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(From Usenet to our little backwater, here's the list of nominations
for this year's Hugo awards. I'm guessing that the [www] tag
means the story or related material can be found on the
World Wide Web.)
From: Steven H Silver <shsilver@worldnet.att.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Hugo Nominations
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 12:24:15 GMT
The Hugo Nominations are now on the Chicon website:
Best Novel (334 nominations for 183 novels)
A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold [www] (Baen [www])
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (Avon)
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear [www] (HarperCollins UK; Del Rey)
A Deepness in the Sky [www] by Vernor Vinge (Tor)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling [www]
(Bloomsbury; Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic Press)
Best Novella (191 nominations for 58 novellas)
"The Astronaut From Wyoming" by Adam-Troy Castro and Jerry Oltion
[www] (Analog [www] 7-8/99)
"Forty, Counting Down" by Harry Turtledove (Asimov's [www] 12/99)
"Hunting the Snark" by Mike Resnick [www] (Asimov's [www] 12/99)
"Son Observe the Time" by Kage Baker (Asimov's [www] 5/99)
"The Winds of Marble Arch" by Connie Willis [www] (Asimov's [www]
10-11/99)
Best Novelette (168 nominations for 130 novelettes, six nominees due to
a tie)
"Border Guards" by Greg Egan [www] (Interzone 10/99)
"The Chop Girl" by Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov's [www] 12/99)
"Fossil Games" by Tom Purdom [www] (Asimov's [www] 2/99)
"The Secret History of the Ornithopter" [www] by Jan Lars Jensen
[www] (F&SF [www] 6/99)
"Stellar Harvest" by Eleanor Arnason (Asimov's [www] 4/99)
"1016 to 1" by James Patrick Kelly [www] (Asimov's [www] 6/99)
Best Short Story (189 nominations for 158 short stories)
"Ancient Engines" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's [www] 2/99)
"Hothouse Flowers" by Mike Resnick [www] (Asimov's [www] 10-11/99)
"macs" by Terry Bisson [www] (F&SF [www] 10-11/99)
"Sarajevo" by Nick DiChario [www] (F&SF [www] 3/99)
"Scherzo with Tyrannosaur" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's [www]
7/99)
Best Related Book (167 nominations for 74 related books)
Minicon 34 Restaurant Guide [www] by Karen Cooper and Bruce
Schneier (Rune Press)+
The Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano
(DC Comics/Vertigo [www])
Science Fiction of the 20th Century by Frank M. Robinson
(Collectors Press)
The Science of Discworld [www] by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and
Jack Cohen (Ebury Press)
Spectrum 6: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy
and Arnie Fenner (Underwood)
Best Dramatic Presentation (304 nominations for 106 dramatic
presentations)
Being John Malkovich [www] (Single Cell Pictures/Gramercy
Pictures/Propaganda Films) Directed by Spike Jonze;
Written by Charlie Kaufman
Galaxy Quest [www] (DreamWorks SKG) Directed by Dean Parisot; Story
by David Howard; Screenplay by David
Howard and Robert Gordon
The Iron Giant [www] (Warner Bros. Animation) Directed by Brad
Bird; Book by Ted Hughes; Screenplay by Brad
Bird and Tim McCanlies
The Matrix [www] (Village Roadshow Productions/Groucho II Film
Partnership/Silver Pictures) Directed by Andy and
Larry Wachowski; Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski
The Sixth Sense [www] (Spyglass Entertainment/Hollywood Pictures)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan; Written by
M. Night Shyamalan
Best Professional Editor (203 nominations for 66 editors)
Gardner Dozois (Asimov's Science Fiction [www])
David G. Hartwell [www] (Tor/Forge [www]; Year's Best SF)
Patrick Nielsen Hayden [www] (Tor Books [www]; Starlight)
Stanley Schmidt (Analog Science Fiction and Fact [www])
Gordon Van Gelder (St. Martin's Press; Fantasy & Science Fiction
[www])
Best Professional Artist (196 nominations for 103 artists)
Jim Burns
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola [www]
Don Maitz [www]
Michael Whelan [www]
Best Semiprozine (168 nominations for 38 semiprozines)
Interzone edited by David Pringle
Locus [www] edited by Charles N. Brown
The New York Review of Science Fiction [www] edited by Kathryn
Cramer, Ariel Hamion, David G. Hartwell, and
Kevin Maroney
Science Fiction Chronicle [www] edited by Andrew I. Porter
Speculations [www] edited by Kent Brewster
Best Fanzine (195 nominations for 94 fanzines)
Ansible [www] edited by Dave Langford
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian III
File 770 [www] edited by Mike Glyer
Mimosa [www] edited by Nicki and Richard Lynch
Plokta [www] edited by Alison Scott, Steve Davies, and Mike Scott
Best Fan Writer (191 nominations for 147 fan writers)
Bob Devney [www]
Mike Glyer [www]
Dave Langford [www]
Evelyn C. Leeper [www]
Steven H Silver [www]
Best Fan Artist (164 nominations for 101 fan artists)
Freddie Baer
Brad Foster
Teddy Harvia
Joe Mayhew
Taral Wayne
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (110 nominations for 72
writers) An award for the best new writer whose
first work of science fiction or fantasy appeared during 1998 or 1999 in
a professional publication. Sponsored by Dell
Magazines.
Cory Doctorow [www] (2nd year of eligibility)
Thomas Harlan (1st year of eligibility)
Ellen Klages [www] (2nd year of eligibility)
Kristine Smith [www] (1st year of eligibility)
Shane Tourtellotte [www] (2nd year of eligibility)
--
Steven H Silver
Chicon 2000 Programming Director
2000 Hugo Nominee, Best Fan Writer
Watch for me on Jeopardy! on June 13 (actually, watch the day before so
you can see my opponent.)
http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag
--OAA10325.956345922/netsun2.cl.msu.edu--
19 responses total.
So did *any* of you read any of these nominees? See any of the five nominated films? As was mentioned in Usenet discussion, the surprise in the film nominations is that THE PHANTOM MENACE was *not* nominated.
Doesn't surprise me all that much. I've seen all of the films except "The Iron Giant", and I'd be happy to see any of them win. Novel-wise, I've started Cryptonomicon, and not read any of the others.
I read and hugely enjoyed Cryptonomicon.
I read the Harry Potter book, and liked it pretty much.
I read the Harry Potter book and will be starting Cryptonomicon shortly. I've seen the bulk of the movies though.
I've read "Cryptonomicon", which I highly recommend unless you're allergic to faux-Pynchon, and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", which was as entertaining as Rowling's other two Potter books. I recently started Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky". This puts me *way* ahead of my usual track record with Hugo nominees -- in most recent years I haven't even heard of the nominated works, and often haven't even heard of their authors.
Hey! I've read a Hugo nominee! (Deepness)
I've read all the stories (reading all the sf mags will help with that), Cryptonomicon, Harry Potter, and A Civil Campaign. Seen The Matrix, The Iron Giant, and Galaxy Quest. (I liked the Iron Giant best of those three.)
I guess I've also seen all of the nominated movies, though I would've thought that some of those would've been from before 1999..
From memory: Being John Malkovich - fall '99 Galaxy Quest - Xmas '99 Iron Giant - summer '99 Matrix - spring '99 Sixth Sense - summer '99
As a digression:
What characteristics must a work have to be eligible for a Hugo award?
I ask because although Neal Stephenson's last two major books have
definitely been "science fiction", I'm at a loss to identify which
elements of "Cryptonomicon" qualify it for that category.
With the exception of the minor plot point involving "Van Eck phreaking"
(which is widely believed to be possible, though is probably more
complicated than depicted in the book) I can't remember any parts of
the book which posits any technology not available at the time of the
story action. So what is it that makes "Cryptonomicon" science fiction
(and not historical fiction, or tech thriller, or whatever?)
I should try to get David Bratman back in here, he's administered Hugo Awards. There are objective rules governing the lengths of the text (short story / novella / etc.) and the publication date. And the awards committee would probably insist that anything nominated as a novel actually *be* a written work, and not a film. (Or a comic book -- there was a fuss over "The Watchmen" comic book series way back then, some people wanted to nominate it for one of the story awards.) Maybe they'd even insist on a fictional written work, since there is a non-fiction category. But I'm fairly sure the awards committee is not going to second-guess the nominators on questions of whether or not a work is science-fictional enough. Who are the nominators? All members of the current year's World Science Fiction Convention are eligible to submit nomination ballots, and IIRC the members of the preceding year's convention may nominate but not vote.
I'm here. (occasionally) The Hugo Award rules state that the works nominated must be "science fiction or fantasy", but don't define the terms. I know of no cases where a work of fiction was disallowed because of content, though there have been a few such cases involving publication date, story length, etc. But those are objective matters: the definition of SF is not. As a practical matter, the voting threshold for the fiction categories is sufficiently high that nothing is likely to get on the ballot that the body of Hugo voters won't consider sf or fantasy. (Sometimes a few hard-core Analog types complain about fantasy stories on the ballot, and have to be reminded that fantasy is eligible. No attempt to change the rules is likely to get anywhere, as it would only lead to endless debate on whether a given item is sf or fantasy. How about Anne McCaffrey's Pern stories, for instance? Fantasy in most people's minds, but the early stories were actually published in Analog ...) But what the body of voters consider sf can be rather odd. I've seen critical arguments, for instance, that "Alternate History" isn't sf at all, but a different genre of its own. However, sf writers write it and their efforts are published as sf, so those books will continue to be considered sf. I haven't read _Cryptonomicon_, but certainly anything high-tech flashy by an established sf writer gets a free ticket to be considered sf, even if it doesn't have any advanced technology. And lots of great sf doesn't have any advanced technology: that isn't a sine qua non for sf. There are other categories, though, where definition gets tougher. "Related Book", recently expanded to eliminate this problem, was once called "Non-Fiction Book", and not only were there fusses over whether art books were eligible, there was one case where a science book with no direct connection to sf was ruled ineligible. So some administrators feel willing to step in on such matters. I would not have made that particular ruling, though I respected that administrator's right to judge differently.
Here's a question that's come to mind regarding some of the lower-profile Hugo categories.. Presumably winning a Hugo award can give a novelist's career a big boost. Sales for that novel will probably increase substantially, and publishing future novels will probably be much easier. In the shorter fiction categories the author probably doesn't benefit as directly from the sales boost, but derives similar career benefits.. But what sort of benefit is received by a winner for "Best Dramatic Presentation"? I don't think I've ever seen a movie or videotape advertised as "the 1996 Hugo Award-winning film..", although the same movie might feature a blurb on the poster or video packaging touting the "three thumbs up" rating it received from the Sod City, Nebraska "Daily Plainsman"
I guess anyone who wins a hugo on a short story can write "Hugo Award Winning Author" on their next book. It's probably worth a lot.
Not only do film studios not trumpet "Hugo winner" on their films, it can be extraordinarily difficult to communicate to them that they've been nominated for something, and sometimes it's even hard to get someone to show up and accept the award. One of the reasons "Babylon 5" was so extraordinarily popular among fans is that, whatever else one might want to say about J. Michael Straczynski, he is a man who really appreciates a Hugo when he gets one. This was a refreshing novelty. The publishing pattern of sf being what it is today, the WSFS really ought to cut the fiction categories from 4 to 3 or even 2, and establish two Drama Hugos instead of one: one for films and other stand- alones, and one for series. The current situation of individual tv episodes running against films is awkward and untenable, even when the tv episodes win, but one of whole series running against films would be just as bad. But the knowledge that we'd be taking away a Hugo category from people who appreciate it and giving it to people who mostly don't is one thing that stops this change from happening. Hugos are indeed worth a tremendous amount to fiction writers, both financially and emotionally. I could tell you stories ... but not here.
Grammy award catagories keep on expanding and expanding, just like the music universe.
Those who are influential in determining Hugo Award categories are quite determined to keep the number from expanding. It would only diminish the meaning of the award.
Winners have been posted in item:125.
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