Hugo nominations are out

[tpi]

I didn't see them posted here yet - so here are the main categories:

Best Novel
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
(HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)
Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor; Analog 10/06-1/07)
The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor)
Halting State by Charles Stross (Ace)

Best Novella
“The Fountain of Age” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 7/07)
“Recovering Apollo 8” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
(Asimov’s 2/07)
“Stars Seen Through Stone” by Lucius Shepard (F&SF
7/07)
“All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s
12/07, Subterranean Press)
“Memorare” by Gene Wolfe (F&SF 4/07)

Best Novelette
The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics” by
Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea, ed. John Klima,
Bantam)
“The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang
(Subterranean Press, F&SF Sept. 2007)
“Dark Integers” by Greg Egan (Asimov’s 10/07)
“Glory” by Greg Egan (The New Space Opera, ed.
Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan,
HarperCollins/Eos)
“Finisterra” by David Moles (F&SF 12/07)


Best Short Story
“Last Contact” by Stephen Baxter (The Solaris Book of
New Science Fiction, ed. George Mann, Solaris
Books)
“Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 6/07)
“Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” by Ken MacLeod (The New
Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan
Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)
“Distant Replay” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 4/07)
“A Small Room in Koboldtown” by Michael Swanwick
(Asimov’s 4/07, The Dog Said Bow-Wow, Tachyon)


Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Enchanted Written by Bill Kelly Directed by Kevin Lima
(Walt Disney Pictures)
The Golden Compass Written by Chris Weitz Based on
the novel by Philip Pullman Directed by Chris Weitz
(New Line Cinema)
Heroes, Season 1 Created by Tim Kring (NBC Universal
Television and Tailwind Productions Written by Tim
Kring, Jeph Loeb, Bryan Fuller, Michael Green,
Natalie Chaidez, Jesse Alexander, Adam Armus, Aron
Eli Coleite, Joe Pokaski, Christopher Zatta, Chuck
Kim. Directed by David Semel, Allan Arkush, Greg
Beeman, Ernest R. Dickerson, Paul Shapiro, Donna
Deitch, Paul A. Edwards, John Badham, Terrence
O'Hara, Jeannot Szwarc, Roxann Dawson, Kevin
Bray, Adam Kane
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Written by
Michael Goldenberg Based on the novel by
J.K. Rowling Directed by David Yates (Warner Bros.)
Stardust Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn
Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman Directed
by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures)


Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Battlestar Galactica “Razor” Written by Michael Taylor
Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá and Wayne Rose
(Sci Fi Channel) (televised version, not DVD)
Doctor Who “Blink” Written by Stephen Moffat Directed
by Hettie Macdonald (BBC)
Doctor Who “Human Nature” / “Family of Blood” Written
by Paul Cornell Directed by Charles Palmer (BBC)
Star Trek New Voyages “World Enough and Time”
Written by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree
Directed by Marc Scott Zicree (Cawley Entertainment
Co. and The Magic Time Co.)
Torchwood “Captain Jack Harkness” Written by
Catherine Tregenna Directed by Ashley Way (BBC
Wales)

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Enchanted Written by Bill Kelly Directed by Kevin Lima
(Walt Disney Pictures)

Heroes, Season 1 Created by Tim Kring (NBC Universal
Television and Tailwind Productions Written by Tim
Kring, et al


Stardust Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn
Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman Directed
by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures)

I'm usually far behind and out of touch, so I was surprised to see three nominees that I was actually familiar with.  Stardust (which my 5-year-old keeps asking to watch again, even though we sent back the NetFlix disc weeks ago) was excellent, and I was deeply hooked by Heroes.

But, here's a shocker:  I really enjoyed Enchanted.  Sure, it was schmaltzy Disney fare, but it was satirizing schmaltzy Disney fare, so... it worked.  The plot twists were expected (as in, "I know there's a plot twist coming") but surprising (as in "Whoa... I didn't expect THAT"), and the great musical showstopper in Central Park was brilliant.

Of course, the music was by Alan Mencken, who also did Little Mermaid and Little Shop of Horrors, so I was pretty much predestined to like that much of the film.  But I somehow missed his name in the opening credits and spent the whole movie thinking, "Wow, this music really sounds like Little Mermaid; I wonder if they did that on purpose?"

Oh, and the kids liked it, too. 

[Heradel]

Not really sure who to go for in the short form dramatic presentation — except to eliminate the New Voyages. I guess I have to go for Razor, but I'd have thought it would go in long-form.

I don't really agree with putting Heroes in long-form, it's serial, but... well, it just seems like any series that has direct continuity over a few episodes could qualify.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Not really sure who to go for in the short form dramatic presentation — except to eliminate the New Voyages. I guess I have to go for Razor, but I'd have thought it would go in long-form.

I don't really agree with putting Heroes in long-form, it's serial, but... well, it just seems like any series that has direct continuity over a few episodes could qualify.

Yeah, that one in particular fits into Long Form, as far as this obsessive loser who spent four solid days watching the episodes back-to-back is concerned.   

[CammoBlammo]

I don't exactly know how the Hugo's work, but I find it a little odd that there don't seem to be any Escape Pod pieces in there. Is podcast fiction outside the award's gambit? Or is it because most of the stories read on EP have been previously published?

Showstoppers, both. But if EP is the second largest short sc-fi market out there, I'd expect to see a little attention!

[Heradel]

But, here's a shocker:  I really enjoyed Enchanted.  Sure, it was schmaltzy Disney fare, but it was satirizing schmaltzy Disney fare, so... it worked.  The plot twists were expected (as in, "I know there's a plot twist coming") but surprising (as in "Whoa... I didn't expect THAT"), and the great musical showstopper in Central Park was brilliant.

I liked it too, though I thought the animation was a little off considering what I'm used to in that department.

[eytanz]

I don't exactly know how the Hugo's work, but I find it a little odd that there don't seem to be any Escape Pod pieces in there. Is podcast fiction outside the award's gambit? Or is it because most of the stories read on EP have been previously published?

I think it's the latter; specifically, I think the first publication needs to be in 2007 to qualify which rules out a lot of EP episodes.

And also, Hugos are nominated by Worldcon members. EP has a very large audience, but I'd wager that a large chunk of this audience is comprised of non-Worldcon members (I know I'm in that demographic), while Worldcon members probably comrpise a larger chunk of the pen&ink SF magazine publications. That's partially because EP/podcasting is a new media, so it takes time for it to establish itself. If EP continues its current trajectory of success for the next few years, more Worldcon members will join EP and more EP members will join Worldcon so this may change.

And there are other factors, such as convenience - while podcasts have many advantages, if I want to remind myself of my favorite stories of last year, it's a lot easier and faster to thumb back through print magazines than to re-download and listen to old podcasts.

Besides, if stories that were already on EP would get nominated for Hugos, we'd lose out on the fun tradition of having the Hugo nominees played on EP before Worldcon.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

And there are other factors, such as convenience - while podcasts have many advantages, if I want to remind myself of my favorite stories of last year, it's a lot easier and faster to thumb back through print magazines than to re-download and listen to old podcasts.

That could change... not only are all the episode posts archived on the main site, but Deflective has suggested doing this: http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=1426.0

[eytanz]

And there are other factors, such as convenience - while podcasts have many advantages, if I want to remind myself of my favorite stories of last year, it's a lot easier and faster to thumb back through print magazines than to re-download and listen to old podcasts.

That could change... not only are all the episode posts archived on the main site, but Deflective has suggested doing this: http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=1426.0

It's not finding the episodes that's the problem. It's the difficulty of giving them a quick re-read/listen.

One of the advantages of written media over audio is that you can read it in your own pace. If I really liked a story, but I've forgotten the details, I can skim it in five minutes and jog my memory. And I don't need to do it linearly; I can look over a page as a whole and key in on specific words, or read backwards, or re-read the same passage. With an EP episode, I can at best skip around randomly on my iPod, or re-listen to the part I just read if I remember how long it was. If I had a player with more options I could maybe do it in a bit easier/more controlled fashion, and maybe even speed up the story, but A - most listeners don't have such players, and B - it's still nowhere as convenient as looking at a page.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

And there are other factors, such as convenience - while podcasts have many advantages, if I want to remind myself of my favorite stories of last year, it's a lot easier and faster to thumb back through print magazines than to re-download and listen to old podcasts.

That could change... not only are all the episode posts archived on the main site, but Deflective has suggested doing this: http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=1426.0

It's not finding the episodes that's the problem. It's the difficulty of giving them a quick re-read/listen.

One of the advantages of written media over audio is that you can read it in your own pace. If I really liked a story, but I've forgotten the details, I can skim it in five minutes and jog my memory. And I don't need to do it linearly; I can look over a page as a whole and key in on specific words, or read backwards, or re-read the same passage. With an EP episode, I can at best skip around randomly on my iPod, or re-listen to the part I just read if I remember how long it was. If I had a player with more options I could maybe do it in a bit easier/more controlled fashion, and maybe even speed up the story, but A - most listeners don't have such players, and B - it's still nowhere as convenient as looking at a page.

Ah... touche!

But, with Creative Commons becoming more prominent, combined with the rudimentary (but rapidly improving) speech-to-text tools coming out, and the marvelous things that search engines can do... I forsee a day when we can murmur thoughtfully to our omnipresent cloud of swarm-networked nano-processors, "What was that one Escape Pod story with the flying kid, his grandfather, the dinosaur and the Pooh bear robot?"  And our answer will instantly appear in whatever format we like!

Or we'll be able to call out, "Computer; playback EP056, time index 78453.2" like they do in real life.  I mean, on Star Trek. 

[DKT]

I don't exactly know how the Hugo's work, but I find it a little odd that there don't seem to be any Escape Pod pieces in there. Is podcast fiction outside the award's gambit? Or is it because most of the stories read on EP have been previously published?

Showstoppers, both. But if EP is the second largest short sc-fi market out there, I'd expect to see a little attention!

Sometimes I wish EP ran more original stuff for this reason.  I think a lot of the stuff on EP that is reprinted usually doesn't qualify for a Hugo because of when it was originally printed, but I could be wrong.  And also, a lot of my favorites from EP I probably would have never heard of if EP didn't run so many reprints.

However, I am surprised that EP isn't nominated for best semi-pro zine.  But it could also have something to do with the WorldCon membership demographics eytanz mentioned.

[wakela]

I don't exactly know how the Hugo's work, but I find it a little odd that there don't seem to be any Escape Pod pieces in there. Is podcast fiction outside the award's gambit? Or is it because most of the stories read on EP have been previously published?

Showstoppers, both. But if EP is the second largest short sc-fi market out there, I'd expect to see a little attention!

I was a first timer on the Worldcon committee last year, and I asked about adding a Best Podcast category to the Hugos.  The long timer I talked to rolled his eyes and said, "No way.  There are too many categories as it is.  Podcasts fall under Dramatic Presentation."  I said, "So some guy by himself in his basement has to compete with Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica?" He shrugged.  Now, I know it's not up to this guy.  If I were really gung ho I could have gone to the big meeting and submitted it to vote.  Ironically, being a committee member meant I was too busy at the convention to actually attend any meetings.  My sense of the core members is that they are the same folks who've been doing it for 20 years, and they tend to be an older crowd.  So yeah, I would say they are less inclined to be podcast listeners. 

It seems like Dragon Con is the convention for the young hipsters.