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Miscellany
By Cheryl Morgan
Hugo Nominees
Here’s the official list:
A total of 533 people cast valid Hugo Nominating ballots this year.
Best Novel (430 ballots cast): Learning the World, Ken MacLeod (Orbit); A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (Voyager; Bantam Spectra); Old Man's War, John Scalzi (Tor); Accelerando, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit); Spin, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor).
Best Novella (243 ballots cast): Burn, James Patrick Kelly (Tachyon); "Magic for Beginners", Kelly Link (Magic for Beginners, Small Beer Press; F&SF September 2005); "The Little Goddess", Ian McDonald (Asimov’s June 2005); "Identity Theft", Robert J. Sawyer (Down These Dark Spaceways, SFBC); "Inside Job", Connie Willis (Asimov’s January 2005).
Best Novelette (207 ballots cast): "The Calorie Man", Paolo Bacigalupi (F&SF October/November 2005); "Two Hearts", Peter S. Beagle (F&SF October/November 2005); "TelePresence", Michael A. Burstein (Analog July/August 2005); "I, Robot", Cory Doctorow (The Infinite Matrix February 15, 2005); "The King of Where-I-Go", Howard Waldrop (Sci Fiction December 7, 2005).
Best Short Story (278 ballots cast): "Seventy-Five Years", Michael A. Burstein (Analog January/February 2005); "The Clockwork Atom Bomb", Dominic Green (Interzone May/June 2005); "Singing My Sister Down", Margo Lanagan (Black Juice, Allen & Unwin; Eos); "Tk’tk’tk", David D. Levine (Asimov’s March 2005); "Down Memory Lane", Mike Resnick (Asimov’s April/May 2005).
Best Related Book (197 ballots cast): Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970, Mike Ashley (Liverpool); The SEX Column and Other Misprints, David Langford (Cosmos); Science Fiction Quotations, Gary Westfahl (ed) (Yale); Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, Kate Wilhelm (Small Beer Press); Soundings: Reviews 1992_1996, Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon).
Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form (364 ballots cast): Batman Begins. Story, David S. Goyer. Screenplay, Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Based on the character created, Bob Kane. Directed, Christopher Nolan. (Warner Bros.); The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Screenplay, Ann Peacock and Andrew Adamson and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. Based on the novel, C.S. Lewis. Directed, Andrew Adamson. (Walt Disney Pictures/Walden Media); Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Screenplay, Steven Kloves. Based on the novel, J.K. Rowling. Directed, Mike Newell. (Warner Bros.); Serenity Written & Directed, Joss Whedon. (Universal Pictures/Mutant Enemy, Inc.); Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit Screenplay, Steve Box & Nick Park and Bob Baker and Mark Burton. Directed, Nick Park & Steve Box. (Dreamworks Animation/Aardman Animation).
Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form (261 ballots cast): Battlestar Galactica "Pegasus" Written, Anne Cofell Saunders. Directed, Michael Rymer. (NBC Universal/British Sky Broadcasting); Doctor Who "Dalek" Written, Robert Shearman. Directed, Joe Ahearne. (BBC Wales/BBC1); Doctor Who "The Empty Child" & "The Doctor Dances" Written, Steven Moffat. Directed, James Hawes. (BBC Wales/BBC1); Doctor Who "Father's Day" Written, Paul Cornell. Directed, Joe Ahearne. (BBC Wales/BBC1); Jack-Jack Attack Written & Directed, Brad Bird. (Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation); Lucas Back in Anger Written, Phil Raines and Ian Sorensen. Directed, Phil Raines. (Reductio Ad Absurdum Productions); Prix Victor Hugo Awards Ceremony (Opening Speech and Framing Sequences). Written and performed, Paul McAuley and Kim Newman. Directed, Mike & Debby Moir. (Interaction Events). (There are seven nominees due to a tie for fifth place)
Best Professional Editor (293 ballots cast): Ellen Datlow (Sci Fiction and anthologies); David G. Hartwell (Tor Books; Year’s Best SF); Stanley Schmidt (Analog); Gordon Van Gelder (F&SF); Sheila Williams (Asimov’s).
Best Professional Artist (230 ballots cast): Jim Burns; Bob Eggleton; Donato Giancola; Stephan Martiniere; John Picacio; Michael Whelan. (There are six nominees due to a tie for fifth place).
Best Semiprozine (219 ballots cast): Ansible, Dave Langford (ed); Emerald City, Cheryl Morgan (ed); Interzone, Andy Cox (ed); Locus, Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong_Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi (eds); The New York Review of Science Fiction, Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell & Kevin J. Maroney (eds).
Best Fanzine (176 ballots cast): Banana Wings, Claire Brialey & Mark Plummer; Challenger, Guy H. Lillian III; Chunga, Andy Hooper, Randy Byers & carl Juarez; File 770, Mike Glyer; Plokta, Alison Scott, Steve Davies & Mike Scott.
Best Fan Writer (202 ballots cast): Claire Brialey; John Hertz; Dave Langford; Cheryl Morgan; Steven H Silver.
Best Fan Artist (154 ballots cast): Brad Foster; Teddy Harvia; Sue Mason; Steve Stiles; Frank Wu.
Best Interactive Video Game: Category dropped due to lack of interest as per section 3.6 of the WSFS Constitution
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (186 ballots cast): K.J. Bishop (2nd year of eligibility); Sarah Monette (2nd year of eligibility); Chris Roberson (2nd year of eligibility); Brandon Sanderson (1st year of eligibility); John Scalzi (1st year of eligibility); Steph Swainston (2nd year of eligibility). (There are six nominees due to a tie for fifth place)
The John W. Campbell Award, sponsored by Dell Magazines, is not a Hugo Award, but appears on the same ballot as the Hugo Awards and is administered in the same way as the Hugo Awards.
Hugo Commentary
Novel: I’m very pleased to see Robert Charles Wilson on the list, but I suspect that Charlie and George are the favorites. No Anansi Boys. Hmm…
Novella: I’m delighted for Jim, Kelly and Ian, but I suspect Connie will win. Must do some reading.
Novelette: Goodness knows, I haven’t read any of them. But I suspect Cory will win.
Short Story: Very happy about Margo. No idea who will win.
Related Book: The Orbital Mind Control Lasers are armed. You will vote for Gary Wolfe, you will vote for Gary Wolfe…
BDP Long Form: Yawn. Serenity, probably on the first count.
BDP Short Form: Kevin and I are absolutely delighted that two productions from our stint running Worldcon Events have made it to the ballot. I’d like to point out in particular that asking Kim and Paul to present the Hugos was Mike & Debbie Moir’s idea. We just trusted them to run with it, and were delighted with the results. I’d also like to make brief mention of Alastair Cameron, John Maizels and the rest of the Tech team, without whose hard work none of those events would have happened. As for the Doctor Who, I still have a few episodes to watch, but having a TV program filmed in the Millennium Stadium winning a Hugo is a remarkably attractive concept.
Editor: Congratulations to Sheila for making it onto the ballot at last. Ellen will win.
Artist: For those of you who are wondering who Stephan Martiniere is, go take a look at the cover for Pyr’s edition of River of Gods. The guy is very good. But you all know who I am voting for, don’t you? Go Picacio!!!
Semiprozine: Woo hoo! Playing with the big boys now, eh? I am just so pleased. Thank you, everyone.
Fanzine: Plokta’s quest for world domination continues, and I suspect will be unabated.
Fan Writer: Lovely to see John Hertz get nominated. Congratulations in advance to Dave for another well deserved win.
Fan Artist: Go Frank! (Someone from BASFA needs to win, and it won’t be me.)
Video Game: So, fans do not play video games after all. They do, however, look at web sites. Hint, hint…
Campbell: I’m very happy for Kirsten, Chris and Steph. I expect a runaway victory for Scalzi.
The BDP Short Form category seems to be the one attracting the most discussion. Here are some comments based on stuff I’ve seen:
The large number of Dr. Who episodes nominated does not mean that nomination was dominated by British fans. There are lots of Who fans here in California. I know several people at BASFA who have seen the entire series and have voted. And there is a very large regular Dr. Who convention in Los Angeles.
The fact that three Dr. Who episodes have been nominated does not mean that none of them stand a chance because of split voting. The Hugo final ballot is not a first past the post system. Provided that Who fans use their preferences sensibly there will not be a problem. As each episode is eliminated its preferences will go to the remaining episodes until there is one Who episode left to slug it out with Battlestar Galactica.
The two Interaction events did not get nominated because of lack of interest in the category. BDP Short Form got more interest that all but Novel, BDP Long Form and Editor. The categories in which there was least interest were Fan Writer, Fan Artist and Related Book. My guess is that the Interaction events got nominated a) because they were good fun, and b) because almost everyone who nominated in the Hugos saw them.
And talking of numbers, my guess is that around 7000 people were eligible to nominate. Only 533 actually did. That is very disappointing. On the other hand, over 500 people visited the Emerald City Hugo Recommendation List page in the week prior to the voting deadline, which is rather pleasing. I’m assuming that many of them were voters.
Editor Split Trial
With the Hugo nomination period over and Worldcon yet to come, we have a window in which to think about the Best Editor split. As currently specified the new categories will be defined as follows:
Best Editor Short Fiction: The editor of at least four (4) anthologies, collections or magazine issues primarily devoted to less than novel-length science fiction and / or fantasy, at least one of which was published in the previous calendar year.
Best Editor Long Fiction: The editor of at least four (4) novels of written science fiction or fantasy published in the previous calendar year.
This seems a very sensible split to me (and congratulations to Patrick Nielsen Hayden for guiding it through). However, the Business Meeting debate at L.A.Con IV will doubtless throw up objections about how the split will work, so I thought it would be interesting to give it a test. I’m therefore giving you folks the opportunity to say who you would have nominated in each category if the split had been in effect this year. The results will be posted here. Email me with your suggestions. Hopefully this will give the Business Meeting some useful data to debate.
Awards at ICFA
Many awards are presented at ICFA’s Saturday night banquet. Here are the highlights.
Meghan Sinoff won the Dell Magazines Award for best short fiction by a student. We’ll doubtless be hearing of her as a star new professional writer in a few years.
The Lord Ruthven novel award went to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, with Fledgling by Octavia Butler as runner up. This caused a certain amount of murmuring. Kostova’s book has been well received in mainstream circles, but some of the reviews I have seen have not been kind.
And finally, the Crawford Award went to Joe Hill. There were, as usual, many fine books on the shortlist, but the consensus view of the panel was that 20th Century Ghosts was the best, and I’m very pleased with the result (apart from the fact that only one person can win). Joe, as usual, was very graceful about the whole thing.
SF Hall of Fame Inductees
The 2006 Science Fiction Hall of Fame Inductees will be: George Lucas, Anne McCaffrey, Frank Herbert and Frank Kelly Freas.
Light Sequel in Pipeline
Nova Swing, M. John Harrison’s sequel to Light will be published by Gollancz in November. I can’t wait.
