The SFFBC 2020 Hindsight Awards: A RetroSPECtive (Winners announced!)

[Michelle]

I have one for best science fiction...you can all rest easy😉 The Iron Jackal

[Michelle]

Belay my last! It should have been Retribution Falls. I forgot the stipulation about it having to been the first of the series!

[Hank]

May I change one of my votes since I just finished an awesome genre bender?

Change Broken Monsters -> Prey of Gods

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

This is what changes with Leonie's votes. Still waiting on updates from:
Christopher
Xavaqenia
Kristenelle


Note for my own record-keeping: (view spoiler)[ Leonie's votes would put Terry Pratchett, James SA Corey and Pandora's Star at 2 votes. Annihilation 3 is Meredith.
Prey of Gods 3 is Hank
Neon Yang 4 is Meredith (hide spoiler)]

Best Fantasy Book:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 7
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - 5
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - 5
The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher - 3
The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker - 3



Best Science Fiction Novel:
The Martian by Andy Weir - 10
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - 7
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin - 6
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - 5
--------------------
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie - 3
Semiosis by Sue Burke - 3


Best Genre Bending Novel:
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer - 5
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - 4
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - 4

---------------------
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson - 3
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - 3
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden - 3
---------------------
The City & the City by China Miéville - 2
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - 2
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen - 2
The Devourers by Indra Das - 2
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - 2


Best Fantasy Author:
N.K. Jemisin - 11
Neil Gaiman - 4
Jo Walton - 4
George RR Martin - 4
JY Neon Yang - 4

Best Science Fiction Author:
Ted Chiang - 7
Martha Wells - 7
Connie Willis - 5
Becky Chambers - 5
Nnedi Okorafor -5

[Anna]

Since no one took my Semiosis bait, I'm switching to Ancillary Justice. Tie broken, yay!

Semiosis -> Ancillary Justice (original post edited)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

come on y'all! get your last votes in! Who wants to tie break for genre benders?

[Monica]

OK switch my genre bender vote from The Fifth Season => Midnight Robber. Hopkinson should be on this list somewhere...

[Kristenelle]

Allison wrote: "This is what changes with Leonie's votes. Still waiting on updates from:
Christopher
Xavaqenia
Kristenelle


Note for my own record-keeping: Leonie's votes would put Terry Pratchett, James SA Core..."

Ah, sorry, I didn't realize this year was off limits. I don't have a replacement for "Sharks in the Time of Saviors."

ETA: Actually, I'll nominate The Library at Mount Char to replace "Sharks" in the genre bending category.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

thank you both!

[Anna]

Switch my My Real Children to Prey of Gods and BAM we can be done!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

An interesting list! I'll give Xavaqenia and Chris a shot at changing things, but no new votes at this time! Polls up soon!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Time to vote!! If you didn't go through the link in the newsletter (or don't get the newsletter), you can find it here:

http://hellopresto.com/go/sffbcawards

Yes, this is offsite, but it's a paid-for hosting by a private company so that I can be pretty positive that none of your info is being used for anything else. No personal information is requested.

So go vote!!

Please also note that this likely does not work in Mozilla private mode. Sorry!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Y'all, keeping this a secret is probably going to be one of the hardest things I've done all year! It's very exciting to see the votes coming in!

[Hank]

Some of those are hard choices!

[Jessica]

Oh, I was missing a book on Best Fantasy and then realized it's because they are in best author. Got it! This is fun.

[Anna]

Remember to vote! See here for all the details.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Don't forget to vote! There are some really close races--you could be the deciding vote!!

[Anna]

About a week left to vote!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Only 3 days left to vote!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Today's the last day to vote! Don't forget!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

We have winners! Thanks to all participants!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJefTmkD...

[Leticia]

Could you post the winners somewhere else but Instagram? I decided not to fall into the Instagram's rabbit hole.

[Oleksandr]

Leticia wrote: "Could you post the winners somewhere else but Instagram? I decided not to fall into the Instagram's rabbit hole."

+1

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

yep! it's my plan to post here today, gimme a minute to finish waking up and doing group housekeeping :)

[Melanie, the neutral party]

You can watch it without being signed into Instagram from Allison's link.

Great announcer voice Allison- thank you!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Haha thank you! Special thanks to my incredibly supportive spouse who was a live teleprompter for me with the scroll and everything ;-)

THE WINNERS!

Best fantasy novel: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Best scifi novel: The Martian by Andy Weir

Best genre-bending novel: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Best fantasy author: NK Jemisin

Best scifi author: Martha Wells

A reminder that the criteria for this award was that the book had to have been published in this century, and the author must have published at least one genre work in this century. Authors could only be on the slate once, so there was quite a bit of jockeying to get what we felt was largely the best offering.

Over 300 people voted (and while some of you noticed you could vote multiple times, I was monitoring and saw no trends that would have impacted the results if anyone did in fact vote more than once), and it was very close in a few races!

Thanks all for participating!!

What do you think of the winners?

[Melanie, the neutral party]

I was disappointed that Becky Chambers didn't win, but happy both winning authors are women.

[Silvana]

None of my choices won and I am mostly disappointed over Ninefox Gambit not winning the genrebender category😭 and Ted Chiang not winning the SF author one 😭

But Allison, you looked fabulous!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

thank you! haha

i was also sad about Ted and genre bending. not that the winners aren't wonderful!

[Mel]

Beautifully done, Allison! Fit for the red carpet!

The process of shuffling and whittling down contestants was the most difficult part, but the end results are all worthy winners.

[Gabi]

Loved your presentation, Allison. You looked beautiful!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Thankee, thankee!

[Feliciana]

Great video! I enjoyed participating in the voting! Happy New Year! Los deseo un maravilloso 2021 llena de amor, salud, alegría, y felicidad!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Gracias, Ann y todos! happy new year!

[Mihai]

It was a pretty cool idea :)

[Jessica]

Solid list!