Year: 2010

2010 Voter Packet Available

~ admin ~ 2 Comments

Aussiecon 4 has announced the availability of the 2010 Hugo Award Voter Packet. The Packet, available to all registered Hugo Award voters, contains electronic copies of sample work in most of the award categories. In particular, for the first time ever the 2010 packet contains complete copies of all works in the four written fiction categories. The material is mostly in PDF format. A full list of the contents is available in Aussiecon 4’s press release.

If you are already an Aussiecon 4 member then an email explaining how to obtain your copy of the Packet will be on its way to you soon.

If you are not yet a member of Aussiecon 4, all you need in order to access the Packet is a Supporting Membership. The prices are as follows: AU$70, US$50, CA$50, £25, €35, ¥4,900, NZ$90. You can buy memberships online here. A supporting membership of Aussiecon 4 will give you the right to vote in the final ballot of the 2010 Hugo Awards, and nominate in the 2011 Hugo Awards. The deadline for voting in this year’s final ballot is 31 July 2010 23:59 PDT. You’ll want to sign up well before then because there’s a lot of reading material in that Packet.

A Little Data

~ admin ~ 1 Comment

As part of the nominee announcement event, Aussiecon 4’s Hugo Award Administrator, Vincent Docherty, presented some slides with voting data. The following two are quite interesting.

Nominating ballot trends

This chart shows the number of nominating ballots received in recent years. Aussiecon 4 has done very well to set a new record for participation and significantly exceeding the performance of previous Australian Worldcons (marked A1 – A3).

Nominating ballot trends

This chart shows where voters came from, sorted by postal address. As usual, the majority of voters came from the US (there are a lot of science fiction fans in America). Canada and Australia / New Zealand also produced significant numbers. In all ballots were received from fans in twenty different countries.

Those of you wanting detailed data on the nominating ballots, including the lists of runners up, will have to wait. These numbers are never revealed until after the winners have been announced at Worldcon.

2010 Hugo Award Nominees – Details

~ admin ~ 67 Comments

Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, has announced the ballot for the 2010 Hugo Awards.

Best Novel
(699 Ballots)

  • Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
  • The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
  • Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
  • Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
  • Wake, Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
  • The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Best Novella
(375 Ballots)

  • “Act One”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
  • The God Engines, John Scalzi (Subterranean)
  • “Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace, Orbit)
  • Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow (Tachyon)
  • “Vishnu at the Cat Circus”, Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days; Pyr, Gollancz)
  • The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)

Best Novelette
(402 Ballots)

  • “Eros, Philia, Agape”, Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
  • The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos)
  • “It Takes Two”, Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three; Night Shade Books)
  • “One of Our Bastards is Missing”, Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three; Solaris)
  • “Overtime”, Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
  • “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”, Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

Best Short Story
(432 Ballots)

  • “The Bride of Frankenstein”, Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 12/09)
  • “Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
  • “The Moment”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints; Hadley Rille Books)
  • “Non-Zero Probabilities”, N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
  • “Spar”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

Best Related Book
(259 Ballots)

  • Canary Fever: Reviews, John Clute (Beccon)
  • Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees, Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
  • The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children’s and Teens’ Science Fiction, Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
  • On Joanna Russ, Farah Mendlesohn (ed.) (Wesleyan)
  • The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms, Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
  • This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)

Best Graphic Story
(221 Ballots)

  • Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
  • Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
  • Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
  • Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
  • Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
(541 Ballots)

  • Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
  • District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
  • Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
  • Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
  • Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
(282 Ballots)

  • Doctor Who: “The Next Doctor” Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
  • Doctor Who: “Planet of the Dead” Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
  • Doctor Who: “The Waters of Mars” Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
  • Dollhouse: “Epitaph 1” Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
  • FlashForward: “No More Good Days” Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

Best Editor, Long Form
(289 Ballots)

  • Lou Anders
  • Ginjer Buchanan
  • Liz Gorinsky
  • Patrick Nielsen Hayden
  • Juliet Ulman

Best Editor, Short Form
(419 Ballots)

  • Ellen Datlow
  • Stanley Schmidt
  • Jonathan Strahan
  • Gordon Van Gelder
  • Sheila Williams

Best Professional Artist
(327 Ballots)

  • Bob Eggleton
  • Stephan Martiniere
  • John Picacio
  • Daniel Dos Santos
  • Shaun Tan

Best Semiprozine
(377 Ballots)

  • Ansible edited by David Langford
  • Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
  • Interzone edited by Andy Cox
  • Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
  • Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fan Writer
(319 Ballots)

  • Claire Brialey
  • Christopher J Garcia
  • James Nicoll
  • Lloyd Penney
  • Frederik Pohl

Best Fanzine
(298 Ballots)

  • Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
  • Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
  • CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
  • Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
  • File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
  • StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith

Best Fan Artist
(199 Ballots)

  • Brad W. Foster
  • Dave Howell
  • Sue Mason
  • Steve Stiles
  • Taral Wayne

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
(356 Ballots)

  • Saladin Ahmed
  • Gail Carriger
  • Felix Gilman *
  • Seanan McGuire
  • Lezli Robyn *

*(Second year of eligibility)

A total of 864 nomination ballots were cast.

Nominations Announcement Schedule

~ admin ~ 1 Comment

From the Aussiecon 4 news feed:

Aussiecon 4 received a record number of nominations for the 2010 Hugo Awards: 864, up from 799 nomination ballots at Anticipation in 2009 and 483 at Denvention 3 in 2008. This year’s Hugo Award nominations will be announced 22:00 BST, Easter Sunday 4 April, at Odyssey 2010, this year’s Eastercon, and covered live on the Aussiecon 4 Twitter feed. Balloting for the Hugo Awards will commence thereafter and will conclude on 31 July at midnight, US PDT. The Hugo Awards Ceremony will be held at Aussiecon 4 in Melbourne on Sunday, 5 September 2010.

You can find the Aussiecon 4 Twitter feed here.

For further details about the announcement event, see the Eastercon web site.

Nomination Eligibility Deadline Looms

~ admin

If you want to participate in the nominations stage of this year’s Hugo Awards, and you were not a member of the 2009 Worldcon in Montréal, then you must purchase at least a Supporting Membership in this year’s Worldcon by January 31st.

Note that this is not the deadline for submitting nominations, it is just the deadline for securing eligibility to vote. That’s set much earlier to allow time for your membership to be processed, and for ballot papers to be mailed to anyone who does not wish to vote online.

This year’s Worldcon, Aussiecon 4, takes place in Melbourne, Australia in September. It is not necessary to buy an Attending Membership, or travel to Australia, in order to vote in the Hugo Awards. All you need is a Supporting Membership. Prices for these are: AU$70, US$50, CA$50, £25, €35 or ¥4,900. Further details, including online payment, can be found here.

A Blast from the Past

~ admin

In 1979 Worldcon was held in Brighton, England, and the BBC sent along a film crew. They were making a series of programs, Time out of Mind, about science fiction writers, and Worldcon was a good place to get footage. The final program in the series ended up dedicated entirely to the convention, and culminated in a brief segment from the Hugo Award ceremony where we see Vonda N. McIntyre receive her trophy for Dreamsnake.

As the series dates back to 1979, little has been seen of it for a long time. However, one enterprising British fan, Arnold Akien, did record it on a very early VHS machine, and that video has found its way to us. Here, then, is a brief moment from the history of the Hugo Awards.

Amongst the other luminaries present at the convention were Christopher Reeve, who accepted the Hugo Award for Superman. A young British fan called Dave Langford received his first two Hugo Award nominations that year, but he did not win in either category. A full list of the 1979 winners can be found on this site.