The Hugos go Meta

April 22, 2020 9:19 PM

The 2020 Hugo Award Finalists were announced on April 7th, including a ‘Best Related Work’ Nomination for Jeanette Ng’s acceptance speech for the 2019 John W. Campbell Award, which has been renamed this year as the Astounding Award because of her speech.

Jeanette Ng’s speech covered previously on Metafilter (2)

Other Finalists include:

Best Novel

• The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders Goodreads Excerpt
• Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir: Goodreads Fanfare Excerpt
• The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley Goodreads
• A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine Goodreads Fanfare
• Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire Goodreads Previously on Metafilter
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow Goodreads Fanfare

Best Novella

• “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang. Exhalation on Goodreads, Fanfare Previously
• The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes Goodreads
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark Goodreads
• In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire Goodreads
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Goodreads Fanfare
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers Goodreads Fanfare

Best Novelette

• “The Archronology of Love”, by Caroline M. Yoachim Full Text
• “Away With the Wolves”, by Sarah Gailey Full Text
• “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, by Sarah Pinsker Full Text Previously on Metafilter
• Emergency Skin, by N.K. Jemisin Goodreads
• “For He Can Creep”, by Siobhan Carroll Full Text
• “Omphalos”, by Ted Chiang Exhalation on Goodreads, Fanfare Previously

Best Short Story

• “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas Full Text
• “As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang Full Text
• “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon Full Text
• “A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde Full Text
• “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow Full Text
• “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen Full Text

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Avengers: Endgame - Fanfare
• Captain Marvel - Fanfare
• Good Omens - Fanfare
• Russian Doll (Season One), - Fanfare
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Fanfare
• Us - Fanfare

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• The Good Place: “The Answer” Fanfare
• The Expanse: “Cibola Burn”- Fanfare
• Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar” - Fanfare
• The Mandalorian: “Redemption” Fanfare
• Doctor Who: “Resolution” Fanfare
• Watchmen: “This Extraordinary Being”, - Fanfare

posted by dinty_moore (47 comments total)

I've read all of the Novel finalists, and each one is worthy of the nomination, but for me one stands well above the rest: Gideon the Ninth. They're all great reads but if you want to try just one out, that's my personal recommendation. The last time a book grabbed me so much was NK Jesimin's The Fifth Season, and I liked Gideon the Ninth even more than that.
posted by tclark at 9:25 PM on April 22, 2020 [21 favorites]

To add, I've only read one of the Novella nominees, but it was absolutely delightful: This Is Now You Lose The Time War is so good.
posted by tclark at 9:27 PM on April 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

I wish they'd nominate short form dramatic presentations other than TV episodes. Clearly there are some independent science fiction shorts they can recognize?
posted by brundlefly at 9:34 PM on April 22, 2020

Podcasts spring immediately to mind, as do a myriad of other things. Lots of fiction being created out there that is short-form in a lot of different formats available. Seems small-minded to limit it to television.
posted by hippybear at 9:44 PM on April 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

It's a matter of audience; way more nominators have watched any given piece of SF television than any independent short, by several magnitudes. A Tor SF novel might be read by one or two magnitudes more people than a minor press novel; an episode of The Good Place probably got watched by 3 or 4 more magnitudes than an independent short.
posted by tavella at 9:57 PM on April 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

[pushes up glasses] Technically, the erstwhile Campbell Award is Not A Hugo Award.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:08 PM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thus the award the speech is nominated for being named "Best Related Work" in the Hugo Awards.
posted by hippybear at 10:16 PM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

[pushes up glasses] Technically, the erstwhile Campbell Award is Not A Hugo Award.

A wizard did it.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 12:46 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is a great set of finalists. It includes an extremely high proportion of favorite books of mine from last year -- Gideon the Ninth, A Memory Called Empire, This Is How You Lose the Time War, The Wicked King, Deeplight, the Winternight Trilogy -- as well as a number of favorite shows like Russian Doll, The Good Place, and The Expanse. And even for the books and shows on the list that didn't excite me quite so much, in almost every case I get why they were nominated and agree that they absolutely deserve to be on the list.
posted by kyrademon at 3:11 AM on April 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Did they have to have come out in 2019? Otherwise the final ep of The Good Place has been robbed.

This is the first time I can remember in ages where I've read a couple in each writing category before the noms/awards, I guess you're having an impact on me MeFi.
posted by biffa at 3:41 AM on April 23, 2020

> "Did they have to have come out in 2019?"

Yes.
posted by kyrademon at 4:21 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

They couldn't have come out after December 31, 2019, yeah. (Stuff from late 2018 sometimes sneaks in with some quibbles about release dates)

Sometimes non-television shows get nominated in the short dramatic presentations, Dirty Computer got nominated last year (after a Twitter campaign).

What I found interesting is that TV also has a good presence on the long form category - with two miniseries being nominated in their entirety. Admittedly it was a horrible year for big budget sff movies (and a great one for sff television), but it does seem like tv series took the place of the more indie/non-US movies this year like Ad Astra or High Life. I do think that Russian Doll is better than either of them, so not necessarily a bad thing.

I think my one surprise with these nominations is that The Raven Tower didn't get nominated. That and Gideon The Ninth were my favorite books from 2019.
posted by dinty_moore at 4:22 AM on April 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

I've read "City in the Middle of Night" and I really liked it. I've heard really good things about "Gideon the Ninth". I'd missed that "The Deep" had been published - it's based on a clipping song of the same name that I found to be a boot to the head.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:12 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’m leaning towards a horror novel sometime soon, is there a Hugo analog for horror novels?
posted by RolandOfEld at 5:56 AM on April 23, 2020

I was going to say that Clipping was actually nominated in the short form category for "The Deep" too, but I was wrong - they were actually nominated for Splendor & Misery (back in 2017).

Honestly, at this point I think it would make sense to have a short form visual and a short form audio presentation category - they already have best fancast, which I find a lot more awkward trying to figure out who to vote for.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:09 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

> "...is there a Hugo analog for horror novels?"

I'd say the Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association is what you're looking for. They just posted their 2019 winners just last week.
posted by Ylem at 6:16 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Isn't the Bram Stoker Award more of horror flavored Nebula Award?
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:41 AM on April 23, 2020

Can someone try to help me understand what they like so much about Gideon the Ninth? I found it fun but not terribly interesting, and the characters felt a bit one-note. Also by the end I was grinding my teeth every time I had to read the word smilingly. But with all the love it's getting, I feel like I must be missing something.

My personal favorite of the novels I've read so far was A Memory Called Empire. The main character's relationship to internalized colonialism was fascinating and really well served by one of the setting's imaginary technologies, and I thought the writing was lovely.
posted by Hypocrite_Lecteur at 7:21 AM on April 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

I have started and dropped Gideon the Ninth twice despite many people whose advice I trust loving it.

I'm hoping for A Memory Called Empire which was just startlingly good. (I haven't read the Hurley as her stuff is generally not for me, or the Anders because I hated her last novel so much.)
posted by jeather at 7:23 AM on April 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

I liked Gideon the Ninth because of the way in mashed like three different genres together into an interesting and cohesive hole, plus the main character is such a fucking herbo in a way that main characters usually aren't allowed to be.

I dunno, the fun is the point, I think.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:24 AM on April 23, 2020 [9 favorites]

I was surprised by the absence of The Raven Tower too.
posted by Hypocrite_Lecteur at 7:25 AM on April 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

I was so annoyed by the first 10% of Gideon the Ninth and then absolutely loved the rest. If you're bouncing off it before you get into the actual mystery, I'm another person recommending giving it another try!
posted by synchronia at 7:29 AM on April 23, 2020

Gideon the Ninth is quite awesome, but so is Middlegame. Interestingly, both books manage to be epic in scale while also very tightly focused on their characters.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:30 AM on April 23, 2020

A Memory Called Empire was my second favorite of the bunch. For me, Gideon the Ninth was fun partly because what kind of book it was only became gradually clear to me. It started out a bit as a political dark-fantasy drama, but then sort of became a weird microcosm of civilization-in-collapse sci-fi/fantasy, and eventually also a mystery and a bit of a thriller, dropping almost all its sci-fi angles and really becoming more straight-up dark-fantasy -- no mean feat for any novel, let alone a debut, and it didn't feel forced to me. It's a strange story that just went its own places and gave me a lot of pleasure in the unexpected turns.

Also (no spoilers) the way Gideon and Harrowhark's relationship evolved with each other and also with the other houses was surprising and yet by the end everything that happened between them felt well earned.
posted by tclark at 7:31 AM on April 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

I enjoyed Gideon a lot and will read the next book but there were definitely big chunks of it that I didn’t think worked well.
posted by PussKillian at 7:32 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Team A Memory Called Empire here. I loved the positively Byzantine setting.
posted by Justinian at 7:39 AM on April 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

I hadn't given much thought to the genre mashup angle, so thanks for pointing it out. And I may be undervaluing fun.
posted by Hypocrite_Lecteur at 7:42 AM on April 23, 2020

> "Can someone try to help me understand what they like so much about Gideon the Ninth? ... I feel like I must be missing something."

Well, taste is taste. There are three books nominated in various categories that I gave three star ratings for one reason or another, and one movie I thought was Not Good. It is true that I do at least understand why other people loved and nominated them, though.

Some things that made me love Gideon the Ninth included:
1) The well-done genre mashup.
2) The intricate wheels-within-wheels plot.
3) The fact that the silent, serious, death-masked cultist is actually kind of a dumbass jock and as soon as she starts talking everyone else goes, "Wait, what?" and the story was told from that character's POV.
4) The rarzvrf-gb-nyyvrf ebznapr. (Possible minor spoiler rot13'ed).
5) My tendency to periodically put down the book, intone "Space necromancers!" aloud, and giggle quietly to myself.

Between Gideon the Ninth and A Memory Called Empire, I would probably lean towards the latter, but I thought both books were excellent.
posted by kyrademon at 7:44 AM on April 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

And so NK Jemisin finally ends her benevolent reign. Although even so, she is eligible for a role as the Novellette Advisor to the throne. Until next year, at least.

I liked Gideon the Ninth. It suffers a bit too much for being "Harriett Potter and the Secret of the Necromancer Palace", but then it's basically impossible to write any book about young adult wizards in a school without recalling Rowling. My circle of friends (30s and 40s) mostly liked it because it felt fresh, with fun punky characters we could relate to. I confess this is the only one of the five nominated novels I've even heard of, that's how out of the loop I am, but this one burned bright.

Sorry not to see Rachel Caine's Great Library series get a nomination. The first four are good and the series really grows into itself. (Book 1 also has the Hogwarts problem.) AFAICT none of them have gotten a Hugo nomination. I enjoyed them as much as Gideon the Ninth, FWIW, although they maybe didn't feel quite as innovative.
posted by Nelson at 7:59 AM on April 23, 2020

Just a reminder that there is a fanfare page for Gideon where folks can go to add their opinions or read what others have liked about it.

For my part I found Muir's aesthetic choices to be very reminiscent of Mervyn Peake. I loved the names and the mood which was consistently maintained by her word choices. Plus Griddle is just a fun character from the opening words to the bitter, bitter end.
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:14 AM on April 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Sorry not to see Rachel Caine's Great Library series get a nomination.

Rachel Caine seems to be found consistently in the second-tier of SFF. I've been reading her for years, and have enjoyed a lot of her work, but I have also found some of it repetitive, and her prose is competent without being amazing. I have never seen her work get the kind of recognition from her peers that seems to be necessary for awards.

That said, I am partway through the 2nd of the Great Library series, and find it kind of interesting -- it's quite the feat of world-building.
posted by suelac at 8:48 AM on April 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

kyrademon: "Well, taste is taste. There are three books nominated in various categories that I gave three star ratings for one reason or another, and one movie I thought was Not Good. "

This is where I am. Of what I've read, I've mostly thought, "That was fine." Of course, if you look back over the history of the Hugos, there's a lot of years where fine would have been an improvement.

I also can't discount the possibility that I am growing old and cranky.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:54 AM on April 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

For anyone else out there with hankerings like RolandOfEld, I’d also suggest looking to the Shirley Jackson Awards and the World Fantasy Awards. All three sets of awards tend to have significantly different flavors, but horror works regularly are nominated in all of them. Horror in the SJAs tends Weird and/or literary, and for the WFAs it’s... fantastical.
posted by cupcakeninja at 9:02 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

If Gideon the ninth is being described as Harry Potter-esque, then comparisons to Harry Potter have become so broad as to lose all meaning...
posted by Cozybee at 9:51 AM on April 23, 2020 [8 favorites]

I just -- kept getting bored with Gideon. I didn't like her. I didn't care for the writing style. I know I didn't get far into it, but also life is finite etc etc.

There are some pieces of media here I loved (A Memory Called Empire, Russian Doll), some I was meh to like on, some I dislike, it's a pretty standard list like that, I think. I know a lot of people who loved Gideon, I don't think it doesn't deserve to be on the list. I don't personally know anyone who loved the Anders, but I don't think it doesn't deserve either. That's a big step from earlier years.
posted by jeather at 9:55 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

> "That's a big step from earlier years."

Yeah, exactly. None of the ones I didn't personally like made me go, "REALLY?!!" this year. And the ones I did personally like made me go "YAY!"
posted by kyrademon at 10:30 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

I bounced off of Gideon too - same as Space Opera last year. My missing book from that list is Starless Sea, but I guess Erin Morgenstern got slotted as litfic more than genre. Lots to catch up on!

Mind you, next year I suspect it'll be N.K. Jemisin again. The City We Became is freaking amazing :D
posted by I claim sanctuary at 10:41 AM on April 23, 2020

Also, none of the novel nominees are sequels. I think that Gideon the Ninth and A Memory Called Empire are the only ones in a series (I might be wrong, though). That's a change from earlier years. I don't think that's happened since pre-puppy shenanigans. The first time I tried to read all of the hugo nominees was 2017, and then three of the six were sequels, and only one (All the Birds in the Sky) wasn't part of a series.

The novellas are also less sequel/series heavy than in previous years, too.

The Starless Sea being missed might have been because of being marketed more as litfic, but also it was published pretty late in the year (and people might not have gotten around to reading it yet).

I'll probably do the Hugo fanfare club again this year (frontloading the stuff that's already on fanfare, having one post each for the short stories and novellettes, and maybe skipping the scheduled comics/graphic novels).
posted by dinty_moore at 10:57 AM on April 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Also, got to admit, I was hugely curious if Song for a New Day was going to get nominated (it got nominated for a Nebula). As that is a book that reads a lot differently than six months ago. . .
posted by dinty_moore at 11:06 AM on April 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

To Be Taught, If Fortunate is quite good, IMO.
posted by signal at 11:51 AM on April 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Ugh I'm never going to get caught up on my reading list at this rate 😭
posted by zeusianfog at 2:44 PM on April 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Of course, if you look back over the history of the Hugos, there's a lot of years where fine would have been an improvement.

And then you have years like 2000 which had 3 novels that could have won most years. Best slate ever, fight me.
posted by Justinian at 6:21 PM on April 23, 2020

I've been trying to articulate what I liked so much about Gideon the Ninth, which I raced through breathlessly and then stepped back a few days later and thought - "But was it actually a good book?"

To me, Gideon has a punk rock energy to it. It has a fanfic energy to it. (That sounds like an insult, but I promise you it's not.) Its feelings are messy and spilled out on the floor. It doesn't care about playing by the traditional rules of writing craft, and it's hard to tell whether that's carelessness or something really purposeful.

It's definitely not a book for everybody, but it woke me up and made me feel alive when I had been feeling like I wasn't alive. It made me feel deeply grateful to have read it, in a way that even excellent books rarely make me feel.

(Time War is fabulous and you should go read it now.)
posted by Jeanne at 9:13 AM on April 24, 2020 [9 favorites]

To me, Gideon has a punk rock energy to it. It has a fanfic energy to it. (That sounds like an insult, but I promise you it's not.) Its feelings are messy and spilled out on the floor. It doesn't care about playing by the traditional rules of writing craft, and it's hard to tell whether that's carelessness or something really purposeful.

Tamsyn Muir was apparently really into Homestuck fandom for a while (and has publicly talked about it), which I think explains a lot.
posted by dinty_moore at 12:32 PM on April 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

Look, all you need to tell people about Gideon is: Lesbian necromancers in space.

I mean, seriously. If that doesn't grab your interest, it's not for you. But holy hell, how could it NOT?

I agree about the fanfic / punk energy there. I'm not 100% sold that Muir will be able to pull off the hat trick here, but I've preordered the 2nd book so I'm going at least that far with her.

I haven't read Memory yet, but it's been on my list for a while. I did read Light Brigade, and found it derivative fun -- but not so good as to be the equal of the others on the list, so I'm a little surprised it's there.

(Time War is fabulous and you should go read it now.)

I cannot stress this enough.
posted by uberchet at 1:12 PM on April 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Okay, have a schedule hammered out - starting with the Hugo Nominated Short Stories on Friday, then doing one post a week until 7/31. Club post is here.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:58 PM on April 29, 2020

And the short stories post is up, if anyone wants to read and discuss.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:10 PM on May 1, 2020