1945 Retro Hugo Award Longlist (awarded in 2020)

The Retro Hugos are a failure from almost every perspective. I have written about this extensively over the last couple of years, and I'm not going to rehash all of those arguments again here. I've laid out the evidence, I've made the arguments, and I think I've made the case.

That said, there is one potential reason that could justify the Retro Hugos, and that is the list of works that are associated with the Retro Hugo longlist could be used as a guide to finding worthwhile works from an older era, highlighting overlooked or forgotten gems from a bygone era, and allowing modern readers to discover lesser-known older writers and their works.

The problem is, even in the longlist, the Retro Hugos are not particularly good at serving this purpose. Every year it seems like the same handful of authors dominate both the list of official finalists and the longlist as well. As an example, look at the longlist for the Best Short Story category: Two stories by Ray Bradbury and one story each from Isaac Asimov, Fredric Brown, Lester del Rey, Fritz Leiber, C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, John R. Pierce,  Dorothy Quick, and Manly Wade Wellman. That's a list of eight authors that are already famous and well-regarded, and two who are somewhat obscure.

The question more or less boils down to: Is it worth keeping an award this flawed in order to provide a spotlight that will bring one or two authors in each category back into relevance? Is that enough to keep handing out awards to mediocre early work by authors like Asimov and Bradbury? Is that enough to justify handing another editing award to Jon W. Campbell? Is a list dominated by authors who one really needs no help finding worth creating on a regular basis? Seriously, all you have to do is mention that you are interested in science fiction and you will be offered a dozen suggestions penned by Asimov, Bradbury, Burroughs, and Heinlein, and only slightly fewer suggestions for works by authors like Brackett, Kuttner, Leiber, Sturgeon, and van Vogt. No one needs any "help" finding them or their work.

In the end, the Retro Hugos are nothing but a self-indulgent nostalgia fest for the tiny handful of Worldcon members who bother to participate. This is, for the most part, the reason why the retro Hugos have become the useless appendage on the actual Hugos that they are. Fortunately, they are limited by the rules that create them, so there are only seven more opportunities to go through this nigh- pointless exercise.

Best Novel

Finalists:
The Golden Fleece (Hercules, My Shipmate) by Robert Graves
Land of Terror by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Shadow Over Mars (The Nemesis from Terra) by Leigh Brackett [winner]
Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord by Olaf Stapledon
The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater
The Winged Man by A.E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull

Longlisted Nominees:
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Delicate Ape by Dorothy B. Hughes
Destiny Times Three by Fritz Leiber
The Golden Amazon by John Russell Fearn
Magic Moon by Brett Sterling
Miss Shumway Waves a Wand by James Hadley Chase
Renaissance by Raymond F.Jones
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Time Must Have a Stop by Aldous Huxley
Le Voyageur Imprudent (Future Times Three) by René Barjavel
The World of Null-A by A.E. van Vogt
Worlds Beginning by Robert Ardrey

Best Novella

Finalists:
The Changeling by A.E. van Vogt
A God Named Kroo by Henry Kuttner
Intruders from the Stars by Ross Rocklynne
The Jewel of Bas by Leigh Brackett

Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon [winner]

Old Man in New World by Olaf Stapledon [ineligible]
Trog by Murray Leinster

Longlisted Nominees:
The Dead Hand by Isaac Asimov
The Dweller in Darkness by August Derleth
Giant Killer by A. Bertram Chandler
The Giant Runt by Ross Rocklynne
Judgment Night by C.L. Moore
The Mad Robot by William P. McGivern
Minions of the Crystal Sphere by Albert dePina
The Mule by Isaac Asimov (reviewed as part of Foundation and Empire)
Murder In Space by David V. Reed
Plague by Murray Leinster
The Return of Jongor by Robert Moore Williams
Star Base X by Robert Moore Williams
Strangers on the Heights by Manly Wade Wellman
Sword of Tomorrow by Henry Kuttner
Wanderers of the Wolf Moon by Nelson S. Bond

Best Novelette

Finalists:
Arena by Fredric Brown
The Big and the Little (The Merchant Princes) by Isaac Asimov
The Children’s Hour by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner

City by Clifford D. Simak (reviewed as part of the fix up novel City) [winner]

No Woman Born by C.L. Moore
When the Bough Breaks by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner

Longlisted Nominees
The Beasts of Barsac by Robert Bloch
Census by Clifford Simak
The Day the World Stood Still by Allison Harding
Deadline by Cleve Cartmill
The Dweller in Darkness by August Derleth
Plague by Murray Leinster
Ride the El to Doom by Allison Harding
Technical Error by Hal Clement
Terror Out of Space by Leigh Brackett
The Veil of Astellar by Leigh Brackett

Best Short Story

Finalists:
And the Gods Laughed by Fredric Brown
Desertion by Clifford D. Simak
Far Centaurus by A. E. van Vogt

Huddling Place by Clifford D. Simak (reviewed in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume I, 1929-1964)

I, Rocket by Ray Bradbury [winner]
The Wedge (The Traders) by Isaac Asimov

Longlisted Nominees
And Then, the Silence by Ray Bradbury
Catch that Rabbit by Isaac Asimov (reviewed in I. Robot)
The Gothic Window by Dorothy Quick
Hoofs by Manly Wade Wellman
Housing Problem by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner
Invariant by John R. Pierce
Kindness by Lester del Rey
The Lake by Ray Bradbury
Sanity by Fritz Leiber
The Yehudi Principle by Fredric Brown

Best Series

Finalists:
Captain Future by Edmond Hamilton
The Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, and others [winner]
Doc Savage by Kenneth Robeson (mostly Lester Dent)
Foundation by Isaac Asimov [ineligible] (starting with Foundation)
Jules de Grandin by Seabury Quinn
Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Shadow by Walter B. Gibson
Venus Equilateral by George O. Smith [ineligible]

Longlisted Nominees
Buck Rogers by Dick Calkins
City by Clifford Simak
Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond
G-8 and His Battle Aces by Robert J. Hogan
The Golden Amazon by John Russell Fearn
John Thunstone by Manly Wade Wellman
Joseph Jorkens by Lord Dunsany
Robots by Isaac Asimov (starting with I, Robot and The Caves of Steel)

Best Related Work

Finalists:

’42 To ’44: A Contemporary Memoir Upon Human Behavior During the Crisis of the World Revolution by H.G. Wells

The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley [ineligible]
Fancyclopedia by Jack Speer
Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom by George Gamow
Rockets: The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere by Willy Ley

The Science-Fiction Field by Leigh Brackett [winner]

The Works of H.P. Lovecraft: Suggestions for a Critical Appraisal by Fritz Leiber

Longlisted Nominees
Futurian War Digest edited by J. Michael Rosenblum
The Grey Mouser (poem) by Fritz Leiber
The Inner Ring by C.S. Lewis
Little Known Fantaisistes by Harold Wakefield
Marginalia: H.P. Lovecraft edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei
Panic: The Orson Welles Broadcast That Hoaxed America
Rockets: A Prelude to Space Travel by Willy Ley
The Story Behind the Story: Veil of Astellar by Leigh Brackett
A Treasury of American Folklore edited by Benjamin Botkin

Best Graphic Story

Finalists:
Buck Rogers: Hollow Planetoid by Dick Calkins
Donald Duck: The Mad Chemist by Carl Barks
Flash Gordon: Battle for Tropica by Don Moore and Alex Raymond
Flash Gordon: Triumph in Tropica by Don Moore and Alex Raymond

The Spirit: For the Love of Clara Defoe by Manly Wade Wellman, Lou Fine and Don Komisarow

Superman: The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Brick Bradford: Beyond the Crystal Door by William Ritt; art by Clarence Gray
Buck Rogers: Monkeymen of Planet by Dick Calkins
Buck Rogers: Planet of the Rising Sun by Dick Calkins
Buck Rogers: Plastic Percy by Dick Calkins
Captain Marvel Adventures: Monster Society of Evil by Otto Binder; art by C.C. Beck
Captain Marvel Adventures: Silvana's Twin by Otto Binder; art by C.C. Beck

Detective Comics #94 Batman by by Bill Finger and Jack Farr; art by Ed Kressy, Dick Sprang, Jack Farr, Howard Sherman, George Roussos and Louis Cazeneuve

Ibis the Invincible: Loki the Terrible by Otto Binder; art by C.C. Beck
Lady Satan: The Allied Assassination Plot art by George Tuska
Mandrake the Magician: The Dome by Lee Falk and Phil Davis
Mandrake: The Earthshaker by Lee Falk and Phil Davis
Mandrake: The Garden of Wuzzu by Lee Falk and Phil Davis
Mandrake: The Mirror People by Lee Falk and Phil Davis
The Phantom: High-Sea Hijacker by Lee Falk; art by Wilson McCoy
Plastic Man: The Gay Nineties Nightmare by Gary Wheeler
Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure by Hérge

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Finalists:

The Canterville Ghost screenplay by Edwin Harvey Blum from a story by Oscar Wilde [winner]

The Curse of the Cat People written by DeWitt Bodeen [winner]
Donovan’s Brain adapted by Robert L. Richards from a story by Curt Siodmak

House of Frankenstein screenplay by Edward T. Lowe, Jr. from a story by Curt Siodmak

The Invisible Man’s Revenge written by Bertram Millhauser
It Happened Tomorrow screenplay and adaptation by Dudley Nichols and René Clair

Longlisted Nominees:
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves written by Edmund L. Hartmann
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street written by Dr. Seuss
The Mysterious Traveler: Beware of Tomorrow written by Robert A. Arthur
The Mysterious Traveler: The Queen of the Cats by Maurice Tarplin

The Lady and the Monster screenplay by Dane Lussier and Frederick Kohner, based on the novel by Curt Siodmak

The Old Gray Hare written by Michael Sasanoff
The Shadow: The Man who Dreamed Too Much
They Came to a City by J.B. Priestley, Basil Dearden, and Sidney Cole
Time Flies written by Ted Kavanagh, J.O.C. Orton, and Howard Irving Young

The Uninvited screenplay by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos, based on the novel by Dorothy Macardle

Best Professional Editor: Short Form

Finalists:
John W. Campbell [winner]
Oscar J. Friend
Mary Gnaedinger
Dorothy McIlwraith
Raymond A. Palmer
W. Scott Peacock

Longlisted Nominees:
Bernard G. Davis
William de Grouchy
Sam Moskowitz
Frederik Pohl
Babette Rosmond
Donald A. Wollheim

Best Professional Artist

Finalists:
Earle K. Bergey
Margaret Brundage [winner]
Boris Dolgov
Matt Fox
Paul Orban
William Timmins

Longlisted Nominees:
Rudolph Belarski
Hannes Bok
Chesley Bonestell
Virgil Finlay
Graham Ingels
Harry Lemon Parkhurst
Frank R. Paul
J. Allen St. John
Modest Stein
Lawrence Stevens
Vin Sullivan
A.R. Tilburne

Best Fanzine

Finalists:
The Acolyte edited by Francis T. Laney and Samuel D. Russell
Diablerie edited by Bill Watson
Futurian War Digest edited by J. Michael Rosenblum
Shangri L’Affaires edited by Charles Burbee

Voice of the Imagi-Nation edited by Forrest J. Ackerman and Myrtle R. Douglas [winner]

Le Zombie edited by Bob Tucker and E.E. Evans

Longlisted Nominees:

British Fantasy Society Bulletin edited by D.R. Smith

Centauri edited by Andy Anderson
Chanticleer edited by Walt Liebscher
Fanewscard edited by Ed Connor and Frank Robinson
Fantasite edited by Phil Bronson and Walt Daugerty
Fantasticonglomeration edited by Forrest J. Ackerman
Fantasy Fiction Field edited by Julius Unger
Fantasy Times edited by Sam Moskowitz
Guteto edited by Morojo (aka Myrtle R. Douglas)
Horizons edited by Harry Warner, Jr.
The Phantagraph edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Sappho edited by Bill Watson and George Ebey
Toward Tomorrow edited by James Kepner
YHOS edited by Art Widner
Zizzle-Pop edited by Louis Russell Chauvenet

Best Fan Writer

Finalists:
Fritz Leiber [winner]
Morojo (aka Myrtle R. Douglas)
J. Michael Rosenblum
Jack Speer
Bob Tucker
Harry Warner, Jr.

Longlisted Nominees:
Forrest J. Ackerman
Robert Bloch
Charles Burbee
Ted Carnell
Russell Chauvenet
E. Everett Evans
F.T. Laney
David Langford
Sam Moskowitz
Elmer Purdue
Milton A. Rothman
Samuel D. Russell
Julius Unger
Harold Wakefield
Bill Watson
Art Widner
Donald A. Wollheim
Elsie Wollheim
T. Bruce Yerke

Go to previous year's longlist: 1944 (awarded in 2019)
Go to subsequent year's longlist: 1946 (awarded in 1996)

Go to 1945 Hugo Finalists and Winners

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1945 Retro Hugo Award Finalists (awarded in 2020)

Location: CoNZealand, Wellington, New Zealand.

Comments: The Retro Hugo Awards are a joke.

There I said it. It's a shame, and they didn't have to be a joke, but they are.

I've highlighted all the flaws inherent in the way these awards are structured and administered over the years, and every year the awards seem bound and determined to demonstrate these flaws over and over again, and this year was no exception - and this year even managed to find ways to be flawed in ways I hadn't even considered. Look at the Best Series category, where The Cthulhu Mythos won. This is such a vaguely defined "series' that its victory could possibly have made literally hundreds of works and dozens of authors Hugo winners. Just how far does this award extend? Charles Stross has written some Chtulhu pastiches. Is he a Hugo winner for those stories now? Tamsyn Muir has written some clearly Cthulhu-inspired fiction. Is she a Hugo winner for her stories now? Just how many people are now Hugo winners? Does anybody know? More to the point, since this is a Retro Hugo, does anybody care?

From a certain perspective, the debacle of the 1945 Best Series is just another side effect of trying to jam classic material into modern categories, but it is emblematic of the thoughtless and haphazard way in which the Retro Hugos were conceived and the careless way in which they are handled. No one really thought through what this nomination meant, and no one really seems to care about its implications. Its just another case of a badly designed award being badly run, and the drive to smear nostalgia all over the lens blurring away any kind of care or reason.

The Retro Hugos didn't have to be this mess. They could have been a vehicle for highlighting lesser known but excellent works from an older era. I am even willing to believe this was what the creators of the award had in mind when they first put forward the proposal for them. The reality, however, has been nominations and wins for the often mediocre early work of the tiny handful of authors that everyone remembers because they were famous for years long after the years these award supposedly apply to. That and the voters handing John W. Campbell yet another Hugo for editing.

The Retro Hugo isn't an award for good science fiction from the past. It is a way for a tiny fraction of Worldcon attendees to exercise their nostalgia. It could have been more, but it isn't. And that make the Retro Hugos a joke.

Best Novel

Winner:
Shadow Over Mars (The Nemesis from Terra) by Leigh Brackett

Other Finalists:
The Golden Fleece (Hercules, My Shipmate) by Robert Graves
Land of Terror by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord by Olaf Stapledon
The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater
The Winged Man by A.E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull


Best Novella

Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon

Other Finalists:
The Changeling by A.E. van Vogt
A God Named Kroo by Henry Kuttner
Intruders from the Stars by Ross Rocklynne
The Jewel of Bas by Leigh Brackett
Trog by Murray Leinster


Best Novelette

Winner:

City by Clifford D. Simak (reviewed as part of the fix up novel City)

Other Finalists:
Arena by Fredric Brown
The Big and the Little (The Merchant Princes) by Isaac Asimov
The Children’s Hour by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner
No Woman Born by C.L. Moore
When the Bough Breaks by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner

Best Short Story

Winner:
I, Rocket by Ray Bradbury

Other Finalists:
And the Gods Laughed by Fredric Brown
Desertion by Clifford D. Simak
Far Centaurus by A. E. van Vogt
Huddling Place by Clifford D. Simak (reviewed as part of the fix up novel City)
The Wedge (The Traders) by Isaac Asimov

Best Series

Winner:
The Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, and others

Other Finalists:
Captain Future by Edmond Hamilton
Doc Savage by Kenneth Robeson (mostly Lester Dent)
Jules de Grandin by Seabury Quinn
Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Shadow by Walter B. Gibson

Best Related Work

Winner:

The Science-Fiction Field by Leigh Brackett

Other Finalists:

’42 To ’44: A Contemporary Memoir Upon Human Behavior During the Crisis of the World Revolution by H.G. Wells

Fancyclopedia by Jack Speer
Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom by George Gamow
Rockets: The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere by Willy Ley
The Works of H.P. Lovecraft: Suggestions for a Critical Appraisal by Fritz Leiber

Best Graphic Story

Winner:

Superman: The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Other Finalists:
Buck Rogers: Hollow Planetoid by Dick Calkins
Donald Duck: The Mad Chemist by Carl Barks
Flash Gordon: Battle for Tropica by Don Moore and Alex Raymond
Flash Gordon: Triumph in Tropica by Don Moore and Alex Raymond

The Spirit: For the Love of Clara Defoe by Manly Wade Wellman, Lou Fine and Don Komisarow

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Winner:

(tie) The Canterville Ghost screenplay by Edwin Harvey Blum from a story by Oscar Wilde

(tie) The Curse of the Cat People written by DeWitt Bodeen

Other Finalists:
Donovan’s Brain adapted by Robert L. Richards from a story by Curt Siodmak
House of Frankenstein screenplay by Edward T. Lowe, Jr. from a story by Curt Siodmak
The Invisible Man’s Revenge written by Bertram Millhauser
It Happened Tomorrow screenplay and adaptation by Dudley Nichols and René Clair

Best Professional Editor: Short Form

Winner:
John W. Campbell

Other Finalists:
Oscar J. Friend
Mary Gnaedinger
Dorothy McIlwraith
Raymond A. Palmer
W. Scott Peacock

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Margaret Brundage

Other Finalists:
Earle K. Bergey
Boris Dolgov
Matt Fox
Paul Orban
William Timmins

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Voice of the Imagi-Nation edited by Forrest J. Ackerman and Myrtle R. Douglas

Other Finalists:
The Acolyte edited by Francis T. Laney and Samuel D. Russell
Diablerie edited by Bill Watson
Futurian War Digest edited by J. Michael Rosenblum
Shangri L’Affaires edited by Charles Burbee
Le Zombie edited by Bob Tucker and E.E. Evans


Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Fritz Leiber

Other Finalists:
Morojo (aka Myrtle R. Douglas)
J. Michael Rosenblum
Jack Speer
Bob Tucker
Harry Warner, Jr.

Go to previous year's finalists: 1944 (awarded in 2019)
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 1946 (awarded in 1996)

What Are the Hugo Awards?

1945 Retro Hugo Award Longlist     Book Award Reviews     Home

Challenge - The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2020

Unlike previous years, I am not participating in any annual reading challenges this year. I have simply been too disappointed in the administration of too many of the challenges to bother any more. This year, I am still creating a comprehensive list of everything I review in the year, and I am hoping to get a lot of reviews completed. In addition to reviewing books I also review magazine issues, movies, television episodes, and albums, and in order to capture all of these reviews as well as my book reviews I've created this tracking page, which I will use to provide links to my reviews as I post them. This isn't really a "challenge", but I am listing it in place of my old challenge tracking pages, because that seems like the best place to put it.

The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2020:

Becoming Superman by J. Michael Straczynski

Multi-Year Challenge Tracking Pages
101 Fantasy Reading Challenge
Read All the Books Challenge

Home

1944 Retro Hugo Award Longlist (awarded in 2019)

Looking through the Retro Hugo information to create the 2019 Retro Hugo Longlist brings to my mind the question that I always have about the Retro Hugos: Why do these exist?

One justification that could be raised is that the Retro Hugos are intended to honor the finalists and winners, giving them the kudos they deserve for their contributions to the genre, but that seems like a fairly flimsy rationale to me. I have not checked to see for certain, but I am reasonably confident that everyone who either is on this longlist or was involved in the creation of a work appearing on this longlist is now dead. They are beyond caring what is done to honor them for their work.

Another justification that might be raised is that the Worldcon members feel the need to express their admiration of the people and works nominated - sort of the flip side of the first rationale, but with the people being gratified being people who are living current Worldcon members rather than artists, writers, and editors who have passed away. Given the level of participation that the Retro Hugos engender, this seems like a weak rationale as well. Some people have criticized the Hugo Awards as having an unrepresentative voting base, but at the very least one can say that the bulk of the attending and supporting Worldcon members participate in the process that results in those awards. In contrast, only a tiny fraction of the Worldcon members bother with the Retro Hugos.

So few people participate in the Retro Hugos, that entire categories are routinely left off of the ballot due to a lack of nominations for finalists. In 2019, Best Related Work, Best Semiprozine, Best Long Form Professional Editor, Best Fancast, Best Fan Artist, and Best Art Book all failed to garner enough support to even appear on the ballot. For some of these categories, such as Best Fancast, the reason is obvious, while for others it seems that voters just couldn't be bothered to come up with appropriate nominees. The number of people participating the the nominating process is minuscule - some of the longlisted nominees on this list got their by virtue of a single nominating vote, many more with two or three nominations. The number of nominators topped out at about six dozen for the most nominated novel. The number of Worldcon voters who participated in the actual vote to determine the Retro Hugo winners was only marginally higher.

In addition to this apparent lack of interest, it seems that many who do participate in the Retro Hugo process don't actually have any idea what they are supposed to be nominating. Two potential finalists were disqualified because they were not published in 1943. When I was going through the longlist to fill out the incomplete data about the nominees, it became apparent that many of the longlisted works were also ineligible due to being published in a year other than 1943. One person even cast a nominating ballot for Exit Strategy, a novella that was published in 2018.

One might think this confusion would lead to an interesting array of nominees being put forward, and that might be a reason for the Retro Hugos - to put a spotlight on people and works that otherwise might be forgotten. The reality, however, is that the nominees seem to be drawn from the relatively small pool of options that have endured the test of time. Most of the fiction nominees were written by the same handful of well-known authors, the same holds true for the artist and editor categories - the same handful of people get nominated over an over again. Functionally what this means is that figures like Fritz Leiber, Robert A. Henlein, John W. Campbell, Leigh Brackett, and A.E. van Vogt dominate the resulting lists of nominees. Do these people really need more recognition?

The potential honorees are dead, almost no Worldcon members participate, those that do seem to be frequently confused about what is eligible, and the nominees are largely people who who were already weighted down with honors during their lifetimes. So, the question remains: Why do the Retro Hugos exist? What purpose do they serve?

Best Novel

Finalists:
Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber [winner]
Earth’s Last Citadel by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner
Gather, Darkness! by Fritz Leiber
Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game) by Hermann Hesse
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
The Weapon Makers by A.E. van Vogt

Longlisted Nominees:
The Black, Black Witch by Kenneth Robeson
The Book of Ptath by A.E. van Vogt
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
Fog Magic by Julia L. Sauer
Judgment Night by C.L. Moore
The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
Malpertuis by Jean Ray
Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P.L. Travers
Ravage/Ashes Ashes by René Barjavel
Sirius by Olaf Stapledon

Best Novella

Finalists:
Attitude by Hal Clement
Clash by Night by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry [winner]

The Magic Bed-Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons by Mary Norton

We Print the Truth by Anthony Boucher

Longlisted Nominees:
Exile to Centauri by Ross Rocklynne
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
Genie of Bagdad by William P. McGivern
The Giant Atom by Malcolm Jameson
The Great Brain Panic by Don Wilcox
Hell Hath Fury by Cleve Cartmill
Killdozer by Theodore Sturgeon
The Lost Warship by Robert Moore Williams
One-Way Trip by Anthony Boucher
Opposites-React! by Jack Williamson
The Robot Master by Walter B. Gibson

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein (reviewed in The Fantasies of Robert A,. Heinlein)

Waldo by Robert A. Heinlein (reviewed in The Fantasies of Robert A,. Heinlein)

Wings of Icarus by Ray Cummings

Best Novelette

Finalists:
Citadel of Lost Ships by Leigh Brackett
The Halfling by Leigh Brackett

Mimsy Were the Borogoves by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner [winner]

The Proud Robot by Henry Kuttner
Symbiotica by Eric Frank Russell

Thieves’ House by Fritz Leiber

Longlisted Nominees
Angelic Angleworm by Fredric Brown
The Beast by A.E. van Vogt
The Cave by P. Schuyler Miller
Daymare by Fredric Brown
Elsewhen by Anthony Boucher
Greenface by James H. Schmitz
Message from Mars by Clifford Simak
The Storm by A.E. van Vogt
Thralls of the Endless Night by Leigh Brackett
Time Locker by Henry Kuttner

Best Short Story

Finalists:
Death Sentence by Isaac Asimov
Doorway into Time by C.L. Moore
Exile by Edmond Hamilton
King of the Gray Spaces (aka R is for Rocket) by Ray Bradbury [winner]
Q.U.R. by H.H. Holmes
Yours Truly – Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch

Longlisted Nominees
The Crowd by Ray Bradbury
The Devil Is Not Mocked by Manly Wade Wellman
The Geezenstacks by Fredric Brown
The Gremlins by Roald Dahl
The Iron Standard by Lewis Padgett
Nothing But Gingerbread Left by Henry Kuttner
The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges
The Scythe by Ray Bradbury
They Bite by Anthony Boucher
The Wind by Ray Bradbury

Best Graphic Story

Finalists:

Buck Rogers: Martians Invade Jupiter by Philip Nowlan and Dick Calkins

Flash Gordon: Fiery Desert of Mongo by Alex Raymond
Garth by Steve Dowling
Nelvana of the Northern Lights and the Ice-Beam by Adrian Dingle [ineligible]
Plastic Man #1: The Game of Death by Jack Cole
Le Secret de la Licorne (The Secret of the Unicorn) by Hergé

Wonder Woman #5: Battle for Womanhood written by William Moulton Marsden, art by Harry G. Peter [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:

All-Star Comics #18 written by Gardner Fox, art by Joe Gallagher, Sheldon Moldoff, Pierce Rice, Arturo Cazeneuve, Bernard Baily, Howard Sherman, and Stan Aschmeier

Brick Bradford: On the Throne of Titania written by William Ritt, art by Clarence Gray
Buck Rogers: Mechanical Bloodhound written by Flint Dille, art by Dick Calkins

Captain America Comics written by Stan Lee, Otto Binder, and Ray Cummings, art by Al Avison, Harry Sahle, Don Rico, Ed Asch, Syd Shores, Bob Oksner, Guy Blythe, Carl Pfeufer, Jack Alderman, Paul Reinman, Vince Alascia, Carmine Infantino, Al Fagaly, Al Bellman, Sid Greene, Al Gabriele, Jimmy Thompson, Ken Bald, and Mike Sekowsky

Donald Duck: The Mummy's Ring by Carl Banks
Donald Duck: The Victory Garden by Carl Banks
Green Lantern #7: The Wizard of Odds written by Bill Finger, art by Martin Nodell

Green Lantern #10: The Man Who Wanted the World written by Alfred Bester, art by Martin Nodell

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Mandrake the Magician: Baron Kord written by Lee Falk, art by Phil Davis
Many Moons written by James Thurber, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin
Otomox written by André Mavimus, art by Roger Roux
The Phantom: The Phantom's Engagement written by Lee Falk, art by Wilson McCoy
Le Rayon U by Edgar P. Jacobs
Submariner and The Green Island Menace art by Carl Pfeufer
Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws by Hergé
Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure by Hergé


Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Finalists:
Batman written by Victor McLeod, Leslie Swabacker and Harry L. Fraser
Cabin in the Sky written by Joseph Schrank
A Guy Named Joe written by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan and Dalton Trumbo
Heaven Can Wait written by Samson Raphaelson [winner]
Münchhausen written by Erich Kästner and Rudolph Erich Raspe

The Phantom (serial) written by Morgan Cox, Victor McLeod, Sherman L. Lowe, Leslie Swabacker, Lee Falk, and Ray Moore [ineligible]

Phantom of the Opera written by Eric Taylor, Samuel Hoffenstein and Hans Jacoby

Longlisted Nominees:
Calling Dr. Death written by Edward Dein
The Curse of the Cat People written by DeWitt Bodeen
Faustus Kelly written by Flann O'Brien

Flesh and Fantasy written by Ellis St. Joseph, Oscar Wilde, László Vadnay, Ernest Pascal, and Samuel Hoffenstein

The Insect Play (Rhapsody in Stephen's Green) written by Clifford Bax, Karel Capek, Nigel Playfair, and Paul Selver

The Leopard Man written by Ardel Wray, Edward Dein, and Cornell Woolrich

The Masked Marvel written by Royal K. Cole, Ronald Davidson, Basil Dickey, Jesse Duffy, Grant Nelson, George H. Plympton, and Joseph F. Poland

Shadow of a Doubt written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, Alma Reville, and Gordon McDonell

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death written by Bertram Millhauser and Arthur Conan Doyle

The Tin Men

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Finalists:
The Ape Man written by Barney A. Sarecky
Der Fuehrer’s Face story by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman written by Curt Siodmak [winner]
I Walked With a Zombie written by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray
The Seventh Victim written by Charles O’Neal and DeWitt Bodeen
Super-Rabbit written by Tedd Pierce

Longlisted Nominees:

Captive Wild Woman written by Ted Fithian, Neil P. Varnick, Jay Griffin, and Henry Sucher

The Mad Ghoul written by Brenda Weisberg, Paul Gangelin, and Hanns Kräly

La Main du Diable/Carnival of Sinners written by Jean-Paul Le Chanois and Gérard de Nerval

Meshes of the Afternoon written by Maya Deren
Momotarô's Sea Eagles written by Arishige Kurihara

The Underground World written by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Jay Morton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Silent Village by Humphrey Jennings
Son of Dracula written by Eric Taylor and Curt Siodmak
Red Hot Riding Hood written by Rich Hogan
The Return of the Vampire written by Jay Griffin, Kurt Neumann, and Randall Faye

Best Professional Editor: Short Form

Finalists:
John W. Campbell [winner]
Oscar J. Friend
Mary Gnaedinger
Dorothy McIlwraith
Raymond A. Palmer
Donald A. Wollheim

Longlisted Nominees:
Robert A. W. Lowdnes
Frank A. Munsey
Alden H. Norton
W. Scott Peacock
Frederik Pohl
Malcolm Reiss
Farnsworth Wright

Best Professional Artist

Finalists:
Hannes Bok
Margaret Brundage
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Virgil Finlay [winner]
J. Allen St. John
William Timmins

Longlisted Nominees:
Earle Bergey
Edd Cartier
Harold W. McCauley
Paul Orban
Frank R. Paul
Mervyn Peake
George Rozen
Alex Schomburg
A.R. Tilburne
Dorothy M. Wheeler

Best Fanzine

Finalists:
Futurian War Digest edited by J. Michael Rosenblum
Guteto edited by Myrtle R. Douglas
The Phantagraph edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Voice of the Imagi-Nation edited by Jack Erman and Myrtle Douglas
Le Zombie edited by Wilson “Bob” Tucker [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
British Fantasy Society Bulletin by D.R. Smith
Chanticleer by Walt Liebscher
Cosmic Circle Commentator by Claude Degler (writing as Dan Rogers)
En Garde by Al Ashley and Abby Lu Ashley
Fanfare by The Stranger Club
Fantasy Fiction Field by Julius Unger
Fantasy News by James Taurasi and William Sykora
Horizons by Harry Warner, Jr.
Inspiration edited by Lynn Bridges
Light by Leslie A. Croutch
Madman of Mars #4 by Forrest J Ackerman
Nebula 6 by Larry Shaw and Rusty Barron
Shangri L’Affaires edited by Walt Daugherty, Arthur Joquel, and Phil Bronson
Sustainability Program by Jack Speer

Best Fan Writer

Finalists:
Forrest J. Ackerman [winner]
Myrtle Douglas
Jack Speer
Wilson “Bob” Tucker
Art Widner
Donald A. Wollheim

Longlisted Nominees:
Al Ashley
Helen Bradleigh
Lynn Bridges
Russ Chauvenet
Leslie E. Crouch
Walter J. Daugherty
E. Everett Evans
Harry Jenkins, Jr.
Francis Towner Laney
Don Rogers
J. Michael Rosenblum
Larry Shaw
William S. Sykora
Harry Turner
Julius Unger
Harry Warner Jr.
Douglas Webster

Go to previous year's longlist: 1943 (awarded in 2018)
Go to subsequent year's longlist: 1946 (awarded in 1996)

Go to 1944 Hugo Finalists and Winners

Hugo Longlist Project     Book Award Reviews     Home

2019 Hugo Award Longlist

Every now and then, the redhead asks me why I put together these Hugo longlist posts. They are a lot of work. The published Hugo stats that I draw them from are annoyingly incomplete in a lot of ways, requiring me to do more research than I normally would for an awards post. There is almost certainly a very tiny audience for this sort of thing. On the surface, it just seems like it is a lot of work for very little payoff. All of which is completely correct, and at the same time completely wrong.

To a certain extent, the relative obscurity of and comparative lack of interest in the works on the longlist is the point of putting together a Hugo longlist post. The works on the longlist aren't lesser works - in most cases they are just as good if not better than the works that make the finalist list - they are just not as well-known. The works on the longlist are also frequently more interesting than the works that make the finalist list.

The reason for this is a function of the somewhat fractured nature of the science fiction community. To make it to the finalist list, a work has to have broad support across a range of these subgroups. To make the longlist, a work can be of particular interest to a handful of subgroups, or in extreme cases, just one. This results in works making the longlist that deal with topics of intense interest to those groups, and those works are often more interesting than those that are supported by a broad spectrum of voices.

For example, look at the Related Work category for this year. The finalists are all fine entries, but for the most part they cover fairly well-worn territory. The longlisted entries, on the other hand include (among other things) The 2017 #BlackSpecFic Report by Cecily Kane, Hard Enough by Marissa Lingen, I Belong Where the People Are: Disability and The Shape of Water by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, and On Motherhood and Erasure: people Shaped Holes, Hollow Characters and the Illusion of Impossible Adventures by Aliette de Bodard, each of which takes a specific and interesting topic and breaks it down in a compelling manner. These works explore corners of the speculative fiction world that one might miss if one were to only pay attention to what has percolated to the top of the list, and in my opinion, that would be a mistake.

Best Novel

Finalists:
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal [winner]
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Longlisted Nominees:
Before Mars by Emma Newman
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette de Bodard
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
Semiosis by Sue Burke
Witchmark by C.L. Polk

Best Novella

Finalists:

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells [winner]

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells [declined nomination]
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells [declined nomination]
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Longlisted Nominees:
Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield
Descent of Monsters by JY Yang
The Expert System's Brother by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant
Time Was by Ian McDonald
Umbernight by Carolyn Ives Gilman

Best Novelette

Finalists:

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again by Zen Cho [winner]

The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections by Tina Connolly
Nine Last Days on Planet Earth by Daryl Gregory
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
The Thing About Ghost Stories by Naomi Kritzer
When We Were Starless by Simone Heller

Longlisted Nominees
An Agent of Utopia by Andy Duncan
Evernight Victor Milán
How to Swallow the Moon by Isabel Yap
The Nearest by Greg Egan
No Flight Without the Shatter by Brooke Bolander
The Privilege of the Happy Ending by Kij Johnson
A Study In Oils by Kelly Robson
The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births by Jose Pablo Iriarte
Thirty-Three Percent Joe by Suzanne Palmer
A World to Die For by Tobias S. Buckell

Best Short Story

Finalists:
The Court Magician by Sarah Pinsker
The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society by T. Kingfisher
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djèlí Clark
STET by Sarah Gailey

The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat by Brooke Bolander

A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow [winner]

Longlisted Nominees
And Yet by A.T. Greenblatt
Asphalt, River, Mother, Child by Isabel Yap
Field Biology of the Wee Fairies by Naomi Kritzer
Meat And Salt And Sparks by Rich Larson
Mother Tongues by S. Qiouyi Lu
She Still Loves the Dragon by Elizabeth Bear
Sour Milk Girls by Erin Roberts
The Starship and the Temple Cat by Yoon Ha Lee
Waterbirds by G.V. Anderson
You Can Make a Dinosaur But You Can't Help Me by K.M. Szpara

Best Related Work

Finalists:

Archive of Our Own a project of the Organization for Transformative Works [winner]

Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee

The Hobbit Duology, a documentary in three parts, written and edited by Lindsay Ellis and Angelina Meehan

An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000 by Jo Walton

www.mexicanxinitiative.com: The Mexicanx Initiative Experience at Worldcon 76 by Julia Rios, Libia Brenda, Pablo Defendini, and John Picacio

Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing by Ursula K. Le Guin with David Naimon

Longlisted Nominees:
The 2017 #BlackSpecFic Report by Cecily Kane
Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson

Hard Enough by Marissa Lingen

How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveller by Ryan North

I Belong Where the People Are: Disability and The Shape of Water by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry

On Motherhood and Erasure: people Shaped Holes, Hollow Characters and the Illusion of Impossible Adventures by Aliette de Bodard

One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives by Alexandra Rowland

Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded by Jason Heller

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin by Arwen Curry

Best Graphic Story

Finalists:

Abbott written by Saladin Ahmed; art by Sami Kivelä

Black Panther: Long Live the King written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington; art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino, and Tana Ford

Monstress, Volume 3: Haven written by Marjorie Liu; art by Sana Takeda [winner]

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
Paper Girls, Volume 4 written by Brian K. Vaughan; art by Cliff Chiang

Saga, Volume 9 written by Brian K. Vaughan; art by Fiona Staples

Longlisted Nominees:

The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Travis McElroy, illustrated by Carey Pietsch

The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag
The Forever War: Forever Free by Joe Haldeman, illustrated by Marvano
Mister Miracle by Tom King, illustrated by Mitch Gerads
Ms. Marvel Vol. 9: Teenage Wasteland by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Nico Leon
Runaways, Vol. 1: Find Your Way Home by Rainbow Rowell, illustrated by Kris Anka
Spider-Gwen by Seanan McGuire, illustrated by Rosi Kampe

Shuri: The Search for Black Panther by Nnedi Okorafor, illustrated by Leonardo Romero

X-Men Gold Annual #2 by Seanan McGuire, illustrated by Marco Failla

The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 7: Mothering Invention by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Jamie McKelvie

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Finalists:
Annihilation
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
A Quiet Place
Sorry to Bother You
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Deadpool 2
The Expanse (Season 3)
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Ready Player One
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Season 1)
Solo: A Star Wars Story
A Wrinkle in Time

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Finalists:
Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab
Doctor Who: Rosa
Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe and Chuck Lightning
The Expanse: Abaddon’s Gate

The Good Place: Janet(s) [winner]

The Good Place: Jeremy Bearimy

Longlisted Nominees:
DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly
Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell To Earth
The Expanse: Fallen World
The Expanse: Immolation
The Magicians: A Life in the Day
She-Ra: Princess Prom
She-Ra: Promise
Star Trek: Discovery: What's Past is Prologue
Steven Universe: Reunited
Westworld: Kiksuya

Best Professional Editor: Short Form

Finalists:
Neil Clarke
Gardner Dozois [winner]
Lee Harris
Julia Rios
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
E. Catherine Tobler

Longlisted Nominees:
John Joseph Adams
Scott H. Andrews
Ellen Datlow
S.B. Divya and Mur Lafferty
C.C. Finlay
Dominik Parisien
Trevor Quachri
Jonathan Strahan
Ann VanderMeer
Sheila Williams

Best Professional Editor: Long Form

Finalists:
Sheila E. Gilbert
Anne Lesley Groell
Beth Meacham
Diana Pho
Gillian Redfearn
Navah Wolfe [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Liz Gorinsky
Sarah Guan
Lee Harris
Jenni Hill
Brit Hvide
Joe Monti
Devi Pillai
Anne Sowards
Miriam Weinberg
Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist

Finalists:
Galen Dara
Jaime Jones
Victo Ngai
John Picacio
Yuko Shimizu
Charles Vess [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Tommy Arnold
Rovina Cai
Julie Dillon
Michael Komarck
Maurizio Manzieri
Reiko Murakami
Greg Ruth
Will Staehle
Simon Stålenhag
Sana Takeda

Best Semi-Prozine

Finalists:

Beneath Ceaseless Skies editor-in-chief and publisher Scott H. Andrews

Fireside Magazine edited by Julia Rios, managing editor Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, social coordinator Meg Frank, special features editor Tanya DePass, founding editor Brian White, publisher and art director Pablo Defendini

FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction executive editors Troy L. Wiggins and DaVaun Sanders, editors L.D. Lewis, Brandon O’Brien, Kaleb Russell, Danny Lore, and Brent Lambert

Shimmer publisher Beth Wodzinski, senior editor E. Catherine Tobler

Strange Horizons edited by Jane Crowley, Kate Dollarhyde, Vanessa Rose Phin, Vajra Chandrasekera, Romie Stott, Maureen Kincaid Speller, and the Strange Horizons Staff

Uncanny Magazine publishers/editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, managing editor Michi Trota, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue editors-in-chief Elsa Sjunneson-Henry and Dominik Parisien [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:

Apex Magazine edited by Jason Sizemore, Lesley Conner, Maurice Broaddus, Jane Clark, Hannah Krieger, Cristina Jurado, and KT Bryski

Book Smugglers edited by Thea James and Ana Grilo
Cast of Wonders edited by Katherine Inskip, Andrew K. Hoe, and Karissa Sluss
Escape Pod edited by Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya
GigaNotoSaurus edited by LaShawn Wanak
Glittership edited by Keffy R.M. Kehrli and Nibedita Sen
Interzone edited by Andy Cox

Lightspeed edited by John Joseph Adams, Wendy N. Wagner, Rich Horton, Arley Sorg, and Laurel Amberdine

PodCastle edited by Jen R. Albert, C.L. Clark, and Setsu Uzumé
Shoreline of Infinity edited by Noel Chidwick

Best Fanzine

Finalists:
File 770 by Mike Glyer [declined nomination]
Galactic Journey founder Gideon Marcus, editor Janice Marcus
Journey Planet edited by Team Journey Planet

Lady Business edited by Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan [winner]

nerds of a feather, flock together edited by Joe Sherry, Vance Kotrla, and The G
Quick Sip Reviews edited by Charles Payseur
Rocket Stack Rank edited by Greg Hullender and Eric Wong

Longlisted Nominees:
Ansible edited by David Langford
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
Black Gate edited by John O’Neill, Howard Andrew Jones, C.S.E. Cooney, Rich Horton, Andrew Zimmerman Jones, and Bill Ward
The Drink Tank edited by Christopher J. Garcia and Alissa McKersie
The Rec Center edited by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw and Elizabeth Minkel
SF Bluestocking by Bridget Mckinney
SF in Translation by Rachel Cordasco
The Wertzone by Adam Whitehead
Women Write About Comics edited by Megan Purdy

Best Fan Writer

Finalists:

Foz Meadows [winner]

James Davis Nicoll
Charles Payseur
Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
Alasdair Stuart
Bogi Takács

Longlisted Nominees:
Liz Bourke
Cora Buhlert
Sarah Gailey
Mike Glyer
Erin Horáková
Abigail Nussbaum
Jason Sanford
Paul Weimer
Orjan Westin
Adam Whitehead

Best Fan Artist

Finalists:
Sara Felix
Grace P. Fong
Meg Frank
Ariela Housman

Likhain (Mia Sereno) [winner]

Spring Schoenhuth

Longlisted Nominees:
Geneva Benton
Michael Carroll
Vandy Hall
Iguanamouth
Elizabeth Leggett
Jemina Malkki
Richard Man
Caio Santos
Maurine Starkey
Steve Stiles

Best Fancast

Finalists:

Be the Serpent presented by Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske and Jennifer Mace

The Coode Street Podcast presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Fangirl Happy Hour hosted by Ana Grilo and Renay Williams

Galactic Suburbia hosted by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts, produced by Andrew Finch

Our Opinions Are Correct hosted by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders [winner]

The Skiffy and Fanty Show produced by Jen Zink and Shaun Duke, hosted by the Skiffy and Fanty Crew

Longlisted Nominees:

Books and Pieces by Elizabeth

Breaking the Glass Slipper hosted by Megan Leigh, Charlotte Bond, and Lucy Hounsom

Ditch Diggers hosted by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace
Fansplaining hosted by Flourish Klink and Elizabeth Minkel
Hammer House of Podcast hosted by Paul Cornell and L.M. Myles
Jay and Miles Xplain the X-Men hosted by Jay Edidin and Miles Stokes
Kalanadi hosted by Rachael Kalanadi
Lindsay Ellis by Lindsay Ellis
Sword and Laser hosted by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt

Verity! hosted by Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L.M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas, and Tansy Rayner Roberts

Best Series

Finalists:

The Centenal Cycle by Malka Older

The Laundry Files by Charles Stross
Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee
The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire
The Universe of Xuya by Aliette de Bodard
Wayfarers by Becky Chambers [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
The Arcadia Project by Mishell Baker
Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
Fractured Europe by Dave Hutchinson
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
The Murderbot Diaries Martha Wells
Planetfall by Emma Newman
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Sin du Jour by Matt Wallace
Wild Cards edited by George R.R. Martin

Best Art Book

Finalists:

The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition illustrated by Charles Vess, written by Ursula K. Le Guin [winner]

Daydreamer’s Journey: The Art of Julie Dillon by Julie Dillon

Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer

Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by John Fleskes
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – The Art of the Movie by Ramin Zahed
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium by Paul Kidby [ineligible]
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth edited by Catherine McIlwaine

Longlisted Nominees:
The Art of Black Panther by Eleni Roussos

Beyond Science Fiction: The Alternative Realism of Michael Whelan by Michael Whelan

The Chronicles of Exandria, Vol II: The Legend of Vox Machina by Matthew Mercer, Taliesin Jaffe, James Haeck, and Liam O'Brien

Cicada by Shaun Tan
The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag
Marvelocity: The Marvel Comics Art of Alex Ross by Alex Ross and Chip Kidd
A Middle-Earth Traveler: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor by John Howe
Monster Portraits by Sofia Samatar, illustrated by Del Samatar

Yoshitaka Amano: The Illustrated Biography – Beyond the Fantasy by Florent Gorges and Luc Petronille, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Finalists:
Katherine Arden
S.A. Chakraborty
R.F. Kuang
Jeannette Ng [winner]
Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Rivers Solomon

Longlisted Nominees:
Tomi Adeyemi
Sam Hawke
Simone Heller
Karen Osborne
C.L. Polk
K. Arsenault Rivera
Alexandra Rowland
Nibedita Sen
Anna Smith Spark
Tasha Suri

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

Finalists:
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi [winner]
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
The Invasion by Peadar O’Guilin
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

Longlisted Nominees:
Arabella: Traitor of Mars by David D. Levine
Cross Fire by Fonda Lee
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
The Hidden City by David Bowles
Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor
Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristof
Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword by Henry Lien
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
Tempests & Slaughter by Tamora Pierce

Go to previous year's longlist: 2018
Go to subsequent year's longlist: 2020

Go to 2019 Hugo Finalists and Winners

Hugo Longlist Project     Book Award Reviews     Home

2020 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: CoNZealand, Wellington, New Zealand

Comments: As has been so often the case in the last couple of years, the Hugo finalists are dominated by female and minority authors. I don't think this is a mistake and I think it is a development that is well past due.

I have noted elsewhere that historically the Hugos have been biased against women (a statement to which I will add that they seem to have been even more biased against minority authors), but that on those relatively infrequent occasions when women were elevated to a finalist slot, they had a remarkably good winning percentage. In short, it seems to have been very difficult for a woman to get on the final ballot, but once there, a work by a woman seems to have had a better than average chance of winning.

There reason, I believe, is because the women and minority authors who did get nominated had produced work that was of such superior quality that they simply could not be ignored, while white male authors were benefiting from the general institutionalized racism and sexism of society and were able to get nominated with merely good pieces of work. What this means is that women and minorities have been continually upping their game over the years while many white male authors seem to have become complacent. Their work was good enough to get nominated. Why should they strive for better?

And now that the gates have been opened, there is a tidal wave of great work by women and minority authors flooding through, which makes the award better, to our benefit. It was always there, but now the doors to the Hugos have been opened, at least more than they were before.

Best Novel

Winner:
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Finalists:
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Best Novella

Winner:

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Finalists:
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Best Novelette

Winner:

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin

Finalists:
The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim
Away With the Wolves by Sarah Gailey
The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker
For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
Omphalos by Ted Chiang

Best Short Story

Winner:

As the Last I May Know by S.L. Huang

Finalists:
And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas
Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon
A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde
Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow

Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen

Best Related Work

Winner:

2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech by Jeannette Ng

Finalists:

Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski

Joanna Russ by Gwyneth Jones

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara

The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

Best Graphic Story

Winner:

LaGuardia written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colors by James Devlin

Finalists:

Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles

Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda
Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil

Paper Girls, Volume 6 written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colors by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher

The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: Okay by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colors by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Winner:
Good Omens

Finalists:
Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Russian Doll (Season One)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Us

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Winner:

The Good Place: The Answer

Finalists:
Doctor Who: Resolution
The Expanse: Cibola Burn
The Mandalorian: Redemption
Watchmen: A God Walks into a Bar
Watchmen: This Extraordinary Being
Best Professional Editor: Short Form

Winner:
Ellen Datlow

Finalists:
Neil Clarke
C.C. Finlay
Jonathan Strahan
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Sheila Williams

Best Professional Editor: Long Form

Winner:
Navah Wolfe

Finalists:
Sheila E. Gilbert
Brit Hvide
Diana M. Pho
Devi Pillai
Miriam Weinberg

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
John Picacio

Finalists:
Tommy Arnold
Rovina Cai
Galen Dara
Yuko Shimizu
Alyssa Winans

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:

Uncanny Magazine editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, nonfiction/managing editor Michi Trota, managing editor Chimedum Ohaegbu, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

Finalists:

Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews

Escape Pod edited by Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya, assistant editor Benjamin C. Kinney, audio producers Adam Pracht and Summer Brooks, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart

Fireside Magazine editor Julia Rios, managing editor Elsa Sjunneson, copyeditor Chelle Parker, social coordinator Meg Frank, publisher and art director Pablo Defendini, founding editor Brian White

FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction executive editor Troy L. Wiggins, edited by Eboni Dunbar, Brent Lambert, L.D. Lewis, Danny Lore, Brandon O’Brien and Kaleb Russell

Strange Horizons edited by Vanessa Rose Phin, Catherine Krahe, AJ Odasso, Dan Hartland, Joyce Chng, Dante Luiz and the Strange Horizons staff

Best Fanzine

Winner:

The Book Smugglers edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James

Finalists:

Galactic Journey founded by Gideon Marcus, edited by Janice Marcus, senior writers Rosemary Benton, Lorelei Marcus, and Victoria Silverwolf

Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Alissa McKersie, Ann Gry, Chuck Serface, John Coxon, and Steven H Silver

nerds of a feather, flock together edited by Adri Joy, Joe Sherry, Vance Kotrla, and The G

Quick Sip Reviews edited by Charles Payseur
The Rec Center edited by Elizabeth Minkel and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Bogi Takács

Finalists:
Cora Buhlert
James Davis Nicoll
Alasdair Stuart
Paul Weimer
Adam Whitehead

Best Fan Artist

Winner:
Elise Matthesen

Finalists:

Iain Clark

Sara Felix
Grace P. Fong
Meg Frank
Ariela Housman

Best Fancast

Winner:

Our Opinions Are Correct presented by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders

Finalists:
Be The Serpent presented by Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske and Jennifer Mace
Claire Rousseau’s YouTube Channel, produced and presented by Claire Rousseau
The Coode Street Podcast presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe

Galactic Suburbia presented by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts, producer Andrew Finch

The Skiffy and Fanty Show presented by Jen Zink and Shaun Duke

Best Series

Winner:

The Expanse by James S.A. Corey

Finalists:
InCryptid by Seanan McGuire
Luna by Ian McDonald
Planetfall series by Emma Newman
Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson

Astounding Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
R.F. Kuang

Finalists:
Sam Hawke
Jenn Lyons
Nibedita Sen
Tasha Suri
Emily Tesh

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

Winner:
Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

Finalists:
Deeplight by Frances Hardinge
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher
Riverland by Fran Wilde
The Wicked King by Holly Black

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2019
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2021

2020 Hugo Award Longlist     Book Award Reviews     Home