Saturday, September 4, 2004

2004 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: Noreascon 4 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Comments: Sometimes the Hugo awards will honor a good work, and yet still clearly fail to give the award to the most deserving nominee. That happened this year in the Short Form Dramatic Presentation category where Gollum's acceptance speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards won the prize. The acceptance speech was for the award "Best Digital Character", and knowing that the award was going to be given to Gollum ahead of time WETA Digital cooked up a routine where Andy Serkis started to accept the award but was interrupted by an incensed Gollum. If you have the extended edition DVD set of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, it is included as a hidden Easter egg at the end of the first disc's listing of scene selections. The bit was funny and well-done, but it was just a trivial piece of fluff. There is simply no real argument that can be made that it was a more deserving winner than either of the two Firefly episodes or the Buffy episode it was up against (not having seen Smallville, I can't offer an opinion one way or another on the quality of its nominated episode). I think the award should have gone to the Firefly episode The Message, but I didn't get to make the decision.

I can't be certain, but it seems plausible that Gollum's victory was a side effect of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King winning the Long Form Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award, which capped off a three year sweep for that category for Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, and company. In the print categories, Lois McMaster Bujold added yet another Hugo trophy to her already impressive collection, and Neil Gaiman won a Hugo Award for the third year in a row, with each victory coming in a different category.

Best Novel

Winner:
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Other Finalists:
Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
Humans by Robert J. Sawyer
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

Best Novella

Winner:
The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge

Other Finalists:
The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
The Green Leopard Plague by Walter Jon Williams
Just Like the Ones We Used to Know by Connie Willis
Walk in Silence by Catherine Asaro

Best Novelette

Winner:
Legions in Time by Michael Swanwick

Other Finalists:
Bernardo's House by James Patrick Kelly
The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
Hexagons by Robert Reed
Into the Gardens of Sweet Night by Jay Lake
Nightfall Charles Stross

Best Short Story

Winner:
A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

Other Finalists:
Four Short Novels by Joe Haldeman
Paying it Forward by Michael A. Burstein
Robots Don't Cry by Mike Resnick
The Tale of the Golden Eagle by David D. Levine

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:
The Chesley Awards for Science Fiction & Fantasy Art: A Retrospective by John Grant and Elizabeth L. Humphrey, with Pamela D. Scoville

Other Finalists:
Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by Brian Herbert
Master Storyteller: An Illustrated Tour of the Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard by William J. Widder
Scores: Reviews 1993-2003 by John Clute
Spectrum 10: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Winner:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Other Finalists:
28 Days Later
Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
X2: X-Men United

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Winner:
Gollum's Acceptance Speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards

Other Finalists:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen
Firefly: Heart of Gold
Firefly: The Message
Smallville: Rosetta

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Other Finalists:
Ellen Datlow
David G. Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon van Gelder

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Bob Eggleton

Other Finalists:
Jim Burns
Frank Frazetta
Frank Kelly Freas
Donato Giancola

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, and Jennifer A. Hall

Other Finalists:
Ansible edited by David Langford
Interzone edited by David Pringle
The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin Maroney
The Third Alternative edited by Andy Cox

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Emerald City edited by Cheryl Morgan

Other Finalists:
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian, III
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Mimosa edited by Nicki Lynch and Rich Lynch
Plokta edited by Steve Davies, Alison Scott, and Mike Scott

Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Jeff Berkwits
Bob Devney
John L. Flynn
Cheryl Morgan

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Other Finalists:
Brad Foster
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Jay Lake

Other Finalists:
David D. Levine
Karin Lowachee
Chris Moriarty
Tim Pratt

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2003
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2005

2004 Hugo Longlist     Book Award Reviews     Home

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