The Hugo, At Home
Posted on September 4, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 51 Comments
Winning a Hugo is great but getting it home if you’re not a local can be a pain — they’re not well-sized for carry-on, and good luck convincing TSA that the rocket is not a bomb. Shipping was in order. LoneStarCon 3 offered to ship my Hugo to me, but I am an anxious sort , so I splurged and paid for overnight shipping (which meant it would arrive Wednesday, because Monday was a national holiday). Well, it’s arrived!
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I’ve noted before that this particular Hugo has an amazing base, created by Vincent Villafranca. But I don’t want you just to take my word for it, so here’s a gallery of images to capture the details on the base. Click on the pictures to bring up a larger image. Enjoy!
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- The Hugo, in its natural habitat, i.e., the back deck of my house.
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- The star in the Texas there represents San Antonio. This is the front of the base.
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- Here’s the back of the base. The base itself is meant to look like a book.
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- You only need one eye to see the words!
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- Astro-reader.
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- This guy is my favorite. I like to think he’s reading my book.
That is gorgeous. The cell phone camera photos I saw earlier didn’t do it justice. Thanks for posting these!
Way cool. It’s gorgeous and well-deserved, John. Thanks for the close up.
That award is fantastic. Love the base. I think I like how you’re reacting as much as you winning the award, to be honest. Go, Johnny, go!
The detail on the base is very cool. I love that the award stays the same but the base changes and reflects something of the Con at which it was awarded. It seems much more personal than the same trophy over and over. Plus that design is really cool.
Congratulations, John.
Damn that is a thing of beauty. Congratulations again John. Well deserved
Thank you so much for posting those close-ups of the base. It looked amazing in what I could see of the video of its creation, but Ustream cut out during most of that. I love that it incorporates books–and so many books. I hadn’t realized that the base itself was a book until I saw your pictures. I’m glad you won this year and got such a fabulous version of the Hugo.
That is an amazing looking award for an amazing book, congrats.
On a side note your “newest” book The Mallet of Loving Correction showed up in the mail yesterday and I’m already enjoying it.
So happy for you, man. And so happy I didn’t have to ship this beast home. ;) Beautiful monster, isn’t it? Savor it. You earned every bit of it. :)
Looks briliant. Congratulations, and well deserved, still my favourite book of the year. I liked it so much I bought friends copies.
John Picacio:
And you also had a couple of Chesleys, if I recall correctly. That’s a lot of hardware, dude. Glad you could get it home without shipping.
And thank you! It was a pleasure to win a Hugo with you!
Very cool award for a very cool writer! :) Thanks for sharing the close-up details & congratulations again!
Well done, sir!
Beautiful! Thanks for the closeups. I never would have known how lovely the artwork at the base is without them.
That’s sexy. Pretty dope! Congratulations!
A well-deserved award! You’re in the company of giants.
Hey, Scalzi… Do you think there’s any chance that you’ll allow your local library to put that shiny hunk of metal on display? I’d like to see it in person, and I don’t suppose you’d appreciate me knocking on your door asking to see a Hugo.
It’s definitely one of the best bases ever. Lonestarcon and sculptor Vincent Villafranca are to be congratulated. I hope the nifty film we were shown of the casting process is available online for people to see.
Congratulations on winning the (IMHO) best award in all SciFi-dom. It’s like winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
Congratulations! It’s awesome and so are you!
Wow. That is one nifty looking sculpture for the base. Congrats on the the win and congrats on the award itself.
Congratulations!
By the way, you may remember the bit in your acceptance speech where you talked about going to your first con? You spoke to Krissy on the phone, and she said “How is it?” and you replied, “Honey, I’ve found the Con of Misfit Toys.” …and you got a small laugh at first, and then a second later, a bigger one.
Well, what happened there was that at that one second later, the video screens cut away from you to a shot of Chris Garcia.
Points to whoever was running that video, for quick thinking.
Congratulations again. I loved the “ta-daaa” in your Vine video.
It’s so nice to see you, too, use steak knives for opening packages.
That is one gorgeous Hugo.
Mary Robinette Kowal said she got home, kissed her husband, and put her Hugo on the mantle. In that order. As you do.
If I ever won one, I wouldn’t ship it. It would go on the plane with me. I would do a big song and dance at the airport to keep it in carry-on. I’d stow it for take off and landing, though — even in years when the base is smaller, the rocket is still pointy.
It’s great to see this up close–thanks for sharing and huge congratulations (which are different from the regular kind) on a great win. ;-)
Winning a Hugo is great but getting it home if you’re not a local can be a pain — they’re not well-sized for carry-on, and good luck convincing TSA that the rocket is not a bomb.
I forsee a headline in the future involving a Hugo award, a disgruntled second-place getter, and a tip to the TSA about smuggling morter shells through the post that results in someone’s award being blown sky high by a bomb squad…
Not trying to be a dick, but people will probably take it that way…
–What are your thoughts on winning a Hugo with a parody?
–What do you think that says about the genre of SciFi if the best it has to offer is a lampoon of the genre?
I’m not flaming you or anything. I thought the book was terrific and hilarious. I love Old Man’s War as well. To me, Red Shirts winning a Hugo brings up some interesting questions about the genre of SciFi itself–and maybe even the times (meta self-reflexivity and all).
Figured, I’d go to the source and ask :)
James McCormick:
I think “parody” is only one of the things the novel is, and that the book won on the totality of what it is, not only on the parody aspect. But even if it won only for being a parody, I think that’s fine (obviously). Science Fiction wouldn’t be the first industry that has honored a work for looking inward (see: The Artist as a recent example of this in film).
Congratulations sir! A tremendous and well deserved accomplishment!
I have heard many amusing anecdotes over the years about getting a Hugo home, including the challenges of trying to get through airport security with an object that looks like an RPG. And one year, the Hugo base was so elaborate that several winners’ awards gradually fell apart on the journey home.
Galen Dara:
Thank you! And to you as well! Your artwork is wonderful.
Laura Resnick:
The nice thing about this base is that it’s a single, solid piece of bronze. That makes it heavy, but it also makes it unbreakable.
Now if you can only manage to get a Bradbury Award and have a matched pair of Vincent Villafranca designed awards….
Thanks for sharing these images. The detail is exquisite…pan-galactic reading! Congratulations on a well-deserved award. I read _Redshirts_ on my own, then insisted my husband and I do it as a read aloud. It was even better shared!
Congratulations John! What a singular honor.
Now that we have that out of the way, get busy writing. Heh.
Warmest congratulations, John — SO well deserved. It’s great when the Good Guys get one.
What do you think that says about the genre of SciFi if the best it has to offer is a lampoon of the genre?
There’s so many unannounced and unproven assumptions in the above that it’s hard to unpick. Just to sample two:
1. Is Redshirts only a lampoon?
2. Is a lampoon an inferior form of art?
You will be timed during your answer. There is no curve on this test.
Please can we get a close-up of the guy opposite the horned one-eyed serpent-bloke? Oh, and congratulations. I think the codas especially showed how you’ve grown as an author. I look forward to reading Human Division.
Congratulations, John! Hard work rewarded, that.
Congratulations, John. I don’t think Redshirts is your best or most important work so far–that would be OMW–but it’s a terrific book nonetheless, and I’m so very happy that you finally got a fiction Hugo. You completely deserve it. And I’m certain that it will soon have company!
This is just so neat! I am very happy for you. May you win many more!
Grats on the award :) Thanks for the answer!
You deserved it
I didn’t realize the award was limited to the State of Texas. Congrats anyway.
Won a Hugo.
Had to figure out how to ship it home.
#JohnScalziProblems
Congratulations! Loved the book.
What struck me was that there were so many tiny, lovingly crafted details on the base. It’s a phenomenal award for a great book. Congrats, John!
Congratulations, John!
One of my favorite exhibits is the history of Worldcon one that features sample rockets from previous Worldcons. Even against all of that history, this year’s design stood out!
Congrats on your win!
The photos of the base are wonderful and I am so grateful you shared them with us, but the photo of the Hugo in its natural habitat, catching the sunlight, was breathtaking!! Thank you for adding some beauty to my day.
Thanks for posting these pics – I’ve been wanting a better look at the base since the first pic I saw over on ML – which gave just enough detail to be tantalising.
And congrats on the award, of course. I really enjoyed Redshirts.
Congratulations sir! I think you had the right idea by shipping it yourself.
~P
@atfmb
Dear John,
Up until this very moment, I had no idea that there was fine print associated with getting a Hugo that read, “Some assembly required.”
pax / Ctein