2006 Hugo Longlist

The most interesting thing about the 2006 Hugo longlist is that pursuant to Article 3.3.17 of the constitution of the World Science Fiction Society, LA Con IV elected to sponsor an additional special Hugo category to honor video games. The top fifteen games receiving nominations in this category were:

City of Villains
Darkwatch
Destroy All Humans
Dungeons and Dragons Online
Dungeon Siege II
Eve Online
F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon
Half-Life 2
Indigo Prophecy
Lego Star Wars
Myst V: End of Ages
Resident Evil 4
Shadow of the Colossus
We ❤ Katamari
World of Warcraft

Had this category made it to the final ballot, the finalists potentially would have been City of Villains, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Eve Online, Lego Star Wars, Shadow of the Colossus, We ❤ Katamari, and World of Warcraft. As I explain below, there are some questions about the eligibility of Dungeons and Dragons Online, Eve Online, and World of Warcraft. If those three games were eliminated on eligibility grounds, then Destroy All Humans and Half-Life 2 would have been added as finalists.

The category was dropped because of lack of interest from the voters. Only 58 people cast ballots in this category - the next lowest category in terms of participation was Best Fan Artist, which had 154 voters. The game that received the highest number of nominations was World of Warcraft, which garnered a paltry 13 votes. The next highest was Lego Star Wars with seven. Six of the games on this list received two votes. Based on participation, the decision to leave this category off of the final ballot seems pretty clearly justified.

The question I think that one should ask is whether this array of video games demonstrated sufficient quality of potential nominees to justify the category. I think the evidence is mixed at best. Several of the nominees are ongoing MMOs whose eligibility would seem to be somewhat questionable. For example, World of Warcraft was first released in 2004, and the first expansion to the game was The Burning Crusade, released in 2007. That means that there was technically no new content for the game in 2005, the eligibility period for the 2006 Hugo Awards. Both Eve Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online appear to be in a similar situation with regards to eligibility. Some of the games, such as We ❤ Katamari, seem to be lightweight at best, making them fairly non-serious selections. Once one eliminates the games of questionable eligibility and theme, one is left with roughly ten worthwhile games for the voters to choose from, which is probably too few to make a viable category.

I would also question whether the games that are left reflect an art form mature enough to be worth bestowing a Hugo Award upon. Half-Life 2, for example, is one of the best games on this list, but the game pays only cursory attention to the story behind the action, and the story is incomplete to boot. Once you get beyond that, the game is more or less just a generic first person shooter, and that just doesn't seem like enough to justify a Hugo Award. It has been ten years since the video game category was tried, so perhaps the array of offerings available in 2016 could justify the category, but I am not entirely convinced.

Best Novel

Finalists:
Accelerando by Charles Stross
A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
Learning the World by Ken MacLeod
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
The Family Trade and The Hidden Family by Charles Stross
Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer
Olympos by Dan Simmons
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
Vellum: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan

Best Novella

Finalists:
Burn by James Patrick Kelly
Identity Theft by Robert J. Sawyer (reviewed in Red Planet Blues)
Inside Job by Connie Willis [winner]
The Little Goddess by Ian McDonald
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

Longlisted Nominees:
Audubon in Atlantis by Harry Turtledove
Bank Run by Tom Purdom
The Cosmology of the Wider World by Jeffrey Ford
Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Emperor by Lucius Shepard
Guardian Angel by Mike Resnick
The Gypsies in the Wood by Kim Newman
Human Readable by Cory Doctorow
The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron
Sanctuary by Michael A. Burstein
Solidarity by Walter Jon Williams

Best Novelette

Finalists:
The Calorie Man by Paolo Bacigalupi
I, Robot by Cory Doctorow
The King of Where-I-Go by Howard Waldrop
Telepresence by Michael A. Burstein
Two Hearts by Peter S. Beagle [winner]

Longlisted Nominees
The 120 Hours of Sodom by Jim Grimsley
The Blemmye's Strategem by Bruce Sterling
The Edge of Nowhere by James Patrick Kelly
Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play by Michael Swanwick
The Gist Hunter by Matthew Hughes

Keyboard Practice, Consisting of an Aria with Diverse Variations for the Harpsichord with Two Manuals by John G. McDaid

The Last Ten Years in the Life of Hero Kai by Peter S. Beagle
Little Faces by Vonda N. McIntyre
Mars Opposition by David Brin
Second Person, Present Tense by Daryl Gregory

Best Short Story

Finalists:
The Clockwork Atom Bomb by Dominic Green
Down Memory Lane by Mike Resnick
Seventy-Five Years by Michael A. Burstein
Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lannagan
Tk'tk'tk by David D. Levine [winner]

Longlisted Nominees
Boatman's Holiday by Jeffrey Ford
Breeding Maze by Larry Niven
Calypso in Berlin by Elizabeth Hand
A Case of Consilience by Ken MacLeod
The Children of Time by Stephen Baxter
Foreclosure by Joe Haldeman
He Woke in Darkness by Harry Turtledove
Heads Up, Thumbs Down by Gavin J. Grant
I Live with You by Carol Emshwiller
The Ice-Cream Man by James Van Pelt
Pedagogy by Michael A. Burstein
Rough Draft by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta
Some Zombie Contingency Plans by Kelly Link

Best Related Work

Finalists:
Science Fiction Quotations edited by Gary Westfahl
The SEX Column and Other Misprints by David Langford
Soundings: Reviews 1992-1996 by Gary K. Wolfe

Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop by Kate Wilhelm [winner]

Transformations: The Story of Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 by Mike Ashley

Longlisted Nominees:
The Art of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire by Brian Wood
Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars by Trish Biggar and Harry N. Abrams
The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Don D'Ammassa

Hanging Out with the Dream King: Conversations with Neil Gaiman and His Collaborators by Joseph McCabe

Ion Trails by Cheryl Morgan, Guy H. Lillian, III, and Rose Lillian
Lord of the Rings Sketch Book by Alan Lee

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen

Spectrum 12: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner

Voices of Vision by Jayme Lynne Blaschke
Weapons of Mass Seduction by Lucius Shepard

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Finalists:
Batman Begins
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Serenity [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Constantine
Corpse Bride
Fantastic Four
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Howl's Moving Castle
The Island
King Kong
Kung Fu Hustle
Mirrormask
Sin City
Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning
The War of the Worlds

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Finalists:
Battlestar Galactica: Pegasus
Doctor Who: Dalek
Doctor Who: The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances [winner]
Doctor Who: Father's Day
Jack Jack Attack
Lucas Back in Anger
Prix Victor Hugo Awards Ceremony

Longlisted Nominees:
The Call of Cthulhu
Doctor Who: The Empty Child
Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways
Iron Costumer: Ready, Steady, Sew
Kill Bill Shatner, Volume 2
South Park: Trapped in the Closet
Stargate Atlantis: Duet
Stargate SG-1: The Fourth Horseman
Stargate SG-1: Moebius, Parts 1 and 2

Best Professional Editor

Finalists:
Ellen Datlow
David G. Hartwell [winner]
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon van Gelder
Sheila Williams

Longlisted Nominees:
Lou Anders
Ellen Asher
Andy Cox
Peter Crowther
Gardner Dozois
Anne Lesley Groell
Shawna McCarthy
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Mike Resnick

Best Professional Artist

Finalists:
Burns, Jim
Eggleton, Bob
Giancola, Donato [winner]
Martiniere, Stephan
Picacio, John
Whelan, Michael

Longlisted Nominees:
Craft, Kinuko Y.
Foglio, Phil
Foster, Jon
Harris, John
Lee, Alan
Palencar, John Jude
Rayyan, Omar
Stone, Steve
Vess, Omar

Best Semi-Prozine

Finalists:
Ansible edited by David Langford
Emerald City edited by Cheryl Morgan
Interzone edited by Andy Cox

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, and Liza Groen Trombi [winner]

The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin J. Maroney

Longlisted Nominees:

Albedo One edited by John Kenny, Peter Loftus, Frank Ludlow, David Murphy, and Robert Neilson

Apex Digest edited by Jason Sizemore
The Internet Review of Science Fiction edited by Stacey Janssen
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link
On Spec edited by Diane Walton
Postscripts edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers
SF Chronicle edited by John Douglas and Ian Randal Strock
Strange Horizons edited by Susan Marie Groppi, Jed Hartman, and Karen Meisner
Talebones edited by Patrick Swenson
The Third Alternative edited by Andy Cox

Best Fanzine

Finalists:
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian, III
Chunga edited by Andy Hooper, Randy Byers, and Carl Juarez
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Plokta edited by Alison Scott, Steve Davies, and Mike Scott [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Alexiad edited by Joseph T. Major
Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Bento edited by Kate Yule and David D. Levine
The Drink Tank edited by Christopher J. Garcia
Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
N^th Degree edited by Michael D. Pederson
SF Revu edited by Gayle Surrette
Vanamonde edited by John Hertz
Vegas Family Weekly edited by Shelby Vick

Vector: The Critical Journal of the BSFA edited by Tony Cullen, Andrew M. Butler, and Paul Billinger

Zoo Nation edited by Peter Young

Best Fan Writer

Finalists:
Claire Brialey
John Hertz
David Langford [winner]
Cheryl Morgan
Steven H Silver

Longlisted Nominees:
Matthew Cheney
Bob Devney
Christopher J. Garcia
Mike Glyer
Niall Harrison
Andy Hooper
Guy H. Lillian, III
Joseph T. Major
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Lloyd Penney
Mark Plummer

Best Fan Artist

Finalists:
Brad Foster
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Frank Wu [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Alan F. Beck
Sheryl Birkhead
Kurt Ericsen
Alexis Gilliland
Bill Neville
Peggy Ranson
Marc Schirmeister
Stu Shiffman
Craig Smith
Dan Steffan
Ray van Tilburg
Taral Wayne
Alan White

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Finalists:
K.J. Bishop
Sarah Monette
Chris Roberson
Brandon Sanderson
John Scalzi [winner]
Steph Swainston

Longlisted Nominees:
Lou Antonelli
Leah Bobet
Robert Buettner
Stephanie Burgis
Hal Duncan
Karen D. Fishler
Justine Larbalestier
David Marusek
David Moles
Cherie Priest
Lawrence M. Schoen
Catherine Shaffer
Amy Sisson
Maria V. Snyder
Jason Stoddard

Go to previous year's longlist: 2005
Go to subsequent year's longlist: 2007

Go to 2006 Hugo Finalists and Winners

Hugo Longlist Project     Book Award Reviews     Home

Book Blogger Hop Halloween Edition October 14th - October 20th: Marcus Aurelius Wrote Meditations in 174 A.D.

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: You come across an old library that has the one book you've been searching for for years, but the library happens to be haunted by ghosts. Would you go into the library to find the book?

Yes. Because ghosts aren't real.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: The Vought-173 "Flying Pancake" Was an Experimental Aircraft Built by the U.S. Navy During World War II

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The Documentary "Flight 175: As the World Watched" Is About United Flight 175 Which Crashed into the World Trade Center

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Follow Friday - Ptolomey II Founded the Museum of Alexandria in 275 B.C.

It's Friday again, and this means it's time for Follow Friday. There has been a slight change to the format, as now there are two Follow Friday hosts blogs and a single Follow Friday Featured Blogger each week. To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
2. Follow the Featured Blogger of the week - Obsessed with Fairy Tales.
3. Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
5. Follow, follow, follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "Hi".
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the love . . . and the followers.
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If you're new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

And now for the Follow Friday Question: What are some of your favorite, hated, or memorable character names?

I dislike names that don't fit the world they appear in. For example, Tolkien created a world full of beautiful names all drawn from the various invented languages he created. The names are evocative and full of meaning: Aragorn, Legolas, Fingolfin, Feanor, Eowyn, Glorfindel, Galadriel, Sauron, Saruman, and on and on. But in the Lord of the Rings, when Frodo and his companions reach the town of Bree, the petty villain who shows up is named Bill. In the Hobbit, when Thorin, Bilbo, and the rest of the dwarves find a trio of trolls, the reader learns that the trolls are named Tom, Bert, and Bill. The appearance of these out of place names in the narrative is jarring.

I like names that show the author has thought about the issue in his books. For example, Michael Moorcock has names that recur, most notably the numerous variations on the name Jerry Cornelius, who shows up in stories under names such as Jerry Cornell, Jherek Carnelian, Jhary-a-Conel, Jermays, and Jehamia Cohnahlias. The hero of the Corum Chronicles is Corum Jhaelen Irsei, which is an anagram of Jeremiah Cornelius., and J'osui C'reln Reyr is an anagram of Jerry Cornelius. This pattern is repeated across most of Moorcock's books with respect to numerous characters who reappear in various guises under a variety of names.

Previous Follow Friday: The Peugeot Type 174 Was a Sedan Manufactured Between 1923 and 1926

Subsequent Follow Friday: The Roman Empire Had Three Different Emperors in 276 A.D.

Follow Friday     Home

Random Thought - The 2015 "E Pluribus Hugo" Revised Hugo Finalists

E Pluribus Hugo was passed largely in response to the results of the 2015 Hugo nomination process. I outlined the background leading up to this in my previous post about the 2016 E Pluribus Hugo Revised Hugo Finalists, and I'm not going to repeat myself here. Anyone who wants a summary of the Sad and Rabid Puppy campaigns, the responses from non-Puppy Hugo voters, and an outline of the mechanics of E Pluribus Hugo can go read about that there.

The question to be examined in this post is simply this: Does E Pluribus Hugo do what it was meant to do? One thing to note is that there are a lot of things it was not intended to do, and is not designed to do: E Pluribus Hugo does not identify "slates", nor does it make any kind of "quality" evaluation of the potential nominees. The system also does not deal with "blocs" spread across multiple categories, but rather treats each category as a separate entity. E Pluribus Hugo is intended to reduce the ability of coordinated bloc voting groups to dominate entire Hugo categories. In an ideal world, the voting system would result in the influence of voting blocs being held to a proportion similar to their numbers - if a voting bloc of twenty percent of the total electorate works together, they should be able to determine something in the range of twenty percent of the finalists in a category, instead of the situation under a first past the post system in which a voting bloc of fifteen or twenty percent of the total electorate can control eighty to one hundred percent of the finalists in a category.

Given that 2015 was the prime year for the two allied Puppy campaigns, the 2015 Hugo nomination data is the ideal test case for the effectiveness of E Pluribus Hugo. So, how well did it work? As one can see below, it worked, but not quite as well as one might have hoped. I estimated that the total combined Puppy voting strength in each category ranged from eleven percent to forty-one percent of the total number of voters (depending on what range of estimates one uses for the Puppy voters), as outlined in this chart:

Category	Total Ballots Cast	Estimated Total Puppies	Estimated Percentage	EPH Ballot Changes
Novel	1,871	260-390	14-21	1
Novella	1,083	275-335	25-31	2
Novelette	1,031	245-265	24-26	1
Short Story	1,174	125-230	11-20	2
Related Work	1,150	205-270	18-23	2
Graphic Story	785	200	25	1
Editor, Short	870	220-270	25-31	2
Editor, Long	712	240-295	34-41	1
Professional Artist	753	160-180	21-24	1
Semiprozine	660	200-210	30-32	1
Fanzine	576	180-200	31-35	0
Fan Writer	777	195	25	2
Fan Artist	286	-	-	0
Fancast	668	160	24	0
Campbell	851	215-225	25-26	0

The first column is the total number of ballots cast in the particular category. The second column is the total number of Sad and Rabid Puppies that I estimated voted in that category (anyone who wants to know how I came up with these figures can read my post titled How to UnPuppy a Hugo Ballot). The third column is the estimated percentage of combined Puppy voters in each category, while the fourth column is how many changes apply E Pluribus Hugo to the nominating ballots would have made to the list of finalists. As one can see, in most categories, E Pluribus Hugo had a modest effect, changing one or two finalists, and in some cases, changing none. Because of withdrawals and disqualifications in specific categories, an overarching evaluation is unlikely to provide much useful information about the effectiveness of E Pluribus Hugo. On a general note, it does seem reasonably clear that when the total number of slate-based voters rises above about twenty-five percent of the total number of voters, E Pluribus Hugo loses much of its effectiveness.

Best Novel

(1,827 Ballots, 260-390 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos [nomination withdrawn]
Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia [nomination declined]
Skin Game by Jim Butcher
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)

Removed Finalists:
The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson

Added Finalists:
Lock-In by John Scalzi

Notes: The application of E Pluribus Hugo to the Best Novel category results in one change on the ballot, although the fact that Larry Correia declined his nomination for Monster Hunter: Nemesis and Marko Kloos withdrew his nomination for Lines of Departure obscures the exact nature of the change. Had they still withdrawn, Kevin J. Anderson's novel The Dark Between the Stars would have been replaced on the ballot by John Scalzi's Lock-In. One has to wonder, however, what would have happened in an E Pluribus Hugo environment had Correia and Kloos not pulled their books from consideration.

Had Correia not declined the finalist spot for Monster Hunter: Nemesis, Anderson's book still would not have made the list of finalists. Short of numerous other declined or withdrawn nominations, Anderson's book would not have made the finals under almost any scenario, as applying E Pluribus Hugo to the nomination ballots drops it to tenth place overall in the standings. However, had Correia not declined his nomination, Kloos would not have made the final ballot either, as his book would have been dropped from fourth to sixth place in the nominations by the application of E Pluribus Hugo. The five nominated books in that scenario would have been Ancillary Sword, The Goblin Emperor, Monster Hunter: Nemesis, Skin Game, and The Three Body Problem. Kloos would have never had to make the choice as to whether to stay on the Hugo ballot or not.

If Correia had withdrawn his novel from the finalist list, that would have put Kloos' novel back onto the Hugo ballot. In that case, the five nominated books would have been Ancillary Sword, The Goblin Emperor, Lines of Departure, Skin Game, and The Three Body Problem. Only if Kloos had elected to decline this nomination would Scalzi's Lock-In have made it to the Hugo ballot.

On a side note, I will observe that although E Pluribus Hugo is not intended to assess the quality of the works nominated, in practice it seems to do that to a degree. When E Pluribus Hugo is applied to the results of the 2015 nominations, it generally has the effect of dropping what are, in my opinion, the weakest finalists off of the ballot, and replacing them with superior alternatives. I regard The Dark Between the Stars as being by far the weakest of the novels nominated in 2015, and dropping it off of the ballot to replace it with The Three Body Problem is a substantial improvement.

Best Novella

(1,083 Ballots, 275-335 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Big Boys Don't Cry by Tom Kratman

Flow by Arlan Andrews, Sr. (reviewed in Analog Science Fiction and Fact: Vol. CXXXIV, No. 11 (November 2014))

One Bright Star to Guide Them by John C. Wright

Removed Finalists:
Pale Realms of Shade by John C. Wright
The Plural of Helen of Troy by John C. Wright

Added Finalists:
The Regular by Ken Liu
The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

Notes: Unlike the Best Novel category, the changes wrought by E Pluribus Hugo upon the Best Novella category are fairly straightforward. Two novellas by John C. Wright are dropped off of the final ballot, and are replaced by novellas by Ken Liu and Patrick Rothfuss. As I noted before, although it is not aimed at making a quality evaluation of the various nominees, in practice E Pluribus Hugo seems to have that effect. In this category, the two Wright penned novellas that drop off the ballot are pretty miserable in quality, while the two novellas that replace them are markedly better.

Best Novelette

(1,031 Ballots, 245-265 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium by Gray Rinehart (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Novelette)

Championship B'tok by Edward M. Lerner (reviewed in Analog Science Fiction and Fact: Vol. CXXXIV, No. 9 (September 2014))

The Day the World Turned Upside Down by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Novelette)

The Journeyman: In the Stone House by Michael F. Flynn (reviewed in Analog Science Fiction and Fact: Vol. CXXXIV, No. 6 (June 2014))

The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale by Rajnar Vajra (reviewed in Analog Science Fiction and Fact: Vol. CXXXIV, Nos. 7 & 8 (July/August 2014))

Removed Finalists:
Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Clause by John C. Wright [ineligible]

Added Finalists:
None

Notes: Applying E Pluribus Hugo to the Best Novelette category results in a single change - John C. Wright's story Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus drops off of the final ballot (actually dropping to eighth place in the nominations), and is replaced by Thomas Olde Heuvelt's novelette The Day the World Turned Upside Down. This change is somewhat obscured by the fact that Wright's story was deemed ineligible due to prior publication and removed from the Hugo ballot, resulting in Heuvelt's story reaching the list of finalists anyway. Had E Pluribus Hugo been in effect in 2015, however, the eligibility determination for Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus would never have had to be made, because the story would not have had sufficient support to reach the list of finalists to begin with.

Best Short Story

(1.174 Ballots, 125-230 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:

Goodnight Stars by Annie Bellet (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story) [nomination declined]

On a Spiritual Plain by Lou Antonelli (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)

Totaled by Kary English (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)

Tuesdays with Molokesh the Destroyer by Megan Grey [ineligible]

Turncoat by Steve Rzasa (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)

Removed Finalists:

The Parliament of Beasts and Birds by John C. Wright (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)

A Single Samurai by Steve Diamond (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)

Added Finalists:
The Breath of War by Aliette de Bodard

Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon (reviewed in 2015 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

Notes: The Short Story category looks slightly more complicated than it actually is. Tuesdays With Molokesh the Destroyer would have reached the final ballot under either the first past the post system or E Pluribus Hugo, and it would have been disqualified under either system due to being published outside of the eligibility period. The only real question is whether Annie Bellet would have withdrawn her story Goodnight Stars had E Pluribus Hugo been in effect in 2015. If she had, then Turncoat, by Steve Rzasa would not have made the list of finalists, because it would have placed seventh overall. Both Jackalope Wives and The Breath of War would have been Hugo finalists under E Pluribus Hugo, and neither A Single Samurai or The Parliament of Beasts and Birds would have been.

Best Related Work

(1,150 Ballots, 205-270 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF by Ken Burnside

Transhuman and Subhuman by John C. Wright

Why Science Is Never Settled by Tedd Roberts

Removed Finalists:
Letters from Gardner by Lou Antonelli

Wisdom from My Internet by Michael Z. Williamson

Added Finalists:
Chicks Dig Gaming by Jennifer Brozek, Robert Smith, and Lars Pearson
What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton

Notes: Because there were no withdrawals or disqualifications in this category, the effect of implementing E Pluribus Hugo is fairly straightforward - both Letters from Gardner and Wisdom from My Internet drop off of the list of finalists, and are replaced by Chicks Dig Gaming and What Makes This Book So Great. I have noted before that E Pluribus Hugo is not meant to be a quality filter, but in practice, it seems to be. Wisdom from My Internet is, in my opinion, in the running for the title of worst Hugo finalist of all time, and seeing it removed and replaced by a book like What Makes This Book So Great is by itself something I consider to be an endorsement of the new system.

Best Graphic Story

(785 Ballots, 200 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Ms. Marvel, Volume 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
Saga 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Rat Queens, Volume One: Sass and Sorcery by Kurtis J. Weibe and Roc Upchurch

Zombie Nation, Book 2: Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate by Carter Reid (reviewed in 2015 Hugo Voting - Best Graphic Story)

Removed Finalists:

Sex Criminals, Volume 1: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarksy

Added Finalists:

Schlock Mercenary: Broken Wind by Howard Tayler

Notes: There was only one item on the Sad or Rabid Puppy slates in this category in 2015 - Zombie Nation, Book 2: Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate. Consequently, one would expect the impact of E Pluribus Hugo on this category to be relatively modest, and it is. The interesting thing is that the changed voting system moves a non-slate item off of the list of finalists and replaces it with another non-slate item. This is interesting, because it shows how E Pluribus Hugo might work in a more normal year than this one.

Best Professional Editor: Short Form

(870 Ballots, 220-270 Estimated Rabid Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Jennifer Brozek
Mike Resnick
Edmund R. Schubert [nomination withdrawn after deadline]

Removed Finalists:
Theodore Beale
Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Added Finalists:
John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke

Notes: Once again, the changes in this category that result from the application of E Pluribus Hugo are fairly straightforward. Beale and Schmidt fall out of the list of Hugo finalists, and are replaced by stronger candidates.

Best Professional Editor: Long Form

(712 Ballots, 240-295 Estimated Rabid Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Sheila Gilbert
Jim Minz
Anne Sowards
Toni Weisskopf

Removed Finalists:
Theodore Beale

Added Finalists:
Liz Gorinsky

Notes: The changes made by E Pluribus Hugo to the Best Long Form Professional Editor category are also fairly straightforward, although the result is to only change one of the finalists rather than two, as in the Short Form Editor category. One side note: It is somewhat interesting that Theodore Beale is dropped from the list of finalists in both editor categories. I suspect that this is because his support was drawn mostly from Rabid Puppy voters, and they were the most likely voters to bloc vote a slate of nominees, and thus their votes were most susceptible to the effect of E Pluribus Hugo.

Best Professional Artist

(753 Ballots, 160-180 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Julie Dillon
Jon Eno [ineligible]
Nick Greenwood
Alan Pollack
Carter Reid

Removed Finalists:
Kirk DouPonce

Added Finalists:
John Picacio

Notes: One element of E Pluribus Hugo that seems to be unclear is exactly what makes it work better in some categories than others. Although the percentages of Sad and Rabid Puppies are estimated, I am reasonably confident that those estimates are fairly reliable. Why then, does using E Pluribus Hugo only change one finalist in the Best Professional Artist category, but change two in the Best related Work category even though the percentage of Puppy nominators is roughly the same? I don't think there is a clear answer to this, and to a certain degree that is probably always going to be true unless one can examine the individual ballots to figure out why the effect is larger in one category as opposed to another.

Best Semi-Prozine

(660 Ballots, 200-210 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Abyss & Apex edited by Wendy Delmater
Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews

Lightspeed Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant

Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show edited by Edmund R. Schubert [nomination withdrawn]

Strange Horizons edited by Niall Harrison

Removed Finalists:
Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine edited by David Kernot and Sue Burzynski

Added Finalists:
The Book Smugglers edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James

Notes: In the Best Semiprozine category, applying E Pluribus Hugo causes Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine to drop off of the list of finalists. If Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show were to still withdraw, then The Book Smugglers would become a finalist, otherwise, it would not.

Best Fanzine

(576 Ballots, 180-200 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Black Gate edited by John O'Neill [withdrawn after deadline]
Elitist Book Reviews edited by Steven Diamond

Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Christopher J. Garcia, Colin Harris, Alissa McKersie, and Helen J. Montgomery

The Revenge of Hump Day edited by Tim Bolgeo
Tangent Online edited by Dave Truesdale

Removed Finalists:
None

Added Finalists:
None

Notes: Applying E Pluribus Hugo to the Best Fanzine category results in no changes to the final ballot. This is not entirely surprising, as the estimated proportion of Puppy aligned voters in this category is north of the thirty percent mark, which is the point at which the voting system seems to lose its ability to counteract bloc voting tactics.

Best Fan Writer

(777 Ballots, 195 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Amanda S. Green
Jeffro Johnson
Laura J. Mixon
Cedar Sanderson

Removed Finalists:
Dave Freer
Matthew David Surridge [nomination declined]

Added Finalists:
Abigail Nussbaum

Notes: If E Pluribus Hugo were applied to the Best Fan Writer category, Matthew David Surridge would have dropped to eighth place in the standings, and Dave Freer would have dropped to tenth. In their place, Abigail Nussbaum would have been a finalist. As usual, E Pluribus Hugo has a modest, but undeniably positive effect on the quality of the finalists in the category.

Best Fan Artist

(296 Ballots, No Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Ninni Aalto
Brad Foster
Elizabeth Leggett
Spring Schoenhuth
Steve Stiles

Removed Finalists:
None

Added Finalists:
None

Notes: Best Fan Artist is completely unchanged by the application of E Pluribus Hugo. Neither the Sad Puppy slate or the associated Rabid Puppy slate listed any Fan Artists, so there was no organized bloc voting in this category. Given that, one would expect that E Pluribus Hugo would have little or no effect on the results in this category, and that is exactly what we see.

Best Fancast

(668 Ballots, 160 Estimated Total Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:

Adventures in Sci Phi Publishing by Brent Bower, Kristi Charish, Timothy C. Ward, and Moses Siregar III

Dungeon Crawlers Radio by Daniel Swenson, Travis Alexander, Scott Tomlin, Dale Newton, and Damien Swenson

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

The Sci Phi Show by Jason Rennie
Tea and Jeopardy by Emma Newman and Peter Newman

Removed Finalists:

None

Added Finalists:

None

Notes: Best Fancast is yet another category that is unaffected by the application of E Pluribus Hugo. This seems to be, at least in part, due to the fact that the Sad and Rabid Puppies only touted three fancasts between them to begin with, and therefore two non-slated fancasts made it onto the list of finalists already. Consequently, this effect of E Pluribus Hugo should be muted in this category, and it actually seems to have been.

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

(851 Ballots, 215-225 Estimated Rabid Puppies)

Unchanged Finalists:
Wesley Chu
Jason Cordova
Kary English
Rolf Nelson
Eric S. Raymond

Removed Finalists:
None

Added Finalists:
None

Notes: The Campbell Award is not a Hugo Award, but its nomination process is identical to that used by the Hugos. When E Pluribus Hugo is applied to the 2015 nominations for this award, the finalists are unchanged. This is likely because the Sad and Rabid Puppy slates did not line up perfectly in this category, with the Sad Puppies championing three authors, and the Rabid Puppies championing four. This lack of coordination plus the fact that they only bloc voted for a maximum of four candidates resulted in a ballot that was not susceptible to the effects of E Pluribus Hugo.

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to the 2015 list of Hugo finalists: 2015

Random Thoughts     Book Award Reviews     Home

Musical Monday - If You Could See Her Through My Eyes by Joel Grey

Donald Trump's campaign for President of the United States has normalized bigotry. There is simply no question that this is the case. From his attacks on Mexicans, to his threat to ban all Muslims from entering the country, to his thinly veiled antisemitism, to his barely concealed disdain for black Americans, Trump's campaign has been built upon appeals to the racist and xenophobic elements of the American body politic. Trump has taken what had become considered to be beyond the pale for an American politician and placed it front and center in his campaign. Trump has, to be blunt, made it acceptable to be openly racist again.

As I've pointed out before, the movie Cabaret is set in Berlin during the waning days of the Weimar Republic, against the backdrop of the rise of the Nazi Party. This song, which takes place deep into the movie when the power of the Nazis is clearly on the rise, is still satirizing the ridiculousness of Nazi antisemitism. But the song only works because antisemitism had become something that had been brought into the forefront of the political discussion and legitimized. A satire of a fringe movement is mostly pointless. Satire only works when it is targeting something that is both popular and nonsensical. If antisemitism were a fringe element of German politics of the era, the song's punchline - when it is revealed that the issue with Grey's relationship isn't that his partner is an ape, but rather that she is Jewish - would fall flat.

When one wonders how antisemitism swept across Germany, one only has to see what is happening right now in U.S. politics. Germans were told that Jews weren't "real" Germans, in much the same way that Trump says that Hispanic people aren't "real" Americans even if they were born in the United States - witness his attacks upon Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana. Trump has said Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers, and that Muslim immigrants are terrorists. Of course he's also said that "some" are good people, but he's also called for mass deportations and a band on all Muslims entering the country - a deportation policy that would be incredibly expensive and economically ruinous, and a ban that would be blatantly unconstitutional, but his supporters have eagerly hung on his every word anyway. When Trump is asked how he will appeal to black voters, he immediately begins talking about the inner cities, apparently under the impression that most black voters are poor and urban, an assumption that is both at odds with the facts and inherently racist to boot.

Trump is likely to lose in November. His polling numbers are terrible, and he has appeared both creepy and buffoonish in the debates thus far. Even the vice-presidential debate in which Mike Pence essentially declared that Trump never said and did many of the things that he actually has done and said seems like it will not be enough save the campaign. But the racism and bigotry that Trump represents won't go away on November 8^th. Trump's supporters don't love him despite his racism and xenophobia, they love him because of them. He has emboldened an ugly strain of Americans that have silently lurked within the Republican Party for decades, and the repercussions will be felt for years to come.

Previous Musical Monday: Money, Money by Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli

Subsequent Musical Monday: Tiller Girls featuring Joel Grey

Cabaret     Musical Monday Playlists     Joel Grey     Musical Monday     Home

Book Blogger Hop Halloween Edition October 7th - October 13th: The Vought-173 "Flying Pancake" Was an Experimental Aircraft Built by the U.S. Navy During World War II

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Name one book that scared you so badly that you couldn't finish reading it.

There are no books that scared me so badly I couldn't finish reading them. The book that I recall giving me my scariest reading experience was the novelization of Alien by Alan Dean Foster, which I read before I knew the movie even existed. As bleak as the prospects seem for the crew of the Nostromo in the movie, the book makes them seem even bleaker, giving the entire story an almost hopeless inevitability. I will say that I read it when I was thirteen or so, and I was traveling in South Africa to have surgery on my hand after I had almost cut off one of my fingers, so that probably colored my perception of the book. I have not gone back to try to read it again, although I have watched the movie, so I have no idea if the book is actually as scary as I remember, or if I just remember it that way just because I read it when I was young, injured, and in an unfamiliar country.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Dana Kunze Holds the World High Dive Record at 172 Feet

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: Marcus Aurelius Wrote Meditations in 174 A.D.

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Follow Friday - The Peugeot Type 174 Was a Sedan Manufactured Between 1923 and 1926

It's Friday again, and this means it's time for Follow Friday. There has been a slight change to the format, as now there are two Follow Friday hosts blogs and a single Follow Friday Featured Blogger each week. To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
2. Follow the Featured Blogger of the week - Snowdrop Dreams.
3. Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
5. Follow, follow, follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "Hi".
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the love . . . and the followers.
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If you're new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

And now for the Follow Friday Question: Favorite book world?

I'm going to have to go with the first fictional world I can remember ever inhabiting in my head: Tolkien's Middle-Earth. From The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings to The Silmarillion and the various other ancillary materials, including the work done by other creators such as David Day, Alan Lee, and John Howe, Middle-Earth is such a richly described and beautifully presented world that it simply surpasses all of the competition.

Previous Follow Friday: Absolute Zero Temperature Is Approximately Negative 273 Degrees Celsius

Subsequent Follow Friday: Ptolomey II Founded the Museum of Alexandria in 275 B.C.

Follow Friday     Home

Musical Monday - Money, Money by Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey

Cabaret is set during the Great Depression, using the glitzy fantasy world inside the Kit Kat Klub as a contrast to the hard conditions of life outside of its confines. For the characters in the movie, much of the events depicted seem to be drawn almost from a fantasy world, even those outside of the titular cabaret. As the lead characters spend their time socializing with German aristocrats and dealing with sexual politics, the slow creep of fascism grows behind them.

To a certain extent, I think the current presidential campaign bears some fantasy aspects. In the last few weeks it seems that the fantasy involves Trump's personal finances. This is kind of a big deal because a lot of Trump's appeal appears to be based upon the notion that he is a "successful businessman". To cross musical theater streams, as Tevye says in Fiddler on the Roof, "[w]hen you're rich they think you really know." Various revelations about Trump have exposed the fact that he may not be nearly as wealthy as his image suggests, and he certainly isn't nearly as skilled a businessman as his public relations people would have the world believe. In short, this aspect of Trump's campaign, like so much else about him and his campaign, is little more than a fraud.

In a larger sense, the fact that Trump is even considered a viable candidate highlights the same thinking that this song satirizes. We don't love money, but we love the fantasy of money. We love the fantasy that the wealthy are morally deserving and smarter than the rest of us. We love the idea that being wealthy makes you a better person. All of this is nothing more than a fantasy, but we cling to it in an unhealthy manner, and right now, that fantasy has pushed the nation close to a terrible reality. In Cabaret, the descent into fantasy hides the rising tide of Nazism. In our present, the fantasy has made the rise of fascism possible.

Previous Musical Monday: Two Ladies by Joel Grey

Previous Musical Monday: If You Could See Her Through My Eyes by Joel Grey

Cabaret     Musical Monday Playlists     Liza Minnelli     Joel Grey

Musical Monday     Home

2007 Hugo Longlist

Whenever a Worldcon is held outside of the United States, people suggest that genre fiction works produced by local authors and editors are going to receive a boost in the Hugo nomination process and subsequent voting. Nippon 2007, the Worldcon held in 2007, was located in Yokohama, and given that Japan has an active science fiction and fantasy scene, one would think that the ballot would have been filled with Japanese books, stories, movies, and television shows. At the very least, one would think the Hugo longlist would be filled with such works. With the exception of Yoshitaka Amano's appearance on the Best Professional Artist category, the 2007 Hugo longlist appears to be entirely devoid of any influence from Japanese voters.

Based upon the evidence of the statistics from 2007, it seems that the "bump" for local writers and artists is negligible at best. Nippon 2007 , like several other Worldcons, over reported the nomination statistics for the Hugo Awards the year they ran them, but even counting those additional nominees doesn't add much local Japanese flavor to the collection of works that were received nominations. Unless one is prepared to declare that Nippon 2007 was somehow unique in this regard, it seems that the evidence is pointing towards the local "bump" theory being something of a fannish myth.

Best Novel

Finalists:
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Eifelheim by Michael F. Flynn
Glasshouse by Charles Stross
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell
Farthing by Jo Walton
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Odyssey by Jack McDevitt
The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder
Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

Best Novella

Finalists:
A Billion Eves by Robert Reed [winner]
Inclination by William Shunn
Julian: A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson
Lord Weary's Empire by Michael Swanwick
The Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko

Longlisted Nominees:
Botch Town by Jeffrey Ford
JQ211F and Holding by Nancy Kress
The Little White Nerves Went First by John Barnes
Missile Gap by Charles Stross
Planet of Mystery by Terry Bisson
The Plurality of Worlds by Brian Stableford
The Revivalist by Albert E. Cowdrey
Riding the Crocodile by Greg Egan
The Voyage of the Night Shining White by Chris Roberson
Where the Golden Apples Grow by Kage Baker

Best Novelette

Finalists:
All the Things You Are by Mike Resnick
Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth by Michael F. Flynn
The Djinn's Wife by Ian McDonald [winner]
Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter by Geoff Ryman
Yellow Card Man by Paolo Bacigalupi

Longlisted Nominees
The Caretesian Theater by Robert Charles Wilson
Counterfactual by Gardner Dozois
Damascus by Daryl Gregory
El Regalo by Peter S. Beagle
Ghost Wars by Stephen Baxter
I, Row-Boat by Cory Doctorow
In the House of the Seven Librarians by Ellen Klages
Journey into the Kingdom by M. Rickert
Pop Squad by Paolo Bacigalupi
Salt Wine by Peter S. Beagle
When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow

Best Short Story

Finalists:
Eight Episodes by Robert Reed
The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum
How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman
Impossible Dreams by Tim Pratt [winner]
Kin by Bruce McAllister

Longlisted Nominees
The American Dead by Jay Lake
Another Word for Map Is Faith by Christopher Rowe
Chu and the Nants by Rudy Rucker
The Electrisarian by Sean McMullen
In the Abyss of Time by Stephen Baxter
Life on the Preservation by Jack Skillingstead
Lighthouse by Michael Shara and Jack McDevitt
Nano Comes to Clifford Falls by Nancy Kress
The Small Astral Object Genius by James Van Pelt
Tin Marsh by Michael Swanwick
Under Hell, Over Heaven by Margo Lanagan

Best Related Work

Finalists:
About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews by Samuel R. Delany
Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio by John Picacio
Heinlein's Children: The Juveniles by Joseph T. Major
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice by Sheldon by Julie Phillips [winner]
Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches edited by Mike Resnick and Joe Scilari

Longlisted Nominees:
The Acme Catalog by Charles Carney and Scott Grass

The Darkening Garden: A Short Lexicon of Horror by John Clute

Daughters of Earth, Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century edited by Justine Larbalastier
Doctor Who: A Critical Reading of the Series by Kim Newman
Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction by Don D'Ammassa
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham
FenCon III Program Book edited by Tim Miller and Ed Dravecky
Future Prime: The Top 10 Science Fiction Films by John Flynn and Bob Blackwood
The History of Science Fiction by Adam Roberts
Kiddography: The Life and Art of Tom Kidd by Tom Kidd
Making Comics by Scott McCloud

The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary by Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner

Spectrum 13 by Arnie Fenner and Cathy Fenner

Wally's World: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World's Second-Best Comic Book Artist edited by Steve Starger and J. David Spurlock

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Finalists:
Children of Men
Pan's Labyrinth [winner]
The Prestige
A Scanner Darkly
V for Vendetta

Longlisted Nominees:
The Ant Bully
Cars
Heroes, Season 1
Hogfather
The Illusionist
The Lost Room
Nanny McPhee
Night at the Museum
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Stranger than Fiction
Superman Returns
X-Men: The Last Stand

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Finalists:
Battlestar Galactica: Downloaded
Doctor Who: Army of Ghosts and Doomsday
Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace [winner]
Doctor Whoe: School Reunion
Stargate SG-1: Episode 200

Longlisted Nominees:
Battlestar Galactica: Exodus, Part 2
Bettlestar Galactica: Exodus, Parts 1 and 2
Battlestar Galactica: Lay Down Your Burdens, Parts 1 and 2
Doctor Who: Age of Steel and Rise of the Cybermen
Doctor Who: Impossible Planet and Satan Pit
Heroes: Genesis
Heroes: Homecoming
Life on Mars: Episode One
Torchwood: Out of Time
The Tragical Historie of Guidolon, the Giant Space Chicken

Best Professional Editor: Short Form

Finalists:
Gardner Dozois
David Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon van Gelder [winner]
Sheila Williams

Longlisted Nominees:
Andy Cox
Peter Crowther
Ellen Datlow
Eric Flint
Esther M. Friesner
Susan Marie Groppi
Jay Lake
Deborah Layne
Shawna McCarthy
Mike Resnick

Best Professional Editor: Long Form

Finalists:
Lou Anders
Jim Baen
Ginjer Buchanan
David Hartwell
Patrick Nielsen Hayden [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Ellen Asher
Jennifer Brehl
Jim Frenkel
Anne Groell
Marty Halpern
Beth Meacham
Betsy Mitchell
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Sharyn November
Simon Spanton
Juliet Ulman

Best Professional Artist

Finalists:
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola [winner]
Stephen Martiniere
John Jude Palancar
John Picacio

Longlisted Nominees:
Yoshitaka Amano
Max Bertolini
Jim Burns
Phil Foglio
Jon Foster
Dominic Harman
John Harris
Tom Kidd
David Mattingly
J.K. Potter
Charles Vess
Michael Whelan

Best Semi-Prozine

Finalists:
Ansible edited by Dave Langford
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, and Liza Groen Trombi [winner]

The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin J. Maroney

Longlisted Nominees:
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine edited by Andrew Finch
Emerald City edited by Cheryl Morgan
Internet Review of Science Fiction edited by Stacey Janssen
Jim Baen's Universe edited by Eric Flint and Mike Resnick
N^th Degree edited by Michael D. Pederson
Postscripts edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers
Shimmer edited by Beth Wodzinski
Strange Horizons edited by Susan Marie Groppi, Jed Hartman, and Karen Meisner
Subterranean Magazine edited by William Schafer
Talebones edited by Patrick Swenson

Best Fanzine

Finalists:
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian, III
The Drink Tank edited by Christopher J. Garcia
Plokta edited by Steve Davies, Alison Scott, and Mike Scott

Science-Fiction Five-Yearly edited by Randy Byers, Lee Hoffman, and Geri Sullivan [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Alexiad edited by Joseph Major
Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Bento edited by Kate Yule and David D. Levine
Chunga edited by Andy Hooper, Randy Byers, and Carl Juarez
Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Pacheco Progress edited by Christopher J. Garcia
Pixel edited by David Burton
SF Revu edited by Gayle Surrette
SF Signal edited by J.P. Frantz

Best Fan Writer

Finalists:
Christopher J. Garcia
John Hertz
David Langford [winner]
Steven H Silver
John Scalzi

Longlisted Nominees:
Claire Brialey
Matthew Cheney
Jay Lake
William Lexner
Guy H. Lillian, III
Joseph T. Major
Cheryl Morgan
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Ted White
Frank Wu

Best Fan Artist

Finalists:
Brad W. Foster
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Frank Wu [winner]

Longlisted Nominees:
Harry Bell
Sheryl Birkhead
Alexis Gilliland
Kurt Erichsen
Theresa Mather
Bill Rotsler
Stu Shiffman
Marc Shirmeister
Alison Scott
Dan Steffan
Ray Van Tilburg
Taral Wayne
Alan White

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Finalists:
Scott Lynch
Sarah Monette
Naomi Novik [winner]
Brandon Sanderson
Lawrence M. Schoen

Longlisted Nominees:
Alma Alexander
Beth Bernobich
David Louis Edelman
Eugie Foster
Justine Larbaleister
Cherie Priest
Cat Rambo
Ken Scholes
Jonathan Sherwood
Maria V. Snyder

Go to previous year's longlist: 2006
Go to subsequent year's longlist: 2008

Go to 2007 Hugo Finalists and Winners

Hugo Longlist Project     Book Award Reviews     Home

Book Blogger Hop September 30th - October 6th: Dana Kunze Holds the World High Dive Record at 172 Feet

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Do you encourage other reading friends to start a blog or at least put their thoughts/reviews on public reading sites such as Goodreads, Amazon, etc?

I don't think I would encourage anyone to start a blog unless they really wanted to. I don't think that writing a blog is something that anyone should do on a whim, and if someone has to be pushed towards doing it, they probably aren't really enthusiastic enough to make blogging work. Sometimes even exuberance and enthusiasm aren't enough - we've all seen blogs started by excited new bloggers that are active for a couple of months and then go silent. There is often a break of several weeks and then a lone post apologizing for the radio silence, usually blaming the lack of posts on a busy offline life, followed by a promise to do better in the future. A few months later, you might see a final post retiring the blog, or simply nothing more at all. The point of this is that blogging is something that takes time and effort, and someone who has to be encouraged into it someone who probably won't enjoy it enough to make it work. There are probably exceptions, but in general, someone who isn't interested on their own in blogging isn't someone I think would enjoy the experience.

I think sites like Goodreads and LibraryThing are excellent resources for readers regardless of whether they write reviews or not, so I recommend them to all my reading friends. I favor LibraryThing over Goodreads, mostly because I prefer the more detailed control one can have over the records related to the books in one's collection, but both are worthwhile. If someone were interested in writing reviews on a casual basis, these would be options that I would encourage them to check out. There's really no serious commitment required - one could write one or two reviews and if that wasn't something that could hold one's interest, then one could walk away with no real regrets. I think that if I were to encourage someone to try writing their thoughts about a book online, I would suggest they try writing reviews on Goodreads or LibraryThing as a kind of trial run before they tried writing a book review blog.

I don't post any reviews on Amazon, mostly because the limitations they impose on things like length and affinity don't fit my style of reviewing. I know a lot of authors, and given Amazon's propensity for deleting reviews by people who know the author, I'd have a hard time keeping a lot of my reviews posted on the site. I don't have anything against Amazon reviews, they just don't suit me. As a result, I have little reason to encourage anyone to post reviews on Amazon.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: 171 Is Slang for "Scam" or "Swindler" in Brazilian Portuguese

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The Vought-173 "Flying Pancake" Was an Experimental Aircraft Built by the U.S. Navy During World War II

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