If you signed up to nominate for the Hugos, you should have gotten an email from the HugoPinBot. The final ballot is up and your votes need to be cast before the end of the month.
I didn’t get nominated, but everybody else I pushed for did get nominated, so if you were part of the Sad Puppies campaign, you can still vote. Toni Weisskopf is up for best editor. Elitist Book Reviews is up for best fanzine. Vincent Chong is up for best artist. So don’t forget to vote!
Per your recommendation, I signed up with LoneStarCon so I could nominate my picks for Hugos. Alas none of my picks were chosen.
So I received the e-copies of the actual nominees and loaded some of them on my Kindle to take on vacation (last week, in fact). I read as many as I could, but frankly even the couple that I enjoyed were not worthy of a Hugo.
.
SPOILERS
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance” was enjoyable, but one of the weaker entries in the VorKosigan series. I love Bujold, but this wasn’t one of her better works.
“Red Shirts” should embarrass Scalzi. I’ve read self-published zombie fiction that were better written. On Amazon, his fans are even claiming that he deliberately wrote it poorly as parody of Star Trek universe. Sure thing, dude. Not even Shatner dangled this many participles.
“Blackout” is the 3rd book of a trilogy. Unfortunately, while I had tried to read the 1st book (“FEED”), I couldn’t finish it since the supposed zombie novel turned into a journo/political fanfest.
So I skipped the last 2 books and tried some of the novellas, novelettes and short stories.
“Mantis Wives” uses insects as an excuse for snuff-porn.
“Future is Japanese” idolizes government while blaming “corporations” for building fake rescue ships (apparently there were no required inspections, tests or tours).
“Girl Who Went Out For Sushi” ended just as the story got started.
“Boy Who Cast No Shadow” was strange and threw in some random pedophilia just for the heck of it.
“Fade To White” was yet another “Handmaid’s Tale” crossed with hate for the 1950’s.
“The Stars Do Not Lie” was well written and held my interest despite the standard close-minded-religious-zealots plot, but then it ended with the protagonist refusing to board the ship to discover the true history of his world.
“Rat Catcher”, a Shakespeare inspired fantasy, was the best of the bunch.
If this is the best serious SF/F has to offer, then I’ll stick with the not-real SF writers like Baen publishes.
I’m going to disagree with the first two reviews above, but I have a feeling that is mostly because Red Shirts and Captain Vorpatril’s Etc. are the first books I have read by either author, so I din’t have any preconceptions on how the books should read.
From there, I voted the straight Baen/SFWA-Unapproved ticket where possible, and opted for “No Award” where not.
And I’m leaving “din’t” in there because I’m in the South, dammit, and we talk that way.