2008 Hugos: Miscellaneous Cateories

I've discussed each of the Best Novel nominees in separate posts (here, here, here, here, here) and went through the short fiction earlier today; this is a quick zoom through the remaining categories, hangin' my votes and some of my thought processes out for all the world to see and probably complain about.  I do reserve the right to change my mind here and there when I'm actually casting my ballot, but this is where I am right now.

This whole Hugo series has been a ton of work, but it was a great incentive to read some really good stuff and very useful for making me pull my thoughts together and hopefully vote on a slightly more rational basis in some categories than I normally do.

Two principles I was working on this year:
1. Voting on actual work in 2007, not name recognition/reputation/historical track record
2. Actually voting No Award if I think some nominees simply aren't awardworthy or a category is problematic

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
1. Doctor Who "Blink"
2. Doctor Who "Human Nature" / "Family of Blood"
3. Battlestar Galactica "Razor"
4. Torchwood "Captain Jack Harkness"
5. Star Trek New Voyages "World Enough and Time"

The only one I haven't seen is the Galactica episode, which is placed on the strength of friends consistently telling me how great the show is.  Despite nominating the Torchwood and New Voyages episodes, I don't think they're tops in this company.  Torchwood had stronger episodes, but they were all aired in 2006 and aren't eligible on this year's ballot.

Best Professional Artist
1. Bob Eggleton
2. Stephan Martiniere
3. John Picacio
4. John Harris
5. Shaun Tan
6. Phil Foglio

I think every one of these guys (all guys, hmm) is awardworthy, so this comes down purely to personal preferences in artistic style.  Everyone who is spluttering "Girl Genius! Girl Genius!" has another year to get me hooked; this year I bounced right off it.

Best Professional Editor, Long Form
1. No Award
2. Ginjer Buchanan (Ace/Roc)
3. Lou Anders (Pyr)
4. Beth Meacham (Tor)
5. David G. Hartwell (Tor/Forge)
6. Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor)

I still dislike this category's entire existence and feel it's being voted more on personal popularity, historic reputation, and effective self- and corporate promotion than on actual body of work for 2007.  But if it has to exist, this is the best I can do.  Buchanan and Anders at the top on the strength of their Best Novel nominees.  Hartwell and Nielsen Hayden, both of whom I've voted high in past years, are at the bottom because of Rollback and Off Armageddon Reef, respectively, both of which cried out for some serious editor-fu (starting with a good thump upside the head for the authors in question.)  The Weber thing trumps my pleasure with the Scalzi because there's a good book inside there which some sweet, savage editing could have polished up like a pearl, but didn't.  Meacham in the middle 'cause I have no grounds to place her high or low, not having knowingly read anything she's done this year.  If judging these folks on one (or fewer) book each seems like a dubious method, and I'm not exactly bouncing with joy over it myself, feel free to suggest a better one that doesn't boil down to hearsay or reputation or "but s/he's done great things over the past twenty years and ought to have a Hugo!" or "read ten books from each editor to get a real feel for their output" (which is just not happening).

Best Professional Editor, Short Form
1. Sheila Williams (Asimov's Science Fiction)
2. Gordon Van Gelder (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
3. Ellen Datlow (anthologies)
4. Stanley Schmidt (Analog)
5. Jonathan Strahan (anthologies)

My starting point for this list was that seven of the fifteen short fiction nominees were published in Asimov's and four in F&SF.

Best Fanzine
1. PLOKTA
2. Drink Tank
3. File 770

I'm only voting the ones I've read; I mean nothing bad about the other two nominees.

Best Fan Writer
1. John Scalzi
2. Chris Garcia
3. David Langford
4. Steven H Silver
5. Cheryl Morgan

I could be happy with anyone on this list winning, but I really like Scalzi's writing on Whatever.  David Langford is good, but I'm not as utterly enamored of his writing style as a lot of fandom seems to be.

I don't plan to vote at all in the following categories because I just haven't seen/read enough in them to make any sort of rational comparison:
    Best Related Book
    Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
    Best Semiprozine (I'm tempted to just vote "No Award" here)
    Best Fan Artist
    John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer (not-a-Hugo)

A few other people's thoughts and ballots, for comparison:
Asimov's forum discussion (including Gardner Dozois chiming in)
Nicholas
Karen Burnham

Comments

[Marilee J. Layman]

I think that the reason so many of the short nominees were from Asimov's or F&SF is because that's all that most fans read. I don't read Ellen's new horror anthologies because horror doesn't do anything for me, but I read her new SFF anthologies. I have a number of the Strahan anthologies, too, but I don't read Analog. I'm not sure the number of nominees from those two magazines actually shows that they're the best. But you've voted already, so I'm just nattering.

I've kind of had it with Eggleton, I think I would have rated those like this:

1. Foglio, Tan, Picacio

[Susan de Guardiola]

Editor/Short Form: very possible. So it goes.

Artist: like I said, I think everyone in the category is great, so it really does come down to personal taste.