As the voting deadline approaches, I find myself rushing to finish one book, but have otherwise read what I want to read and pretty much know how my ballot will shake out. I’m pretty much only voting in the fiction categories, avoiding commentary and zine categories like the plague. I might take a look at the artist stuff in the voters packet, but for now, this is what I’ve got:
Best Novel:
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Ken Liu translator) [My Review]
- Skin Game, by Jim Butcher [Tentative, review forthcoming]
- The Dark Between the Stars, by Kevin J. Anderson [My Review]
- Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie [My Review]
- The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison [My Review]
The only caveat here is that I have not finished Skin Game. I will definitely finish before the voting deadline, but even halfway through, I think I know where I’m falling on it (in short, I have a soft spot for heist stories, and this one is doing a reasonable job thus far). For the most part, I’m not tremendously excited by this lineup, but I don’t see a need to deploy No Award here either.
Predicted Winner:The Three-Body Problem (It’s not on the Puppy ballots, so it’s acceptable for people to vote on it, but the Puppies seem to like it too, so I think it’s in good shape)
Best Novella:
- One Bright Star to Guide Them, by John C. Wright
- Big Boys Don’t Cry by Tom Kratman
- “Flow”, by Arlan Andrews, Sr.
- No Award
- “The Plural of Helen of Troy”, by John C. Wright
See My Reviews for more details. Left off the ballot is “Pale Realms of Shade”, also by John C. Wright, because having two nominated stories on the ballot is probably enough. Depending on my mood, I may remove “The Plural of Helen of Troy” as well, but it’s aged better in my head than I thought it would. It’s still weird that Wright has 3 stories in this one category. My only deployment of No Award this year. I tend to go light on that sort of thing, but it seems like the rest of fandom is throwing it around with reckless abandon. There’s a decent chance that all the short fiction categories will end up No Award. If that happens, I might just have to tune out entirely. This controversy is getting old.
Predicted Winner: Big Boys Don’t Cry (though No Award is a strong contender this year, because controversy)
Best Novelette:
- “The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale”, by Rajnar Vajra
- “Championship B’tok”, by Edward M. Lerner
- “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium”, by Gray Rinehart
- “The Journeyman: In the Stone House”, by Michael F. Flynn
- “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
See My Reviews for more details. All nominees listed, no need to deploy No Award.
Predicted Winner: “The Day the World Turned Upside Down” (though No Award is a strong contender this year, because controversy)
Best Short Story:
- Totaled, by Kary English
- Turncoat, by Steve Rzasa
- On a Spiritual Plain, by Lou Antonelli
- A Single Samurai by Steven Diamond
- The Parliament of Beasts and Birds by John C. Wright
See My Reviews for more details. All nominees listed, no need to deploy No Award.
Predicted Winner: Totaled (though No Award is a strong contender this year, because controversy)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form:
- The Lego Movie
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Interstellar
See my recap for more details. All nominees listed, no need to deploy No Award.
Predicted Winner: The Lego Movie
So there you have it. Not a bad slate overall, and I actually enjoyed it slightly more than last year’s slate. What I did not enjoy was all the whinging about Puppies or Noah Ward and so on. Fingers crossed that next year won’t be quite so contentious. With the likelyhood that No Award will win some categories this year, I don’t see that happening, nor do I see the vitriol subsiding (heck, it hasn’t really subsided yet to begin with). I may just end up bailing on the whole enterprise next year and just read stuff I like. What a novel idea.