The Campbell award is open to the best new writer, and is judged over their output regardless of length or quantity. Usually, the main thing to comment on is that it is not really a Hugo, but the interesting wrinkle of the Campbell award this year is that you can be eligible for it twice.
Category: Project
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2019 – Novella
Works in the Hugo Novella category are almost always short novels (17500-40000 words).I feel like this category has undergone a bit of a renaissance with digital publishing…
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2019 – Short Story
I like short stories to be self-contained: a good idea or a complete story. As such I often gravitate to stories that are focused on doing one thing well. It also means that I tend to prefer vignettes, where Hugo short stories can be surprisingly long (7500 words or less).
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2019 – Introduction
This might be the best I’ve been prepared for evaluating the Hugos since I started doing this a few years ago…With a bit of effort, I might actually be able to get through all of the fiction categories.
2018 books in review
This year sucked…for me and mine. Between an extremely sick family member and finishing out my career, I had a lot of trouble concentrating on reading, and relied instead on Anime as my primary escape method. In the end I read 35 books probably the fewest since I reached double digits in age, though I feel I should get extra credit for reading the three Stormlight archive novels (~3300 pages across three books). Fortunately, while not a year of classics, I enjoyed most of the books I actually managed to read.
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – Site Selection Voting
Hi, I’ve covered all my ballots, so time for a personal plea. I’m based in Brisbane, but I did most of my growing up in Wellington, New Zealand. At this years Worldcon, site selection voting will occur for Worldcon 78 in 2020, and Wellington is the only venue on the ballot. However, it is theoretically […]
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
Since I managed to see four of the nominees in this category in my normal watching habits, fitting USS Callister and a short track didn’t seem like much of an ask. It’s also worth noting that I nominated three things in this category: Badwater from Alice Isn’t Dead, Michael’s Gambit and Dance Dance Resolution from The Good Place. Given one of these got nominated, it’s clearly going to be top of my list, right?
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 -Graphic Story
This year the graphic story category returns to an sff focus after last year’s slate dominated by Avengers. Previewing the category, we have sequels to three comics I really liked (Bitch Planet, Monstress, and Saga), one sequel to a comic I thought was OK (Paper Girls), and two new entrants (including our only superhero entry written by an author whose previous Hugo nominee I rather liked).
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
This is the award for best new writer, regardless of output length (or quantity), and year after year it ends up my favourite category by delivering works that I think are better than any of the nominees in the main ballot. This year I will be thwarted however, as the three shorter pieces in this category are all in regular competition. On the upside, this makes this category an easy ask, as I’ve also already read Under the Pendulum Sun, leaving me with just three novels to cover.
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – Novella
Novellas are almost exclusively short novels, self contained and fully fleshed out. I was expecting good things given that one is a sequel to a novella I liked last year (A Heart Shaped Door), another by an author I liked last year (Sarah Gailey), and a third is the sequel to a 2016 winner (Binti).