Like a lot of people, I excitedly downloaded the Retro Hugo Voter Packet when it became available this week; and like a lot of people, I was sorry that it didn't include more of the finalists in the fiction categories. Unlike a lot of people, I'm aware of the hard work and immense difficulties faced by the Hugo team in assembling it, and shared ( Read more... )

1) The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who, by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton. Ticked all my boxes. Possibly the first Hugo finalist to actually feature the venue where the awards will be made.

2) Saga, vol 2, by Bryan Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Solid stuff.

3) No Award.

Not voting for:

The Meathouse Man, by George R.R. Martin and Raya Golden. Didn't really ( Read more... )

I was slightly, but only slightly, spoiled for this by reading Abigail Nussbaum's review, part of her submission for the Hugo Packet where she is nominated as Best Fan Writer. This too is part of the Hugo Packet, as evidence for Samatar's candidacy for the John W. Campbell award; and it is good evidence. I'm always a sucker for apprentice sage ( Read more... )

I read the first volume of this last year, when it was nominated for a Hugo, and didn't quite buy it. I thought this second volume, also Hugo-nominated, was much improved; a fairly straightforward story arc about families and conflict, with a little bit of magic and interplanetary skullduggery. I still found the plot a bit unsurprising (one element ( Read more... )

I'm clear on my top vote in this category, but very uncertain about the next three.

No vote: Writing Excuses Season 8. I completely defend and support the eligibility of podcasts, whether as a series or as individual episodes, for Best Related Work. However, I myself just don't really have time to listen to a representative sample of this long- ( Read more... )

Having only dipped into this, I gave it my vote for the BSFA Award (which it won); now I've read it from beginning to end, and feel confirmed in my immediate reaction that this is an excellent and beautiful guide to the craft of writing, and specifically fantasy writing, with insights not only from VanderMeer but from many others (including an ( Read more... )

A nominee for this year's Hugo for Best Graphic Story, adapted and illustrated by Golden from a story first published by GRRM in 1976. I have to say that the story itself didn't hugely appeal to me - Martin's early work was very dark indeed, and the theme of animated corpses serving people's industrial, entertainment and sexual needs is pretty grim ( Read more... )

I am easily pleased sometimes. This is a collection of online commentary on sf which was published in 2012, pulling together the sorts of essays I always like reading and wish I could write more often. All the usual suspects are here - in-depth examinations of race and gender as they are manifested in the genre, but also simple critiques of writing ( Read more... )

I've been a cheerleader for the series of books on Who produced by Mad Norwegian Press, but I did wonder if there was really room for an entire book on LGBTQ takes on the series. I fear my concerns were well founded; sure, the narrative of coming-out as non-straight is linked with their love of Who for an awful lot of people, and it's an important ( Read more... )

This wasn't too difficult a ranking.

6) I thoroughly bounced off Galactic Patrol, by E.E. "Doc" Smith when I tried it eight years ago, and I don't see any reason to revisit it now. I am sure that 1939 fandom, as it then was, probably would have awarded it the Hugo if they had thought of awarding Hugos that year. But we are not bound to replicate ( Read more... )