Hugo Awards 2023

[sophia_sol]

Well.... the Hugo Awards nominees are out, and I am once again shown to have rather different tastes than the majority of hugos fandom. From the novel, novella, and novelette categories, exactly one thing that I nominated made it onto the ballot for each category! ZERO of the short stories and the lodestars that I nominated made it on the list. The only category where I matched two entries is the astounding award.

I'm a bit heartbroken at some of the works that didn't make it on the ballot that I thought were so deserving of attention tbh - Siren Queen (Vo), Radcliffe Hall (Pinckard), To Embody A Wildfire Starting (Sharma), Sestu Hunts the Last Deer in Heaven (Cheung), and When the Angels Left the Old Country (Lamb).....all of them were SO good and they didn't make it on?!

There ARE amazing things on the list though so the news isn't all downers! Delighted by Kingfisher getting a number of spots on the list, Muir of course, and more opportunities to read Tchaikovsky after my surprisingly delightful intro to him in last year's hugos. Even if this does mean I'm finally going to have to read one of Kingfisher's horror works (oh noooooo I am going to perish). And the John Chu short story!!!

Plus others on the list I've been meaning to try but haven't yet gotten round to yet (like Hartman) - I now have a more pressing reason to, which is always great.

And although it makes life harder for me since I don't read Chinese, I do like to see more finalists from the country that the year's worldcon is being hosted in. A good sign that people local to the worldcon are invested in it and interested in attending. Though it does make it challenging for me to start by reading everything in the short story category like I usually do - a number of these stories have only been published in Chinese!

At any rate my spreadsheet is created, my library holds are being placed, let's do this!

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

I've read DIY by John Wiswell and Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk, but none of the nominated novels.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah, I'd read DIY already too and thought it was decent, but not something worthy of having an award imo. I haven't read the Polk but haven't been impressed by what I've read from Polk in the past.

Of the novels I've read Nona the Ninth and Nettle and Bone, and I loved them both but Nona is the one I'd place at the top personally. I've been meaning to read Legends & Lattes and I anticipate enjoying it but don't think it's likely to be award material to me. And none of the other three were ones I'd even been planning to read, due to being not my kind of book!

[gloss]

Neglecting Siren Queen seems like a serious oversight!

[sophia_sol]

YES!!!!!

[cahn]

ALL RIGHT HERE WE GO

...I am also kind of shocked at this list. No Babel?? I haven't actually read Babel but I feel like it dominated discussion all of last year. Though File770 (while also surprised by this) seems to think that maybe she turned down the nomination, which I could see. Really interested to see the longlist though. I wonder if having a big Chinese voting segment this year really moved around what things got nominated.

At any rate my spreadsheet is created, my library holds are being placed, let's do this!

Yay Hugo fandom! :D *high-fives*

[sophia_sol]

Yeah Babel is one of those books that I was like, I'm not entirely sure it's going to be my thing so I won't bother to read it prior to nominations, because I'm sure it's going to show up on the ballot anyway without my help. And then it's not there!!! If she did turn down the nomination that would at least make sense of it not appearing on the list, because its absence is completely baffling otherwise.

Also the Simon Jimenez's This Spear Cuts Through Water, which I never quite got around to reading for a variety of reasons but nominated anyway, it seemed like exactly the sort of thing that should be on the ballot and I was really looking forward to the hugos making me actually read it for real!

The longlist will be fascinating to analyze for sure.

Yay Hugo fandom! :D *high-fives*

*high fives back!!!*

[skygiants]

I'm also SO mad that several of the ones you listed didn't make it onto the list! But I'm glad that at least the novellas aren't One Hundred Full Percent dominated by tor dot com this year ....

[sophia_sol]

ahahahahaaaa yes the domination by tor dot com in the novella field is SO real

[lirazel]

I always enjoy your Hugo-reading adventures, but I'm sorry more of your faves weren't recognized!

[sophia_sol]

thank you! <3

[chestnut_pod]

Honestly! Siren Queen and Angels got absolutely snubbed. I feel like there were a few years in there between the Puppies and, say, last year, where there was real variety, and now there's a gallery of Usual Suspects who get multiple per list, which is just not as interesting to me.

[sophia_sol]

dang, yeah, this observation really does feel accurate to me and it's so disappointing! come on, hugos!!!