reading and reviewing the 2014 Hugo Ballot
Posted June 11, 2014
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The Hugo Voter’s Packet was released a little over a week ago. For 24 hours, voters across the globe downloaded, unzipped, transferred to devices, and prioritized.
Out of sheer luck I have already read a few of the Campbell nominees, so down near the bottom you’ll see my links to my reviews of their novels. As I review more Hugo nominated works, I’ll link everything back to this post so it will all be in one place later. Ideally, by July 31, this post will be chock full of links.
Click here for the full ballot, you see how much is on there? holy cow! Ain’t no way I can read all of that by the July 31 voting deadline. Many of these works are available online for free (no Worldcon membership? no problem!), click here for a clickable ballot over at SFSignal. Reading and reviewing wise, here’s what I realistically* think I can get through:
(it goes without saying, but images shown do NOT imply bias, they are just the covers I found quickly)
- The Butcher of Khardov by Dan Wells (Privateer Press)
- “The Chaplain’s Legacy” by Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jul-Aug 2013)
- “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)
- Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Press)
- “Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10-2013)
Best Novellette
- “The Exchange Officers” by Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jan-Feb 2013)
- “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com/Tor.com, 09-2013)
- “Opera Vita Aeterna” by Vox Day (The Last Witchking, Marcher Lord Hinterlands)
- “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean, Fall 2013)
- “The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky, Candlemark & Gleam)
Best Short Story
- “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky (Apex Magazine, Mar-2013)
- “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 04-2013)
- “Selkie Stories Are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons, Jan-2013)
- “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)
(edited post July 31st to add that I hardly got anything read past Best Short Story. Yeah, I suck)
Best Related Work**
- Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It Edited by Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damian Thomas (Mad Norwegian Press)
- Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary by Justin Landon & Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
- “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative” by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)
- Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer, with Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image)
- Writing Excuses Season 8 by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson
- Girl Genius, Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
- “The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who” written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Jimmy Broxton (Doctor Who Special 2013, IDW)
- The Meathouse Man adapted from the story by George R.R. Martin and illustrated by Raya Golden (Jet City Comics)
- Saga, Volume 2 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
- “Time” by Randall Munroe (XKCD)
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer not-a-hugo
An observant reader would notice I have left the very prestigious “best novel” off of my list of Hugo nominated works to read. Why would I do that? Time and interest. Of the five nominated novels, I’ve read one of them, and I wasn’t a fan of it. the rest of the Best Novel nominees includes an author whose works rarely interest me; an author who does interest me, but I don’t much care for the universe in which this nominated novel takes place; a third book in a series I’m not that interested in; and the entire Wheel of Time saga. With Wot, do I read just the first book? just the last book? the first and the last? all of them? I read the first one years ago, and found it decent, but not good enough that I was interested in continuing. Time and interest: two things I have a very finite amount of.
*definition of “realistically” subject to change
** Some of these I may read selections of.
29 Responses to "reading and reviewing the 2014 Hugo Ballot"
I found the novel nominations terrible this year. Ancillary Justice is the flavor of the month but I didn’t care for it. The WOT books lost me after the second one. There are so many other better fantasy novels out there. Tried reading the Larry Correia but found the writing terrible and gave up 25 pages in. Don’t know how this got on the ballot.
The Adjacent by Christopher Priest was much better than any of these.
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After some initial attempts, I’ve given up trying to read work based on Hugo nominations (and award nominations, in general). Too much of it, well… isn’t great, or isn’t of interest to me. I’m not trying to bad talk awards: it’s just that as a rule they aren’t reliable enough that I can use them as a guide without doing the same due diligence (reading reviews, reading initial chapters) that I do, anyway, to find stuff to read.
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Best Novel is probably the weakest of the categories I’ll be voting in, in terms of what’s there that I’ve got any interest in, though Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) is probably right next to it… That said I’m looking forward to digging into the short fiction! And I agree, the Campbell ballot looks awfully juicy this year. I’ve only 1 out of those 5 authors, so I’m curious as heck to see what I make of the rest!
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[…] reviews of the best novella, novelette and short story nominations (for a good summary, see this one). And some others, at Tor for example, shared their views on some of the best novel nominations. I […]
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1 | Michael
June 11, 2014 at 7:52 am
The big issue this year is the nomination for the ENTIRE Wheel of Time series. I don’t see how anyone could read all of those in time to vote….
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Redhead
June 11, 2014 at 8:41 am
I get that it is a huge issue. one I really don’t want to touch!! for anyone needing a cheat sheet, there are some read alongs floating around:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/01/the-wheel-of-time-re-read-introductory-post
but me? I ain’t gonna read ’em.
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