56 Comments on “Congrats to the Hugo Winners!”

1. Aah, wish I’d been there – it is only 40 minutes drive to the MCEC! But my daughter got there today for her very first con experience and she says she had a blast!
   Congrats to all the winners. All well deserved even though I only voted for half of them!

2. I am not glad that Moon won over Avatar. Avatar was not the most original story ever filmed, but the way it was done made the final product worthy of honor. Moon, however, was just another in the long chain of Hollywood “the corporation is evil” stories. I think it’s time for screen writers to start thinking of a new villian.

3. Sounds like most of my votes didn’t make much difference except for Girl Genius (which I confess I’m biased toward, having Agatha Heteordyne tattooed on my back and all). But with nominees like these, it’s hard to choose a best among them. I imagine the voting was close in all categories.

   Congratulations to the winners, and much respoect to the nominees – you earned it, folks!

4. JJS @2, so how is Avatar itself not a “corporation is evil” story?

5. Dave H: Actually I got the opposite impression, my votes “felt” as if they counted, even though most of my 1st choices didn’t win (no John, no NKJ), quite a few of my 2nds did. And everybody who voted for Paolo or China – or both! – can honestly say that neither writer would have a Hugo award today, were it not for his or her individual vote!
   http://mycodehere.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-voted-for-hugos.html

6. Peter Watts’ ‘The Island’ for best Novelette – tremendously well-deserved award. He writes some of the best hard science SF out there, but it’s often so dystopian that it gets overlooked. ‘The Island’ worked on so many levels – character, science, plot – that it felt like Hugo material the first time I read it. If you haven’t read it, he’s posted it on his website: http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

7. It was a really great group and I am crestfallen that I was too much of a dummy and too tied into my horrible daily life to get up and GO TO MELBOURNE. But vicariously, I am super-thrilled for everybody. And I think it is an honor to be nominated and there’ll be many awards in the future, too !!

8. I realize it’s for his blog but there is still something vaguely disconcerting about seeing Frederik Pohl winning in a ‘fan’ category.

   I was very pleased to see Shaun Tan winning the art category. His books have had a huge impact on the artistic development of my children as well being just plain awesome.

9. JJS @2: Why should we NOT keep hammering on the “corporation is evil” horse while it’s still galloping around blowing up oil wells and peoples’ retirements? And even after it’s a wee greasy spot capable of being absorbed by a single cheap store-brand paper towel, why should we ever want to forget? Painful? yes. So are certain other events which would break Godwin’s law to mention, and I believe the phrase “Never Again” still applies to both.

10. JJS, GlennS, RobT,

    Not that you’ve drifted far yet, but just issuing a preemptive reminder: the topic is the Hugos and your thoughts on the winners, not Capitalism: Friend or Menace. (We can do that one next week on a slow day, maybe.)

11. If someone could explain what people see in Bridecicle, I’d be much obliged.

    Also, podcast fanzine yay! Go StarShipSofa! I can’t wait to hear what Tony has to say… I don’t imagine I’ll be able to understand most of it, but his enthusiasm always comes through regardless. :D

12. Paul Turnbull@7: I agree, it feels weird to see Pohl honored as a fan. But apparently some of the biggest fans are also authors, and vice versa.

    Just look at Whatever. John posts more about other authors’ work, either as Big Idea items or by mentioning things that he’s just read / just about to read / read in the past, than his own stories. If John would quit taunting us with these sooper sekrit projects and just tell us what he’s working on, this would be a dandy self-promotion site. But then it wouldn’t be Whatever.

13. Understood, N.K. I would look forward to a C:FoM discussion if it focused specifically on related narrative themes rather than the supposed merits and demerits of capitalism itself (the latter discussion being more likely to devolve into flamewar).

    Interesting that the first two winners to attract disses here are the only two winners that I put in first place on my own ballot! It’s been a while since I read “Bridesicle”, but I found it the most emotionally moving of the story nominees. As for Moon, I was impressed with the way it used a minimum of effects (and a terrific performance by Sam Rockwell) to tell a heart-touching human story.

    I remember when the Dramatic Presentation Hugo routinely went to the movie with the flashiest and most expensive effects, regardless of its narrative virtues; my vote for Moon was partly in reaction to that trend, but even though sf movies have gotten better (and Hugo drama voters savvier) I never expected that Moon would actually win.

    I liked all the other fiction winners, and look forward to acquainting myself to some of the others (especially the “related book” and the graphic story). Belated congratulations all around!

14. Sarah@10: Bridesicle is a story about human beings, changed in ways they never dreamed possible, who remain human throughout the experience.

15. *sigh*… I was so hoping that Boneshaker would win the Hugo for best novel — it really knocked my socks off when I read it.

16. I thought “It Takes Two,” by Nicola Griffith should’ve won.

17. Congratulations to all the winners!

    I for one loved that Pohl and Genius Girl won!

    And I had love ‘non-zero probabilities’, and wish Jemisin has better luck next time.

18. Hmm. I liked Windup Girl a lot. Need to read City. I’m a bit disappiointed the zombie trend continues to pay off with Feed, but that’s a reaction to the fact that I think it’s worn out and people are turning out zombie themed work to cash in rather than because they have anything interesting to say using that trope. This is nothing against Feed itself (I’ve not read it) but the zombie thing. That fish down there? It’s a shark and it’s been jumped.

19. I picked 9 out of 16. Which is much better than last year’s.

    @10: Yes, Bridesicle was my pick too. The raw, horrifying desperation of the main character’s situation was what did it for me. Sandwich that between an excellent bit of worldbuilding and just the right amount of backstory, and put on an ending that actually results in the main character changing for the better at the end, and you have a winner.

    You want a tough choice? That was picking between Stross’ Palimpset and Scalzi’s TGE…

20. With all due respect to Sarah, I was not happy to see Starship Sofa win for best fanzine since, to me, a fanzine is something to be read. As a podcast, I feel that Starship Sofa (much like the Scalzi edited Metatropolis) should have been in one of the dramatic presentation categories. In addition, though certain paper fanzines have also done it, I was a bit turned off by Starship Sofa’s active campaigning for the nomination and the award.

21. 7& 11: Fred Pohl was one of the Banned Six (and I think of the Six and the Triumvirs the only one still alive). If there’s a better fannish credential than being involved in one of the first major fannish feuds and one at the very first Worldcon, I don’t know what it is.

    His blog is very good and was what led me to point out months ago that he was eligible.

    * * *

    Alas, I am not one of them this year — but that’s OK, because I never expected to be nominated in the first place; being nominated truly is its own honor.

    Well, I think you’ve got a good chance of getting on the list again next year, for best novel.

    The second one seems to be even better.

22. In most categories, I’d read/watched some of the work, but not all of them. The ones I hadn’t read/watched were the winners, even where there was only one I hadn’t read/watched in the category. Maybe this is a sign that I curse the things I read/watch.

    The exceptions are Clarkesworld and ‘The Waters of Mars’. They apparently survived me viewing them.

23. Every time I see “semiprozine” I expect it’s the name of a drug.

24. The one that I’m most happy about is Peter Watt’s win for ‘The Island’. His work deserves much wider recognition – he’s one of the best writers of truly hard SF out there today, and his works are really do justice to the science.

25. I too feel that Pohl deserved a win – not that he’s never had one, mind you, as such a prolific and invlolved author. His background is definitely mixed, as a fan, editor, author and now blogger. But the glimpses his blog is giving me into the history of science fiction and the human side of the people involved is something I wouldn’t likely have ever had, otherwise. Sure, there’s biographies and other information out there – but I haven’t found any interest in them. I don’t know what other category that could have been acknowledged in, but I’m glad to see it acknowledged.

26. Congrats to the winners, all!

    Just one small correction: the Best Short Story Hugo was presented by Cory Doctorow. I was a thousand kilometres away, sick as a dog and unable to attend. :-(

27. I’m sorry that Moon won, frankly, since to me it’s a tired, ultimately non-sensical idea. For all its obvious flaws, Avatar was still by far the best in it’s category.

28. I think one of the most significant wins was for StarShipSofa. It’s a great podcast and I do think it does everything a traditional print or online text-based fanzine does in terms of providing fannish news, science news, news about SF/F genre publications and also includes at least one if not two pieces of short fiction in each issue. It’s good to see the podcast format recognized.

29. Coolstar…. um…. really? The story for Avatar was Pocohontas in Space. Literally: http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/

    Amazing visuals. Awesome use of 3D. But as a story?

30. @Sean Williams
    One of the kaffeeklatsches I was actually early enough to register for was later cancelled because the host was apparently sick and unable to attend. You owe me a coffee. ;-)

31. There was some discussion at the Aussiecon over the weekend about Starshipsofa’s nomination. The consensus among people I talked to was that it is a legitimate fanzine. The win bears that out. The impression from the “old media” fanzine supporters was that if you don’t get paper cuts, spend hours folding paper, stuffing envelopes and licking stamps you just haven’t put in the hard yards. They’ve obviously never had to edit audio.
    The medium is not the message.

32. @31 I agree — and there’s a difference between a reading and a dramatic performance. AFAIK StarShipSofa doesn’t do radio plays.

    Not to mention that if it had to compete with Doctor Who, it would lose. ;)

33. My quick reaction, like 18 hours after the fact. What? I had very important couch sloth time to catch up on.

    I found it to be a fairly competitive year. I had a tough time picking my vote for best novel. And I’m thrilled there was a tie, so that more than one of those great books would get award recognition this year.

    Though, I confess Julian Comstock was my first choice. The winners were my number two and three picks. What book being considered didnt deserve recognition this year? In fact, I thought the same held true for all the fiction categories. So, for all the kids hanging around this joint who got nominated, well earned all of you. As far as the opinion of a lay reader goes, at least.

    As far as the movie category, I worked from the assumption that the number one metric for the writing awards had to be story. While I really enjoyed Avatar, I couldn’t give it a top tier vote because my exiting critique of that movie acknowledged its fairly bland archetype for a story. Based on strictly stories that surprised me in my enjoyment, my top two contenders were Moon and District 9. And between the two, I thought Sam Rockwell edged out Sharlto Copely in quality of performance.

    As far as Pohl winning best fan, I thought that was spot on. The guy’s blog is not just a shrine to science fiction writing and its community, it’s about as real and knowledgeable a look you can expect to get on the formation of our today. I think it isn’t any surprise a senior statesman like pohl runs away with the obvious win. Guy’s a huge fan and he just keeps on giving.

    My only gripe was the nomination of three episodes of Doctor Who for the dramatic short form. Though, Waters of Mars is a fitting winner. That was a heart wrenching bit of television. Still, we could have had a more diverse category.

34. I’ve heard of a small fraction of these – I recognize maybe 20% of the names.
    And don’t think I’ve read any.

    But Grattis to all the winners and grattis to all nominees.

35. Girl Genius rocks, but I hope that Schlock Mercenary can get a win next year. Both are required daily reads for me.

36. Count me as another one to be *very* happy about the win for Moon.

37. There does not seem to be alot of voters for these awards. The most had 600. I would think several thousand people would go to worldcon. Why do so few vote?

38. guess @37: Not every con-goer is into the Hugo voting. There are, of course, people like me who can’t get to the physical Worldcon and purchase associational memberships for the purpose of voting.

    That said, consider the following note from the Sunday evening edition of The Voice of the Echidna (the newsletter for Aussiecon 4–having trouble posting the link, but it’s at aussiecon4.org.au/files/330.pdf): “After the record number of Hugo Nominations, we are pleased to announce that there were 1094 valid Hugo Voting Ballots. This total is the highest since the 2000 Worldcon, and second highest since 1988. It also means that over 40% of Aussiecon 4’s Attending and Supporting members participated in the vote, which is itself a record since the 1970’s: in recent years 20% has been more typical.”

39. 1094 ballots cast for Best Novel. Perhaps the others just love it all? How do you chose between a peach and a pomegranate?

    John came a close second to Charlie. NK came a very creditable third with many votes.

    http://www.aussiecon4.org/hugoawards/files/2010HugoVotingReport.pdf

    I haven’t seen Moon but if it was better than District 9 I have to see it soon.

    SPOILER ALERT
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    My problem with the Dr Who Waters of Mars story was the ending. To save the significant mother the Doctor didn’t have to return her to Earth. She was obviously fascinated by the possibility of alien life. Spending the rest of her life on some far planet would have been a gift to her and she wouldn’t have affected the future of Earth. Some of the new Doctors don’t seem very bright.

    I suppose not many people saw Misfits which was far superior to any of the recent Dr Whos.

40. I am glad that Moon won. I was actually bored while watching Avatar. It felt to much like Dances with wolves to me. Later one of my adult children said the same thing only he referred to the animated film Ferngully from his childhood. Lets face it, this storyline has been overdone.

    Congrats to the winners!

41. It’s weird. I can’t get into the October Daye stuff by Seanan McGuire. It feels oddly formulaic. Sort of like, “Here is an urban fantasy. You can tell it’s an urban fantasy because it hits all these bullet points.” It’s like that feeling you get when you walk into a house where a professional decorator has done the work.

    By comparison, I loved Feed. Big love. It’s probably my favorite book of the last year. I bawled my stupid head off through the last 1/3 of it. I can’t wait for the sequel.

    I don’t get how I can be indifferent to one series and totally in love with another yet by the same author.

42. I am so completely amused that Paul Cornell, aka that guy on every panel concerning Doctor Who because he wrote for the show, presented the award for best dramatic short form. That would have been fun to watch.

    (I was at the con, but commuting from home, so I didn’t go to the awards :( )

    So happy about Seanan McGuire winning the Campbell! Feed is ridiculously awesome.

43. Sebastian @34:

    Most of the nominated works shorter than novel length are linked from the Aussiecon site ( http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/index.php?page=66 ), so you still have a chance to read them for yourself.

    Overall, I was very pleased with the results. There were a couple of firsts: Starship Sofa is the first ever podcast to win a Hugo & Clarkesworld is the first online publication to win Semiprozine.

    In general, the categories were very strong (the voting report linked upthread) makes for very interesting reading; in several categories, the winners squeaked in by a mere handful of votes. This despite a strong voter turnout indicates (at least to me) that SFF is in good health.

44. Mel @42

    Paul Cornell also “moderated” the hilarious Just A Minute panel. They should’ve renamed that particular panel the Scalzi Mieville show. Awesomely funny. I shot some video of that panel. I haven’t check it, the video, yet but if it is fairly decent I may blog it.

    I missed the awards too… flying back to Sydney :(

45. A few questions from the voting

    1. how does Frederick Pohl win best fan writing? I though the was a published author? I thought fan writer were fans writing fan fiction?

    2. How do people vote on best editors? I don’t see how you know who the best editors are if you are not a writer and have not worked with alot of different editors.

    Harriet Rigney (Robert Jordan’s widow) has never even been nominated for this award. Without her Brandon Sanderson never would be able to finish the Wheel of Time.

46. Guess, Mr Pohl started as a fan, made some money and high regard as an editor and writer and is still a fan. If you doubt this read his blog at http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/ Sometimes he gives the impression that the only reason he wrote those brilliant stories was as camouflage so he could get close to the authors he revered.

    Would you deny an editor the chance to win a writer’s Hugo because they had done some editing, or painting, or TV work?

    If you want to nominate Harriet Rigney nothing is stopping you if she has done work that qualifies.

    I would assume that the editors are judged by the quality of the books produced by the authors they edit. Look at http://nielsenhayden.com/ for the list of prize-winning authors the winner of this year’s (and 2007’s) Best Editor, Long Form Hugo and his wife have edited. Another Scalzi connection.

47. I should have said that most fans don’t get much material to write non-fiction about authors, etc. “I stood in line and got my light sabre signed” perhaps. Fred Pohl’s stories tend to be of the “I didn’t get many chances to meet up with Arthur C. Clarke…” or “When I was Asimov’s literary agent…” or “When I cut the first five or ten thousand words of a Heinlein story because I thought they were kind of boring” type.

48. I thought that this was overall a strong year- as someone above said, if my #1 choices didn’t win, my #2 and 3 did- and in at least a few of those categories, the difference between 1, 2, and 3 was a coin flip.

    Loved that Moon won- it was a quiet and serious story, and Sam Rockwell was great in the role.

49. Seeing Peter Watts wins restores some of my faith in SF awards. He really is one of the best out there.

50. Sadly only called 6.5 of the Hugos. Did not predict a tie for Best Novel, but did predict Mieville would win. The other “big” categories, however, I did not guess. (Got the #2 in all of those, though…)

    The Hugos were interesting to watch! It was my first Worldcon and my first Hugo ceremony. I look forward to Reno 2011.

51. Thanks for the info….being unemployed has hurt me because I cannot read most of the new syfy and fantasy out there!!! So this coming year as the public library get the books I’ll read them!!!

52. ‘The Island’ is a stunning novella

53. Guess@37:

    Another school of thought regarding the relatively low ballot count is that if you haven’t read (seen, heard) all of the nominees in a category, you should not vote in that category. I’m going to assume that this keeps some (maybe significant) fraction of attendees from casting a ballot.

54. Disclaimer: I’m one of the narrators for StarshipSofa.

    I believe StarshipSofa’s identification as a fanzine and not a dramatic presentation is accurate. Like the other narrators, I’m reading the story, not particularly performing it. Of course, I try to use voice variation to give the listener a sense of the different characters, but the most important thing is that the audience can hear what I’m reading in a neutral-enough voice so that they can add their own visual element.

55. Shane @44
    I got most of the ‘Just A Minute’ panel on my point-and-shoot. I’ve only just got home and haven’t really checked it out, but I know I didn’t get the final scores (due to running out of space), the video is fair, and audio is OK.

56. This is the proper blog for anybody who wants to seek out out about this topic. You notice so much its virtually laborious to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa). You definitely put a brand new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Nice stuff, just nice