And the actual Hugo nominees are ….
Right, just remembered the nominees were to be announced today, so I went and looked and here they are (for the fiction categories, if you want to see the other categories, click here):
BEST NOVEL (3695 ballots)
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
So, I was right not to bother nominating Ancillary Mercy or Uprooted, since there they are. I thought so. I’m pleased to see The Fifth Season since I both do and don’t want to read it and this will make me come down on the yes, do side of the fence. I’m not at all surprised by Seveneaves, but, well, we’ll see. Stephenson hasn’t appealed to me very much in the past.
I thought Butcher’s book was pretty good last year, so I’m fine with trying this one.
BEST NOVELLA (2416 ballots)
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
The Builders by Daniel Polansky
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold
Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson
Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds
The only one I’d really expected for sure was “Penric’s Demon.” Great story. I look forward to “Binti,” which I heard a lot about but didn’t read; and “Perfect State” because I loved “The Emperor’s Soul” a couple years ago and have never read anything else by Sanderson (though I have a couple of his on my TBR pile).
BEST NOVELETTE (1975 ballots)
“And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead” by Brooke Bolander
“Flashpoint: Titan” by Cheah Kai Wai
“Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu
“Obits” by Stephen King
“What Price Humanity?” by David VanDyke
Yeah, well, “Folding Beijing” didn’t really work for me. The others I haven’t read and don’t remember hearing about.
BEST SHORT STORY (2451 ballots)
“Asymmetrical Warfare” by S. R. Algernon
The Commuter by Thomas A. Mays
“If You Were an Award, My Love” by Juan Tabo and S. Harris
“Seven Kill Tiger” by Charles Shao
Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle
I’m very disappointed that neither “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer or “Wooden Feathers” by Ursula Vernon made the cut. I thought they had a very good chance. If it turns out that they were dumped by what are obviously Rabid Puppy choices . . . let me see . . . ah, yes, the Rabid Puppies swept this category completely. I see they had a big impact with all the short fiction. Well . . . we shall just have to see whether there are rule changes for how works are nominated next year and what happens after that.
As always, Chaos Horizon has a more thorough analytical take on these nominees,including a first guess about what is likely to win the novel category.
