Friday, July 17, 2015

Hugos: How Did I Do?

Let's work out for this week what puppy works there were in my reviewed categories and what I thought of them for the Hugo ballot.

The John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo)

I was not surprised to discover that four of the five nominees for this award are on the puppy slates. Cordova, English and Raymond are all on both slates while Nelson is only on the Rabid slate.

No surprise, Chu, who was far and away the absolute best choice in the category, was not a slate nominee. I wish he'd had worthy competition.

Professional Editor (Short Form)

I knew that VD was a slate nominee, but I was surprised to find out that all the nominees were on slates. That just makes me wonder how much better/different the nominees would have been if the puppies hadn't dishonestly gamed the nomination system. In any case, VD was only on the Rabid slate while all the others were on both slates.

Brozek was my top pick and Resnick second, though I could have just as easily gone the other way with them.

Professional Editor (Long Form)

This was another category that only had slate nominees. Again, VD was only on the Rabid slate and all the others were on both slates. Again, I wonder how different the slate would have been without scumbags gaming the system. Honestly, it makes me want to go and put "No Award" at the top for both editor categories and list my picks below, especially after having read the so-called Related Works category.

Anyway, Gilbert took the top spot in part due to her absolutely brilliant contribution to the packet that I hope and fear every long form editor in the future will follow, while Sowards got the second spot.

Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

The Lego Movie, Interstellar and Guardians of the Galaxy were all slate nominees on both slates. Edge of Tomorrow and Captain America were not on slates. Edge of Tomorrow is one of my top choices while Captain America is at the bottom. I'm still not sure which movie will get the top spot on my ballot, Edge of Tomorrow or The Lego Movie. That's going to be a tough choice for me.

Summary

I almost wish I hadn't bothered with the editor categories. Almost. If I'd known/remembered that they were all puppies, I probably wouldn't have bothered. They were really tough to decide, and would be in any year. Knowing that both categories were entirely tainted makes all that effort seem pointless.

I'm very glad I watched Edge of Tomorrow, and it was nice to have some extra movie nights with my hubby. I really did enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy and Interstellar, though I'm really glad I had the ability to pause Interstellar and take a break. The movie watching was probably the easiest and the most stressful of the categories, but the library came through for me and I ended up watching pretty much all the movies without any problems.

Lastly, I've set up a page on the blog that lists all my Hugo posts and has some useful links to other resources. I'll try to keep it updated, but no promises.

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