2013 Hugo Award voting

The following is a discussion of my ballot for the 2013 Hugo Awards, for work published in 2012. This is a popular vote award, where the voters are the attending and supporting members of the World Science Fiction Convention. The results will be announced at LoneStarCon 3, San Antonio, TX, September 1, 2013.

Novel:
1. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

The other novels on the shortlist are light snacks. 2312 by Robinson is a feast. It is easily the greatest accomplishment in the novel category. It is three novels in one:  First and foremost, it is a love story about two very different people, Swan and Wahram. It’s a moving and successful double character study. Second, it is a grand tour of the solar system 300 years in the future, displaying wonders of technology, economics, and culture. There’s enough material here for most other authors to write a long series of books. Here, Robinson has chosen to condense it all into one. Third, it is a murder mystery with political overtones. There are unforgettable scenes, such as the struggle of endurance and survival that Swan and Wahram experience when they must walk to safety using maintenance tunnels under the surface of Mercury, and much later, a spaceship collision. Not a perfect novel, yet wonderful and multilayered.

Novella:
1. On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
2. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
3. “The Stars Do Not Lie” by Jay Lake (Asimov’s Nov-Dec 2012)

Aliette de Bodard’s On a Red Station Drifting is a fascinating story, partly about a refugee in wartime, set in an interstellar Vietnamese Empire.  I hope de Bodard will have more stories in this setting. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress covers familiar ground, about the fall of civilization. The 15-year-old male viewpoint character is well done, the female mathematician viewpoint character in alternating chapters is less interesting, and doesn’t keep the reader invested in her end of the story. Jay Lake’s “The Stars Do Not Lie” is more familiar still, another retelling of an almost-Galileo confronting an almost-Catholic Church, which tries to suppress a scientific discovery.

Novelette:
1. “Fade to White” by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld, Aug 2012)
2. “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
3. “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit for Eden, PS Publications)

“Fade to White” by Catherynne M. Valente is a stunningly good story. Two young people, a boy and a girl, prepare for an event that will determine their social futures in a gender divided society. This alternate United States is based on a devastating war with the Soviet Union following immediately after World War II. The most anti-Communist, Red-baiting elements of the political scene of the 1950s are swept into power. Marketing is used effectively for satire, making me wish for a version of “Mad Men” that was set in this alternate world.

Pat Cadigan’s “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” is excellent, also, and funny. It’s about a crew working among the moons of Jupiter. I can’t really say much else without spoiling some of the fun.  “The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a touching story of two boys who don’t fit in with their peers.

Short Story:
1. “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld, June 2012)
2. “Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese)
3. “Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, Aug 2012)

Aliette de Bodard’s “Immersion” depicts the costs of characters leaving behind their native culture in favor of a dominant culture that they can mimic with the use of enhanced reality headsets. “Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu concerns the select few who are able to get on a ship to flee a doomed Earth. I felt the sentimentality was a bit heavy handed. Maybe that’s just me. “Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson is a series of story précises on the theme of mantis women who kill and consume their mates. It’s alternately chilling and comic, while not offering much story.

First place votes in other  categories:
I voted for the Coode Street Podcast in the Fancast category, Tansy Rayner Roberts in the Fan Writer category, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature for Related Work, Clarkesworld for Semiprozine, Saga, Vol. I for Graphic Story, etc.

Related links:
LoneStarCon 3 website
The full list of all the nominees that made the 2013 Hugo Awards shortlist
Previous posts here at "Strangelove for Science Fiction" regarding Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312: Excerpts, Defining Robinson's 2312, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

The 2012 Hugo Awards: Best Novel shortlist

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (Orbit)
Deadline by Mira Grant (Orbit)
A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin (Bantam Spectra)
Embassytown by China Miéville (Macmillan / Del Rey)
Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor)

Starting from worst to best, here are my rankings:

I won’t be reading Deadline by Mira Grant. I read the first book in the series, Feed, which was on the Hugo Award Best Novel shortlist last year and I had a strongly negative reaction to it. It will be a long time before I am likely to give the author another chance.  The main problem with Feed for me, as someone who worked in journalism for many years, is that since the main character is a journalist, the author needs to convince me that he or she knows something about journalism. Unfortunately, Feed demonstrated some basic misunderstandings about what journalists do and how they do it. As a result I lost confidence in the author. I did finish reading Feed. It read as an early draft of the novel that was intended. It’s about zombies, which scores negative points for lack of originality. (For more about Feed follow here.)

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (a pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) reads like two novels mashed together. Story one: a hard-bitten detective pursues a missing person’s case across the asteroid belt. Story two: an idealistic space-ship captain and his faithful crew have a series of adventures across the solar system. Unfortunately, neither story is particularly interesting. The world building and the plot points are built from over-used parts. The prose feels rushed and hobbled with clichés. The characters are thin. The fascination with weapons and violence suggests that the novel is intended for 13-year-old boys. It features zombies, which scores negative points for lack of originality.

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin is a category error. The Hugo Awards don’t have a category (thank goodness) for a middle volume of an unfinished and apparently endless series. This book doesn’t belong in the best novel category. It’s certainly not self-contained. It reads like a very long set of middle chapters excerpted from an incredibly long novel, which is exactly what it is. I enjoyed it, even though it is overlong and could use some editing. It comes from the more-is-better school of series fiction, so any complaint I have that it is too long is only a recommendation to those who like this sort of thing. It features zombies, which scores negative points for lack of originality.

Among Others by Jo Walton is a cleverly constructed character portrait of a teenage girl dealing with issues of arriving at a new boarding school, relationships with boys, a dysfunctional family, and grief over the unnatural death of her twin sister. It is also a fantasy novel that confounds reader expectations by being set entirely after the climactic battle between opposing magical forces. Along the way the reader encounters remarkably alien faerie creatures and a vivid and original magical system. Our main character spends much of her time in the school library and discovers a variety of science fiction and fantasy novels from the 1960s and ‘70s and offers her impressions of each reading experience. What could be seen as calculated fan-service instead provides a surprising depth of insight into the thoughts and maturation of our young viewpoint character. Among Others is an excellent novel with layers that reward close attention.

Embassytown by China Miéville is an ambitious, difficult, and brilliant novel. There are problems with the structure and pacing of the novel, none of which matter when rereading the book. I can imagine that many readers new to Miéville will give up in the first hundred pages or so. I’ve read other Miéville novels; he has earned my trust. I knew that if I stayed the course I would be rewarded.  It’s a novel about language. The central metaphor is to literalize certain aspects of language: that language limits our experience of the world, that language circumscribes identity, that language is an intoxicant. It’s set on a far flung alien planet with an intelligent species whose language is confoundingly different from our own. Communication breaks down in a dramatic fashion, causing a revolution among the aliens, and conceptual breakthroughs are required to reestablish communication. This is a fascinating novel, with thoughtful ideas about language incorporated into a compelling story.  Judging from the four Miéville novels that I’ve read, this is his best yet. (For more about Embassytown follow here.)

SF Strangelove’s ranking of the Hugo Awards Best Novel shortlist:
1. Embassytown by China Miéville
2. Among Others by Jo Walton
3. A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin
4. No award
5. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Anything after “no award” doesn’t matter in the voting. A Dance With Dragons only barely makes it above “no award” in my estimation.

It’s a relief to be able to say that two of the five best novel nominees are actually worthy of a best novel award. That makes it an above-average year for the Hugo Awards Best Novel shortlist.

Here are novels I’ve read that deserved a spot on the best novel shortlist:

The best science fiction novels published in 2011:
This Shared Dream by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Embassytown by China Miéville
The Islanders by Christopher Priest
Home Fires by Gene Wolfe

The best fantasy novels published in 2011:
The Uncertain Places by Lisa Goldstein
Among Others by Jo Walton

I’m sure I missed a few. Still, that’s more than enough to fill my ideal Hugo shorlist. Simply put, the Hugo Awards nominators missed several superior novels.

2012 Nebula Award winners announced

The 2012 Nebula Awards for work published in 2011 were presented this past weekend in Arlington, Virginia.

Novel: Among Others by  Jo Walton (Tor)
Novella: "The Man Who Bridged the Mist" by Kij Johnson
      (Asimov’s October/November 2011)
Novelette: "What We Found" by Geoff Ryman (F&SF September/October 2011)
Short Story: "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu (F&SF March/April 2011)
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book:
      The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House)

The previously announced 2011 Grand Master Award was presented to Connie Willis for her lifetime contributions and achievements in the field. John Clute received the Solstice Award. The late Octavia Butler was also named a Solstice Award winner.

Among Others by Jo Walton was an excellent best novel winner. A coming-of-age story set mostly in and around a British boarding school, the story subverts fantasy readers' expectations by allowing major events to happen before the story begins, showing instead the aftermath and consequences of what has gone before. The novel operates several levels, one of which is the formation of a writer's sense of story as our main character, a school girl, reads and reacts to dozens of fantasy and science fiction novels of the 1960s and '70s. (Click to enlarge images.)

"The Man Who Bridged the Mist" by Kij Johnson is a wonderful novella about a man in charge of building a bridge over a mysterious substance known as mist. The story exists somewhere between the genres of fantasy and science fiction. A satisfying choice for the award.

"What We Found" by Geoff Ryman is about sexual identity and science and family. An exceptional story by the under-appreciated Geoff Ryman.

"The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu portrays a boy coming of age caught between the differing culture and language of his parents, one from China and one from the United States. 

I haven't read The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman, although I've heard many good things about it. I hope to read it soon.

Overall, a strong year the Nebula Awards, certainly a better year than last year.

Related posts:
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announce the 2012 Nebula Awards (for 2011 work)
Rose Fox live blogs the evening of the 2012 Nebula Awards

Oscars, Hugos, the nature of awards

All award systems are flawed; I hope we can all agree. Popular vote awards reflect popular tastes, but rarely reward artistic merit or innovation or subtlety. Small jury awards can become echo chambers for a narrow set of viewpoints. And so on.

Still, some are more flawed than others. Take, for instance, the recent Oscars awarded by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  There probably are no more commercially successful awards in the world than the Oscars. As a marketing exercise it is rivaled only by the Grammy’s. Unfortunately, the quality of the award winners is less remarkable.

There is something systemically wrong with the methods of the Academy, as evidenced by the premier award category, the Best Picture. Most results are blandly likable and safe (The Artist, The Kings Speech), or bloated epics that rely too heavily on their own seriousness (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Titanic, Braveheart, Dances with Wolves), or sentimental slop (Titanic, Forrest Gump, Driving Miss Daisy, Out of Africa, Terms of Endearment).

Only rarely does the Academy find its way to a movie that reflects the best in film. Looking down the list, I think the hit rate for finding excellence is roughly once every 10 years. While you, dear reader, and I will likely disagree on which film is that once-a-decade wonder, I hope we can agree that one-in-10 is a dismal, dysfunctional hit rate. There were two movies in recent years that I thought demonstrated achievement at or near the best of the year: The Hurt Locker (2009) and No Country for Old Men (2007). Weighing against these is the truly bad Best Picture winner, Crash (2005), the most egregiously odious choice in the past 10 years.

Among 2011 films, I’ve seen three so far that I thought were first rate: The Tree of Life, A Separation, and Martha Marcy May Marlene. Only one of these, The Tree of Life, was on the Best Picture shortlist and, not surprisingly, it didn’t win.

Closer to the topic of this blog, the Hugo Awards, a popular vote award open to anyone willing to pay for a supporting membership in the annual World Science Fiction Convention ($50 this year), is subject to the same blind-spots. For all the criticism of the Hugo Award choices I have made on this blog, the Hugos have a better record than the Oscars. Just glancing at the Best Novel winners:

The Windup Girl (2009) by Paolo Bacigalupi
The City & the City (2009) by China Miéville (tie)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007) by Michael Chabon
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) by Susanna Clarke

That’s four first-rate Hugo Best Novel winners in the past 10 years. Not bad.

Related links:

Oscar voters are overwhelmingly white, male, old

Why Best Picture Oscars are like a Broken Clock

2011 Hugo Awards ceremony photos

A selection of my photos from the 2011 Hugo Awards ceremony held at the Peppermill Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada, on August 20. Congratulations to the recipients and the nominees.

Connie Willis,
Best Novel
"Blackout/All Clear"

Presenter Robert Silverberg, Connie Willis, and
Sheila Williams, Best Editor, Short Form.

Allen M. Steele,
Best Novelette
"The Emperor of Mars"

Mary Robinette Kowal,
Best Short Story
"For Want of a Nail"

Clarkesworld, Best SemiProzine,
Neil Clarke, Kate Baker, Sean Wallace,
and (not pictured) Cheryl Morgan

The Drink Tank, Best Fanzine,
Christopher J Garcia and James Bacon

Christopher J Garcia

Claire Brialey,
Best Fan Writer

Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O'Shea
Best Related Work,
"Chicks Dig Time Lords"

Lev Grossman,
John W. Campbell Award
for Best New Writer

Marina Gelineau, stained-glass artist,
designer of the 2011 Hugo Award trophy base.

Marina Gelineau's 2011 Hugo Award trophy base,
each unique and made of five layers of decorated glass
fused together in a kiln.

Lou Anders,
Best Editor, Long Form

Presenter Dave Kyle with Gay Haldeman,
recipient of the Forrest J Ackerman
Big Heart Award

Phil and Kaja Foglio, and Cheyenne Wright,
Best Graphic Story

Presenters Betsy Tinney, Alexander James Adams,
S.J. Tucker, who together comprise Tricky Pixie.

Jay Lake, along with Ken Scholes (not pictured),
served as master of ceremonies.

Sharon Sbarsky, Hugo Awards ceremony organizer,
and presenter George R.R. Martin.

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Related link:
Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention

2011 Hugo Award winners announced

The 2011 Hugo Awards ceremony was held last night in Reno, Nevada, and while the results were often predictable, some wonderful and creative work was recognized.

BEST NOVEL Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Spectra)
BEST NOVELLA "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
BEST NOVELETTE "The Emperor of Mars" by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s 6/10)
BEST SHORT STORY "For Want of a Nail" by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s 12/10)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG FORM Inception written and directed by Christopher Nolan

I would single out "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" as the highlight of the fiction winners for me. It was an exceptional story from the novella category, which was loaded with first-rate work this year. For those who doubt that the outcome was fairly predictable, please see the blog post here from three weeks ago: Handicapping the 2011 Hugo Awards. I'll try not to pat myself on the back too much.

The Masters of Ceremony, Jay Lake and Ken Scholes, were amusing throughout, although their comic timing was diminished by their constant glancing at the podium to read their next line. The emotional highlight of the evening was Christopher J Garcia receiving the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, during which he collapsed and sat on stage, cradling the trophy like a baby. The smoothest and most effortlessly hilarious awards presenter was long-time writer and frequent Hugo Awards host Robert Silverberg, who provoked swells of laughter by stalling for time and teasing Connie Willis, whose category was yet to come.

Related links:
Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention

Handicapping the 2011 Hugo Awards

Wherein your humble correspondent predicts what the voters will choose for the 2011 Hugo Awards. For rankings that reflect my Hugo voting, see the links below.

Best Novel
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis almost certainly will win, an unfortunate result since it was the most disappointing of the best novel nominees that I read (I haven’t read Bujold’s Cryoburn). Willis is a popular personality at science fiction conventions and the Hugo Awards are a popular-vote award.  Willis has already amassed 10 Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards, including the 2011 best novel Nebula Award for Blackout/All Clear. There has been some outcry on the internet that this novel is in fact bad, so there is some chance that it will be passed over. (Read the SF Strangelove review of Blackout/All Clear.) The next most likely winner is Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold. Third mostly likely is Feed by Mira Grant. My choice for best novel, The Dervish House by Ian McDonald, is a long shot.

Best Novella
This was the strongest fiction category with four excellent nominees and one fairly good one. “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang is the likely winner. It’s brilliant, if slow paced. The notion that artificial intelligences would need to be nurtured for years, much like human children, is one of those smack-yourself-on-the-forehead ideas that is obvious now that Chiang has dramatized it. The next most likely winner is "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis, which for me was the weakest story in the category. The third most likely winner is "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky, which got a boost from winning the 2011 Nebula Award. My top selection, "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand, is another long shot.

Best Novelette
This is probably the hardest fiction category for me to predict, since I don’t understand what the nominating voters saw in most of these stories. I think “Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly will win. It is the best of a weak category. The second most likely winner is “The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele, with its fan-friendly message about reading early science fiction about Mars. “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” by Eric James Stone won the 2011 Nebula Award for best novelette, making it the third most likely to win. The Nebula Award voters didn’t share my negative opinion regarding “That Leviathan.”

Best Short Story
I expect this category to have results similar to my own rankings. “The Things” by Peter Watts is the likely winner, benefiting from fan familiarity with the movie “The Thing.” The second most likely winner is “For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal, set aboard a generation starship.

Best Dramatic Presentation -- Long Form
Inception is a pretty sure bet to win here. I was disappointed by it, as I noted in my short review, yet it remains the best of a weak field. Next most likely: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One, is incomplete, and doesn’t stand on its own. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and How to Train Your Dragon seem to be aimed at a younger demographic than those who are likely to vote for the Hugo Awards. I haven’t seen Toy Story 3.

About the Hugo Awards
Anyone who is a supporting or attending member of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, can cast a ballot for the Hugo Awards. This year the convention, called Renovation, will be held in Reno, Nevada. Voting on the final ballot ends tomorrow at midnight Pacific time. There are two rounds of voting, a nominating round, which ended in March, and a final ballot. The nominees with the highest vote totals form the final ballot. In each of the past two years just over 1000 voters participated in the final ballot.

SF Strangelove’s rankings for the 2011 Hugo Awards fiction categories:
Best Novel
Best Novella
Best Novelette
Best Short Story

Related links:
Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention
Nicholas Whyte: 2011 Hugo Awards: who do voters say they will vote for?

World Fantasy nominees announced

The World Fantasy Awards shortlist was announced today:

Best Novel
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Jacana South Africa; Angry Robot)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
The Silent Land by Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc; Harper Voyager UK)
Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord (Small Beer)
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)

Best Novella
"Bone and Jewel Creatures" by Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
"The Broken Man" by Michael Byers (PS)
"The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All-New Tales)
"The Thief of Broken Toys" by Tim Lebbon (ChiZine)
"The Mystery Knight" by George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
"The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window" by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer 2010)

Best Short Fiction
"Beautiful Men" by Christopher Fowler (Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts)
"Booth’s Ghost" by Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn’t See and Other Stories)
"Ponies" by Kij Johnson (Tor.com 11/17/10)
"Fossil-Figures" by Joyce Carol Oates (Stories: All-New Tales)
"Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us" by Mercurio D. Rivera (Black Static 8-9/10)

Winners will be announced at this year’s World Fantasy Convention, to be held October 27-30, in San Diego, CA. Announced in advance of the event, the World Fantasy Awards Lifetime Achievement Winners for 2011 are Peter S. Beagle and Angélica Gorodischer.

Reactions:

I was particularly pleased to see Under Heaven on the shortlist for best novel and "Booth’s Ghost" for best short fiction. These were two of my favorite works of fiction from 2010. There are quite a few nominees that I haven't read and I look forward to catching up with as many as I can.

Related link:

Locus Online lists nominees in all the World Fantasy categories

The 2011 Hugo Awards: Novel shortlist

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

I’ve read four of the five novels on the 2011 Hugo Awards shortlist. Cryoburn is the one that I’ve skipped. I decided that to give the book its due I should read the whole Vorkosigan series from the beginning, which I have never done. So far, I’ve read three books in the series and I am enjoying them. It will probably be several months before I’ve caught up with Cryoburn.

Blackout/All Clear was the most frustrating and disappointing of the novel nominees that I have read. There may be a good story about time travelers visiting England during World War II buried within these pages. Unfortunately, this two-volume novel is more than twice the length it should be and contains a multitude of structural issues, “idiot” plotting, and obsessive characters who worry about their concerns repetitively for hundreds of pages. I wrote about this novel in greater detail a few weeks ago. Read the full review.

I would call Feed an energetic puppy of a novel, except Jonathan McCalmont beat me to it, so I suppose I shouldn’t. Set during a U.S. presidential campaign 20-some years after a zombie outbreak, the story is narrated in first person by Georgia Mason, a web blogger who styles herself as a journalist. Georgia attaches herself to the campaign of a promising presidential contender. The zombie threat is ongoing, allowing for life and death situations to develop at any moment. The best parts of the story are the notions about the infectious nature of zombie transmission and the constant blood-testing needed for security. The novel is on less-sure ground when it deals with journalism and politics. Georgia tells us repeatedly that she is dedicated to objectivity and truth, yet when we read her published work it is opinion-filled ranting that has nothing to do with objectivity. She gets special access to her candidate that other media aren’t allowed and instantly she is biased in favor of her candidate. The reader gets little sense of the larger political landscape, either domestic or international. When the story keeps a narrow focus on Georgia and her circle of friends, colleagues, and relatives, with lots of blood and mayhem and zombie fighting, it is entertaining and moves along well. When the novel tries to address larger issues about the media and politics it is frustrating and unsatisfying.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a first novel and a promising one. It stands on its own even though it’s the first book in a trilogy. Yeine Darr is brought to the capitol of a globe-spanning empire and told that she is one of three possible heirs to the dying ruler, setting up a potentially lethal competition for succession. The empire derives much of its power from a pantheon of gods that have been bound and enslaved. The gods have varied and interesting personalities. The great strength of the novel is the first person narrative voice of Yeine, who is in over her head as the story begins. The author puts Yeine through a series of changes and the narrative voice reflects that. Yeine develops a romantic interest in one of the enslaved gods, which is handled well. There is one bedroom scene that is perhaps inadvertently funny, where sex is described in cosmic terms and results in broken furniture.

The Dervish House, set in Istanbul, is the third of the author’s novels dealing with emerging economies in the near future. Prior novels were River of Gods (2004), set in India, and Brasyl (2007), two of the most remarkable science fiction novels of recent years. There isn’t any overlap between these books, except that they each explore non-Western futures. The Dervish House is, I think, the most controlled and enjoyable of the three novels. A detailed picture of Istanbul in 2027 takes shape through a variety of viewpoint characters over the course of five days. Several of the characters live in or near an old converted Dervish house, which becomes something of a character itself. One plot thread turns into a variation on The Da Vinci Code, as an art dealer chases after an ancient artifact, called a mellified man. Unlike The Da Vinci Code, this thread of the story does not wear out its welcome. I was less interested in the story of the gas commodity trader and his plan to manipulate the market. Still, all the threads weave together into a coherent and satisfying whole.

This group of nominees provokes an extreme range of reactions from your humble correspondent, from the exceedingly weak Blackout/All Clear to the especially strong The Dervish House. Foremost among the books that should have been on the shortlist but weren't, Under Heaven by Guy Gaviel Kay was an exceptional fantasy novel set in Tang Dynasty China.

Rankings for the SF Strangelove Hugo Awards ballot for novel:
1. The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
2. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
3. No award.

The 2011 Hugo Awards will be presented August 20, 2011 at Renovation, the World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Reno, Nevada.

Related links:
2011 Hugo Nominees
Reactions to the 2011 Hugo Nominees
2011 Hugo Nominations: Novella
The 2011 Hugo Awards: Novelette Shortlist
The 2011 Hugo Awards: Short Story Shortlist
Renovation, The 69th World Science Fiction Convention: The Hugo Awards

The 2011 Hugo Awards: Novelette Shortlist

“Eight Miles” by Sean McMullen (Analog, September 2010)
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010)
“The Jaguar House, in Shadow” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s, July 2010)
“Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, December 2010)
“That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” by Eric James Stone (Analog, September 2010)

The novelette category is the weakest of the four fiction categories for the Hugo Awards this year. (The strongest fiction category this year is the novella, which was discussed here and here.) Two of these stories are poorly written, three do not provide convincing characters, and four have major flaws in structure or logic. There is only one of the five novelettes that I can recommend as worth reading.

“That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” is perhaps the weakest story and has all the flaws just mentioned. The main character reminded me of the hilarious Gary Jennings novelette, “Sooner or Later or Never Never,” (F&SF, May 1972) which is narrated by a naïve missionary sent to convert natives in the Australian Outback. “That Leviathan” is not a comedy, at least not intentionally. It concerns an attempt to convert alien sun-dwelling beings, solcetaceans, or swales, to the Mormon faith. Chief among the story’s flaws are that the aliens are not convincingly alien and the reader learns nothing of their alien culture.

“The Emperor of Mars” is next weakest and exhibits all of the flaws I first mentioned. It concerns a blue-collar worker on a Mars colony in its roughly built early stages, as narrated in unconvincingly “folksy” style by the manager of the colony. The worker, Jeff, suffers a tragic loss that mentally unbalances him. He finds solace in reading early fantastic stories of Mars. Specifically mentioned are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Stanley Weinbaum, and others. His coworkers indulge him and go along with his fantasy that he is the Emperor of Mars. By the end, the narrator is a transparent stand-in for the author as he heavy-handedly preaches the value of reading and particularly the value of early science fiction. Too bad the sermon doesn’t have much of a story attached.

“The Jaguar House, in Shadow” is hobbled by a structure filled with multiple flashbacks in several timeframes, none of which help the story. It is apparently part of a series of stories set in a high-tech Aztec Empire. It doesn’t stand well on its own. The memorable image that the story offers is that of two former allies, now enemy warriors, each carrying a wounded comrade, who meet in a darkened corridor. Rather than saving this until the end, this would have been a good starting point for the story.

“Eight Miles” is steampunk, set in 1840s England. An inventor on hard financial times earns money as a balloonist for hire. A wealthy aristocrat, Lord Gainsley, retains the inventor for scientific research at high altitudes. Lord Gainsley, the story reveals, is keenly interested in a creature he calls Miss Angelica, who is an alien from another world, exiled to Earth like Napoleon to Elba. She is nearly comatose at sea level and begins to regain her senses at high altitudes. None of the characters are particularly well drawn, and we learn nearly nothing about Miss Angelica, least of all why we should be comparing her to Napoleon.

“Plus or Minus” is the best of a weak group. Mariska is a young adult clone of her mother, a renowned space explorer. Desperate to be out from under the influence of her mother, Mariska finds work on a long-haul spaceship. Onboard ship she is subject to the harassment of her boss, Beep. This harassment and the boredom and escapist activities that make up life on the ship are well done. The story kicks in about midway with the loss of a large ball of ice from which the crew derives oxygen for their life support. In a variation of “The Cold Equations,” instead of surrendering to implacable death resulting from a mistake, the crew struggles to find a way to survive long enough to be rescued. This was stronger than the prior story about Mariska, “Going Deep” (Asimov's, June 2009), and easily gets my vote as the best of the nominees.

Rankings for the SF Strangelove Hugo Awards ballot for novelette:
1. “Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, December 2010) (read the story)
2. No award.

What I said last time about readers looking for better stories than the Hugo nominees being able to find them in any of the best of the year anthologies is even truer of the novelette category. The 2011 Hugo Awards will be presented August 20, 2011 at Renovation, the World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Reno, Nevada.

Related links:
2011 Hugo Nominees
Reactions to the 2011 Hugo Nominees
2011 Hugo Nominations: Novella
The 2011 Hugo Awards: Short Story Shortlist
Renovation, The 69th World Science Fiction Convention: The Hugo Awards

The 2011 Hugo Awards: Short Story Shortlist

It’s a modest year for the Hugo Awards short story shortlist. There are no major highs or lows on the list this year. Two of the stories are a little disappointing and two are pretty good.

“Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010)
“For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Tor.com, November 17, 2010)
“The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)

The stories from weakest to strongest: “Ponies” is a very short, very slight story about mean girls and their talking, flying, unicorn ponies. It distantly recalls Shirley Jackson’s well-known short story “The Lottery.” “Ponies” may be an allegory for something (as was much discussed here). It’s too tiny a wisp of a story to bear any weight at all.

“Amaryllis” is set in a resource-scarce future, which is becoming a popular science fiction setting recently, and revolves around a communal family with a fishing boat who make do with limited circumstances. The setting is well done. The characters are bland and the story is uneventful. The only conflict in the story, with a dishonest weight inspector, is too-easily resolved.

“For Want of a Nail” is another resource-scarce future, set aboard a generation starship where high tech items and repair parts are limited to supplies that were anticipated and packed by great-grandparents. A young woman, Rava, attempts to repair a damaged computer AI and discovers that the AI has been corrupted and that it has been covering for an important member of the community. As the extent of the problem is revealed the story is appropriately tense. The characterizations are solid and the story resolves well.

“The Things” is an inverted retelling of the movie “The Thing,” from the viewpoint of the alien creature. There were two movies: John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982) and Howard Hawks’ “The Thing from Another World” (1951) were both based on the often-reprinted 1938 story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr., about the discovery of an alien spacecraft in the ice in Antarctica and the shape-changing alien survivor. The story was retold, again, in the episode “Ice” in the first season of “The X-Files” (1993). I’ve seen or read all of these prior versions, yet even those who have not will have no problem following the story. A simple inversion of viewpoint isn’t enough to make a successful story and the author does more than that. The first-person alien narrator discovers differences in biology between itself and the humans and goes on a rambling rant about it. It was interesting, even if I wasn’t persuaded by the argument.  The story suffers when compared, inevitably, to the prior year’s story “The Island” by the same author, which was quite a bit stronger. “The Island” also featured unusual alien biology. The story went on to win a well-deserved best novelette Hugo Award at Aussiecon 4, held in Melbourne in 2010.

Rankings for the SF Strangelove Hugo Awards ballot for short story:
1. “The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010) (read the story)
2. “For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010) (read the story in PDF format)
3. “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010) (read the story)
4.  “Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Tor.com, November 17, 2010) (read the story)

This category of the ballot isn’t particularly strong this year. Readers looking for better stories will find them in any of the best of the year anthologies that collected the best short fiction of 2010. Here are the four covering science fiction that I rely on:

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 28th Annual Collection,
edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s)
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year:  Volume Four,
edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books)
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2011,
edited by Rich Horton (Prime)
Year’s Best SF 16,
edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (Harper/Voyager)

The  2011 Hugo Awards will be presented August 20, 2011, at Renovation, the World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Reno, Nevada.

Related links:
A brief review of “The Island” by Peter Watts
2011 Hugo Nominees
Reactions to the 2011 Hugo Nominees (best novella category)

2011 Campbell and Sturgeon Memorial Awards announced

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz/Pyr) won this year’s John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel published in 2010, and novella "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s Sept. 2010) won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short fiction of 2010. The awards were presented by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, during the annual Campbell Conference, held July 7-10, 2011 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

Reactions

This is a jury award rather than a popular vote award, which usually means I am likely to have a high regard for the results. This year is no exception. McDonald's The Dervish House is, I think, the strongest science fiction novel from 2010. I am a less enthusiastic about "The Sultan of the Clouds." It's a solid story, with an interesting braided marriage concept. Still, it was a strong year for short fiction and "Sultan" is nowhere near my top pick, even among the Sturgeon nominees. A couple of my favorites were "The Maiden Flight of McAuley’s Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand and "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" by Paul Park. The remaining stories on the Sturgeon shortlist are worth tracking down, too.

Related links

Campbell and Sturgeon Memorial Awards shortlists announced

Locus Online announcement of 2011 Campbell and Sturgeon Memorial Awards winners

2011 Locus Award winners announced

The winners of the 2011 Locus Awards were announced today in Seattle:

Science Fiction Novel: Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Spectra)
Fantasy Novel: Kraken by China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey)
First Novel: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
YA Book: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
Novella: "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
Novelette: "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains" by Neil Gaiman (Stories)
Short Story: "The Thing About Cassandra" by Neil Gaiman (Songs of Love and Death)
Magazine: Asimov’s
Publisher: Tor
Anthology: Warriors by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Tor)
Collection: Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories, Fritz Leiber, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Charles N. Brown (Night Shade)
Editor: Ellen Datlow
Artist: Shaun Tan
Non-Fiction: Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1: 1907-1948: Learning Curve by William H. Patterson, Jr., (Tor)
Art Book: Spectrum 17, Cathy & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood)

Reactions:
This looks like a good result. I have significant problems with the choice for science fiction novel (see review), but was not surprised by the win. I haven't read Kraken, although I have read China Miéville's most recent novel, Embassytown, which is science fiction and I liked it quite a bit. Hopefully I will have a chance to post a review soon. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was good. Ship Breaker was exceptional, as was "The Lifecycle of Software Objects." I liked "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains" and haven't read "The Thing About Cassandra." Asimov's magazine is certainly having a good run. Most of the rest I can only claim a browsing familiarity. Still, it looks strong, and Datlow and Tan are deserving winners.

2011 Locus Award finalists announced

The top five finalists in each category for the 2011 Locus Awards have been announced. Below are the novel categories. The winners will be named in Seattle WA, June 24-26, 2011.

Science Fiction Novel
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Zero History by William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Spectra)

Fantasy Novel
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Canada; Roc)
Kraken by China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey)
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
The Sorcerer’s House by Gene Wolfe (Tor)

First Novel
The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer (Night Shade)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor)
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Young Adult Book
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins UK; Greenwillow)
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; HarperCollins)
Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

A good looking list. I've read eight of the 20 novels listed and all of the ones I've read have been strong entries.

Related link:

Complete list of the finalists for the 2011 Locus Awards

Edited to add:
I changed a "label" search term to make this blog post easier to find, anticipating the upcoming Locus Awards announcements. Blogspot decided to change the date to the present day, instead of leaving it back in May or whenever it was. Live and learn.

Sturgeon and Campbell Memorial Awards shortlists announced

The finalists for the 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for short fiction have been announced:

“Mammoths of the Great Plains” by Eleanor Arnason (Mammoths of the Great Plains)
“Under the Moons of Venus” by Damien Broderick (Subterranean Spring ’10)
“The Maiden Flight of McAuley’s Bellerophon“ by Elizabeth Hand (Stories)
“The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis  (Asimov’s 9/10)
“Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee (Lightspeed 9/10)
“Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance” by Paul Park  (F&SF 1-2/10)
“Dead Man’s Run” by Robert Reed  (F&SF 11-12/10)
“Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines)
“A Letter from the Emperor” by Steve Rasnic Tem (Asimov’s 1/10)
“The Night Train” by Lavie Tidhar (Strange Horizons 6/14/10)
“The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld 1/10)

And, the finalists for the 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for science fiction novel have been announced:

Yarn by Jon Armstrong (Night Shade)
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear (Orbit)
Zero History by William Gibson, (Putnam)
C by Tom McCarthy (Knopf)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz/Pyr)
New Model Army by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz/Tor)
Veteran by Gavin Smith (Gollancz)
The Waters Rising by Sheri S. Tepper (Eos)
Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat (Melville House)
Anthill by E. O. Wilson (Norton)
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Spectra)
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Both awards will be presented during the 2011 Campbell Conference Awards Banquet, to be held July 7-10 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

These are jury-chosen awards. The jury consists of Gregory Benford, Paul Di Filippo, Sheila Finch, James Gunn, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Paul Kincaid, Christopher McKitterick, Pamela Sargent, and T.A. Shippey.

Reactions:
Having read eight of the 11 short fiction nominees it looks like a strong list. The stories I've read were good to excellent, which makes it a more consistent list than, say, the Nebula Awards.

I've only read four of the 13 novels on the Campbell shortlist. Three of those were solid and one (Blackout/All Clear, see review) was a clunker. The novel list is particularly interesting, since it includes some authors and titles that I don't know.

Related links:
Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalists
John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalists

2011 Nebula Award winners announced

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have announced the 2011 Nebula Award winners for work published in 2010. The awards were presented today in Washinton, D.C.

Novel: Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

Novella: "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window", Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’10)

Novelette: "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made", Eric James Stone (Analog 9/10)

Short Story (tie) "Ponies", Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10) and "How Interesting: A Tiny Man", Harlan Ellison (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)

Ray Bradbury Award (Dramatic Presentation) Inception, Christopher Nolan (director), Christopher Nolan (screenplay) (Warner)

Andre Norton Award (Young Adult) I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper)

Reaction:
I've read "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" and have already written here that it was one of the best novellas of 2010 (novella discussion). I am halfway through Blackout/All Clear and will reserve judgment. In the film category, Inception was disappointing (film review).

Related link:
Locus Online's report on all the Nebula Award winners and nominees

Arthur C. Clarke Award and Ditmar Awards

The winner of the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award (British, juried award) was announced today: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot).

The winners of this year’s Ditmar Awards (Australian, fan-voted) were presented two days ago at Swancon in Perth: Best Novel: Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Voyager).

Zoo City is available in the United States, Power and Majesty is not. The Clarke Award has just the one category: best novel. The Ditmars have a lengthy list of categories, much like the Hugos. One award caught my eye: Best Fan Publication: Galactic Suburbia podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Alex Pierce. I've been enjoying this podcast for the past several months. Each of the three hosts picked up multiple Ditmar Awards this year.

Related links:
Beukes Wins Arthur C. Clarke Award
Ditmar Awards

Reactions to 2011 Hugo Award Nominees

I’ve read three of the novels on the 2011 Hugo Awards shortlist that was announced yesterday, including The Dervish House by Ian McDonald, which is my top choice so far. I have yet to read the Connie Willis and the Lois McMaster Bujold. When I have finished them I’ll give my rankings in a post on this blog.

In the novella category, I’ve read all five of the nominees and I think this is a solid category. Four of these stories are very strong.  "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" is an easy choice for me. The story is beautifully written. Its dovetailing stories are nostalgic and wonderfully poignant. My ballot ranking:

1. "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand (Stories)
2. “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
3. "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean)
4. "Troika" by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines)
5. "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov's)

The main omission on the novella list is "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" by Paul Park (F&SF), which would have given “McCauley's Bellerophon" competition for the top spot on my ballot. "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" is a challenging story, and popular-vote awards don't usually reward stories that take a little effort on the part of the reader. Gratifyingly, "Ghosts"  is on the Nebula Award shortlist.

I haven’t read enough of other nominees to comment just yet. If the creek don’t rise, I will comment on each of the fiction categories, and perhaps some others, too.

Related links:
2011 Hugo Award Nominees
2011 Hugo Nominations: Novella

2011 Hugo Award Nominees

Nominees for the Hugo Awards were announced today by Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Reno, Nevada, August 17-21, 2011. 1006 valid nominating ballots were counted. The Hugo Awards ceremony will take place August 20, 2011.

Best Novel
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

Best Novella
“The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2010)
“The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
“The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow)
“The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines, Science Fiction Book Club)

Best Novelette
“Eight Miles” by Sean McMullen (Analog, September 2010)
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010)
“The Jaguar House, in Shadow” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s, July 2010)
“Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, December 2010)
“That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” by Eric James Stone (Analog, September 2010)

Best Short Story
“Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010)
“For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Tor.com, November 17, 2010)
“The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)

Best Related Work
Bearings: Reviews 1997-2001 by Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon)
The Business of Science Fiction: Two Insiders Discuss Writing and Publishing by Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg (McFarland)
Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea (Mad Norwegian)
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1: (1907–1948): Learning Curve by William H. Patterson, Jr. (Tor)
Writing Excuses, Season 4 by Brandon Sanderson, Jordan Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells

I'll save commentary on the nominees for next time. There are many more categories for Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. For a complete list follow here for the report at Locus Online. 

Philip K. Dick and BSFA Awards announced

The British Science Fiction Awards for work from 2010 were announced today at Eastercon in Birmingham, UK:

Novel: The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
Short Fiction: “The Shipmaker” by Aliette de Bodard
   (Interzone 231, TTA Press)
Art: Zoo City cover art by Joey Hi-Fi (Angry Robot)
Non Fiction: “Blogging the Hugos: Decline” by Paul Kincaid (Big Other)

The Philip K. Dick Award was announced last night at Norwescon, Seattle, WA. The winner was The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (Pyr).

Congratulations to all.