Musings of a Hugo Voter: Ballot's as done as it's gonna get
EDIT, 8/22: Noting winners.
While we're at it, here's the stats.
I haven't been keeping up with the bloggage on this, because I've been rushing to fill the ballot. Yes, the deadline is midnight, Jul 31st. As of the afternoon of Jul 24, except for a brief town run for the rest of my stuff, I'm going to be out in the woods till Aug 10. Herewith, my ballot. Reviews of some of the down-ballot stuff as I get time. Starting with non-Hugo stuff first, then on to the Hugo noms:
Worldcon 2017 Site Selection: 1. DC 2. Montreal 3. Helsinki 4. Japan. Helsinki won.
Campbell Award: 1. Kary English 2. Jason Cordova 3. Wesley Chu. Winner: Chu.
On to the Hugos.
Best Novel: 1. Jim Butcher, Skin Game 2. Katherine Addison, Goblin Emperor 3. Cixin Liu, Three Body Problem 4. Ann Leckie, Ancillary Sword.
Kevin Anderson, Dark Between the Stars blank. My review is as follows -- tl;dr. Lame, preachy first chapter, followed by immediate shift to another, rather nasty viewpoint character. Bleh. Winner: Three Body Problem.
Novella: 1. Tom Kratman, "Big Boys Don't Cry" 2. Arlan Andrews, "Flow"
John C Wright's stuff, blank -- just didn't like it enough to put in the effort of reading. Noah Ward.
Novelette: 1. Rajnar Vajra, "The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale" 2. Gray Rinehart, "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium" 3. Michael Flynn, "Journeyman: In the Stone House" 4. Edward Lerner, "Championship B'Tok" 5. Thomas Olde Heuvelt, "The Day the World Turned Upside Down". World Upside down, winner
Short Story: 1. Steve Rzasa, "Turncoat" 2. Steven Diamond, "A Single Samurai" 3. Kary English, "Totaled" 4. Lou Antonelli, "On a Spiritual Plain" 5. John C Wright, "The Parliament of Beasts and Birds". Noah Ward :-b
Related Work: 1. Lou Antonelli, "Letters from Gardner" 2. Tedd Roberts, "Why Science is Never Settled" 3. Ken Burnside, "The Hot Equations" 4. Michael Z Williamson, "Wisdom From My Internet"** 5. John C Wright, "Transhuman and Subhuman".
Winner: Noah Ward. We note that MZW voted for Noah.
** I haven't read all of "WFMI", but that's because it's not something you read at one sitting. I keep it on my phone, and snack on it. The reason I've got a friend's writing so low on the ballot is (A) he published the damn thing as a joke, and is amazed at the money it's making him, not to mention surprised at the nom; and (B) it was NOMINATED as a joke, by someone that MadMike doesn't even like.
Graphic Story: 1. Kurtis Welbe, "Rat Queens" 2. Brian Vaughan, "Saga Volume 3" 3. G Willow Wilson, "Ms Marvel Volume 1" 4. Noah Ward. 5. Matt Fraction, the truly execrable "Sex Criminals". [EDIT -- at Pennsic, MadMike pointed out that 5th place is still a vote. Before the deadline, I switched my phone to hot-spot, tethered to his laptop, and changed the vote to blank.]
Winner: Ms Marvel.
Professional Editor, Short: 1. Mike Resnick, others blank because not familiar. No Award.
Professional Editor, Long: 1. Toni Weisskopf 2. Jim Minz 3. Anne Sowards 4. Sheila Gilbert. No Award.
Professional Artist: 1. Julie Dillon 2. Alan Pollack 3. Nick Greenwood 4. Kirk DouPonce Dillon wins.
Fanzine: 1. Tim Bolgeo, "Revenge of Hump Day" (it's the one I read.) Journey Planet won.
Fan Writer: 1. Laura J Mixon 2. Cedar Sanderson 3. Amanda S Green 4. Dave Freer 5. Jeffro Johnson. Mixon won.
Fan Artist: 1. Spring Schoenhuth 2. Ninni Aalto 3. Elizabeth Leggett 4. Steve Stiles 5. Brad Foster. Leggett won.
Note that I voted for Noah Ward exactly once, and that was because I loathed "Sex Criminals" so much that I wanted to print a copy, just so I could burn it.
Reviews as I find time to write them.
Not rated, not my thing:
FanCast -- Galactic Suburbia.
Semiprozine -- Lightspeed
TV Show -- Orphan Black
Movie -- Guardians of the Galaxy