As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

The Hugo Awards 2016 and beyond

13940414244

Posts

  • tapeslingertapeslinger Space Unicorn Slush Ranger Social Justice Rebel ScumRegistered User regular
    Update to confirm that MRK is coming on board to de-snafu as best possible:

  • EmperorSethEmperorSeth Registered User regular
    As a fan of Writing Excuses currently binge-listening the archive, it's a relief to know they ended up being a group of classy people.

    You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Isn't there a best multimedia work category?

    Fencingsax on
  • MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    I'm a huge fan of Murderbot and Martha Wells generally, so I was also stoked to see her win for Best Novella! Though that whole list was strong -- Black Tides of of Heaven is <3

    Steam/LoL: Jericho89
  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Isn't there a best multimedia work category?

    Not really. The Dramatic Presentations can kinda fall there, but usually those are just used for TV and movies. Graphic Story could be online instead of a published graphic novel - XKCD won that once.

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    I'm wholly confident that if I looked I would find a Vox Day article about how this was actually an 11th dimensional chess victory over the stupid SJWs.

    But I won't bother looking.

  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    There were a few of them proclaiming the death of science fiction now that white men aren't allowed to be fans or something similarly low-wattage, but I think at this point they're mostly restricting themselves to the traditional Twitter echochambers.

    I kind of enjoy how his crowd tantrummed itself into complete irrelevance while simultaneously probably managing to make the Hugos considerably more interesting, albeit in a way that lines up with VD's darkest nightmares.

  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Isn't there a best multimedia work category?

    Not really. The Dramatic Presentations can kinda fall there, but usually those are just used for TV and movies. Graphic Story could be online instead of a published graphic novel - XKCD won that once.

    Huh. I thought 17776 was nominated for something.

    Wishful thinking, I guess.

  • AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Isn't there a best multimedia work category?

    Not really. The Dramatic Presentations can kinda fall there, but usually those are just used for TV and movies. Graphic Story could be online instead of a published graphic novel - XKCD won that once.

    Huh. I thought 17776 was nominated for something.

    Wishful thinking, I guess.

    iirc there wasn't a concerted nomination campaign so the votes feel across several categories and it didn't make the ballot on any

    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    Yeah, the attempt was there but most of the categories had some pretty terrifying competition anyway, so I'm not sure what kind of mileage it would have gotten.

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Isn't there a best multimedia work category?

    Not really. The Dramatic Presentations can kinda fall there, but usually those are just used for TV and movies. Graphic Story could be online instead of a published graphic novel - XKCD won that once.

    Huh. I thought 17776 was nominated for something.

    Wishful thinking, I guess.



    It won a different award, from the American Society of Magazine Editors for Digital Innovation. It was something, just not a Hugo nomination.

    Mayabird on
  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Sort of an update: the right-wing rabidity that tried to take over science fiction didn't go away after it was defeated in its attempts to take over the Hugos: It just moved to the romance section. The spark here is that Romance Writers of America tried to "discipline" one of its members who pointed out the racism in a best-selling author's books while never once ever disciplining members for, you know, actually doing racism, something which has been going on for a LONG time. There have been board member resignations and the current president of the organization is terrible and...I'm just going to say a lot of stuff. It's a very similar battle just being waged in a different genre.

    Also Chuck Tingle got brought in too, because of course he did.


    dang @romancewriters threatening buckaroos like @courtneymilan for standing up to devil ways. devils said that buds say 'inappropriate things to cause financial harm' APPARENTLY FORGOT scoundrel president inappropriately lied and said chuck was not chuck and more than one person

    Chuck Tingle is a science fiction/romance writer and national treasure.

    If people were interested this could go in its own thread, but I thought it appropriate to bring back up here as a reminder that the same problems continue.

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Was wondering if this was gonna show up here. I had almost posted about it a few days ago and it has just gotten worse since then. The best recap I've seen is the below twitter thread. Highlights include convening a super secret special ethics committee without telling the normal ethics committee such a thing could exist or that a complaint had been sent there. Always a solid plan when step 1 is "Cut the ethics folks out of the loop."



    I disagree that this is the same shit that went down with the Hugos. There the shitbags were insurgents. The were on the outside because when something that was sorta similar happened in the SFWA, the SFWA kicked the racist fuck out immediately. Cue drama with semi-public voting for their awards.

    Here the racists have run the organization since apparently forever. Romance has always struggled with issues regarding minorities of pretty much every stripe. This incident seems to be showing that it was institional at RWA with a lot of the non-elected staff short circuiting ethics complaints before the ethics committee even saw them. The SFWA dealt with the whole Hugo issue, albeit over a couple years, because they followed their by laws and proper order. They had the organizational tools and health to deal with the infection. The RWA is increasingly looking like it's going to be destroyed by this, and probably should be.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    You know you're in a good position PRwise in the romance writing community when Chuck Tingle calls you out, by name, as a liar, right?
    I disagree that this is the same shit that went down with the Hugos. There the shitbags were insurgents. The were on the outside because when something that was sorta similar happened in the SFWA, the SFWA kicked the racist fuck out immediately. Cue drama with semi-public voting for their awards.

    Sounds like the same starting point to me, only the organization chose differently (as Jemisin pointed out, the big difference is that SFWA removed its loud bigot while the RWA invented rules and organizations to protect theirs) and thus hasn't (yet) kicked off the ensuing tantrum by the problematic authors. If the SFWA had closed ranks around Beale the two messes would be looking pretty close to identical right now.

    Tying the two organizations together, Mary Robinette Kowal's okay (thread):

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Zibblsnrt wrote: »
    I disagree that this is the same shit that went down with the Hugos. There the shitbags were insurgents. The were on the outside because when something that was sorta similar happened in the SFWA, the SFWA kicked the racist fuck out immediately. Cue drama with semi-public voting for their awards.

    Sounds like the same starting point to me, only the organization chose differently (as Jemisin pointed out, the big difference is that SFWA removed its loud bigot while the RWA invented rules and organizations to protect theirs) and thus hasn't (yet) kicked off the ensuing tantrum by the problematic authors. If the SFWA had closed ranks around Beale the two messes would be looking pretty close to identical right now.

    I think that the different choices made in confrontation is what I meant when I talked about organizational health. SWFA's leadership seemed to be generally aligned with the bulk of their membership on issues of inclusion where RWA is not. Possibly they have staff who weren't the elected leadership who are out of alignment and they're facing a "Deep State" style of thing but that's tough to say. It seems like pretty much everybody has been resigning out of leadership roles over there.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • tapeslingertapeslinger Space Unicorn Slush Ranger Social Justice Rebel ScumRegistered User regular
    Yeah, this is mostly unrelated stuff tbh!

    Despite MRK's best pitching efforts, SFWA is a fraction of the size of RWA and offers a fraction of the services; the size difference is probably best summed up as a friend of mine, who is in both, put it to me: SFWA's Nebulas conference, their one big annual event, is roughly the same in size as a regional meeting of RWA. Romance publishing dwarfs sff and horror by orders of magnitude in volume.

    What's going on with RWA is a racism shitshow, mind you, which is analogous to a little bit of what was going on with the Hugos but it's not really the same groups of people at all. Chuck Tingle was only invoked into the fray because the acting president of RWA, Damon Suede, claimed to know Chuck Tingle's identity.

    And to be fair, the only reason sff knows anything about Chuck Tingle is that someone attempted to troll the Hugos by nominating him. The fact that he has come to represent the "love is real" factions of sff is nice, but he was in romancelandia way before he was an sff icon.

  • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
    Speaking of Chuck Tingle...

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083FKZ4ZK/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_H1aeEbTWVY898

    Everyone should take a look at his latest work.

  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    Ketar wrote: »
    Speaking of Chuck Tingle...

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083FKZ4ZK/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_H1aeEbTWVY898

    Everyone should take a look at his latest work.

    The one thing Chuck doesn't do is subtle.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • autono-wally, erotibot300autono-wally, erotibot300 love machine Registered User regular
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    Tangentially related.

    I really didn't end up liking reading the broken earth books. Read the first one and stopped the second one mid-read

    Spoilers for all I mentioned
    It's just... disaster after disaster after disaster, and a teeeeeeeeeeny little bit of scifi.

    The books just made me feel bad all the time when reading it, and it made them predictable, too, since you could pretty much guess what would happen- whatever hurt the characters the most emotionally.

    I understand what the books are trying to do, and I commend it. They show real, horrible racism, and other facets of the human condition as a metaphor, and thus the horribleness is kind of the point.

    But I just ended up having absolutely no drive to continue reading them, because they're about as emotionally draining as watching grave of the fireflies / waltz with bashir / hotel rwanda for hours and hours.

    I might get back top the books to see where they go one day.

    kFJhXwE.jpgkFJhXwE.jpg
  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    Christ, I can only imagine the shittery they'll get up to in RenFairs.

    The only upside is that there's a non-trivial chance that they'll run into an actual crusader.

    V1m on
  • daveNYCdaveNYC Why universe hate Waspinator? Registered User regular
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    Tangentially related.

    I really didn't end up liking reading the broken earth books. Read the first one and stopped the second one mid-read

    Spoilers for all I mentioned
    It's just... disaster after disaster after disaster, and a teeeeeeeeeeny little bit of scifi.

    The books just made me feel bad all the time when reading it, and it made them predictable, too, since you could pretty much guess what would happen- whatever hurt the characters the most emotionally.

    I understand what the books are trying to do, and I commend it. They show real, horrible racism, and other facets of the human condition as a metaphor, and thus the horribleness is kind of the point.

    But I just ended up having absolutely no drive to continue reading them, because they're about as emotionally draining as watching grave of the fireflies / waltz with bashir / hotel rwanda for hours and hours.

    I might get back top the books to see where they go one day.

    Each of the Broken Earth books won the Hugo? It wasn't a horrible series, but it's not like the second and third books reached new heights in storytelling.

    Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    daveNYC wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    Tangentially related.

    I really didn't end up liking reading the broken earth books. Read the first one and stopped the second one mid-read

    Spoilers for all I mentioned
    It's just... disaster after disaster after disaster, and a teeeeeeeeeeny little bit of scifi.

    The books just made me feel bad all the time when reading it, and it made them predictable, too, since you could pretty much guess what would happen- whatever hurt the characters the most emotionally.

    I understand what the books are trying to do, and I commend it. They show real, horrible racism, and other facets of the human condition as a metaphor, and thus the horribleness is kind of the point.

    But I just ended up having absolutely no drive to continue reading them, because they're about as emotionally draining as watching grave of the fireflies / waltz with bashir / hotel rwanda for hours and hours.

    I might get back top the books to see where they go one day.

    Each of the Broken Earth books won the Hugo? It wasn't a horrible series, but it's not like the second and third books reached new heights in storytelling.

    I'm especially salty about the 2nd book. It was a super strong year with every novel candidate being solid. I feel like half of them were better in the end than Obelisk Gate, in which, the first book kinda kept going to fill space until the resolution in book 3. It doesn't have a strong individual character to me.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • ShadowhopeShadowhope Baa. Registered User regular
    daveNYC wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    Tangentially related.

    I really didn't end up liking reading the broken earth books. Read the first one and stopped the second one mid-read

    Spoilers for all I mentioned
    It's just... disaster after disaster after disaster, and a teeeeeeeeeeny little bit of scifi.

    The books just made me feel bad all the time when reading it, and it made them predictable, too, since you could pretty much guess what would happen- whatever hurt the characters the most emotionally.

    I understand what the books are trying to do, and I commend it. They show real, horrible racism, and other facets of the human condition as a metaphor, and thus the horribleness is kind of the point.

    But I just ended up having absolutely no drive to continue reading them, because they're about as emotionally draining as watching grave of the fireflies / waltz with bashir / hotel rwanda for hours and hours.

    I might get back top the books to see where they go one day.

    Each of the Broken Earth books won the Hugo? It wasn't a horrible series, but it's not like the second and third books reached new heights in storytelling.

    I'm especially salty about the 2nd book. It was a super strong year with every novel candidate being solid. I feel like half of them were better in the end than Obelisk Gate, in which, the first book kinda kept going to fill space until the resolution in book 3. It doesn't have a strong individual character to me.

    If I recall, 2018 had Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee and All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders on the final ballot. I haven’t read Obelisk Gate, but I thought that NG/ATBITS were both excellent, and I can’t help but wonder if transphobia impacted voting results.

    Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Shadowhope wrote: »
    daveNYC wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    Tangentially related.

    I really didn't end up liking reading the broken earth books. Read the first one and stopped the second one mid-read

    Spoilers for all I mentioned
    It's just... disaster after disaster after disaster, and a teeeeeeeeeeny little bit of scifi.

    The books just made me feel bad all the time when reading it, and it made them predictable, too, since you could pretty much guess what would happen- whatever hurt the characters the most emotionally.

    I understand what the books are trying to do, and I commend it. They show real, horrible racism, and other facets of the human condition as a metaphor, and thus the horribleness is kind of the point.

    But I just ended up having absolutely no drive to continue reading them, because they're about as emotionally draining as watching grave of the fireflies / waltz with bashir / hotel rwanda for hours and hours.

    I might get back top the books to see where they go one day.

    Each of the Broken Earth books won the Hugo? It wasn't a horrible series, but it's not like the second and third books reached new heights in storytelling.

    I'm especially salty about the 2nd book. It was a super strong year with every novel candidate being solid. I feel like half of them were better in the end than Obelisk Gate, in which, the first book kinda kept going to fill space until the resolution in book 3. It doesn't have a strong individual character to me.

    If I recall, 2018 had Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee and All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders on the final ballot. I haven’t read Obelisk Gate, but I thought that NG/ATBITS were both excellent, and I can’t help but wonder if transphobia impacted voting results.

    Also Closed and Common Orbit and Too Like the Lightning. It was a rock solid year.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    V1m wrote: »
    Christ, I can only imagine the shittery they'll get up to in RenFairs.

    The only upside is that there's a non-trivial chance that they'll run into an actual crusader.

    I feel like RenFaires are 50% dispassionate tourists, 40% BDSM fet-community in their downtime, and 10% standard nerd community so... I'm really not sure what would happen.

    Darkewolfe on
    What is this I don't even.
  • MorranMorran Registered User regular
    edited January 2020
    Shadowhope wrote: »
    daveNYC wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    Tangentially related.

    I really didn't end up liking reading the broken earth books. Read the first one and stopped the second one mid-read

    Spoilers for all I mentioned
    It's just... disaster after disaster after disaster, and a teeeeeeeeeeny little bit of scifi.

    The books just made me feel bad all the time when reading it, and it made them predictable, too, since you could pretty much guess what would happen- whatever hurt the characters the most emotionally.

    I understand what the books are trying to do, and I commend it. They show real, horrible racism, and other facets of the human condition as a metaphor, and thus the horribleness is kind of the point.

    But I just ended up having absolutely no drive to continue reading them, because they're about as emotionally draining as watching grave of the fireflies / waltz with bashir / hotel rwanda for hours and hours.

    I might get back top the books to see where they go one day.

    Each of the Broken Earth books won the Hugo? It wasn't a horrible series, but it's not like the second and third books reached new heights in storytelling.

    I'm especially salty about the 2nd book. It was a super strong year with every novel candidate being solid. I feel like half of them were better in the end than Obelisk Gate, in which, the first book kinda kept going to fill space until the resolution in book 3. It doesn't have a strong individual character to me.

    If I recall, 2018 had Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee and All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders on the final ballot. I haven’t read Obelisk Gate, but I thought that NG/ATBITS were both excellent, and I can’t help but wonder if transphobia impacted voting results.

    Not saying that transphobia did not affect the choice. But I would like to point out that obelisk gate is written by a black woman, and features gay/bi characters having a healthy dose of sex - like, it would take a very specific type of bigot to have issues with trans, but not with the other stuff.

    I've read both broken earth trilogy as well as machineries of empire (the ninefox gambit). Love both trilogies, but for me broken earth is the better work of fiction.

    Morran on
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Morran wrote: »
    Shadowhope wrote: »
    daveNYC wrote: »
    Mayabird wrote: »
    Mary Robinette Kowal was indeed able to fix up the programming so Worldcon went without a hitch and now the Hugo Awards for 2018 have been announced.

    NK Jemisin became the first writer ever to win three straight Hugos for Best Novel (for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which you should read if you have not). She gave a great acceptance speech too:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

    Among the other awards was Best Short Story for “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse. You can read that here or listen to LeVar Burton reading it.


    (I think it's safe to say the Puppies have been defeated. I read they've gone off to try to ruin Renaissance Fairs now.)

    Tangentially related.

    I really didn't end up liking reading the broken earth books. Read the first one and stopped the second one mid-read

    Spoilers for all I mentioned
    It's just... disaster after disaster after disaster, and a teeeeeeeeeeny little bit of scifi.

    The books just made me feel bad all the time when reading it, and it made them predictable, too, since you could pretty much guess what would happen- whatever hurt the characters the most emotionally.

    I understand what the books are trying to do, and I commend it. They show real, horrible racism, and other facets of the human condition as a metaphor, and thus the horribleness is kind of the point.

    But I just ended up having absolutely no drive to continue reading them, because they're about as emotionally draining as watching grave of the fireflies / waltz with bashir / hotel rwanda for hours and hours.

    I might get back top the books to see where they go one day.

    Each of the Broken Earth books won the Hugo? It wasn't a horrible series, but it's not like the second and third books reached new heights in storytelling.

    I'm especially salty about the 2nd book. It was a super strong year with every novel candidate being solid. I feel like half of them were better in the end than Obelisk Gate, in which, the first book kinda kept going to fill space until the resolution in book 3. It doesn't have a strong individual character to me.

    If I recall, 2018 had Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee and All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders on the final ballot. I haven’t read Obelisk Gate, but I thought that NG/ATBITS were both excellent, and I can’t help but wonder if transphobia impacted voting results.

    Not saying that transphobia did not affect the choice. But I would like to point out that obelisk gate is written by a black woman, and features gay/bi characters having a healthy dose of sex - like, it would take a very specific type of bigot to have issues with trans, but not with the other stuff.

    I've read both broken earth trilogy as well as machineries of empire (the ninefox gambit). Love both trilogies, but for me broken earth is the better work of fiction.

    Huh, I wonder which way the bigot would break there. Ninefox and Birds in the Sky don't really touch much on gender stuff, at least not in the first books. Though the authors being trans, (which I just now learned about Lee), could be a thing I guess. I dug up the vote totals and how it broke down in the various rounds and don't see much evidence of such bias to a casual look.

    am0vlrindzbk.png

    Interesting that All the Birds in the Sky was actually winning up until that last round.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • ArchArch Neat-o, mosquito! Registered User regular
    Re:Obelisk Gate
    Pretty sure that book also has a prominent trans character in it. She's definitely in the series and important, I just don't remember when she appears and is explained to be trans.

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Arch wrote: »
    Re:Obelisk Gate
    Pretty sure that book also has a prominent trans character in it. She's definitely in the series and important, I just don't remember when she appears and is explained to be trans.

    Pretty sure it was a first book thing onwards.
    Of course it only comes up once or twice. It was just like mentioning that the character had blonde hair or something. Really only more than once because the book series features new communities that the main group gets introduced to a couple times.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • BoomerAang SquadBoomerAang Squad Registered User regular
    More Broken Earth spoilers:
    Also, unless I was horribly misreading it, wasn't one of the other child orogenes implied to be a trans-boy?

  • tapeslingertapeslinger Space Unicorn Slush Ranger Social Justice Rebel ScumRegistered User regular
    The problem with attempting to re-litigate old years of hugo voting is that part of why NKJ was getting top billing was expressly a middle finger to the bigots and somewhat not about the specific perfection of the books, and the ballot placement in each runoff round matters, so it's very likely that people placed it higher to avoid the runoff.

    In other news:

    it's interesting to see that RWA ended up canceling their awards altogether:
    https://www.rwa.org//Online/News/2020/Status_of_the_RITA_Contest.aspx


  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    After the gongshowulositude of the last several weeks I'm sort of legitimately impressed that they're admitting in the first sentence of the statement that they know they aren't considered competent to handle something like that right now.

  • Gabriel_PittGabriel_Pitt (effective against Russian warships) Registered User regular
    Was wondering if this was gonna show up here. I had almost posted about it a few days ago and it has just gotten worse since then. The best recap I've seen is the below twitter thread. Highlights include convening a super secret special ethics committee without telling the normal ethics committee such a thing could exist or that a complaint had been sent there. Always a solid plan when step 1 is "Cut the ethics folks out of the loop."



    I disagree that this is the same shit that went down with the Hugos. There the shitbags were insurgents. The were on the outside because when something that was sorta similar happened in the SFWA, the SFWA kicked the racist fuck out immediately. Cue drama with semi-public voting for their awards.

    Here the racists have run the organization since apparently forever. Romance has always struggled with issues regarding minorities of pretty much every stripe. This incident seems to be showing that it was institional at RWA with a lot of the non-elected staff short circuiting ethics complaints before the ethics committee even saw them. The SFWA dealt with the whole Hugo issue, albeit over a couple years, because they followed their by laws and proper order. They had the organizational tools and health to deal with the infection. The RWA is increasingly looking like it's going to be destroyed by this, and probably should be.

    Just kind of the cherry on top, Damon Suede, the president of RWA who threatened that 'if he went down, the RWA was going with him,' has resigned, following revelations that he faked books, and lied about publishing dates of another, in order to meet the publishing credentials required for the position.

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    I am surprised by that. It doesn't seem to be an active fuck up which seems to be the only thing the RWA was capable of lately. Did they, per chance, publish all the private emails on their way out or something?

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • tapeslingertapeslinger Space Unicorn Slush Ranger Social Justice Rebel ScumRegistered User regular
    I'm not quite sure what you mean? even some of the regular rank and file have been asking Damon Suede and Carol Ritter to step aside pretty much since this thing began (or shortly thereafter, at any rate)

    and it's literally taken three weeks to arrive at "come on, folks, he's not even qualified to be here, much less take the helm" when there were several other opportunities for him to step aside and call a halt to this terminal downhill trajectory

    crashing and burning the RWA national conference and the awards show before stepping down is absolutely "an active fuck up" tbh

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    I'm not quite sure what you mean? even some of the regular rank and file have been asking Damon Suede and Carol Ritter to step aside pretty much since this thing began (or shortly thereafter, at any rate)

    and it's literally taken three weeks to arrive at "come on, folks, he's not even qualified to be here, much less take the helm" when there were several other opportunities for him to step aside and call a halt to this terminal downhill trajectory

    crashing and burning the RWA national conference and the awards show before stepping down is absolutely "an active fuck up" tbh

    Last I had heard he was resisting all calls to resign and telling folks privately that if he were to be removed as President it would destroy the RWA. There was a petition going around calling for his recall and a new election. He should have stepped down weeks ago among such a huge member revolt. Stepping down now seems to be the right move, albeit really damn late.

    Of course the big issues seem to stem from non-elected staff but I guess it really depends on how takes Suede's place.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • Martini_PhilosopherMartini_Philosopher Registered User regular
    I am surprised by that. It doesn't seem to be an active fuck up which seems to be the only thing the RWA was capable of lately. Did they, per chance, publish all the private emails on their way out or something?

    If had to make a guess it has something to do with his interference with the ethics committee and the selection of the group that made the "recommendation" to the board and the meeting the board had to ratify the same. Both were held in non-compliant means and have yet to be made readable to the members of the RWA. Then there's the PR group that's been hired. The first thing they would likely recommend would be for him to fall on his sword, so to speak. Especially after having to cancel their biggest yearly moneymaker.

    All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
  • tapeslingertapeslinger Space Unicorn Slush Ranger Social Justice Rebel ScumRegistered User regular
    yeah, it's really easy to speculate on the sidelines for this one but I have several friends who are in the trenches on this one and it is really a way bigger mess than it looks from the outside. It's not at all clear that the org will survive this; a lot of folks are definitely indicating that they're not interested and are working on forming new orgs but the infrastructure of the old RWA will be hard to replicate.

    that being said, though, seeing as the racism and classism and anti-lgbtq+ agendas kind of go the whole way up, I'm not sure there's really a viable way to salvage the existing org and it's quite likely that the structure of the existing org was concealing multiple layers of interior rot.

  • Gabriel_PittGabriel_Pitt (effective against Russian warships) Registered User regular
    Stepping down now seems to be the right move, albeit really damn late.

    And only because he's at the 'leave, or be kicked out' stage anyways, since he doesn't even fulfill the eligibility requirements for the position in the first place.

Sign In or Register to comment.