Now that Hugo voting is finally available online, I'm going to post about a few categories over the next few days. I'm involved with the administration of the awards again this year, so I won't be revealing my exact rankings; back to my normal procedure next year.
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Beyond This Horizon, by Robert A. Heinlein

Second paragraph of third chapter:In the nucleus of every cell of every zygote, whether man or fruit fly, sweet pea or race horse, is a group of threadlike bodies-chromosomes. Along the threads are incredibly tiny somethings, on the order of ten times the size of the largest protein molecules. They are ( Read more... )

I found the top spot very easy to place here. I'm not so certain of my other rankings, but here’s where I am right now.

6) “Asylum,” by A.E. van Vogt

Second paragraph of third section:He dismissed that particular problem as temporarily insoluble, and because actually-it struck him abruptly-this girl's size was unimportant. She had long, black ( Read more... )

Several classics here, three of which I had read before. NB that both “The Weapon Shop” and “There Shall Be Darkness” have female human or human-ish characters. (“The Star Mouse” has a non-human and non-speaking female character.) NB also that the protagonist of “The Weapon Shop” shares the name “Fara” with a secondary character in “Bridle and ( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third story ("Blowups Happen"): The man addressed turned slowly around and faced the speaker. His expression was hidden by a grotesque helmet, part of a heavy, leaden armor which shielded his entire body, but the tone of voice in which he answered showed nervous exasperation.
Heinlein's mammoth future history, some of which I ( Read more... )

As noted previously, it is more difficult this year than last year to assess the impact that slate voting had on the final ballot for the Hugos. For some guidance on that question, once again I'm looking at the File 770 straw poll, where the top novellas that readers reported nominating were:

Penric’s Demon, by Lois McMaster Bujold (25)
Binti, by ( Read more... )

I read this as a teenager, and was hugely impressed by it. Growing up in the calcified conservative culture of Catholic Ulster, I felt a lot of sympathy for Heinlein's unsophisticated hero who realises gradually that those who claim to speak for God may actually be speaking for themselves, that a political reality can be deliberately constructed, ( Read more... )

Over on Twitter, Neil Gaiman says:

The idea that I've outsold Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert just broke my brain. (Also I don’t believe it.) http://thewertzone.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-updated-sff-all-time-sales-list.html/a>
- Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) March 14, 2015
The page he links to puts him at #17 for all time, with 40+ million sales; ( Read more... )

A few weeks back, I was browsing Wikipedia for literary anniversaries, and came across this page of fiction set in 2015:

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