Tag Archives: hugo awards

And the Hugo goes to…

science fiction, , ,

The Hugo trophy given out last night. Designed by Matthew Dockrey, photo by Kevin Standlee.
The Hugo trophy given out last night. Designed by Matthew Dockrey, photo by Kevin Standlee. (Click to embiggen)
The 2015 Hugo Awards were announced last night at a ceremony at Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Con, held in Spokane, Washington. The hosts were David Gerrold and Tananarive Due.

And the Hugos went to: Continue reading And the Hugo goes to… →

Weekend Update (8/21/2015): Bad Statistics and Hugos Tonight!

science fiction, , , ,

qVU3FO8o_400x400First, congratulations to the Helsinki Worldcon Bid Committee! They’re hosting WorldCon 2017 in Helsinki! So at least one of the votes being counted at WorldCon this weekend went the way I voted. Woo hoo! Onneksi olkoon! Congratulations!

In other updates to things that I’ve included in recent Friday Links posts, a lot of people I follow have been posting a link to a Vocativ post about how very, very white the winners of the Hugo Awards have been over the years: Science Fiction Is Really, Really White. The article has graphs and some statistics and seems legit, right?

Screenshot of the graphic, caption, and a bit of the article.
Screenshot of the graphic, caption, and a bit of the article.
The first thing that made me wary about simply retweeting the link is something really minor: the caption on the picture that they illustrate the story with. “Amazing Stories was a comic that helped launch the sci-fi genre.” No. Amazing Stories was a magazine that printed literary stories founded in 1926 by Hugo Gernsbeck. It was not a comic book. While it is often credited with launching the pulp version of the genre science fiction, so that part is true, but it wasn’t a comic.

Bar graph as originally published.
Bar graph as originally published.
Now, ordinarily that would be a quibble, but this article is about statistics, so seeing in the caption that they have already gotten a fact wrong made me a teeny bit apprehensive. Then we get to the most dramatic graph, and I think, “That can’t be right.” What about Saladin Ahmed, author of Throne of the Crescent Moon, Best Novel nominee in 2013? Shouldn’t there be a bar labeled “Arab” with at least 1 person it it?

This only just barely qualifies as data...
This only just barely qualifies as data…
Amusingly, I started this post early this morning, then had to go to a nearby clinic for some scheduled medical tests, and while I was sitting in the waiting room, Mr. Ahmed’s tweet commenting on being erased from the data came through my feed. Since then, one of Vocativ’s editors sent out a tweet that they’re correcting the article. The bar graph now does list one Arab-American. That’s a bit better, but that’s the thing. Now how do we trust them about the other 295 authors they claim are white? You might think that clicking on the “Get data” link under the graph would give you a spreadsheet of all the nominees, right? Nope. You get a spreadsheet, all right, but it just says “White 295, Black 3, Chinese 1, Arab American 1.”

This may seem really petty and nitpicky, but here’s the thing: if you are trying to make a statistical argument to back up a claim, you have to get every fact right. And you have to give us confidence that you are likely to get every fact right. There is a big argument to be had about what we mean by race. Race is a social construct with no basis in biological science, so there will be lots of people who will want to nitpick the data if we did have a big spreadsheet that listed all 300 nominees. I suspect that the graph now is close enough to correct to still illustrate the point that the Hugo Awards have hardly been a paragon of diversity. Even more importantly, the ludicrous charge that the Hugos have been being somehow secretly controlled by a liberal cabal that has imposed political correctness onto the ballot for many years is demolished by facts such as this.

But to the next person who wants to compile something like this: quadruple check your results before publishing!

Hugo Awards Announced Tonight!

The award are tonight! From the official Hugos website:

The 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 8 PM Pacific Daylight Time in the INB Performing Arts Center in Spokane, Washington. The Hugo Awards web site will once again offer text-based coverage of the 2015 Hugo Awards ceremony via CoverItLive, suitable for people with bandwidth restrictions. For those with the bandwidth for it, Sasquan will also offer live video streaming of the 2015 Hugo Awards ceremony via UStream. In addition, Sasquan will present “The Road to the Hugos”, a livestreamed Internet pre-and-post Hugo broadcast featuring hosts Stephen Schapansky and Warren Frey of Radio Free Skaro, as part of the coverage, starting one hour before and ending one hour after the ceremony.

Here’s the link for the text coverage of the ceremony.

And the link for the live video stream of same.

And the link for the Radio Free Skero livestream pre- and post-shows.

I predict:

  • No Award will take maybe two categories, causing cheering from some and more threats from the Überpuppy,
  • At least two nominees from one of the Puppy slates will walk home with a Hugo,
  • Some people on both sides will claim victory,
  • Some people on both sides will claim it is a defeat for all that is right and just in the world,
  • Regardless, science fiction will survive!

I plan to have a mini Hugo Watching Party here tonight.

Now matter what happens, please offer congratulations to the winners and please console any nominee (and I mean anyone) who does not get a trophy. Similarly, offer condolences to anyone you know who is disappointed that their favorite in any category didn’t win.

And for the future: if you are a fan, read and watch good science fiction and fantasy (however you define it) and support the writers and artists who make it. If you are one of those writers or artists: in the immortal words of Neil Gaiman, I urge you to make good art.

Ad Astra!

Dreaming of better tales

science fiction, , ,

The Hugo trophies handed out at the 21st World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Discon I, held in Washington, D.C., 1963.
The Hugo trophies handed out at the 21st World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Discon I, held in Washington, D.C., 1963.
First, another reminder that voting for the Hugo Awards ends on Friday. If you are a Sasquan (WorldCon 2015) member and haven’t completed your ballot online, do it now before the servers get bogged down with the rush. The ballot is here. There is still time to buy a supporting membership to become a voter, but since processing a membership might take a while as more traffic hits the servers, you want to do that soon!

I have had two topics I’ve been trying to finish a blog post on today, one kept turning into yet another a kvetch about the Sad/Rabid Puppies bloc-voting scheme, and the other is just not quite finished (which I’m kind of sad about, as it features both another Tolstoy quote and a digression on statistics). And then I read Aaron Pound’s blog post, 2015 Hugo Voting – Roundup and Review and his first few paragraphs more calmly say some of the things I was trying to say, and I figure why not just point people to his better post (and if you haven’t read his blog before, take a look around while you’re there!).

And I have to quote my favorite bit:

The worst thing that could have happened to the reputations of many of the Puppy-promoted authors is that people would read their work, and once they were placed on the Hugo ballot, that is exactly what happened.
– Dreaming About Other Worlds blog

Anyway, don’t forget to vote! And remember that buying a supporting membership to WorldCon supports not just the Hugos, but the conventions themselves! (And I’ll try to finish up the Tolstoy/statistics post in time to post this week!)

Finland! Finland! Finland!

science fiction, , ,

The Hugo trophy handed out at the 15th World Science Fiction Convention held in London, England in September of 1957.
The Hugo trophy handed out at the 15th World Science Fiction Convention held in London, England in September of 1957.
In his novel, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy wrote, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” A lot of people think that Tolstoy was making a cynical comment about happiness, but the idea that the novel explores and demonstrates is actually that there are many, many different things that can go wrong in one’s life to make one unhappy (and you only need one of those things to happen), whereas the only way to be truly happy is to avoid each and every one of those misery inducers. I have some philosophical disagreements with the second half of that. But what got me thinking about all of this was trying to describe to a friend why I believe that specifically the Sad/Rabid Puppies are doomed to fail, based on my observations over the years of groups ranging from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage to the Westboro Baptist Church to Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, and before that Anita Bryant’s anti-gay Save the Children, and way way before that Falwell’s proselytizing against racial equality de-segregation.

That’s because, while unifying social justice advocates is like herding cats because they are each outraged in their own way, haters are easy to predict because they are only happy when the people they hate are unhappy.

But I think more than enough pixels have been spilt explaining all of that. Today, let me remind you that voting for the Hugo Awards ends on Friday. If you are a WorldCon member and haven’t completed you ballot online, do it now before the servers get bogged down with the rush. The ballot is here. There is still time to buy a supporting membership to become a voter, but since processing a membership might take a while as more traffic hits the servers, you want to do that soon! George R.R. Martin posted a nice summary of why, if you love science fiction and fantasy, you should “ vote NOW.”

Both Michael and I completed our ballots this weekend. The system allows you to go back and change things if you want, and there are two categories I keep changing my mind about. I’m not certain whether or no I’ll post my final ballot. I can sympathize with arguments for either option. I’ve already said enough in my Hugo Ballot Review series of posts for a bunch of the categories to give everyone a good guess.

I should also mention that if you are a WorldCon member this year (supporting or full attending), and if you purchase an advanced pre-supporting membership for 2017, you can vote in the site selection for 2017. That deadline is August 10, but you can’t vote online. Rules require the committee conducting the vote to allow each of the groups that are bidding to host the con to audit the ballots and for ballots to be signed. So you need to do it soon enough for your ballot to arrive in the mail by August 10th (not be postmarked by August 10, but to arrive at their P.O. Box, which this year is in Pennsylvannia).

The pre-supporting membership will automatically become a supporting membership for whichever of the bidding committees win the site selection vote, so you will be a supporting member in 2017 (and if it winds up in a city near you or that you’ve always wanted to visit, it’s cheaper to upgrade your supporting membership to full membership). This also means you’ll be able to nominate and vote in the 2017 Hugos.

If you want to vote in the 2016 Hugos, you can buy a supporting membership to WorldCon 2016 (being held in Kansas City). If you do all of this, then you can nominate and vote in the Hugos every where from now on simply by buying a pre-supporting membership in the future WorldCon as soon as the e-mail comes out telling you that site selection voting for the 2018 has opened (and the next year, and the next). And you will get that email because it goes out to everyone who is a supporting or attending member for each current WorldCon. The pre-supporting memberships are usually slightly cheaper than what a supporting membership costs once the site selection vote is over.

Once you get on that train, it’s a simple matter of buying each pre-supporting membership as soon as they are announced, and then you can both nominate and vote in each year’s Hugo Awards. And while everyone is reminding everyone to vote, the only way to reduce the odds of future bloc-voting schemes succeeding is to get a much higher percentage of the people who will vote in the Hugos, to also participate in the nomination process.

I don’t want to unduly influence anyone’s voting in the site selection, but I was amused, after my husband and I had each independently filled out or ballots, we revealed to each other our reasons for voting as we did. I voted for Helsinki as my first choice because I think that Finland deserves to have a WorldCon (and I’ve always been fond of Finland because of one teacher’s aid I had in high school who was Finnish). Michael also thought Finland should get it because they have been passed over before, and added that if he wins the Lotto and we decide to go, it would be a fun part of Europe to see. We both voted for Montreal and Shizuoka (Japan) as our second and third choices because, as I put it, if finances suddenly come together for attending in 2017, Japan or Quebec should have more pleasant weather in August than Washington, D.C.

Neither of us want to go to D.C. in August.

And if Helsinki wins, all of us can put this song on continuous loop:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here!)

Hugo Ballot: My final take before voting closes

science fiction, , , ,

The Hugo trophy handed out at the 67th World Science Fiction Convention in Montréal in 2009. Designed by Dave Howell. This is the only Hugo trophy that I have personally touched. (Click to embiggen)
The Hugo trophy handed out at the 67th World Science Fiction Convention in Montréal in 2009. Designed by Dave Howell. This is the only Hugo trophy that I have personally touched. (Click to embiggen)
This was going to be merely the next in my own journey of reviewing the Hugo nominees before casting my ballot. I have attempted to read all the nominees with an open mind, rather than cast a No Award vote for anything that had made it onto the ballot due to the bloc-voting scheme of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies. Links to my previous reviews are included below… Continue reading Hugo Ballot: My final take before voting closes →

Hugo Ballot Reviews: John W. Campbell Award & Dramatic Presentation

science fiction, , ,

Winners and nominees of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer each receive this pin, which is a star made of fountain pin nubs.
Winners and nominees of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer each receive this pin, which is a star made of fountain pin nubs.
This is another post in my journey of reading the Hugo nominated stories before casting my ballot. By this point I’ve gotten through most of the story categories. I’ve probably gone on a bit too long about some of them. I’m not going to do full reviews of everything in the two Dramatic Presentation categories. You won’t have to wade through a lot to get to the Campbell Award, where I spend most of the post.

So, what did I think…? Continue reading Hugo Ballot Reviews: John W. Campbell Award & Dramatic Presentation →

Hugo Ballot Reviews: Best Fan Writer

science fiction, , ,

The 2008 Hugo trophy handed out at Denvention 3, the 66th annual World Science Fiction convention held that year in Denver, Colorado, USA. Trophy designed by Lee Kuruganti. Photo by Cheryl Morgan. (Click to embiggen)
The 2008 Hugo trophy handed out at Denvention 3, the 66th annual World Science Fiction convention held that year in Denver, Colorado, USA. Trophy designed by Lee Kuruganti. Photo by Cheryl Morgan. (Click to embiggen)
This is another post in my journey of reading the Hugo nominated stories before casting my ballot. I have attempted to read all the nominees with an open mind, rather than cast a No Award vote for anything that had made it onto the ballot due to the bloc-voting scheme of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies. The Short Story and Novella categories were extremely disappointing, while Novelette category contained one great story, one good, and the rest dreck. Fortunately the Graphic Story category was full of great stuff, but my renewed sense of hope was dashed by the bad stuff that made up the Related Work.

Today I’m reviewing nominees for Best Fan Writer. This is awarded to a person for work(s) published in fanzines, semiprozines, mailing lists, blogs, BBSs, and similar electronic fora. Work the person may have published in professional publications should not be considered when judging for this award.

So, this one was interesting… Continue reading Hugo Ballot Reviews: Best Fan Writer →

Hugo Ballet Reviews: Related Works

science fiction, , ,

The 2003 Hugo Trophies, presented at TorCon 3, the 61st annual World Science Fiction Convention held that year in Toronto, Canada. Trophy designed by Franklyn Johnson. (Click to embiggen)
The 2003 Hugo Trophies, presented at TorCon 3, the 61st annual World Science Fiction Convention held that year in Toronto, Canada. Trophy designed by Franklyn Johnson (Click to embiggen).
This is another post in my journey of reading the Hugo nominated stories before casting my ballot. I have attempted to read all the nominees with an open mind, rather than cast a No Award vote for anything that had made it onto the ballot due to the bloc-voting scheme of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies. The Short Story and Novella categories were extremely disappointing, while Novelette category contained one great story, one good, and the rest dreck. Fortunately the Graphic Story category was full of great stuff that renewed my sense of hope for this endeavor.

This time I’m reviewing the Best Related Work nominees. These are awarded to a work related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year or which has been substantially modified during the previous calendar year.

This is a sort of catch-all category, that frequently includes things like biographies of writers, artists, editors or others important to the field, or books about the making of a particular movie or TV series. It usually does not include anthologies, even though there is no Best Anthology category. Non-fiction collections (such as a collection of essays about a sci fi/fantasy related topic, or collections of literary criticism, et cetera) are eligible.

And we have some very interesting nominees in this category… Continue reading Hugo Ballet Reviews: Related Works →

Hugo Ballot Reviews: Graphic Story

comics/graphic novels, , ,

Designed by Kathy Sanders for the 42nd World Science Fiction Convention, aka LA Con II, held in 1984.
Hugo trophy designed by Kathy Sanders for the 42nd World Science Fiction Convention, aka LA Con II, held in 1984.
This is another post in my journey of reading the Hugo nominated stories before casting my ballot. I have attempted to read all the nominees with an open mind, rather than cast a No Award vote for anything that had made it onto the ballot due to the bloc-voting scheme of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies. The Short Story and Novella categories were extremely disappointing, while Novelette category contained one great story, one good, and the rest dreck. However! I want to point out that this set of reviews is much more upbeat. This was a fantastic and fun category to review!

This time I’m reviewing Best Graphic Story. This category is awarded to a science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form, such as a comic book, graphic novel, or webcomic. So, what did I think of the Hugo-nominated comics? Continue reading Hugo Ballot Reviews: Graphic Story →

Hugo Ballot Reviews: Novella

literature, , ,

The 2007 Hugo Award trophy, designed by Takashi Kinoshita, KAIYODO for Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention, in Yokohama, Japan.
The 2007 Hugo Award trophy, designed by Takashi Kinoshita, KAIYODO for Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention, in Yokohama, Japan.
Continuing my journey of reading the Hugo nominated stories before casting my ballot. I have attempted to read all the nominees with an open mind, rather than cast a No Award vote for anything that had made it onto the ballot due to the bloc-voting scheme of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies. The Short Story category was very disappointing, while Novelette category contained one great story, one good, and the rest dreck.

This time I’m looking at the nominees for Best Novella. This category is awarded for a science fiction or fantasy story of between 17,500 and 40,000 words. Click to see what I thought… Continue reading Hugo Ballot Reviews: Novella →