David Steffen’s 2015 Hugo Picks

The last couple years I’ve shared my Hugo nomination ballot as well as the final Hugo ballot, on the general principle that people might enjoy reading through stories they hadn’t been aware of before and it might remind them of something they would nominate.  Since the ordering of the nominations on the list doesn’t matter on the ballot, my entries are also in no particular order.

BEST NOVEL

• Silverblind by Tina Connolly (Tor)
  Alt-hist post-WWI story, half-fae woman scientist tries to start her career.  I reviewed it here. 
• Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
  Sequel to award-winning Ancillary Sword, about former ship AI in human body. I reviewed it here.

BEST NOVELETTE

•  “Stone Hunger” by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld)
  Post-apocalyptic fantasy world with character who draws on the power of the earth.
• “The Day the World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Lightspeed)
  Gravity reverses and everyone has to figure out a way to keep from falling into the sky.
• “Harry and Marlowe and the Intrigues at the Aetherian Exhibition” by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed)
  Continuation in an excellent steampunk series starring a daring noblewoman and her airship captain companion.
• “The Magician and LaPlace’s Demon” by Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld)
  Super interesting story about a universe-spanning AI facing off against a probability-altering magician.
• “We are the Cloud” by Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed)
  Scarily plausible world where people can take employment by farming out their brain’s processing power to the Internet.

BEST SHORT STORY

• “Makeisha in Time” by Rachael K. Jones (Crossed Genres)
  Solid story from new author, inspired by Kameron Hurley’s Hugo-winning essay “We Have Always Fought”, about a girl who jumps back in time and has lived many lifetimes there.
• “The Clockwork Soldier” by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld)
  Emotionally engaging story that also features a text adventure as a major component, reinspired my interest in that kind of game.
• “Drones Don’t Kill People” by Annalee Newitz (Lightspeed)
  One of the most convincing stories of AI gaining sentience, actually justifies how the progression might happen.
• “No Sweeter Art” by Tony Pi (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
  Sequel  to another great story, following a Zodiac-confectioner magician.
• “That Other Sea” by William Ledbetter (Escape Pod)
  Really interesting alien point of view in a civilization in the waters of Europa.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

• The LEGO Movie
  Goofy, silly, fun. great casting, fun look.  And Chris Pratt.
• Guardians of the Galaxy
  I’d never heard of this Marvel franchise before, super fun, and I love Chris Pratt from Parks and Rec.
• The Edge of Tomorrow
  I’d avoided this one because Tom Cruise, but it was worth it.  Action-packed, solid, and I especially liked Emily Blunt.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

• “Geothermal Escapism” (Community)
  One of my favorite Community episodes of all time, the game plays an epic game of The Floor is Lava.
• “G.I. Jeff” (Community)
  Hallucinating Jeff imagines the community college people in an episode of G.I. Joe, who are soon on trial for killing a member of Cobra (which has apparently never happened before)
• “App Development and Condiments” (Community)
  New people-rating app MeowMeowBeenz is beta-tested on campus, and naturally the campus forms a class system that dictates all of their social statuses in epic fashion.
• “Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” (Community)
  Not the first D&D-themed episode, but they upped the ante.
• “Sock Opera” (Gravity Falls)
  One of the creepiest episodes.

Since we cancelled HBO last year, I haven’t kept up with Game of Thrones.  But Community‘s season was epic, before being cancelled off network TV (and renewed for Season 6 upcoming on Yahoo video).  And I’ve really gotten into Gravity Falls as well (picked the creepiest episode)

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

• Will Hinton (Orbit UK, Ancillary Sword)
• Jenni Hill (Orbit, Ancillary Sword)
• Melissa Frain (Tor, Silverblind)

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

• John Joseph Adams
  
• Neil Clarke
• Tina Connolly
• Norm Sherman
• Scott H. Andrews

Although the category is probably mostly meant to focus on just picking editors who publish stories you like, since I interact with short fiction editors with submissions I take their author friendliness and professionality of communication into account.

BEST SEMIPROZINE

• Lightspeed
• Escape Pod
• Drabblecast
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Crossed Genres

BEST FANCAST

• Podcastle
• Pseudopod
• Toasted Cake
• Welcome to Nightvale
• Journey Into…

I think that Welcome to Nightvale might not be eligible, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.

As I mentioned in a previous article, I would LOVE to see one or more fiction podcasts on the Fancast ballot.

The common opinion seems to be that paying markets aren’t eligible for the Fancast category, but if you look at the rules the rules indicate that the Fancast is equivalent to BOTH the semiprozine and fanzine, not just the fanzine.

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the category, but while it exists I’d rather see some fiction podcasts get some honors.

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER

• Rachael K. Jones
  She has had an epic year, suddenly appearing all over the place.  Easy choice, epic rises like hers are what this award is made for
• Sam J. Miller
• H.E. Roulo
• Kate Heartfield
• James Aquilone