Hugo Award Nominee Recommendations

Mutta and his little brother Hibito wanted to be astronauts when they were little kids. Now, in the year 2025, Hibito has been selected for the mission to establish the first permanent human presence on the moon.

Mutta became an engineer, but somewhere along the way, he gave up on his dream of spaceflight and became a car designer instead. When his boss says something disparaging about Hibito, Mutta headbutts him and is fired. As Mutta's job search goes absolutely nowhere, his brother and mother conspire to submit an application in his name for astronaut training...

The show is semi-comic (see, for instance, Mutta's overview of the crucial moments of his life as they correspond to great and terrible moments in sports in episode 1), but completely unironic in its attitude toward space exploration.

Episode 1 is here. The free stream is available to the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Brazil, and Portugal.

The 2012 Hugo Award Nominations have been released.

I've renamed the old 2012 recommendation tags with the "z" prefix to move them down in the list.

We've got a stack of old tags, and if you're reading I would like your opinion on maintaining them. On the upside, if they're deleted there's a much shorter list of tags. On the downside, if they're deleted it makes it much more difficult to go back and get a snapshot of previous years' recommendations.

Finally, Livejournal has changed, well, something, and even people on unmoderated status may find their posts moderated if they include links. Stupid, I know, but spam and all... Don't wait until the last minute to post things, because I may not get to approving posts with links quickly.

Okay, I know we've just wrapped up the nominating period for this year's Hugos, but I already have a recommendation for 2013. In Best Novel, I would like to recommend Taft 2012 by Jason Heller. It's alternate history, based on this premise: On the last day of his presidency, as he was on his way to the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, President William Howard Taft just . . . disappears. He does a Rip Van Winkle, and he wakes up some 99 years later, into a world that is quite different from when he went to sleep.

One nomination I wanted to particularly ask for help on is in the Best Related Book category. The Ghost Detective's Guide to San Francisco was released last April and was a collaboration between Loyd Auerbach and Annette Martin. For those of you who didn't know Annette, she died last August. She was a friendly lady who helped save lives and assisted the police in resolving some grisly murders. The science fiction community might also appreciate that she kept Buzz Aldrin company for 12 years and they apparently were very fond of each other while their relationship lasted. Giving her a posthumous Hugo nomination would be an excellent honor for all of the good work she did during her life. Although Loyd said he believes he still has access to enough notes she left behind to create another collaboration with her, this may be the last chance she has to be honored. If you don't already have five other nominations you're keen on to fill that category of the ballot, would you please consider that one?

There are a few other last chances I have listed below for consideration, particularly the TV series Medium, which had its last three episodes aired in January 2011. I always believed that show was well written and admired how it explored different avenues of creativity, such as animation and incorporating Night of the Living Dead in one episode. I'm hoping the speculative fiction community will consider honoring it with a nomination.

Other last chances for nomination are Realms of Fantasy and Salon Futura in the Semi-prozine category and e²PMI in Fanzine. All have ceased publication in 2011.

Some of you are aware of my feelings on Locus being nominated. I have posted an essay detailing them at: http://www.epinions.com/content_5605007492. If you believe that Locus deserves nomination, will you consider adding Liza Groen Trombi & Kirsten Gong-Wong's names to the Best Editor, Short Category instead?

BTW, if you have already cast your ballot, but want to change or add any nominations, you have until the deadline tomorrow, March 11, to recast your ballot. Be warned, the Hugo admins only count the most recent one a voter submitted, so it is necessary to renominate previously-submitted candidates to ensure they are kept in the running.

At the recommendation of Nnedi Okorafor (from her blog), I read Habibi by Craig Thompson. Mythic stories involve, inspire, and inform the two protagonists of this beautifully illustrated, lyric and hopeful yet sometimes harshly realistic book.

A djin in the form of a snake leads a boy to water in the desert. A member of a Sultan's harem must turn water into gold to save her life. A woman and a eunuch seek to have a child together.

All turns out (more or less) well in the end. In the middle, there is mystery, misery, and not a little madness. And it's all punctuated by myth, how it relates to the art of writing in arabic, issues of race and relations, and some fairly intense moral questions.

It is artful, engaging, challenging, and touching. I highly recommend it.


Note: not appropriate for young readers.

As in previous years, the Bay Area Science Fiction Association held Hugo Award Recommendation Nights in January and February, and we are posting our accumulated recommendations in a series of entries here.

A key to the initials of the people making recommendations is in basfa's community journal. This post may change if we receive additional recommendations from club members.

After the Golden Age (Carrie Vaughn): BL, CES, CJG
The Alchemists of Kush (Narmer’s Palette, Minister Faust): CMM
Betrayer (DAW, C.J. Cherryh): JOR
Blood Red Road (Marion Lloyd, Moira Young): CMM
Broken Kingdoms (N K Jemisin): BJH (Ineligible; see comments)
The Courier’s New Bicycle (Harper Collins Australia, Kim Westwood): CMM
A Dance With Dragons (Harper Voyager, GRRM): CMM
Dead Iron (Devon Monk): AJF, MYS
Deadline (Mira Grant): BJH, LDH
Deathless (Tor, Catherynne Valente): CMM
Embassytown (Pan Macmillan, China Miéville): CJG, CMM
Endurance (Tor, Jay Lake): AJF, DO, JOR
The Fallen Blade (Orbit, Jon Courtenay Grimwood): CMM
Girl Who Circumnavigated (Catheryne Valente): CES, DO, LDH, VF
God’s War (Night Shade, Kameron Hurley): CMM
Home Fires (Gene Wolfe): BL
The Islanders (Gollancz, Chris Priest): AJF, CMM
The Kingdom of Gods (Orbit, NK Jemisin): CMM, DO
Magic on the Hunt (Devon Monk): AJF
Magic on the Line (Devon Monk): AJF
Mechanique (Prime, Genevieve Valentine): CMM
A Monster Calls (Candlewick, Patrick Ness): CMM
Of Blood and Honey (Night Shade, Stina Leicht): CMM
Osama (PS Publishing, Lavie Tidhar): CMM
Planesrunner (Pyr, Ian McDonald): CJG, CMM
Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles (Titan Books, Kim Newman): CMM, KAS
The Quantum Thief (Tor, Hannu Rajaniemi): CMM, DO
Reamde (Neal Stephanson): BL, CJG
String of Pearls (Michael McGee): MYS
This Shared Dream (Tor, Kathleen Ann Goonan): CMM
The Tiger’s Wife (Random House, Téa Obreht): CMM, DO, JOR
Zoo City (Angry Robot, Lauren Beukes): CMM

As in previous years, the Bay Area Science Fiction Association held Hugo Award Recommendation Nights in January and February, and we are posting our accumulated recommendations in a series of entries here.

A key to the initials of the people making recommendations is in basfa's community journal. This post may change if we receive additional recommendations from club members.

Ants of Flanders (F&SF Jul/Aug, Robert Reed): AJF, CJG
Gravity Dreams (Stephen Baxter): BL, CJG
Hiding Place (Asimov's, Apr, Adam-Troy Castro): AJF, CJG
Ice Owl (F&SF, Carolyn Ives Gilman ): CMM
Killer Advice (Asimov’s Jan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch): AJF, CJG, DO, JOR
The Man Who Bridged the Mist (Asimov’s, Kij Johnson ): CMM
Silently and Very Fast (WSFA Press, Clarkesworld, Catherynne Valente ): CMM, JOR

As in previous years, the Bay Area Science Fiction Association held Hugo Award Recommendation Nights in January and February, and we are posting our accumulated recommendations in a series of entries here.

A key to the initials of the people making recommendations is in basfa's community journal. This post may change if we receive additional recommendations from club members.

Afterbirth ( Kameron Hurley): CMM
Anticopernicus (Ancaster, Adam Roberts ): CMM
The Book of Phoenix (Excerpted from The Great Book) (Clarkesworld, Nnedi Okorafor ): CMM, DO
The Choice (Asimov’s, Paul McAuley ): CMM
The Copenhagen Interpretation (Asimov’s, Paul Cornell ): CMM
Enigma (Analog, Sean McMullan): CJG, JOR
The Frog Prince (Analog Jan/Feb, Michael F.Flynn): AJF
Ghostweigh (Clarkesworld, Yoon Ha Lee): CMM
A Long Walk Home (Subterranean, Jay Lake): HS, JOR, MYS
The Silver Wind (Interzone, Nina Allan ): CMM
Six Months, Three Days (Tor.com, Charlie Jane Anders ): CJG, CMM
The Citizen-Astronaut (Analog Jun, David D. Levine): AJF, KAS, MYS
What We Found (F&SF Sep/Oct, Geoff Ryman): AJF, BL, MYS

As in previous years, the Bay Area Science Fiction Association held Hugo Award Recommendation Nights in January and February, and we are posting our accumulated recommendations in a series of entries here.

A key to the initials of the people making recommendations is in basfa's community journal. This post may change if we receive additional recommendations from club members.

The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees (Clarkesworld, E. Lily Yu ): CMM
Coverlithe (The Guardian, China Mieville): CJG, JB
Less Likely Mansions (F&SF Jul/Aug, Rob Chilson): AJF
Quack (Analog Apr, Jerry Oltion): AJF, JOR
Staying Behind (Clarkesworld, Ken Liu ): CMM
The Fish of Lijiang (Clarkesworld, Chen Qiufan ): CMM
The Flare Weed (Analog Apr, Larry Niven): AJF
Tidal Forces (Eclipse Four, Caitlín R. Kiernan ): CMM