2017 Hugo Award Finalists

Wow, the Finalists for the 2017 Hugos have been announced. It seems like I’ve only just finished nominating. This is the biggest ballot on record, with 108 Finalists in total. Part of the reason this ballot is so much bigger is because there are six finalists in every category instead of five. So, I better get reading; voting closes July 15, and the winners will be announced August 11. No time at all really; so I gotta cut this into short and just list the finalists.

BEST NOVEL

• All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)
• A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)
• Death’s End by Cixin Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)
• Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)
• The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)
• Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)

BEST NOVELLA

• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson (Tor.com Publishing)
• Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum Literary Agency)
• A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com Publishing)
• This Census-Taker by China Miéville (Del Rey / Picador)

BEST NOVELETTE

• Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex by Stix Hiscock (self-published)
• The Art of Space Travel by Nina Allan (Tor.com, July 2016)
• The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde (Tor.com Publishing, May 2016)
• The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon (Apex Magazine, January 2016)
• Touring with the Alien by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2016)
• You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay by Alyssa Wong (Uncanny Magazine, May 2016)

BEST SHORT STORY

• The City Born Great by N. K. Jemisin (Tor.com, September 2016)
• A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers by Alyssa Wong (Tor.com, March 2016)
• Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies by Brooke Bolander (Uncanny Magazine, November 2016)
• Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, Saga Press)
• That Game We Played During the War by Carrie Vaughn (Tor.com, March 2016)
• An Unimaginable Light by John C. Wright (God, Robot, Castalia House)

BEST RELATED WORK

• The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley (Tor Books)
• The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press)
• Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Fairwood)
• The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow / Harper Collins)
• “The Women of Harry Potter” posts by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
• Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016by Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

• Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)
• Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
• Marvel, Volume 5: Super Famous, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa (Marvel)
• Paper Girls, Volume 1, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image)
• Saga, Volume 6, illustrated by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan, lettered by Fonografiks (Image)
• The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man, written by Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Marvel)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG FORM

• Arrival, screenplay by Eric Heisserer based on a short story by Ted Chiang, directed by Denis Villeneuve (21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films)
• Deadpool, screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick, directed by Tim Miller (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Marvel Entertainment/Kinberg Genre/The Donners’ Company/TSG Entertainment)
• Ghostbusters, screenplay by Katie Dippold & Paul Feig, directed by Paul Feig (Columbia Pictures/LStar Capital/Village Roadshow Pictures/Pascal Pictures/Feigco Entertainment/Ghostcorps/The Montecito Picture Company)
• Hidden Figures, screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi, directed by Theodore Melfi (Fox 2000 Pictures/Chernin Entertainment/Levantine Films/TSG Entertainment)
• Rogue One, screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, directed by Gareth Edwards (Lucasfilm/Allison Shearmur Productions/Black Hangar Studios/Stereo D/Walt Disney Pictures)
• Stranger Things, Season One, created by the Duffer Brothers (21 Laps Entertainment/Monkey Massacre)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – SHORT FORM

• Black Mirror: “San Junipero”, written by Charlie Brooker, directed by Owen Harris (House of Tomorrow)
• Doctor Who: “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Ed Bazalgette (BBC Cymru Wales)
• The Expanse: “Leviathan Wakes”, written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, directed by Terry McDonough (SyFy)
• Game of Thrones: “Battle of the Bastards”, written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, directed by Miguel Sapochnik (HBO)
• Game of Thrones: “The Door”, written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, directed by Jack Bender (HBO)
• Splendor & Misery[album], by Clipping (Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes)

BEST EDITOR – SHORT FORM

• John Joseph Adams
• Neil Clarke
• Ellen Datlow
• Jonathan Strahan
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
• Sheila Williams

BEST EDITOR – LONG FORM

• Vox Day
• Sheila E. Gilbert
• Liz Gorinsky
• Devi Pillai
• Miriam Weinberg
• Navah Wolfe

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

• Galen Dara
• Julie Dillon
• Chris McGrath
• Victo Ngai
• John Picacio
• Sana Takeda

BEST SEMIPROZINE

• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, editor-in-chief and publisher Scott H. Andrews
• Cirsova Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, edited by P. Alexander
• GigaNotoSaurus, edited by Rashida J. Smith
• Strange Horizons, edited by Niall Harrison, Catherine Krahe, Vajra Chandrasekera, Vanessa Rose Phin, Li Chua, Aishwarya Subramanian, Tim Moore, Anaea Lay, and the Strange Horizons staff
• Uncanny Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, Julia Rios, and podcast produced by Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky
• The Book Smugglers, edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James

BEST FANZINE

• Castalia House Blog, edited by Jeffro Johnson
• Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Helena Nash, Errick Nunnally, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Chuck Serface, and Erin Underwood
• Lady Business, edited by Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan
• Nerds of a feather, flock together, edited by The G, Vance Kotrla, and Joe Sherry
• Rocket Stack Rank, edited by Greg Hullender and Eric Wong
• SF Bluestocking, edited by Bridget McKinney

BEST FANCAST

• The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan
• Ditch Diggers, presented by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace
• Fangirl Happy Hour, presented by Ana Grilo and Renay Williams
• Galactic Suburbia, presented by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce and Tansy Rayner Roberts, produced by Andrew Finch
• The Rageaholic, presented by RazörFist
• Tea and Jeopardy, presented by Emma Newman with Peter Newman

BEST FAN WRITER

• Mike Glyer
• Jeffro Johnson
• Natalie Luhrs
• Foz Meadows
• Abigail Nussbaum
• Chuck Tingle

BEST FAN ARTIST

• Ninni Aalto
• Alex Garner
• Vesa Lehtimäki
• Likhain (M. Sereno)
• Spring Schoenhuth
• Mansik Yang

BEST SERIES

• The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone (Tor Books)
• The Expanse by James S.A. Corey (Orbit US / Orbit UK)
• The October Daye Books by Seanan McGuire (DAW / Corsair)
• The Peter Grant / Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz / Del Rey / DAW / Subterranean)
• The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik (Del Rey / Harper Voyager UK)
• The Vorkosigan Saga  by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER

• Sarah Gailey
• Mulrooney
• Malka Older
• Ada Palmer
• Laurie Penny
• Kelly Robson

 

The first thing that pops out to me is that to read all the novels, I’ll still have to read five books just like last year. I’ve already read three of the finalists (Ninefox Gambit, All the Birds in the Sky, and The Obelisk Gate), but of the three remaining, Death’s End and A Closed and Common Orbit are sequels, so I’ll have to read the previous books in the series to get the most out of them.

I’m in a somewhat similar predicament when it comes to the novella The Ballad of Black Tom. I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while, but after hearing that it is a subversion of Lovecraft’s The Horror at Red Hook, I decided to read the original first. But then, I also didn’t really want to read The Horror at Red Hook because I heard it’s really badly written and that even by Lovecraft’s standards it’s racist. I suppose I’ll see how much time I have.

Oh yeah, Chuck Tingle is back, but this time nominated in the category of Best Fan Writer, which I think is pretty cool. There is also a new dinosaur erotica story I am forced to check out. Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex by Knock-Off Chuck Tingle… I mean, Stix Hiscock.

Okay, maybe that was uncalled for. I haven’t even read his novelette, so maybe Mr. Hiscock is a perfectly respectable voice in the silly dinosaur erotica genre. I haven’t been keeping up with the latest dinosaur porn, so I wouldn’t know. I just get the impression from Mr. Hiscock’s two books and their publication date that he might be a copycat. Also, it’s a novelette! Space Raptor Butt Invasion was the perfect length for what it was; I’m not sure I’m looking forward to something much longer by someone without Chuck Tingle’s warm and somewhat silly style.

But nearly everything else on the list I’m looking forward to reading or watching. Quite a few of the stories have been on my radar for a while, and I’m also really interested in listening to Splendour and Misery by Clipping. I’m not really that into Hip-Hop, but I like most music, I love science-fiction themed concept albums, and Daveed Diggs was good in Hamilton.

The big question is whether or not I’ll have time for everything.

Should be a fun few months.

 

~ Lauren