2011 Hugo Nominations

And, the nominees are...

BEST NOVEL

Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Feed, Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)
Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

BEST NOVELLA

The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
‘‘The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon'', Elizabeth Hand (Stories)
‘‘The Sultan of the Clouds'', Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov's 9/10)
‘‘Troika'', Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines)
‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window'', Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer 2010)

BEST NOVELETTE

‘‘The Jaguar House, in Shadow'', Aliette de Bodard (Asimov's 7/10)
‘‘Plus or Minus'', James Patrick Kelly (Asimov's 12/10)
‘‘Eight Miles'', Sean McMullen (Analog 9/10)
‘‘The Emperor of Mars'', Allen M. Steele (Asimov's 6/10)
‘‘That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made'', Eric James Stone (Analog 9/10)

BEST SHORT STORY

‘‘Ponies'', Kij Johnson (Tor.com 11/17/10)
‘‘For Want of a Nail'', Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov's 12/10)
‘‘Amaryllis'', Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed 6/10)
‘‘The Things'', Peter Watts (Clarkesworld 1/10)

BEST RELATED WORK

Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1 (1907-1948): Learning Curve, William H. Patterson, Jr. (Tor)
The Business of Science Fiction: Two Insiders Discuss Writing and Publishing, Mike Resnick & Barry N. Malzberg (McFarland)
Writing Excuses, Season 4, Brandon Sanderson, Jordan Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells
Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, Lynne M. Thomas & Tara O'Shea, eds. (Mad Norwegian)
Bearings: Reviews 1997-2001, Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

The Unwritten, Vol. 2: Inside Man, Mike Carey; art by Peter Gross (Vertigo)
Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, Phil & Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio (Airship Entertainment)
Grandville Mon Amour, Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse)
Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, Howard Tayler (Hypernode)
Fables: Witches, Bill Willingham; art by Mark Buckingham (Vertigo)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Toy Story 3

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – SHORT

Doctor Who: ‘‘A Christmas Carol''
Doctor Who: ‘‘The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang''
Doctor Who: ‘‘Vincent and the Doctor''
F%$& Me, Ray Bradbury
The Lost Thing

BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR LONG FORM

Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Moshe Feder
Liz Gorinsky
Nick Mamatas
Beth Meacham
Juliet Ulman

BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR SHORT FORM

John Joseph Adams
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

Daniel Dos Santos
Bob Eggleton
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Shaun Tan

BEST SEMIPROZINE

Clarkesworld
Interzone
Lightspeed
Locus
Weird Tales

BEST FANZINE

Banana Wings
Challenger
The Drink Tank
File 770
StarShipSofa

BEST FAN WRITER

James Bacon
Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
James Nicoll
Steven H Silver

BEST FAN ARTIST

Brad W. Foster
Randall Munroe
Maurine Starkey
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER [NOT A HUGO AWARD]*

Saladin Ahmed
Lauren Beukes
Larry Correia
Lev Grossman
Dan Wells

Well, I've long put off the decision of whether or not this blog would be profanity free, but I think the Hugos have forced my hand with their nomination of "Make Sweet Love to Me, Ray Bradbury." I know the video, but I'll save my feelings on it for my review. I am glad that short film "The Lost Thing" made the cut and helped prevent an embarrassing category sweep by The Doctor. Long Form doesn't really have any surprises, though I am glad to see some love for Scott Pilgrim.

It looks like my best guess was on Graphic Fiction, which is depressing. It's clear that Hugo nominators either don't know comics or don't know how to appropriately vote for longer running serialized stories. I may give this category a glance, mostly to check out Grandville, but don't expect a detailed disquisition on the latest volume of Schlock Mercenary.

In the novel category, Feed came out of nowhere as far as I'm concerned, and I didn't think Cryoburn had gone over that well. Between catching up on the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan and Willis's blitz magnum opus, I have my work cut out for me reading wise. The nomination of Blackout/All Clear kind of ruined the announcements for me. Honestly, I would've much preferred www:Watch. At least Sawyer's novels are breezy. But, hey, we did get four female nominees, potentially ending the drought in female winners that I pointed to before. On the other hand, the one male nominee has to be counted as the favorite at this point.

On top of a couple of lengthy nominated works, I'm going to review five additional novels from 2010, because of attention they've received (or because I've already read them). They are

The Half Made World, Felix Gilman

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu

Mockingbird, Suzanne Collins

Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart

Zoo City, Lauren Beukes

So, the plan going forward:

I'm going to be a bit more focused and rational in my reviewing schedule this time, rather than the rotating reviews with interspersed '80s winners that I confused everyone (including myself) with last year. I'm on schedule to finish the '90s by the end of May (the reading is done and the reviews are written!). Then, starting in the first or second week of June, I'll attack the 2011 Hugo nominees, one award at a time, a week or two on each category, probably in the following order:

Short Story

Dramatic Short

Graphic

Novelette

Dramatic Long

Novella

Novel

I'll try to wrap it up by August 19th (the awards are announced August 20th), and then we'll dive into the winners of the '00s by September and finish the whole giant review in early 2012, well before the end of the world as predicted by History Channel specials about the Mayan calendar.