. I really have to get my hands on BONESHAKER.

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  5. Aidan: Oh you would, would you? ;)

    And read Boneshaker!

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  6. Still debating the dramatic presentation categories, or are you just planning to leave them blank?

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  7. Grey: I have absolutely no idea what to do with the Dramatic Presentation Hugos.

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  8. I can't tell if that's serious or loaded with snark, Niall.

    The season / series finale was fantastic, so it's a thought.

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  9. Entirely serious -- "Born to Run" will absolutely be on my ballot. Best sf show of the last five years, as far as I'm concerned.

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  10. Went to buy BONESHAKER. Still not stocked at my lame-ass local bookstore. Must order online, I guess.

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  11. Well for long form you might consider:

    Coraline
    Watchmen
    Star Trek
    Moon
    District 9
    Ponyo
    Where the Wild Things Are

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  12. Niall: I can see my way to a "Born to Run" nomination. That was the episode I wish so much of the rest of the show was. SCC had so much potential, and I really enjoyed it, but they hit a rut in the middle of S2 with the Sarah-centric episodes before really nailing the run to the finale.

    Grey: Moon and District 9 for sure. A "no to that one" for Watchmen. :)

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  13. I applaud the informed selection in the Graphic Story category. Those are some of the best SF and Fantasy comics being published today.

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  14. Thanks, Paul.

    I thought the first volume of Unknown Soldier was excellent, but I'm kind of questioning the genre element. I can see an argument that the protagonist is talking to a "ghost" or some entity, but an equally valid argument can be made that he's just kind of crazy.

    Which makes Unknown Soldier just about as genre as Scalped. I *wish* Scalped was genre because I'd nominate the hell out of it.

    So, I don't know. But, if the Hugo committee lets Unknown Soldier through, I'd be nuts not to nominate it.

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