2014 Hugo Nominees - Best Novel

[dansigal]

Well they announced the finalists for the 2014 Hugos today, and the following are up for best novel...

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
Neptune’s Brood, Charles Stross (Ace / Orbit UK)
Parasite, Mira Grant (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles, Larry Correia (Baen Books)
The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books)

Because of an odd rule that basically says that if an entire piece of work, that is released in parts never has any of its parts nominated, the entire piece is eligible for a Hugo in the year the final part comes, the ENTIRE Wheel of Time series was eligible and has been nominated this year. Kinda crazy.

With the exception of Wheel of Time, which I'll get to one day but don't have the time or desire to read in its entirety by the end of August, I'm gonna try to read all the books nominated. Anyone interested in doing the same and using this thread as a discussion?

I just finished Ancillary Justice the other day, which I'll give my non-spoilery thoughts on in another post. I'm excited for Parasite, I really enjoyed Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy. I'm not familiar with Neptune's Brood, which seems to be a space opera of sorts, or Warbound, which looks to be the third book in a Dresdenesque type series that takes place in the 1930's.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

They're also having the Retro Hugo Award for 1939 this year. The nominees for Best Novel are:

Carson of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Galactic Patrol by E.E. Smith
The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

 

[Dream]

Not sure why you didn't keep this a general Hugo thread like last year.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM) (995 ballots)

* Frozen Screenplay by Jennifer Lee; Directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (Walt Disney Studios)
* Gravity Written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón; Directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films; Warner Bros.)
* The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy & Michael Arndt; Directed by Francis Lawrence (Color Force; Lionsgate)
* Iron Man 3 Screenplay by Drew Pearce & Shane Black; Directed by Shane Black (Marvel Studios; DMG Entertainment; Paramount Pictures)
* Pacific Rim Screenplay by Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro; Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney Double Dare You)

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/04/announcing-the-2014-hugo-award-nominees

All of those movies except for PR were huge blockbusters. I'm rooting for Frozen since it was my favorite movie of 2013!

 

[dansigal]

Not sure why you didn't keep this a general Hugo thread like last year.

No reason there can't be one. I was just interested in a thread for people to read and discuss the Best Novel finalists. Kinda like a TrekBBS book club...

 

[theenglish]

Not sure why you didn't keep this a general Hugo thread like last year.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM) (995 ballots)

* Frozen Screenplay by Jennifer Lee; Directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (Walt Disney Studios)
* Gravity Written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón; Directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films; Warner Bros.)
* The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy & Michael Arndt; Directed by Francis Lawrence (Color Force; Lionsgate)
* Iron Man 3 Screenplay by Drew Pearce & Shane Black; Directed by Shane Black (Marvel Studios; DMG Entertainment; Paramount Pictures)
* Pacific Rim Screenplay by Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro; Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney Double Dare You)

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/04/announcing-the-2014-hugo-award-nominees

All of those movies except for PR were huge blockbusters. I'm rooting for Frozen since it was my favorite movie of 2013!

Frozen is probably the best writing of the bunch, but I haven't seen Pacific Rim yet.

Interesting that the entire Wheel of Time series gets nominated. Have any other series won with this "rule"?

 

[dansigal]

Interesting that the entire Wheel of Time series gets nominated. Have any other series won with this "rule"?

I assume you mean Wheel of Time, and no, I think this is the first time this specific rule has been used for a book series (although I think it may have been used for a tv series). My understanding of the rule was that the original purpose was to include stories that had other parts published as short stories in a magazine in prior years or something similar to that. There's been a little bit of controversy, but it does fit the letter of the law, and at the end of the day, something is only a finalist if it gets enough nominations, so even if its a technicality, it's what the people want!

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

A lot of the major series scored at least one nomination for a single entry, so they weren't eligible for a single series nomination such as this one.

 

[Hound of UIster]

They're also having the Retro Hugo Award for 1939 this year. The nominees for Best Novel are:

Carson of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Galactic Patrol by E.E. Smith
The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

Why is all the stuff published in the past always better?

 

[theenglish]

Interesting that the entire Wheel of Time series gets nominated. Have any other series won with this "rule"?

I assume you mean Wheel of Time, and no, I think this is the first time this specific rule has been used for a book series (although I think it may have been used for a tv series). My understanding of the rule was that the original purpose was to include stories that had other parts published as short stories in a magazine in prior years or something similar to that. There's been a little bit of controversy, but it does fit the letter of the law, and at the end of the day, something is only a finalist if it gets enough nominations, so even if its a technicality, it's what the people want!

You read fast, I changed my error almost immediately. Ringworld was the first thing I thought of when trying to think what might have won.

I think it is fine that Wheel of Time is nominated. In fact, I am surprised that none of the series has not won previously.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

They're also having the Retro Hugo Award for 1939 this year. The nominees for Best Novel are:

Carson of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Galactic Patrol by E.E. Smith
The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

Why is all the stuff published in the past always better?

Because most of the shit from the past is long forgotten while the best is mostly remembered.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

There's precedent for the nomination of multiple books for a single Best Novel award, albeit on a much, much smaller scale. Connie Willis was nominated and won Best Novel for her duology of Blackout and All Clear, both published in 2010.

By the way, everyone who buys in and becomes an attending or supporting member of the World Science Fiction Convention gets a Hugo Voter Packet, which is a collection of all of the nominated works in electronic format that the various publishers have seen fit to provide. All nominated works are generally made available, but there was a question as to whether Tor would allow the entire Wheel of Time series to go into the Hugo Voter Packet. They've announced that they are indeed going to do so. That means that a $40 supporting membership (which allows you to vote for the Hugo winners, but not to attend the convention) will include getting the entire WOT series as e-books. That should be a very handy tool to rally WOT fans and strengthen its hand to win the award.

 

[dansigal]

By the way, everyone who buys in and becomes an attending or supporting member of the World Science Fiction Convention gets a Hugo Voter Packet, which is a collection of all of the nominated works in electronic format that the various publishers have seen fit to provide. All nominated works are generally made available, but there was a question as to whether Tor would allow the entire Wheel of Time series to go into the Hugo Voter Packet. They've announced that they are indeed going to do so. That means that a $40 supporting membership (which allows you to vote for the Hugo winners, but not to attend the convention) will include getting the entire WOT series as e-books. That should be a very handy tool to rally WOT fans and strengthen its hand to win the award.

That's pretty damn cool. I may just do that

 

[theenglish]

By the way, everyone who buys in and becomes an attending or supporting member of the World Science Fiction Convention gets a Hugo Voter Packet, which is a collection of all of the nominated works in electronic format that the various publishers have seen fit to provide. All nominated works are generally made available, but there was a question as to whether Tor would allow the entire Wheel of Time series to go into the Hugo Voter Packet. They've announced that they are indeed going to do so. That means that a $40 supporting membership (which allows you to vote for the Hugo winners, but not to attend the convention) will include getting the entire WOT series as e-books. That should be a very handy tool to rally WOT fans and strengthen its hand to win the award.

That's pretty damn cool. I may just do that

That's actually a really good deal. This is a membership for the current year only I assume, but can you get a longer term membership?

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

This is a membership for the current year only I assume, but can you get a longer term membership?

I don't think multi-year memberships are available.

 

[dansigal]

So confession, I have a Kindle and I read a lot on it, but I don't really know how e-versions of books work in other formats. Has anyone ever gotten the voters package before? What format is it in and does anyone know if it's compatible with Kindle?

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

I haven't got the Hugo Voter Packet before, but from what I've read the electronic formats are up to each publisher. A few publishers provide PDFs with DRM, but most provide DRM-free epubs and/or mobi files. Mobi files are formatted for Kindles. You just drop them into your Kindle documents folder. Epubs can be converted to mobi with any number of free conversion apps online.

 

[Brendan Moody]

Yeah, the packet tends to use a variety of formats, and the specifics will depend on what the publisher or other rights-holder provides for a given work. The short fiction is commonly in all major formats, but for novels publishers are frequently unwilling to do anything other than PDF, sometimes with watermarking or password protection. Tor has usually been more flexible, so The Wheel of Time will probably be in several formats, including Kindle-friendly MOBI files. Baen's nominee last year was also in multiple formats, so Warbound may as well. Orbit usually does PDFs, so I wouldn't count on the Mira Grant or the Ann Leckie being in other formats. No idea what Ace will do with the Charles Stross. And of course there's no way to be sure about any of this until the packet is released.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Judging by when the packet was released in the last couple of years, it'll be released in three or four weeks' time.

 

[theenglish]

This is a membership for the current year only I assume, but can you get a longer term membership?

I don't think multi-year memberships are available.

Fine. I am probably an idiot (my wife did in fact tell me that today) but I visited the worldcon and Hugo site and can not find where it states this information.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Fine. I am probably an idiot (my wife did in fact tell me that today) but I visited the worldcon and Hugo site and can not find where it states this information.

Here's the FAQ on the Hugo site and here's their "I Want to Vote" section. And here's the membership section of Loncon 3's website (where WorldCon is being held this year). Click "Buy Standard Membership" if you want to sign up.