The 2018 Hugo Award winners were announced last Sunday, so it’s time for the requisite whinging/celebration that keeps blogs in orbit. I participated this year, but was somewhat less vigilant in reading and voting, but will probably continue to play along. Anyway, let’s get to it… (For those who really want to geek out and see how instant-runoff voting works, the detailed voting and nomination stats are available.)
- The Stone Sky wins best novel and N.K. Jemisin becomes the first author ever to win three in a row. I have not been a particular fan of the series, but people seem to love these books. Too much misery porn for my liking, which always kept me at an arms length from the characters and story. Forcing myself to read the three books over the past few years (if I’m going to vote, I’m going to read the books; the authors deserve that much) probably doesn’t help. I don’t see why this series in particular deserved the three-peat, but this third book was actually my favorite of the series, so there is that (in fact, the only real baffling winner in the series was the second book, which suffered from clear middle-book-in-a-trilogy problems. I can definitely see why the first and third books won.) The other funny thing about this is that a few years ago, they created a whole award for “Best Series” that could have potentially cut down on the number of sequels in the Best Novel category, but that clearly isn’t happening. Scalzi’s Collapsing Empire came in second, and probably would have been my choice (though I certainly get the criticisms of it, it was a lot more fun and pushed my SF buttons more than most of the other nominees). New York 2140 came in last place, which also matches my preference…
- World of the Five Gods (formerly known as the Chalion series after the first book), by Lois McMaster Bujold takes the Best Series Hugo, which is also funny because Bujold won last year for the Vorkosigan Saga (deservedly so, in my opinion, but still). This award still suffers from a big logistical problem, namely that if you haven’t already read all the nominees (some of which contain more than 10 novels, etc…), you can’t really judge properly. That being said, Bujold is one of my two favorite authors, so this win isn’t exactly unwelcome.
- All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells takes home the rocket for Best Novella. Though I have not read any of the other nominees, I had nominated the Wells story, so I’m happy to see that it did well (and this is a good reminder that the sequels are out, so I should get on that!) I’ve neglected the novellas in recent years, but it’s funny, a lot of the most interesting SF these days is coming out in Novella sized bites, so I might have to pay closer attention to the category this/next year.
- “The Secret Life of Bots,” by Suzanne Palmer takes the Novelette award, but the only Novelette that I read this year was Yoon Ha Lee’s excellent “Extracurricular Activities” (which I was rooting for). I’ll probably give Palmer’s story a shot though, as it seems fun.
- “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™”, by Rebecca Roanhorse wins Best Short Story. I had placed it firmly in the middle of the pack of my ballot, but didn’t feel particularly strongly for any of the stories (despite this year’s category in general being of higher quality than the last few years).
- Wonder Woman wins Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. I thought that my preferred Get Out might actually pull it out (it did finish second in the voting), but Hugo voters tend to go for bigger, splashier movies, as evidenced by the other nominees. A The Good Place won the Short Form award, which is great.
- All in all, not too shabby! I’m definitely curious to see how next year goes. Will series and sequels continue to dominate the Best Novel category? Should Lois McMaster Bujold release a new Sharing Knife book this year to see if she can three-peat the Best Series category? Will Novellas continue their ascendancy? Only one way to find out.
- I have not read a ton of 2018 SF, and what I have read so far has not struck me as Hugo Worthy (Head On was a lot of fun, but doesn’t strike me as needing recognition in this way). Some things I’m looking forward to catching up with though: The Freeze-Frame Revolution, by Peter Watts, The Tea Master and the Detective, by Aliette de Bodard, Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries sequels), by Martha Wells, and a few others (of note: all of the preceding are novellas).
And that’s all for now. We’ve only got a few weeks until the Six Weeks of Halloween starts up, so stay tuned…