Second of three posts: 2016 Hugos in detail
I normally like to do these posts on the night, but circumstances prevented me this year. Next year will likely be a different matter...
Results are listed here, full details here; and analysis of the effect EPH would have had on the ballot (absent any other changes) here.
Headlines:
Best Novel: The Fifth Season beat Uprooted by 1373 to 1203, having been ahead at all stages. Uprooted second, Ancillary Mercy third, Seveneves fourth, Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut's Windlass fifth, all by large margins. Seveneves topped the nominations ballot; Somewhither, by John L. Wright, was 155 behind The Cinder Spires for the last place.
Best Novella: Binti beat Penric's Demon by 1419 to 1077. Penric's Demon then gets a very secure second place, followed by Slow Bullets in third, Perfect State in fourth, and The Builders in fifth, all by large margins. Penric's Demon got the most nominations; Fear of the Unknown and Self-Loathing in Hollywood by Nick Cole was 51 behind The Builders for the last place.
Best Novelette: Tight at the top, but "Folding Beijing" finishes with 1201 to 944 for "And You Shall..." after benefiting from transfers from "Obits". "And You Shall..." more narrowly wins second place over "Obits", which comes third, No Award fourth, "What Price Humanity?" beats "Flashpoint: Titan" for fifth, all clear enough margins. "Folding Bejhing" also got the most nominations. Jonathan Moeller declined nomination for "Hyperspace Demons", thus allowing "And You Shall..." onto the ballot. Sarah Pinsker's "Our Lady of the Open Road" was 31 nominations behind "And You Shall...", and would have replaced "What Price Humanity?" as fifth finalist on the ballot under EPH.
Best Short Story: "Cat Pictures Please" gets 1548 first prefs of 2704, 57.2%. No Award clear winner of second place. "Space Raptor" scrapes third place by 30 votes ahead of "Asymmetrical Warfare", which securely gets fourth place. "Seven Kill Tiger" beats "If You Were An Award, My Love" for fifth. Thomas Mays withdrew "The Commuter" after the ballot was announced, allowing "Cat Pictures Please" to take its place. "Asymmetrical Warfare" got the most nominations. Alyssa Wong's "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" was 114 nominations behind "Cat Pictures Please". Under EPH, "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" and Ursula Vernon's "Wooden Feathers" would have replaced Space Raptor Butt Invasion and "If You Were an Award, My Love" on a ballot of five.
Best Related Work: No Award wins a staggering 1872 first prefs of 2545, 73.6%. Between Light and Shadow needs only one count to secure second place. "Moira Greyland" beats "Appendix N" for third place by 44 votes. "Appendix N" securely gets fourth place, and "Safe Space or Rape Room", which was actually last on most of the early counts, beats "SJWs Always Lie" for fifth. "Appendix N" got the most nominations. Letters to Tiptree was 25 nominations behind Between Light and Shadow for the last spot on the ballot. Under EPH, Letters to Tiptree and You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) would have replaced "The Story of Moira Greyland" and Between Light and Shadow as fourth and fifth finalists on the ballot.
Best Graphic Story: The Sandman: Overture gets 1366 first prefs out of 2171, 62.9%. No Award gets second place almost as securely. Invisible Republic clear third, The Divine clearly fourth, and Full Frontal Nerdity beats Erin Dies Alone by 18 votes for fifth place. The Sandman: Overture was also far ahead in nominations, and Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine was 78 votes behind The Divine for the last spot on the ballot. Under EPH, Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine, Nimona and Saga vol 5 would have replaced Erin Dies Alone, Invisible Republic and The Divine - the only case I've seen of EPH bringing three new finalists to the ballot.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: The Martian was 300 votes ahead of Mad Max: Fury Road at every stage, finishing with 1514 to 1226. The other places were equally decisive if not more so: Mad Max second, Star Wars third, Ex Machina fourth and The Avengers: Age of Ultron fifth. Unusually, this also exactly reflects the order of nominations, with Inside Out 258 behind Age of Ultron for the final spot.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Jessica Jones: AKA Smile won by 1151 to 805 for Doctor Who: Heaven Sent and 276 for My Little Pony. Heaven Sent won second place even more decisively. Grimm: Headache came from far behind to beat No Award for third place by 79; No Award then beat Supernatural: Just My Imagination by 6 for fourth place, the closest result of the night; and Supernatural: Just My Imagination beat My Little Pony for fifth place. My Little Pony had the most nominations, and the third highest number of first preferences, but finished in last place overall (though ahead of No Award). Hardhome was 20 nominations behind Jessica Jones for the final spot on the ballot. Tales from the Borderlands: The Vault of the Traveller and Life Is Strange, episode 1 were both ruled ineligible due to being too long.
Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow was clearly in the lead and won by 1040 to 691 for Neil Clarke. Sheila Williams then beat John Joseph Adams for seond place, and Clarke beat Adams for third place by 85 votes. Adams was far ahead of Jerry Pournelle for fourth place, and No Award then also beat Pournelle for fifth. Pournelle had by far the highest number of nominations. C.C. Finlay was 54 behind Sheila Williams for the last spot on the final ballot.
Best Editor, Long Form: Sheila Gilbert started in the lead and extended it to win by 862 to 768 for Liz Gorinsky. Gorinsky then comfortably beat Toni Weisskopf and No Award for second place. No Award beat Weisskopf for third place by 56 votes. Weisskopf then beat Jim Miz and Vox Day for fourth place, and Minz was far ahead of Vox Day for fifth. Weisskopf had by far the most nominations, far ahead of Anne Sowards who declined nomination. Mike Braff, who got the fifth most nomination (counting Sowards) was ruled ineligible. Anne Groell was 58 behind Liz Gorinsky for the last place on the ballot. Under EPH, she would have replaced Vox Day as a finalist.
Best Professional Artist: Extraordinary stuff here, with No Award getting the most first preferences but Abigail Larson, who started in third place, picking up transfer from Michal Karcz to overtake Larry Elmore and then from Elmore to overtake No Award and win by 918 to 834, the closest result for a Hugo (not counting the Campbell) of the evening. No Award then took second place ahead of Elmore by 104 votes; Michal Karcz also overtook Elmore for third place, by a margin of 12; Elmore beat Larry Rostant for fourth place by 76 votes; and finally Rostant beat Lars Braad Andersen for fifth place by 129. Julie Dillon was only 14 nominations behind Larry Rostant for the final space on the ballot, the nearest miss of any category; under EPH, Dillon and John Picacio would have taken the places of Rostant and Andersen.
Best Semiprozine: Uncanny Magazine had a strong lead and won by 1025 to 596 for Strange Horizons and 375 for No Award. Strange Horizons took a strong second place ahead of No Award; Beneath Ceaseless Skies took third ahead of No Award; No Award then took fourth ahead of both Daily Science Fiction and Sci Phi Journal; and Daily Science Fiction was far ahead of Sci Phi Journal for fifth place. Strange Horizons had the most nominations, with Abyss & Apex 32 behind Daily Science Fiction for the last nomination spot.
Best Fanzine: File 770 crushed all opposition for a first round victory, with 56.3% of first preference votes. Lady Business then beat No Award for second place, No Award took a very secure third place on the first count, and Tangent Online also won on the first count for fourth place. Superversive SF, which had been last on all previous rounds, overtook the Castalia House Blog to win fifth place by a margin of 92. File 770 was also far the lead in nominations; Black Gate declined nomination, allowing Lady Business (which had been far behind) onto the ballot. Journey Planet was 17 behind Lady Business, the second closest miss after Best Professional Artist.
Best Fancast: No Award got a stunning 70% of first preferences here. Most of the votes had no further preference between the finalists; among those that did, Tales to Terrify beat Rageaholic for second place by 37 votes, Rageaholic beat HelloGreedo by a mere 10 for third, 8-4 Play beat HelloGreedo by 54 votes for fourth place, and Cane and Rinse beat HelloGreedo by 40 votes for fifth. Hello Greedo actually got the most nominations; Tea and Jeopardy missed the final spot by 118. Under EPH, Tea and Jeopardy and Galactic Suburbia would have taken the places of 8-4 Play and Tales to Terrify.
Best Fan Writer: Mike Glyer crushed all others with 63.4% of first preferences, and No Award then took second place with 72% of the remaining voites. Jeffro Johnson beat Shamus Young for third place by 37, Morgan Holmes beat Shamus Young for fourth place by 40, and Shamus Young was well ahead of Douglas Ernst for fifth pace. Mike Glyer only made it to the ballot because Zenopus declined nomination; he was 30 ahead of Alexandra Erin for the final spot. Under EPH, Glyer, Erin and Natalie Luhrs would have replaced Zenopus (had they not declined their nomination), Shamus Young and Douglas Ernst on the ballot.
Best Fan Artist: Steve Stiles was well ahead from the start, beating No Award by 1193 to 569. No Award then decisively took second place on the first count. Christian Quinot beat Matthew Callahan by 51 votes for third place, Callahan beat Kukuroyo by 64 for fourth, and Kukuruyo comfortably beat disse86 for fifth. Matthew Callahan got the most nominations. Steve Stiles was only on the ballot because Rgus declined nomination; Megan Lara was 28 behind him for the final spot. Under EPH, the final spot would have gone to Kukuroyo rather than Stiles, if Rgus' withdrawal stood.
John W. Campbell Award: Alyssa Wong was actually two votes ahead on first preferences, but Andy Weir picked up on transfers to win by 1144 to 1110, the closest result for any award on the night. Wong then emphatically won second place. No Award clearly won third, Pierce Brown fourth, and Sebastien de Castell beat Brian Niemeier for fifth. This was also the order of first preferences. Weir was far in the lead for nominations, and Cheah Kai Wai was 19 behind Sebastien de Castell for the last spot on the ballot.
Obviously a lot to consider here in terms of the effects of EPH, which will be the subject of my next post.
Results are listed here, full details here; and analysis of the effect EPH would have had on the ballot (absent any other changes) here.
Headlines:
- All four written fiction categories went to women who had never won a Hugo before, three of them WoC
- Women also won both Best Editor categories and Best Professional Artist
- An unusually high number of first-count victories:
- Best Short Story (Cat Pictures Please)
- Best Related Work (No Award)
- Best Graphic Story (Sandman: Overture)
- Best Fanzine (File 770)
- Best Fancast (No Award)
- Best Fan Writer (Mike Glyer)
- Closest result at the top was Andy Weir beating Alyssa Wong by 34 votes for the Campbell award, second closest was Abigail Larson beating No Award by 84 for Best Professional Artist
- Abigail Larson won Best Professional Artist despite being third on first preferences with only 16.7%
- Alyssa Wong got the most first preferences for the John W. Campbell Award but lost on transfer to Andy Weir
- No Award:
- won only two categories this year, Best Fancast and Best Related Work
- came second in Best Short Story, Best Graphic Story, Best Professional Artist, Best Fan Writer and Best Fan Artist
- came third in Best Editor Long Form, Best Fanzine and Campbell Award
- came fourth in Best Novelette, Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, and Best Semiprozine
- came fifth in Best Professional Editor, Long Form
- Closest result in nominations was Julie Dillon (last year's winner) missing by 14 votes to Larry Rostant in Best Professional Artist
- The winners of Best Short Story ("Cat Pictures Please"), Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) (Jessica Jones, AKA Smile), Best Fan Writer (Mike Glyer) and Best Fan Artist (Steve Stiles) were only on the ballot because others declined nomination or were disqualified
- Jerry Pournelle and Hello Greedo got the most nominations for Best Editor (Short Form) and Best Fancast respectively, but both came last, behind No Award, in the actual vote
Best Novel: The Fifth Season beat Uprooted by 1373 to 1203, having been ahead at all stages. Uprooted second, Ancillary Mercy third, Seveneves fourth, Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut's Windlass fifth, all by large margins. Seveneves topped the nominations ballot; Somewhither, by John L. Wright, was 155 behind The Cinder Spires for the last place.
Best Novella: Binti beat Penric's Demon by 1419 to 1077. Penric's Demon then gets a very secure second place, followed by Slow Bullets in third, Perfect State in fourth, and The Builders in fifth, all by large margins. Penric's Demon got the most nominations; Fear of the Unknown and Self-Loathing in Hollywood by Nick Cole was 51 behind The Builders for the last place.
Best Novelette: Tight at the top, but "Folding Beijing" finishes with 1201 to 944 for "And You Shall..." after benefiting from transfers from "Obits". "And You Shall..." more narrowly wins second place over "Obits", which comes third, No Award fourth, "What Price Humanity?" beats "Flashpoint: Titan" for fifth, all clear enough margins. "Folding Bejhing" also got the most nominations. Jonathan Moeller declined nomination for "Hyperspace Demons", thus allowing "And You Shall..." onto the ballot. Sarah Pinsker's "Our Lady of the Open Road" was 31 nominations behind "And You Shall...", and would have replaced "What Price Humanity?" as fifth finalist on the ballot under EPH.
Best Short Story: "Cat Pictures Please" gets 1548 first prefs of 2704, 57.2%. No Award clear winner of second place. "Space Raptor" scrapes third place by 30 votes ahead of "Asymmetrical Warfare", which securely gets fourth place. "Seven Kill Tiger" beats "If You Were An Award, My Love" for fifth. Thomas Mays withdrew "The Commuter" after the ballot was announced, allowing "Cat Pictures Please" to take its place. "Asymmetrical Warfare" got the most nominations. Alyssa Wong's "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" was 114 nominations behind "Cat Pictures Please". Under EPH, "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" and Ursula Vernon's "Wooden Feathers" would have replaced Space Raptor Butt Invasion and "If You Were an Award, My Love" on a ballot of five.
Best Related Work: No Award wins a staggering 1872 first prefs of 2545, 73.6%. Between Light and Shadow needs only one count to secure second place. "Moira Greyland" beats "Appendix N" for third place by 44 votes. "Appendix N" securely gets fourth place, and "Safe Space or Rape Room", which was actually last on most of the early counts, beats "SJWs Always Lie" for fifth. "Appendix N" got the most nominations. Letters to Tiptree was 25 nominations behind Between Light and Shadow for the last spot on the ballot. Under EPH, Letters to Tiptree and You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) would have replaced "The Story of Moira Greyland" and Between Light and Shadow as fourth and fifth finalists on the ballot.
Best Graphic Story: The Sandman: Overture gets 1366 first prefs out of 2171, 62.9%. No Award gets second place almost as securely. Invisible Republic clear third, The Divine clearly fourth, and Full Frontal Nerdity beats Erin Dies Alone by 18 votes for fifth place. The Sandman: Overture was also far ahead in nominations, and Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine was 78 votes behind The Divine for the last spot on the ballot. Under EPH, Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine, Nimona and Saga vol 5 would have replaced Erin Dies Alone, Invisible Republic and The Divine - the only case I've seen of EPH bringing three new finalists to the ballot.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: The Martian was 300 votes ahead of Mad Max: Fury Road at every stage, finishing with 1514 to 1226. The other places were equally decisive if not more so: Mad Max second, Star Wars third, Ex Machina fourth and The Avengers: Age of Ultron fifth. Unusually, this also exactly reflects the order of nominations, with Inside Out 258 behind Age of Ultron for the final spot.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Jessica Jones: AKA Smile won by 1151 to 805 for Doctor Who: Heaven Sent and 276 for My Little Pony. Heaven Sent won second place even more decisively. Grimm: Headache came from far behind to beat No Award for third place by 79; No Award then beat Supernatural: Just My Imagination by 6 for fourth place, the closest result of the night; and Supernatural: Just My Imagination beat My Little Pony for fifth place. My Little Pony had the most nominations, and the third highest number of first preferences, but finished in last place overall (though ahead of No Award). Hardhome was 20 nominations behind Jessica Jones for the final spot on the ballot. Tales from the Borderlands: The Vault of the Traveller and Life Is Strange, episode 1 were both ruled ineligible due to being too long.
Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow was clearly in the lead and won by 1040 to 691 for Neil Clarke. Sheila Williams then beat John Joseph Adams for seond place, and Clarke beat Adams for third place by 85 votes. Adams was far ahead of Jerry Pournelle for fourth place, and No Award then also beat Pournelle for fifth. Pournelle had by far the highest number of nominations. C.C. Finlay was 54 behind Sheila Williams for the last spot on the final ballot.
Best Editor, Long Form: Sheila Gilbert started in the lead and extended it to win by 862 to 768 for Liz Gorinsky. Gorinsky then comfortably beat Toni Weisskopf and No Award for second place. No Award beat Weisskopf for third place by 56 votes. Weisskopf then beat Jim Miz and Vox Day for fourth place, and Minz was far ahead of Vox Day for fifth. Weisskopf had by far the most nominations, far ahead of Anne Sowards who declined nomination. Mike Braff, who got the fifth most nomination (counting Sowards) was ruled ineligible. Anne Groell was 58 behind Liz Gorinsky for the last place on the ballot. Under EPH, she would have replaced Vox Day as a finalist.
Best Professional Artist: Extraordinary stuff here, with No Award getting the most first preferences but Abigail Larson, who started in third place, picking up transfer from Michal Karcz to overtake Larry Elmore and then from Elmore to overtake No Award and win by 918 to 834, the closest result for a Hugo (not counting the Campbell) of the evening. No Award then took second place ahead of Elmore by 104 votes; Michal Karcz also overtook Elmore for third place, by a margin of 12; Elmore beat Larry Rostant for fourth place by 76 votes; and finally Rostant beat Lars Braad Andersen for fifth place by 129. Julie Dillon was only 14 nominations behind Larry Rostant for the final space on the ballot, the nearest miss of any category; under EPH, Dillon and John Picacio would have taken the places of Rostant and Andersen.
Best Semiprozine: Uncanny Magazine had a strong lead and won by 1025 to 596 for Strange Horizons and 375 for No Award. Strange Horizons took a strong second place ahead of No Award; Beneath Ceaseless Skies took third ahead of No Award; No Award then took fourth ahead of both Daily Science Fiction and Sci Phi Journal; and Daily Science Fiction was far ahead of Sci Phi Journal for fifth place. Strange Horizons had the most nominations, with Abyss & Apex 32 behind Daily Science Fiction for the last nomination spot.
Best Fanzine: File 770 crushed all opposition for a first round victory, with 56.3% of first preference votes. Lady Business then beat No Award for second place, No Award took a very secure third place on the first count, and Tangent Online also won on the first count for fourth place. Superversive SF, which had been last on all previous rounds, overtook the Castalia House Blog to win fifth place by a margin of 92. File 770 was also far the lead in nominations; Black Gate declined nomination, allowing Lady Business (which had been far behind) onto the ballot. Journey Planet was 17 behind Lady Business, the second closest miss after Best Professional Artist.
Best Fancast: No Award got a stunning 70% of first preferences here. Most of the votes had no further preference between the finalists; among those that did, Tales to Terrify beat Rageaholic for second place by 37 votes, Rageaholic beat HelloGreedo by a mere 10 for third, 8-4 Play beat HelloGreedo by 54 votes for fourth place, and Cane and Rinse beat HelloGreedo by 40 votes for fifth. Hello Greedo actually got the most nominations; Tea and Jeopardy missed the final spot by 118. Under EPH, Tea and Jeopardy and Galactic Suburbia would have taken the places of 8-4 Play and Tales to Terrify.
Best Fan Writer: Mike Glyer crushed all others with 63.4% of first preferences, and No Award then took second place with 72% of the remaining voites. Jeffro Johnson beat Shamus Young for third place by 37, Morgan Holmes beat Shamus Young for fourth place by 40, and Shamus Young was well ahead of Douglas Ernst for fifth pace. Mike Glyer only made it to the ballot because Zenopus declined nomination; he was 30 ahead of Alexandra Erin for the final spot. Under EPH, Glyer, Erin and Natalie Luhrs would have replaced Zenopus (had they not declined their nomination), Shamus Young and Douglas Ernst on the ballot.
Best Fan Artist: Steve Stiles was well ahead from the start, beating No Award by 1193 to 569. No Award then decisively took second place on the first count. Christian Quinot beat Matthew Callahan by 51 votes for third place, Callahan beat Kukuroyo by 64 for fourth, and Kukuruyo comfortably beat disse86 for fifth. Matthew Callahan got the most nominations. Steve Stiles was only on the ballot because Rgus declined nomination; Megan Lara was 28 behind him for the final spot. Under EPH, the final spot would have gone to Kukuroyo rather than Stiles, if Rgus' withdrawal stood.
John W. Campbell Award: Alyssa Wong was actually two votes ahead on first preferences, but Andy Weir picked up on transfers to win by 1144 to 1110, the closest result for any award on the night. Wong then emphatically won second place. No Award clearly won third, Pierce Brown fourth, and Sebastien de Castell beat Brian Niemeier for fifth. This was also the order of first preferences. Weir was far in the lead for nominations, and Cheah Kai Wai was 19 behind Sebastien de Castell for the last spot on the ballot.
Obviously a lot to consider here in terms of the effects of EPH, which will be the subject of my next post.