Hugo Nominee Recommendations

It's time to list out nomination recommendations for each category for the Hugos. I'm a little late in doing so this year because I'm way behind in my short story reading, and that's not likely to change very soon. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind. So, with that asterisk clearly marked, here are my recommendations for this year:

Astounding Award for Best New Writer

The one name on this list that truly leaps out at me is Ai Jiang. Her book, "I Am Ai," was a prototypical cyberpunk novelette that really impressed me. She's already won the Ignyte Award for her poetry, and been nominated for a Nebula Award and a Locus Award. Naseem Jamnia is also a name which stands out, and who I've mentioned before. Her book The Bruising of Quilwa was a huge hit with critics.

Other writers that stand out for me include Victor Forna, who has an impressive list of writing credits, Thea Guanzon whose novel The Hurricane Wars is a New York Times Bestseller, Thomas D. Lee, who also has a Bestseller to his credit, Joshua Uchenna Omenga, who was featured in the landmark anthology, Black Rising, and Aignen Loren Wilson, who was an Ignyte finalist in 2023.

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

This category always throws me, because I'm less versed in it than any other. But Charlie Jane Anders book, Promises Stronger Than Darkness stands out as the third book in her Unstoppable trilogy. It and Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross were the only two books to be listed in Locus Magazine, Ladybusiness, and Nerds of a Feather, so those two are shoo-ins. 15 other books were listed in Locus/Ladybusiness and Nerds of a Feather/Ladybusiness combined, and it's impossible for me to whittle this down. To Shape A Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, Abeni's Song by P. Djeli Clark, Unraveler by Frances Hardinge, Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim, Venom & Vow by Anna Marie & Elliot McLemore, Painted Devils by Margaret Owen, and A Study In Drowning by Ava Reid were among those potential nominees to be listed in both Nerds of a Feather and Ladybusiness. Alicia Dow's book A Song of Salvation, Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgemon, Where Echoes Die by Courtney Gould, Guardians of the Dawn by S. Jae-Jones, The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson, Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens, Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire, The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix, and The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White were all listed by both Ladybusiness and Locus Magazine. Oddly, the only other high ranking title listed on Goodreads which also was on any of the three main zine/magazine lists was Stolen Heir by Holly Black, which Nerds of a Feather listed. I leave the reader to pick through that huge list for finalists.

Best Game or Interactive Work

A brand new category! Games have long been a source of sci fi and fantasy writing. But what to include?

Without a doubt, Baldur's Gate 3 is a shoo-in. Also to be considered is Cyberpunk: 2077. (It being a first year category, items are eligible from 2022 and 2023.) Due to its immense popularity, I have to include Disney's Dreamlight Valley. (Seriously, my wife fell down that rabbit hole a long time ago!) I'm also including Magic: The Gathering Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings editions. My other picks are Star Trek: Resurgence, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Best Fan Artist

I'm very impressed with the work of Carly A-F. In fact, I'm surprised she isn't a consideration for Best Professional Artist. Marceline 2174 is also quite good. Iain J. Clark, as usual, is under consideration, though I think it best to consider him a professional. It's hard not to be impressed by Raki Sy, though some of her images are rather macabre. And Yuumei also stands out. I mean really stands out! The stylings of Laya Rose make the lists on most fanzines, so she's worth mentioning. And the tiaras of Sarah Felix make her eligible once again.

Best Fan Writer

Paul Weimer. Enough said. Paul Weimer. Nominate him, vote for him. Period. I think it goes beyond saying that a Hugo win for Paul would send a clear, unambiguous signal to China that we won't tolerate our awards being screwed with. Paul is also eligible in categories such as Best Fancast (The Skiffy and Fanty Show) and Best Fanzine (Nerds of a Feather), but this is the category that Paul should win.

That having been said, it's hard not to consider Jason Sanford as well. The bombshell report that was done by him and Chris Barkley is certainly worth considering for a Best Related Work, but that won't be until 2025 in Seattle. Meanwhile, Sanford is eligible for Best Fan Writer this year. He should probably get a nomination. Chris Barkley has recused himself from future Hugo Awards in this category.

Other excellent options here include Allisdair Stuart, Camestros Felapton, and Charles Payseur.

Best Fancast

I do love my sci fi podcasts, and it was so wonderful to see Hugo, Girl! win in Chengdu. But they've recused themselves from further consideration, so they're out. So it seems that this is Octothorpe's year. They really are the best podcast for fannish news out there, and they deserve a nomination, and a win.

There may also be some strong support for The Skiffy and Fanty Show, since Paul Weimer is a regular part of that cast. But in the end, I really think Octothorpe should win out in this category.

Other great podcasts worth considering are Worldbuilding for Masochists, SFF Yeah!, and If This Goes On Don't Panic. One new podcast that caught my attention is the Filk Podcast. Xiran Jay Zhao's TikTok account is also worth considering, especially after she was ruled off the Chengdu nominee list.

I should also mention that Starship Fonzie is eligible, though I hardly expect a nomination.

Best Fanzine

The shortlist hasn't changed much in this category. We have, of course, Black Nerd Problems, as well as Astrolabe, Nerds of a Feather, Lady Business, Unofficial Hugo Bookclub Blog, and Journey Planet. My sleeper hit in this category is The Rec Center, which has been around since 2016. Mike Glyer has permanently recused File770, or it would certainly be on this list.

Best Semiprozine

Every year I evaluate Best Semiprozine by seeing who had the most items make the Locus recommendations list. As usual, Uncanny leads the way, with seven short stories and four novelettes. Clarkesworld also had seven short stories, but only two novelettes. A relatively new publication called The Sunday Morning Transport has emerged as a genre force with six short stories making the Locus list. Strange Horizons had five. khōréō had four. Lightspeed had no short stories but four novelettes made the list. The Deadlands and Beneath Ceaseless Skies came in with three short stories each, with the latter also having two novelettes.

Best Professional Artist

I love this category. Tommy Arnold has come through again with another Tamsyn Muir cover. Dan Dos Santos for his cover of Warrior of the Wind is truly impressive. Sparth made an impression on me with his cover for The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport. Jaris Loke's cover for Jade Shards is truly impressive, and the work of Colleen Doran is also amazing. Galen Dara did a good job on the cover of Uncanny #50.

Best Editor, Short Form

Again, I look to which publications have the most items on the Locus List. So, once again, the duo of Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are my #1 pick for their work in Uncanny magazine. Neil Clarke is once again eligible for Clarkesworld, and deservedly so. Four stories edited by Nisi Shawl were named to the Locus List from the anthology New Suns 2, so she is a worthy candidate. The Sunday Morning Transport has seemingly come out of nowhere to become a force within short fiction, and that means Julian Yap and Fran Wilde (editor and managing editor, respectively) deserve a nomination. Scott H. Andrews deserves consideration for his work in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Aigner Loren Wilson deserves the same for her work in Strange Horizons. A whole team of editors serve khōréō magazine. These are: Zui Ning Chang, Kanika Agrawal, Isabella Kestermann, and Sachiko Ragosta.

Best Editor, Long Form

Normally, this category is a bug-bear. But this year, the people at Ladybusiness have put together a great spreadsheet of eligible nominees. (About damned time that happened!) Otherwise (or, if you wish to contribute to said spreadsheet), one could (and should!) go to to their local library, look at the "new science fiction and fantasy" section (most libraries have one), and just take notes, one by one, as to who the editors of those books are. If you report what you find on the Ladybusiness spreadsheet, you can help out other nominators with their choices as well! (And please do!)

That having been said, the long-form editors that stand out this year are: 1) Lee Harris for his editing of Witch King (Martha Wells), System Collapse (Martha Wells), The Keeper's Six (Kate Elliott), Wild Massive (Scotto Moore), and Until the First Time Again (Sylvan Neuvel). 2) Ruoxi Chen for her editing of Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesch), The Water Outlaws (S.L. Huang), A Power Unbound (Freya Marske), and The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport (Samit Basu). 3) Lindsey Hall for her work on The Terraformers (Annalee Newitz), The First Bright Thing (J.R. Dawson), The Book Eaters (Sunyi Dean), and Thornhedge (T. Kingfisher). 4) Ali Fischer for her work on In the Lives of Puppets (T.J. Klune), Fall of Wrath and Ruin (Jennifer L. Armentrout), Find Him Where You Left Him Dead (Kristin Simons), and Abeni's Song (P. Djeli Clark). 5) William Joseph Roberts deserves consideration due to his high volume of work, including Taming the Night (J.F. Posthumus), Wingless (David M. James), and Battlefield Missouri (Arnold P. Montgomery) among others.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

No shortage of candidates, here! 2023 was a bang-up year for television shows and that means quite a mess when it comes to nominations. But here's my crack at it:

Beyond doubt, the television episode of the year was the Black Mirror episode, Joan is Awful. Holy cats! What an amazing show Black Mirror has been, and yet that one episode topped them all. The third episode of HBO's The Last of Us, Long, Long Time, left many viewers clinging to their Kleenex boxes. After that, there are a bevvy of possibilities. For Star Trek alone, what a cornucopia! How about the final episode of Star Trek: Picard, Season 3, The Last Generation? Or perhaps the episode from Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 4, Ep. 2, I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Flee? (I got my wife a plush Moopsie for Christmas!) Or Ep. 1, Twovix? For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, at least three episodes deserve consideration: The crossover episode with Lower Decks, Ep. 7, Those Old Scientists, the romantic episode between La'an Noonyan Singh and Captain Kirk, Ep. 3, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and, of course, the musical Ep. 9, Subspace Rhapsody. For Star Wars there was no shortage of options, either. Any of the episodes from The Mandalorian Season 3 would do. Also any episodes from Season 2 of The Bad Batch. Or how about the debut of Ahsoka? It's hard to leave out the finale from that show. For Doctor Who, we had no less than 3 Christmas specials, including The Giggle. And The Church on Ruby Road featured the debut of Ncuti Gatwa as the 14th/15th Doctor (I think it's technically the 15th, right?)

Also, let's not forget Apple TV's dominance of science fiction. This past year saw not only another winning season of For All Mankind, but also the debut of Silo, starring Rebecca Fergusen. Any of those episodes is worth considering.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long  Form

It's possible to consider the entire season of a TV show in this category, but for brevity, I will leave that out. Beyond doubt, the biggest sci fi hit this past year was Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. After that, the cream of the crop was Poor Things, Godzilla Minus One, and They Cloned Tyrone. The next tier after that would include The Creator, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, The Marvels, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

The big summer blockbusters of Barbie and Oppenheimer may also be worth considering. Oppenheimer isn't technically sci fi, but is very sci fi adjacent. By way of comparison, it is similar to Apollo 13, and that film won a Hugo in this category.

Not worth considering is Avatar: The Way of Water. A triumph of cinematography, yes, but it featured poor writing.

Best Related Work

Beyond a doubt, the big standout in this category from last year is Patrick Stewart's memoir, Making It So. It's a delightful read that takes one through Stewart's entire career, largely dealing with his entire career, but also going into some detail regarding his time on the set with Dune (the David Lynch version) and Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

After that, pickings get rather slim. One item which stands out is Being Michael Resnick by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, collecting various essays and works of Resnick's. (The title is a rip on a book Swanwick put together years ago called Being Gardner Dozois.) Follow Me: Religion and Fantasy in Science Fiction is an assembly of papers by various authors dealing with the intersection of faith and SF, edited by Francesca T. Barbini. Hither Came Conan, edited by Jason M. Waltz, is a collection of essays examining each of the 21 original Conan stories, plus 1 of the story fragments from Robert E. Howard, who founded the franchise. Julian Lucas' July article in The New Yorker, How Samuel R. Delany Reimagined Sci-Fi, Sex, and the City, is worthy of consideration. The Spice Must Flow: The Story of Dune, from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies by Ryan Britt is also worthy. Writing The Future: Essays on Crafting Science Fiction is a collection of essays on the genre writing craft, edited by Dan Coxen and Richard Hirst. I take a personal interest in Owning the Unknown: A Science Fiction Writer Explores Atheism, Agnosticism, and the Idea of God by Robert Charles Wilson.

Best Graphic Story or Comic

This category always throws me, and I'm forever trying to catch up with what's new and great in the world of comic books. (Also, I'm obsessed with local content creators, so I'm frequently off the beaten path.) But some items look interesting from this past year to me. Top of the list, The Expanse: Dragon Tooth vol. 1, written by Andy Diggle, artwork by Rubin, Raul Angulo, and Christian Ward, is my favorite, in large part because I'm a big fan of anything having to do with The Expanse. Wonder Woman: Historia, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, artwork by Gene Ha, Phil Jimenez, and Nicola Scott, looks very intriguing. Also, The Witcher: The Lesser Evil, written by Andrzej Sapkowski and Jacek Rembiś, artwork by Adam Gorham, Patricio Delpeche, and Kai Carpenter, looks like a very fine piece of work. Batman: One Bad Day: Catwoman, written by G. Willow Wilson, artwork by Jamie McKelvie, caught my attention. Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny written by Tim Seeley, has impressive artwork by Eddie Nunez. Norse Mythology I, Vol. 3 is written by Neil Gaiman, so you know it's good, and the artwork by P. Craig Russell looks good as well.

Best Series

Incredibly, Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series, which is eligible thanks to her 2023 book Translation State, has never been nominated for Best Series. This is because the award has only existed since 2017, and the original Radch trilogy ended in 2016. So, we have a chance to rectify that this year! The Unstoppable series by Charlie Jane Anders is, I think, a given. So is the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown (Lightbringer). The InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire has been mentioned in multiple lists. And Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle is definitely worth considering. Don't forget about Adrian Tchaikovksy's Children of Time series.

Best Short Story

Of the short stories I liked this year, I suppose my favorite is How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub by P. Djeli Clark (Uncanny). It was dark, witty, and fun. A Soul In The World by Charlie Jane Anders (Uncanny) was outstanding. I really liked Tuesday, June 13, at the South Valley Time Loop Support Group by Heather Kamins (Escape Pod). I also liked Like Stars Daring to Shine by Somto Ihezue (Escape Pod).

Best Novelette

I Am Ai, by Ai Jiang was my favorite from last year, and not just because it came from Shortwave Publishing. It was a great cyberpunk story, and quite compelling. One Man's Treasure by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny) was interesting. Super Max by Daniel H. Wilson (Uncanny) was also quite good. #buttonsinweirdplaces by Simon Kewin (Escape Pod) was great. The Year Without Sunshine by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny) was a nice depiction of cooperation under duress.

Best Novella

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo is, I think, a given. So is Linghun by Ai Jiang. I like To Sail Beyond the Botnet by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld). Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher deserves consideration, as does And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Lastly, I include Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire. It is #8 in a series, and I'm unlikely to get through the first 7 books in time, but it has strong reviews and a loyal following.

Best Novel

Everyone's favorite category. Starter Villain by John Scalzi is my fave. The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is a shoo-in, as is Translation State by Ann Leckie. Him by Geoff Ryman sounds intriguing. Children of Memory (Children of Time #3) by Adrian Tchaikovsky is almost a given. And lastly, Witch King by Martha Wells is worth a nomination here as well. I would personally like to see Cory Doctorow receive a nomination for his book, Red Team Blues. 

Not worth considering is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros. I hated it. It's over the top soft-core porn with a main character who makes no sense and a setting that makes even less sense. Also not worth considering is The Road to Roswell, by the otherwise amazing Connie Willis. 99.9% of the book is great, but that damned ending!