SAD PUPPIES 3: The Slatening?

Slate-ening? Oh well, run with it. Here is our suggested slate!

Brad Torgersen is this year’s banner carrier in our ongoing war against Puppy Related Sadness. Now that the registrations for memberships to nominate for the Hugo are closed, here is what the Evil League of Evil authors came up with in discussion.  Here is the list, and I’ll talk about the philosophy/strategy below.

https://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/sad-puppies-3-the-2015-hugo-slate/

Best Novel
The Dark Between the Stars – Kevin J. Anderson – TOR
Trial by Fire – Charles E. Gannon – BAEN
Skin Game – Jim Butcher – ROC
Monster Hunter Nemesis – Larry Correia – BAEN
Lines of Departure – Marko Kloos – 47 North (Amazon)

Best Novella
“Flow” – Arlan Andrews Sr. – Analog magazine November 2014
“One Bright Star to Guide Them” – John C. Wright – Castalia House
“Big Boys Don’t Cry” – Tom Kratman – Castalia House

Best Novelette
“The Journeyman: In the Stone House” – Michael F. Flynn – Analog magazine June 2014
“The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale” – Rajnar Vajra – Analog magazine July/Aug 2014
“Championship B’tok” – Edward M. Lerner – Analog magazine Sept 2014
“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium” – Gray Rinehart – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

Best Short Story
“Goodnight Stars” – Annie Bellet – The Apocalypse Triptych
Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer” – Megan Grey – Fireside Fiction
“Totaled” – Kary English – Galaxy’s Edge magazine
“On A Spiritual Plain” – Lou Antonelli – Sci Phi Journal #2
“A Single Samurai” – Steve Diamond – Baen Big Book of Monsters

Best Related Work
“Letters from Gardner” – Lou Antonelli – Merry Blacksmith Press
“Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth” – John C. Wright – Castalia House
“THE HOT EQUATIONS: THERMODYNAMICS AND MILITARY SF” – Ken Burnside
“Wisdom From My Internet” – Michael Z. Williamson
“Why Science is Never Settled” – Tedd Roberts – BAEN

Best Graphic Story
“Reduce Reuse Reanimate (Zombie Nation book #2) – Carter Reid – (independent)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
“The Lego Movie” – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
“Guardians of the Galaxy” – James Gunn
“Interstellar” – Christopher Nolan
“The Maze Runner” – Wes Ball

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
Grimm – ” Once We Were Gods” – NBC
The Flash – “The Flash (pilot)” – The CW
Adventure Time – “The Prince Who Wanted Everything” – Cartoon Network
Regular Show – “Saving Time” – Cartoon Network

Best Editor (Long Form)
Toni Weisskopf – BAEN
Jim Minz – BAEN
Anne Sowards – ACE/ROC
Sheila Gilbert – DAW

Best Editor (Short Form)
Mike Resnick – Galaxy’s Edge magazine
Edmund R. Schubert – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
Jennifer Brozek (Shattered Shields)
Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Shattered Shields)

Best Professional Artist
Carter Reid
Jon Eno
Alan Pollack
Nick Greenwood

Best Semiprozine
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
Abyss & Apex
Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine

Best Fanzine
Tangent SF On-line – Dave Truesdale
Elitist Book Reviews – Steve Diamond
The Revenge of Hump Day – Tim Bolgeo

Best Fancast
“The Sci Phi Show” – Jason Rennie
Dungeon Crawlers Radio
Adventures in SF Publishing

Best Fan Writer
Matthew David Surridge (Black Gate)
Jeffro Johnson
Amanda Green
Cedar Sanderson
Dave Freer

The John W. Campbell Award
Jason Cordova
Kary English
Eric S. Raymond

##

Now let’s talk STRATEGIC Puppies.

These are my suggested nominations. I am under no delusions that you guys do exactly what I suggest. 🙂 (seriously, it is like herding cats!). But I would encourage you to take a look at these, and consider nominating all of them. Everybody up there is someone who the ELoE talked about. Many of these are deserving, worthy types, who would basically be ignored because they don’t appease the SJW clique. I’ll share with you some of our reasoning.

After accomplishing my goals for SP2 of getting the SJWs to have a giant, public freak out demonstrating their political biases (accomplished, hoo boy, was that ever accomplished!) and auditing the vote process (accomplished, I saw zero evidence of dishonesty from the WorldCon people) I was ready to hang it up and not do an SP3. However, as a result of the giant public SJW come apart, I got contacted by a lot of people, fans and creators both, encouraging me to keep going.

See, the Hugos are broken. Everybody who is sane and paying attention realizes that it is just a popularity contest that has come to be dominated by one tiny insular group. The Hugos are supposed to mean something. They’re supposed to represent what ALL of fandom thinks is awesome. Many of the regular voters still treat it seriously, but they’re outnumbered. Hell, even the people benefitting from the Hugo’s current state will admit that it is broken, only they do so privately, and certainly not in front of the unwashed masses who like things like fun or enjoyment. (that’s you guys!) 🙂

Last year, I got most of my suggested nominees on the ballot. I basically just listed who I was voting for, and I voted based upon what I liked. However, we all learned some interesting things from the resulting SJW freak out. I nominated people ranging from fire breathing right wing curmudgeons, to mushy moderates, and a few that I honestly had no clue what their personal beliefs were. However, the SJWs immediately labeled every single one of them as a racist, homophobic, right wing, hate-monger of hatey-hate-hate, and how this wasn’t about me bringing some popular relevance back to the Hugos, but rather an attempt to keep women and minorities out of publishing. We all know that is crap, but that’s what they ran with.

Hell, they attacked poor liberal democrat Dan Wells as a racist Neo-Con, all because I thought his Warmachine novella was amazing (and normally media tie in fiction can’t buy a Hugo to save its life, regardless of how good it is).

So this year we are expanding the slate to encompass an even wider cross section of people who would normally be shunned. A lot of thought went into this, and I’ve got stuff to do, so today I’ll illustrate our though process by going over just one category. Let’s start with the big category of best novel:

Jim Butcher for Skin Game, because how can one of the most popular authors on earth, who is like the godfather and poster boy of an entire friggin’ genre, who has produced some truly incredible works of art, then get ignored by an award which is supposed to represent “best”?  Oh wait… But they’ll say that Jim totally got a Hugo nom before! For Best RELATED WORK for a Dresden Files graphic novel… Oh hell no. That’s not how Sad Puppies rolls.

When I tell fans who don’t pay much attention to the WorldCon circle that Butcher, friggin’ BUTCHER! can’t get a Hugo, they’re stunned.  I don’t know. Is that so crazy? Maybe he’s too popular? What’s next? Are they going to nominate Matt Damon for an Oscar? Only Jim is way more talented than Matt Damon (and better looking. Go Jim).  And Skin Game is one of his best.

Kevin J. Anderson for The Dark Between the Stars, because how the hell can a genre fixture with 23 million books in print get ignored for decades? He’s one of the most popular authors alive. He is also one of the most helpful professionals in our business, who goes above and beyond the call of duty to help new writers succeed in the business.  However, KJA (who is certainly no right winger!) can’t get nominated to save his life. See, Kevin commits the unforgivable sin of doing this stuff for a living and treating it like his job. He puts fan enjoyment ahead of cause of the day message fic, and then cranks out works. He gets a bad rap for writing lots of media tie in fiction (and how could Star Wars or Dune ever possibly represent *real* sci-fi?).

Oh, don’t worry, they’ll point at Kevin and say that he’s a hack because of the quality of some media tie in fiction that he wrote to spec, the same way last time they talked about the flaws in my first novel even though it was my 11th that was nominated. Here’s the thing. Kevin is a damned fine author. Read the book. He deserves the recognition.

Trial by Fire from Chuck Gannon. Now last year, I put up a bunch of really talented authors, and they immediately started taking flack, because OBVIOUSLY I wouldn’t have had to push these authors if they were actually *good* writers… (Holy shit, I can’t even begin to wrap my brain around how dumb that is)  So here’s the thing, World, meet English Professor and Compton Crook Literary Award Winner Chuck Friggin’ Gannon, who in addition to being a master wordsmith, also knows how to write knock your socks off action adventure hard sci-fi which is a sort of Bourne Identity meets big idea interstellar warfare. You are welcome.

Because yeah… I can’t wait until Damien Walter explains how guys like Chuck Gannon and John C. Wright aren’t *real* writers. 🙂

Oh, but wait… There’s more. Because I love listening to the literati sneer at those of us who started out self-published, Marko Kloos has Lines of Departure. Marko was the SP2 nominee for the Campbell for best new author, and he actually got nominated, but had a short story sale far enough back it made him ineligible. The dude has serious skills.

After only a few years he is one of the most popular authors in indy sci-fi. His gritty space opera series has been a huge hit, and when I say huge, you guys remember my Alphabetical List of Author Success? https://monsterhunternation.com/2014/07/24/the-official-alphabetical-list-of-author-success/ Well, he’s up there on the D List with me, and at the rate he’s going should hit C soon. C is where your royalty checks buy Aston Martins. To put his popularity into perspective, indy published Marko Kloos sells more books quarterly than last year’s Hugo winner has sold in total.

And here’s the kicker. All those books are REALLY GOOD. No stunts, no gimmicks, no checking to see what social justice victim boxes they can mark, just the best damned books of the year (lots of suggestions for it, but the Martian wasn’t eligible). By authors new and old, but all of remarkable talent.

Then there’s me. I actually told Brad and the rest of the ELoE that I was perfectly fine with Monster Hunter Nemesis not being on the ballot. Because when the SJWs aren’t blaming my motivations on homophobia or racism or something, then obviously SP was all about me trying to buy myself a Hugo Award (seriously that’s dumb, I did statistical analysis most of my life, so knew going in the odds of winning were nil).  Plus, believe it or not, I really don’t enjoy having mobs of angry SJWs telling tens of thousands of complete strangers that I’m a wife beating, rape apologist. I’m perfectly happy to bow out and screw with them from the sidelines.

Then the ELoE told me tough luck, and that if I dropped out, my fans (who make up the back bone of the growing Sad Puppies contingent) would get mad at me. Plus, John Wright said that MHN was my best book, and his vote for best book of 2014. And you really can’t argue with somebody who writes like John.

Though it will be funny to hear them say this all a stunt for me personally to get a Hugo to satisfy my own ego, when I’m nominating myself against SKIN GAME! 😀

Later on we’ll talk more about the other categories in depth, but here’s the thing, in some of these smaller categories, the nominees have become downright silly.

Take a look at our Best Related Work category. The usual nominees are things like Transsexual WereSeals love Dr. Who. We’re putting up big brain stuff relating to milSF, the nature of mankind, the history of writing, and my personal favorite in that category is one of the most respected neuro-scientists in the world’s essay about the value of scientific inquiry.  Basically the usual stuff looks childish in comparison. But of course, we’ve suggested a collection of Mad Mike insulting people, because the Evil League of Evil does like to have fun.

In the novellas, novelettes, and short stories, look through those. I don’t think we have a single dinosaur love story. I do like that in Fanzine we’ve got a guy who the SJWs lied about and ran out of a con as part of their witch trials.

Quick look at Editor. Toni Weisskopf is one of the most respected editors there is. Even if you absolutely hate some of her authors (like me!) you’ve got to admit that she has been one of the most prolific, successful, talented, and all around bad ass editors in the business, not to mention a lifelong fan, who has done more for fandom than damn near anybody else alive, and she’s been doing this forever.

But did you know that she had never gotten a single Hugo nomination before Sad Puppies? None. Zip. Zero. Meanwhile, the favorite editor of the SJW crowd? I think he has ten.

There’s a blog that hates me and constantly misconstrues what Sad Puppies is about. If I recall correctly it has something like TWENTY EIGHT Hugo nominations.

That’s why I’m doing this.

So check it out. Mull it over. We’ll be posting more about this later.

I Need Your Help (gathering links to SJW attacks in sci-fi for a news reporter)
My schedule at SLC FanX

196 thoughts on “SAD PUPPIES 3: The Slatening?”

  1. Will have to check some of these others out. If they are anywhere near as good as Skin Game and MHN then those are some bad ass books!

  2. Now convince Toni to actually submit a resume or whatever the proper term is when she gets nominated. I know she doesn’t care but the rest of us do. And don’t let Jim Minz bow out either. 🙂

    1. A most touching and romantic tale, that…

      And the bad guys get… well, one ought to read it oneself to appreciate the… flavor of the story, shall we say?

      🙂

  3. To anyone who got their application in at the last minute, they’re running behind and won’t have you in the system for about a week. Good news is submissions are open until March, so plenty of time.

    1. Sarah is part of the ELoE, so you’ve got to take it up with her. All of us tried to veto ourselves, but some were not allowed. (like Kratman pretty much got drafted).

      1. You guys are going nuclear if you vote in a Kratman piece. I don’t think there is enough cleaning materials in the world to clean up all the gore left over from the SJW’s heads exploding from that.

      2. “Release the Kratmanniken!” Good thing I laid in plenty of whiskey and popcorn; this is gonna be better than “Scanners.”

        😛

        …Seriously, for that category IMHO it’d be a tossup between the Colonel’s “Big Boys Don’t Cry” and Wright’s “One Bright Star To Guide Them” for the win. The SJW head explosions caused by TK getting within a light year of the Hugo ballot is just icing on the cake…although these days John Wright is probably causing just as much angst amongst the SJW “Servants of Sauron” (to quote a line from one of Wright’s more recent takedowns of the liberals).

        Gosh, I wish I could write that good.

  4. Nominating Rich Burlew, Order of the Stick: Blood Runs In The Family. Because he KNOWS story, and doesn’t preach politics, and he’s damn good at what he does.

    It’s a measure about how damaged genre fiction’s reputation has become, that I’ve read few to none of the nominees above. (And so can’t nominate them myself.) Butcher, Wright, some Korea guy, but none of the rest.

    It’s about trust, and the SJW’s have destroyed mine. (Not worth wasting my time on patronizing, preachy BS SF.) Hence I try out few new authors, unless they come well-recommended. (Dan Wells and Brian McLellan were the only two who made the cut last year.)

    MH: Nemesis and Skin Game for best novels, obv. I’ll try to catch the rest as I can, before noms close.

    1. You are not alone, my friend. Lots of people have drifted away, especially from the short fiction categories.

      Which is one reason we did the whole big suggested slate. The ELoE has been talking about this for a while. Nobody can know of everything, but between us, we were able to argue about a whole bunch of interesting things for you guys to look at.

      1. Greetings and Salutations, long time lurker, first time poster, have whole MHI and Grimnoir series in Kindle.

        I hate to have my first post be a disagreement with a long-time respected contributor, so I’ll do so in as gentle a way as I know how.

        While I still like OOTS, I can’t say I love it anymore; Rich went full SJW in strip #959 ( http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0959.html ). You may also wish to peruse the forums to see some of the “discussion” around this particular strip to see how this shift came about, along with Rich’s Twitter feed. I’ve invested too much to completely abandon it, but it used to be my #3 webcomic (behind Schlock Mercenary and Girl Genius) and now it’s way down the list.

        Could I suggest, as an alternative, Scott Bieser’s Quantum Vibe Volume 2: Murphy ( http://www.quantumvibe.com/ ) as a solid Story over Message graphic story that fits the slate better?

      2. Ehhh, that wasn’t full SJW.
        Full SJW would be Haley deciding to drop Elan for the new airship captain.
        Besides, by the law of averages, they needed to run into one sometimes.

      3. That Bandana is portrayed as a lesbian is not what I was referring to, actually. It was more the quips about ‘hurling offensive gender-charged insults’ and ‘dungeon diving with a bare midriff’ … ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’ juxtaposed against the subtitle of the strip, “It Was Not”. He fundamentally changed Haley’s character to appease the PC elements of his audience. And again, if you go into the giantitp.com forums you’ll see…well, the same tactics you see in every other place where this argument takes place.

        “Sneak Attack, BITCH!” was a great signature line for Haley, and that it offended people to the point of pressuring the artist to change it is to me yet another example of why Sad Puppies is necessary and needed.

      4. Wallbanger7110: Totally agree with you about OotS. In the two years leading up to that strip, Rich Burlew was becoming more and more of an SJW in the forums, to the point where he was claiming anyone who wanted to kill orcs because they were orcs was a “racist.” Once he allowed that crap into the strip, I stopped reading.

    2. “BS SF” Daddy Warpig, that is the best acronym ever. The truth in advertising laws should require the Science Fiction Writers of America to change their name, so that their initials will hereafter be BSSFWA.

    3. “…and doesn’t preach politics”

      Except, sorry, he DOES preach politics, of the most contemptible SJW variety. Rich thinks D&D is “racist” because the bad guys have green skin. He has posted repeated tirades about this in his forum over the last two-three years.
      I put up with it as long as he kept it out of the comic itself. But after strip #959 (see Wallbanger’s post below) I’d had enough. Haven’t read a strip since then.

      1. I take it that Burlew is insisting now that you just shouldn’t be allowed to do the manichean thing with orcs that are evil because they are orcs?

        Perhaps we should be warry of lawsuits from defamed Nazis and imperial stormtroopers.

        In the last game that I ran that had orcs, the orcs were the irredeemable creation of an evil god, and I’m fine with that, but one certainly could construct a story that challenges that assumption. What if an orc chooses to come into the light?

      2. Yeah, I was fine with the depiction of humanoids as not auto-evil in the actual OotS story, because that was how he constructed his world and it fit into the overall storyline he was presenting. There are lots of interesting tales one can tell by using that premise.

        My problem was with the forum posts where he proclaimed that “default” D&D was inherently racist, that anyone who disagreed with him on that topic was despicable, that he was ashamed of his earlier jokes about Haley’s sexiness, that he shouldn’t have let Haley and he female rival “slut-shame” each other, etc, that were infuriating to me. Once he let that crap invade the strip, I was done.

        1. SJW are quite adept at abusing social pressures to compel compliance with their ideology. The only people who seem able to resist are the obdurate, the committed, and the cantankerous.

          Sad to see Rich succumbing to such pressure, but all Leftists are vulnerable to it, ideologically. SJW preach Leftism, with an extreme authoritarian bent. Leftists have to be even MORE contrary to resist SJW slander, disapproval, and ostracism.

          If he continues pushing SJW cant in the future, it will ruin his work. That’d be tragic, because OOTS is great.

          Still going with the nom, though, because there’s no politics in this work.

      3. Did he turn preachy, now? Well that’s disappointing. Something similar happened in Gunnerkrigg Court. A captivating comic set in a world of mysterious technology and magic lore, and then suddenly there’s an entire chapter where one of the major characters enters a lesbian relationship, and another character delivers a (cheesy) speech about how There’s Nothing Wrong With That. I can only assume that further down the line we’ll get an eye-stinging story arc about Evil Homophobes or something.

      4. He also wrote in the commentary in BRitF that Tarquin, who is one of the most grotesquely evil villains I’ve read, is a stand-in for heterosexual white males everywhere. The scene where Tarquin is left in the desert screaming after Elan that this isn’t how the story is supposed to go (which, at the time, I thought was a great scene and underlined Tarquin’s particular insanity) is, according to the commentary, supposed to represent the rage of heterosexual white males in response to OotS being a story in which a black male is the leader of a party, a female is his second-in-command, the wizard is genderqueer, and the white male is comic relief.

        That being said, Blood Runs in the Family was a good collection. It would be worth nominating.

      5. “He also wrote in the commentary in BRitF that Tarquin, who is one of the most grotesquely evil villains I’ve read, is a stand-in for heterosexual white males everywhere.”

        UGH. I didn’t buy the collection (since I’d stopped reading by then), so I missed that, but it further affirms my judgment that Burlew’s gone full-retard SJW. A disgusting collapse of a once-great webcomic.

      6. @Kathryn: That actually made print? Wow. Just wow.

        Funny how none of this started coming to the surface until AFTER he’d gotten his big Kickstarter payday.

      7. Here are his exact words, so you can judge for yourself and not rely solely on my interpretation:

        [following some discussion of Tarquin’s issues with accepting reality] “It’s easy to imagine that as a younger man, Tarquin was more able to bend his own perception to fit the reality of the situation, but as he gets older he seems to have lost that flexibility. The uncertainty scares him, and so he must hold his grip onto his vision even tighter.

        “In this way, Tarquin is also symbolic of an older time when stories were likely to be more formulaic or cliched – and less diverse. It’s no accident that he’s a wealthy old straight white man losing his marbles over the fac that the tale he is experiencing doesn’t focus on the other straight white man at the expense of the black man, the woman, the genderqueer person, and even the Latino guest star. By rejecting his insistence that he take the lead, Elan is also saying that no, it’s OK for not every story to have a blond white guy in the lead. It’s OK for them to be the supporting character sometimes. They can still be a part of the overall tapestry of the narrative, and sometimes maybe they’ll get great focus episodes. (Like this one!) As an author who is himself, a straight white guy, it’s difficult for me to always make a statement on the experiences of other demographic groups without running the risk of talking out my ass. But I can make a statement about what I think we, the straight white men of the world, should be doing. And that’s for us to recognize that it’s not always about us, and that it doesn’t make us weak just because someone else is the hero for a while. I’m sure the Tarquins of the real world will read this paragraph and lose their own marbles about it, but I don’t see any point to writing if I can’t express my own views.”

        Ugh, reading that pissed me off all over again. And just to be clear about what pisses me off, it’s not that the OotS is “diverse” [in his blinkered, narrow-minded definition of diversity, which goes only as deep as skin color and genitals, hence my use of scare quotation marks]. It is his incredibly insulting strawman.

      8. Oops, replied to the wrong subthread. The “Good thing I have brown hair or I’d REALLY have been insulted. 😀 ” line was supposed to be here.

        1. I haven’t read OOTS in years. I can’t make any comment about the author’s beliefs or how it comes through in his works based upon a single blog comment. If the work is still good, the work is good, and as long as story and reader enjoyment comes ahead of message, awesome.

          That is a funny quote though, considering that all the SJWs declared I’ve got “white privilege” (actually, it is Portuguese Dairy Farmer Privilege) and thus must be Tarquin, but the character I related to the most was Roy, because A. let’s face it, I’m the real life Party Tank, and B. exasperated cat herder. 🙂

      9. *reads Burlew’s quoted material*
        I’ve been enjoying the strip for quite a while now and somehow managed to simply enjoy the story and the characters because it was well written. Amusing most of the time, sad sometimes (“hi roy… wanna play blocks with me?”) and sometimes even awesome. Silly me, I guess I was supposed to be acting like a “typical” straight white man instead and get all upset because the party leader is *gasp* a black man. Instead I see him as a Lawful (Sarcastic) Good hero trying to do the right thing and when he fails, he… tries again.

        (It’s a content of their character thing, perhaps a budding SJW can’t understand that concept.)

  5. I know Brad recused himself, but I would love love love if The Chaplain’s War got nominated for best novel, because damn. I have a checkbox labeled “treats religion and religious characters without disdain,” and he (and Butcher!) mark that one quite nicely.

      1. Yeah, I wish he hadn’t recused himself. TCW was really, really good. The sort of novel that used to win these awards.

    1. I may have recused myself from SP3 but there is nothing to prevent people from voting for “The Chaplain’s War” for Best Novel anyway. I didn’t want to give free ammo to the whole, “Torgersen is just slumming for a Hugo!” argument. Really, I am cool with not being on the short list this time. But if readers want me there, who am I to argue with the readers?

  6. I still nomed “Christmas Noun 7” on my personal ballot for Best Short Story.

    Because of the moaning and wailing and exploding of craniums that would result. And I had an extra slot on the slate. . . (grin)

    1. Thought about it, just for the sheer head explodery it would cause, but at some point this moved beyond just me pissing off SJWs for the sake of pissing off SJWs, and actually making a difference in the culture wars. In that respect, there are a lot of good, deserving shorts that would normally be ignored for dinosaur wereseal lesbians. Brad is the main guy behind the suggested short story noms, because he knows that market better than most of us.

      1. You made a difference in the Culture Wars with SP2. Look at how the SJWs have completely exposed themselves, and in how many places, since then. This is the next offensive against the Offensive.

  7. “Transhuman and Subhuman” was DEEP. John Wright’s prose is something to behold. Thus my purchase of “One Bright Star to Guide Them”

    Already own Skin Game (actually, the entire Dresden Files series), a lot of MHI, the Grimnoir books, and Kloos’ books, so I’m bookmarking this for, ahem, future reference.

    1. Greg, we get 5 slots, and we cast a wide net. (you can read the basic reasoning here). If we loaded the whole thing with Baen authors, then we’re right back to where we were before, with the SJW assholes denying there is any problem with the awards, and anybody who is standing against them is just trying to make it a “Baen” thing. Believe it or not, we’re not just Evil, we’re Clever. 🙂

      Instead, I’m proving the same point, only have guys from other places, including indy, so now they can’t say that. (or they will, and they’ll just look like assholes to all the undecideds, which is kind of my whole goal)

      And Kratman is on there. He really didn’t want to be, but he is. He wrote a fantastic, deserving novella.

      Believe me, I’m perfectly happy to not be on there. And the way this is looking, we’re going to be growing this in the future. There are dozens of worthy authors who’ve been ignored for way too long. Basically the ELoE told me tough crap. It was my fans who started it, and just logistically I can’t afford to piss them off by dropping out. Once we get enough people to consistently mess with the SJW’s owning the noms, I’ll be glad to drop off, and I’d love to see Ringo and Weber get nominated. Hell, I’d also like to see Flint, Williamson, and Hoyt among others. Not to mention I’d like to see greats like Zahn or Stackpole get some love. Or hell, Dan Simmons has been shunned by the good thinkers since he wrote a short story saying that maybe militant jihadis actually do want to kill everybody, and he’s one of the greatest writers alive. Then you’ve got some really amazing authors who aren’t “in” with the cool WorldCon kids who don’t even register, like Maberry, Ochse, or Lawrence.

      So yeah, we’re not going to undo a decade of Puppy Related Sadness in one go. 🙂

      1. Somehow I missed seeing “Big Boys Don’t Cry”, which definitely deserves it’s nomination.

        Perhaps this year, or in later years, you could put more than five for some categories. Don’t know if that counts as “diluting your fire” or “strengthening point by showing how much good stuff is actually out there.”

        1. Diluting your fire. Basically anything we say or do beforehand is irrelevant, because they just make up crazy stuff about us that we never said. Getting things actually nominated is where the action is. 🙂

      2. Good heavens! Dan Simmons has never won a Hugo? He deserves four just for his Hyperion Cantos! Who else has the brazen large balls to do Canterbury Tales in space, and make it an epic time travel super-AI story about the triumph of heaven over hell?

      3. JCWright, Simmons won in 1990 for Hyperion…

        But these days he is as persona non grata among the lefty worldcon intelligenstia politburo as Larry, or Vox, or you are.

      4. “JCWright, Simmons won in 1990 for Hyperion…”

        Well, that at least proves the world is not insane. If the leftists are still angry about his time-traveler jihad short story, it shows they are.

        I had not realized that I was persona non grata. No one told me. I guess it does not really count if someone exiles you from the nation you’ve never heard of. It is like having your visa to North Sentinel Island revoked. You just blink in dull confusion, wondering when you ended up with a visa to North Sentinel Island in the first place.

      5. Dan Simmons deserves a whole shelf of awards, in every genre there is. Well, I take that back: I don’t think Simmons has yet written a romance novel.

        But in just about every other category – crime, mystery/thriller, SF, horror, dark fantasy – he’s written at least one book that just knocked it out of the park. “Hyperion” was good, but “Carrion Comfort” and especially “Summer of Night” are by far and away my favorites.

      6. If I may ask, what was the title of the story Dan Simmons wrote?

        Hang on, Timothy Zahn’s NEVER been nominated?! Has Diane Duane ever been? (but we’ll have to wait for her next Wizardry book, because that series is awesome). Has Peter David? Or Weiss and Hickman? *curious*

        It honestly boggles me that Jim Butcher never got nominated either. I’m sad to have missed this year’s nominations, but I’m also a little glad that I’m not going to be forced to choose between yourself and Butcher-sensei. In all honesty, I would have to roll dice or coin flip.

      7. @Shadowdancer: Go to Simmons’ blog (dansimmons.net) and look for “The Time Traveler.” I believe he published it there in April of 2006.

      8. Zahn won in 1984 (Novella, Cascade Point). Two other nominations, but none since.

        Got curious…. Terry Pratchett, only nomination in 2000, for related work (The science of Discworld).

      9. It’s rather depressing that Terry Pratchett doesn’t have an award in here somewhere. Heck, aside from being a Straight White Male ™ -and therefore at least 50% evil – he doesn’t particularly care for religion, he’s apolitical, etc. He’s also thoroughly amusing, a master wordsmith, and an excellent observer of the human condition. He’s one of the most famous and popular SF/F authors (as in both, simultaneously) of the past 50 years.

        There’s just something wrong when he doesn’t have an award.

      10. @s1al – the really sad thing is that I suspect his chances of winning on merit have passed by. PTerry’s latest works clearly suffer, lacking the mystery and character of his earlier works. Raising Steam was barely readable.

        Bizarrely, his style is becoming ever more SJW-friendly as the deterioration advances. ‘Tis worth shedding a tear.

      11. the really sad thing is that I suspect his chances of winning on merit have passed by. PTerry’s latest works clearly suffer, lacking the mystery and character of his earlier works. Raising Steam was barely readable.

        I found Raising Steam to be perfectly readable and considerably more enjoyable than Unseen Academicals, but I agree in the larger sense. The recent works don’t quite have the same spark.

      12. @Khazlek – Pratchett’s genius has always been in his characters. He’d describe a character such that the reader couldn’t help but understand their motivations – describing with innuendo and associations, so cleverly that the image takes shape without need of anything so crass as conscious evaluation.

        What jarred me in Raising Steam was the tendency of characters to launch into expository spiels at every turn. That’s a violation of the marvellous gift that he had for “show, don’t tell”. It showed up (along with the power creep of Sam Vimes, who was perfect as a human – if very driven – copper, without this Dark malarkey) to a lesser degree in Snuff, which was terribly disappointing as a follow-up to the excellent Thud.

        Pratchett at his best could describe a couple of characters grunting in a mud-hole, and he’d add a velvet richness to the situation and communication. Alas, that star has indeed faded, and were poorer for it.

        Either way, we’re well off the point here. 😀

  8. I would replace Grimm with The Flash for short-form dramatic presentation. For a CW show it’s been surprisingly faithful to the spirit of the source material, while reinventing it for a new audience.

    (surreptitiously hides the vast pile of FLASH comics lurking in a corner.)

    1. The Flash is great fun. I haven’t seen Grimm, so I can’t comment on how the two compare. But the team doing The Flash definitely deserve some acknowledgement.

      1. Given the “specific episode must be nominated” rule, if anyone wants to join in on nominating The Flash episode 9: “The Man in the Yellow Suit”…heh-heh-heh.

      2. Runner-up would be the episode that introduced Leonard Snart – aka Captain Cold.

        But yes, “Man in the Yellow Suit” was a rather good episode.

    2. I’d go with Grimm, myself. It’s an awesome show, and does fun and creative things with fairy tales (plus unlike the wretched OUAT, none of the characters is an annoying child). Plus diversity! Half of the characters aren’t even human!

      I like The Flash and how they’re rebooting the source material, but found the Arrow pairing jarring. Arrow’s a lot more reserved and low-key with its superpowers, and it was rather like Superman Goes to Gotham.

      1. The current Arrow story arc with Ray Palmer is getting a bit more super-powery (albeit tech powers of the power suit variety). In fact, Felicity and Palmer will be appearing in an upcoming episode of The Flash. Apparently they’ll be heading to Star Labs to get some help with part of Ray’s ATOM suit.

      2. Well, they’re being very careful and controlled in the expansion of the DC TV Universe. So back then other than Ollie, there wasn’t anyone Barry -could- get his backdoor pilot on. But, yeah, like junior said, Arrow season 3 has introduced the Atom, the Flash has introduced Firestorm (and teased a few others), sometime soon Vixen (!) is getting her own online mini-series in the same setting…so soon they’ll have enough for their own street level Justice League.

  9. There is a problem with one of the categories.

    You can’t just name a show for best dramatic presentation (short form); you have to name a specific episode. Yes; it’s crazy but that’s how it works, and it usually means that a show needs a loud cheerleader to suggest a specific episode. This is how Dr. Who keeps getting more than one nomination.

    Game of Thrones Season One was nominated as a single work, but that was in long form.

    1. Ah, looking at Brad’s page, as of now, there are two shows with named episodes, but there are a couple more without.

  10. How does Game of Thrones qualify as a work that would otherwise not find itself on the ballot? It won last year, and the year before that. It won as long form in 2012.

    I have no problem nominating it, but it will probably make the ballot with or without Sad Puppies.

  11. Well, they’re already accusing SP of “fascism” on Twitter (I posted some examples at Brad’s) and they’re not even on the ballot yet! Who knew they were such faithful readers of these blogs?

    And speaking of Brad’s, look who popped up in the comments. 🙂

    1. Yeah, somebody accusing Jim Butcher of being a fascist. What a dipshit. Butcher is like the nicest guy in the world and pretty much my political opposite. I did send Jim that tweet though as a way of letting him know I’d posted the slate. 😀

      You know, if the SJWs realized that if it wasn’t for Clamps/Alauda/Andrew Marston constantly harassing us non-SJW writers, we probably wouldn’t have been motivated enough to do Sad Puppies. This is all his fault. I think we should dedicate it to him, and then the SJWs can go burn his house down. 🙂

      1. Man, anyone who refuses to read Jim Butcher just because they think he -might- have some fans who they don’t agree with is doing the equivalent of cutting off their nose to spite their face.

        Then I remembered: His books are accessible, fun, inclusive, and feature a protagonist who helps people because it’s the right thing to do, not because they check off boxes on a victim Bingo card.

        In other words, he’s their Kryptonite.

      2. You don’t want to do that. Vox wouldn’t be able to participate. When lawfully curbing a stalker, you don’t get to publicly poke him, no matter how much you would enjoy it.

      3. The SJWs have decided that Butcher is the equivalent of Dr. Matt Taylor and his magical shirt. At this point they just dismiss out of hand.

      4. “anyone who refuses to read Jim Butcher just because they think he -might- have some fans who they don’t agree with is doing the equivalent of anyone who refuses to read Jim Butcher just because they think he -might- have some fans who they don’t agree with is doing the equivalent of cutting off their nose to spite their face.”

        As I understand it, “cutting off their nose to spite their face.” is the second kata of SJW-Fu. It comes after “Holding your breath and drumming your widdle heels on the floor”

      5. Seeing someone accuse Jim Butcher of being a fascist had me BSOD. The various declarations to NOT read his work out of hand though… that was just beyond sad and pathetic. But then, someone pointed out that Butcher’s works are probably their Kryptonite, and that actually makes sense.

        LMAO, Larry – you want to piss Clampsy off, have my novelette, Sparrowind, nominated for / win a Hugo! (seriously, he blew up when I quietly published it.) Or TL Knighton’s latest work.

        However, I honestly do not believe I’m anywhere near the caliber of the current slate, so no nominations unless someone REALLY does believe it’s worthy of the nomination, please. Sad Puppies 3 is for the worthy, not for pissing off the SJWs.

    2. Fascism?

      We aren’t a bunch of violent socialists. A real group of Fascists would show up on his doorstep, burn a pile of his books, and chase him around with axe-handles, while accusing him of treason against the true working man.

      1. Judging by his Twitter feed, he uses “fascist” and “neocon” in a fashion that suggests he has no idea what either word means.

      2. True fact: most of the folks who spend the most time referring to others as “fascists” neither have much of a clue about what a ‘fascist’ believes, nor would survive the attentions of any real, historical fascists. It’s just shorthand for “People who don’t agree with me politically” to them. Might as well be calling us “Star-Bellied Sneeches” for all the accuracy involved.

      3. @Christopher M Chupik:

        The SJWs use fascist, neo-con and nazi slurs with the exact same motivation that actual nazis use(d) “filthy jew!” and with the same intentions.

        Lets not delude ourselves. If the SJWs ever reach critical mass, that movement will become just as mass murdery as the worst cases in history to date.

      4. Pugmak:

        All utopianists degenerate into death camp guards and/or inmates. A utopia requires the destruction of the original civilization. The result is always megadeaths.

  12. I wonder how insane the WorldCon SJW crowd will be when I show up carrying a big (fake) tetsubo bearing the sign “Larry Correia Fan Club”? (I live in Spokane, not gonna miss out on this!)

  13. Thanks for the love in the Fanzine dept., Larry. It’s nice to know people like Elitist Book Reviews. We dont care about politics or religion…we care about the quality of the stories.

    Dont forget my short story A Single Samurai is in The Baen Big Book of Monsters 😉 It’s awesome!

    Might i suggest one serious addition? William Schafer of Subterranean Press for Best Editor – Short Form. Like Stan Schmidt, Bill Schafer has been criminally ignored, and has been a huge reason for short fiction still existing in several genres. He also runs the best Specialty Press in the business.

    1. When ever I run into a book I think might be worth reading, but with an unfamiliar author, I head to your site first in looking for reviews.

      I, for one, seriously appreciate the work y’all put into that site and the service you and your crew provide.

    1. Martian was originally published before the cut off. Had to check on that one because of all the recommendations we got forit.

      1. The Martian should be considered an adventure novel.

        Only in this piss-poor Nixon/Obama space program world is The Martian science fiction.

  14. The best thing one can do is keep using social justice warrior quotes and examples of their essays and fiction to point out this is a core group of witchhunting, shaming, sociopathic psychopaths who believe in the abolition of gender as if it were slavery. They honestly believe the genre of SFF has been a women-hating racist KKK for the entire century of its history, including right now. They believe the West is like the imperial Roman Empire because Coca-Cola and Harry Potter. That core of sociopaths is supported by naive nitwits who seem to actually believe they are marching on Selma and protecting Al-Qaeda from wicked cartoons and Islamophobia.

    In the modern history of America there has been no group more worthy of condemnation and ridicule. If a Social Justice Warrior has not told a falsehood in the last 8 hours it is because they were sleeping. SJWs routinely lie about SFF authors not on board with their abolitionist nightmares as well as lying about the history of SFF and larger history itself. When French cartoonists were assassinated for blasphemy against the King of all Meteorites SJWs immediately went into Islamophobia defend-mode and chastised French cartoonists for attracting ninja assassins because of racism, a thing no insane fatwa against cartoonists and writers has ever mentioned. SJWs went into a “racism” defense for the simple reason they are ignorant liars.

    SJWs went after Ridley Scott’s Exodus for “racism” because the European central cast looked just like Cairenes walking around their own city. That’s because SJWs don’t get out much and think Cairo is just like Detroit except with better street lights, emergency services and less crime. Plus the Egyptian president is a Harkonnen Islamophobe compared to the noble Muslim Brotherhood Fremen the SFWA supports.

    SJWs publicly defame millions of Americans for their race and are surprised when they encounter a few people as crazy as they are and start stuffing the special files they keep for the FBI in the event of their own death by random pick-up truck dragging through the streets of whatever 99% white suburb they bravely live in.

    SJW SFF is ignorant and frequently not even SFF, unless you consider an imaginary conversation Will Rogers had with a taxi driver SFF.

    The Hugos nominees last year were a clear call to abolish gender by giving an award for an abolitionist zombie title character who by an amazingly cheap coincidence couldn’t tell one sex from another. However a dinosaur could tell one race and sex from another and enacted the appropriate revenge. Tarzan hilariously wandered into a Hollywood recreation of Africa in a Jim Crow county thereby proving once again how spiritually depraved and clueless white men are compared to male impersonators. Finally, lesbian gal pals escaped from the plantation known as “men.”

    The usual kung-fu in space was presented without the kung-fu but plenty of smug racial looking down the nose called “supremacy” in Orwell’s alternate universe. Gay men got rained on by a vicious strain of water from outer space, lying about women warriors technically qualified for “fantasy” and SJWs symbolized their hatred of John Campbell’s racism by nominating actual racists. The best fan writers were gender feminist dingbats with one privileged male Gunga Din to squee-carry their fierce sandwich pails.

    This year the Hugos returns to the apartheid white supremacy known on SJW Twitter feeds as Amerikkka, with results no one can foresee, other than the usual roundups of homosexuals and people of coloring.

    1. Exodus is an interesting case because part of me thinks they sort of have a point,but not for the reasons they think. If you go back to the original scripture, we have indications that both Jethro and by extension Zipporah were black, the fact that Moses was “married to a Cushite” is listed as a reason for Miriam and Aaron falling out with Moses. I think in that context, portraying diversity makes sense. at the same time, go back and look at the original Heston films and tell me that nothing has changed.

      My biggest question, however, is where is the outrage over a Scott and Bale going on the record as portraying Moses as a genocidal asshole?

      1. The question is not one of whether there are black folks about; there are plenty in Cairo, though a minority. The question is whether that cast looks out of place and it does not, not at all. Given Egypt’s location on a map and Ramses II’s actual rock tomb memorial at Abu Simbel which depicts him riding his chariot over sub-Saharan Africans while he is depicted entirely differently gives no credence to belly-aching about the cast.

  15. I’d like to point out the possibility of nominating Christopher Nuttall for the Campbell Award. Great new author, really got on the scene this year, though he’s been indie publishing for a few. I’m not 100% sure about the qualifications, though. Ebooks have rendered a lot of the rules of publishing outdated.

  16. For fan writer, I’ll be going with Deirdre Saoirse Moen (Deirdre.net, which some of you may remember from her posts on MZB). Her posts on that were thoughtful and well done.

    And not Dave Freer, because no offense to Dave, but he’s a full pro, and I want to preserve my ability to mock pro writers that seek fan nominations 🙂

    Otherwise I want to have read things before I nominate, so I’ll have to go a-purchasing.

  17. I will say, I loved Tom Kratman’s Big Boys Don’t Cry. Most books blur together at some point, but there are some which stand out. That was one for me. Even if you don’t nominate him, at least read the book.

    1. And this is a reason I’m looking at all the Sad Puppy (and variant) slates… and a good reason to put them out as clusters rather than just individual selections. I now have specific books and stories to read. Word of mouth is still one of the primary ways that books move. The Hugos used to be a way for Readers to say “Hey! Hey! You’ve got to read this book!” Right now Sad Puppies is serving that function… perhaps the Hugos will again in the future and maybe next year I’ll have enough free funds for a membership to help with Sad Puppies IV.

  18. I will be nominating Monster Hunter Nemesis for best novel. I’m with John C. Wright on this one. Excellent book with serious depth.

  19. I signed up this year! Thank you for this entire sad puppies endeavor, which is actually how I learned anything at all about how the Hugos work or that I had the option to participate. I will definitely look into all your suggestions when I make my nominations

    I also hope some of you reading this might consider nominating Peter David’s _Artful_ which is a pretty awesome book set post-Oliver-Twist about the Artful Dodger fighting vampires – because it’s a fun and clever book and also because I was actually very surprised to realize that he has never won a Hugo, although now I wonder if this is related to people not respecting Star Trek novels (you can laugh, it hadn’t occurred to me that within SF people might feel that way).

    1. Here is the funny thing about Peter David (who I have only met once, and who seems like a really nice guy). Last year when Sad Puppies 2 did its thing, he posted about how horrible it was that a racist could get a Hugo nomination but media tie in fiction could not.

      Only the very same campaign that got Vox’s short story on the ballot, also got a work of media tie in fiction onto the Hugo ballot for the first time in history. (I’ve also explained my reasoning for nominating Vox in the aftermath post) But hey, thanks for jumping on the band wagon and insulting my people without all the facts, Mr. David, even though I broke down a wall that none of you guys ever have. Totally appreciated. 🙂

  20. I have a suggestion for the the slate fellow hunters. For Best Novel Pixie Noir by Cedar Sanderson. or the sequel Trickster Noir. 3rd and I think final one in the series will hopefully be out by Libertycon.. Larry I think you’ve met Cedar. I like her. she’s good people.It would tickle me pink to see her make it to the official ballot and trounce all comers.

    1. We know Cedar, and she’s on the ballot.

      Keep in mind that this is just a suggested slate for everybody to look at, put together by the ELoE being all strategic like.

  21. I am saddened nothing by Brandon Sanderson is on there. He is my one of my favorite Authors up there with Larry and Butcher.

    1. Writing Excuses’ fanbase has proven itself big enough to get works nominated. They’ll make sure his short story in Shadows Beneath makes the ballot.

      Remember: Sad Puppies is for deserving artists/works that need an extra push to break through the usual WorldCon voters’ ideological roadblocks.

      1. I’m a big fan of Brandon’s works, but keep in mind, one of our goals this time was to put forward worthy authors who have been ignored by the typical Hugo voting crowd.

      2. “…keep in mind, one of our goals this time was to put forward worthy authors who have been ignored by the typical Hugo voting crowd.”

        Good point–and one of the main reasons I joined SP3.

        You’ll get no argument from me about Brandon’s worthiness (if SP2 didn’t prove your point about corruption at the Hugos, WoT’s loss clinched it). Also, you’re obviously right that he doesn’t need our help to get nominated.

        1. (if SP2 didn’t prove your point about corruption at the Hugos, WoT’s loss clinched it).

          Corruption in what sense? Are you suggesting that votes for WoT weren’t counted?

      3. “Corruption in what sense? Are you suggesting that votes for WoT weren’t counted?”

        No. Larry said that his audit of last year’s WorldCon ballots showed that the administration was on the level, and that’s plenty good enough for me.

        I’m referring to the dominant voting bloc tainted with SJW ideology–which Sad Puppies, and Wheel of Time’s loss, proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

      4. I’m referring to the dominant voting bloc tainted with SJW ideology–which Sad Puppies, and Wheel of Time’s loss, proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

        I know Larry predicted a big victory for WoT, but the whole series was eligible as a single work last year because in hadn’t managed to get nominated once since 1990.

        I’m guessing you’ve been a big fan from the beginning.

        I didn’t read it when it came out. A friend who is a fan of the series, suggested that it probably wasn’t my deal. After it was nominated, I read one volume and stopped there. I didn’t find it remotely as good as Warbound and I didn’t place it very high on my ballot.

        I think there is plenty of room for reason for reasonable doubt about why it didn’t do better that doesn’t have anything to do with SJW ideology.

        WoT does have a significant and vocal following; it was in 2nd place on the first ballot pass, but it didn’t pick up enough votes on the following passes.

      5. “I’m guessing you’ve been a big fan from the beginning.”

        Until somewhere around Book 5. I haven’t finished the series yet. I’m familiar with Mr. Sanderson’s work from other books, and that’s how I’m judging his craftsmanship.

        My point regarding Wheel of Time is that the Hugos are a popularity contest, WoT enjoys the most popularity by far among last year’s nominees, therefore its loss strongly suggests that the Hugos don’t represent SFF fandom as claimed.

        “I think there is plenty of room for reason for reasonable doubt about why it didn’t do better that doesn’t have anything to do with SJW ideology.”

        If WoT’s loss were an isolated incident, you might’ve had a point. Note that I cited that, plus Sad Puppies 2, as definitive proof.

        “WoT does have a significant and vocal following; it was in 2nd place on the first ballot pass, but it didn’t pick up enough votes on the following passes.”

        That is true:

        http://www.loncon3.org/hugos/2014%20Hugo%20awards%20full%20details.pdf

        1. My point regarding Wheel of Time is that the Hugos are a popularity contest, WoT enjoys the most popularity by far among last year’s nominees, therefore its loss strongly suggests that the Hugos don’t represent SFF fandom as claimed.

          It depends on how you define SFF fandom. I think you are saying that WoT enjoys the most popularity among SF readers. You may be right. Do SF collectible catalogs still sell WoT swords and stuff like that? I suspect that WoT isn’t as popular now as it was some years ago. In any case, I think it is likely true that WoT is more popular among SF readers as a whole than among Hugo voters.

          If you define SF fandom to include people who attend SF cons, or in other ways take part in that SF culture which used to spell beer with an ‘h’, then I’m not convinced that SF fandom likes WoT any better than Hugo voters.

          In the ’90s, there was a fair amount of discussion in fandom about the WoT. WoT always had a fairly substantial fan base, but it also had a fair number of detractors. In the ’90s the detractors weren’t complaining that the books were too cisnormative, but it still didn’t get nominated.

          What I’m getting at is that you can’t attribute every difference in taste between Hugo voters and the whole of SF readers to SJW tastes.

  22. Jason Rennie’s two appearances on the slate have me all kinds of excited!

    And I couldn’t agree more about Toni. An editor’s job is to pick winners. Toni’s success in that regard speaks for itself.

  23. I never tire of you rattling the cages of the SJW Collective, and this is an official way to do it. I look forward to seeing more of these morons come out of the woodwork!
    I really should check out some of these other authors though. Sounds like they would be a real blast! Time to set aside some more reading money. 🙂

    Of course, when I read the mention of “no dinosaur love story” my brain instantly went “Does a story involving the love of hunting dinosaurs count? Cuz I’d totally enter some of my stuff into that category.”
    Power of imagination FTW!
    But wow, I would genuinely like to see if anyone wanted anything like that. XD

    1. You and a lot of other folks… including, I suspect, Larry himself.

      No offense at all to Larry, but Butcher’s stories have so much pull that dragging yourself away from the page is like trying to exit Earth’s gravity well by vigorously flapping your arms.

      I’m quite happy to sit at a lagrange point between him and Larry, though.

      1. I’m perfectly happy to get my butt kicked by Butcher. The dude has mad skills.

        The idea that somebody like him has been pretty much ignored by the Hugos all this time should be pretty telling.

    2. I face a similar dilemma. I’m going to vote for MHN just to watch the SJW reaction to a Correia win.

      There will be plenty of opportunities to give Butcher well-deserved Hugos when the Dresden Files movies start coming out.

      1. Oh man. I’d LOVE to see Dresden Files movies. They just need to pick a VERY good actor to portray Harry. Kinda like how, IMHO, Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect Tony Stark, and whoever decided to cast Hemsworth and Hiddleton for Thor and Loki is a freaking GENIUS. Get that person to pick for the Dresden Files movies PLEASE.

      2. The Dresden TV series had an odd episode turn up around episode 8 that was much closer to the original novels. I think what happened is that by that point the powers that be had already decided the show wasn’t going to get renewed. So they used the original pilot (which hadn’t aired) as a filler episode to save money.

        If my theory is correct, then the show as originally conceived would have been much closer to the novels. But somewhere along the way a number of elements (such as Harry’s VW, and Susan Rodriguez) were removed.

      3. I’m pretty sure that was the pilot.

        Really sad too, it was a bit rushed to get the first book in, but it did a lot better than the rest of it.

        Granted, I still enjoyed the show, but only by completely divorcing it from the books in my mind.

  24. (lots of suggestions for it, but the Martian wasn’t eligible).

    I’ll admit disappointment here. A coworker lent it to me last week and the ability to push it pushed me over the edge on joining Sad Puppies this year (although I’m glad I did regardless). It was the best near future sci-fi I’ve read in 20 years, easily.

  25. Oh man! Asking me to choose between Skin Game and Nemesis?! That’s like asking me to choose between my favorite Universal monsters (Dracula vs Frankenstein) 😉
    Both books were my favorites for the year!
    I do have to say, after having tried reading a Hugo award winning novel several years ago, I gave up on them. I remember throwing the book down thinking “The soul is gone, if crap like this makes it…”
    I’m happy to see that you’re bringing back the love to an award that got me interested in books like Enders Game.
    Fight the good fight!
    I’m also happy to say, I’ve been making fans for the Monster Hunter series. I let my friends and co-workers read the first couple of pages, then take away the phone (my e-reader) and hand them a post it with your name and the titles to the series. Next day, they have new books with them!
    Again Sir! Fight the good fight (and while you’re at it, please help me spend my money on some great books!)

  26. I’m glad to see Tangent on the ballot. I write reviews for them occasionally and Dave is a stand up guy. I’m a little surprised to see ‘The Maze Runner’ on there though, considering how window-licking idiotic that movie was.

  27. And I’m still kicking myself I didn’t think to suggest Sam Hughes’s “Ra” (available at qntm.org/ra) earlier. Despite having decidedly leftist and atheist views, he keeps them out of his fiction, filling his stories with robots and supercomputers and planets being blown up and time travellers and superpowers, as opposed to heroic lesbian SJWs oppressed by homophobic Catholics. It would be fun to see if this heretofore obscure writer would suddenly become a target of SJW vitriol just because they cannot wrap their heads around the possibility that we are, in fact, capable of enjoying things written by people we otherwise disagree with.

  28. Any reason for only four Campbell nominees?
    Vox has me (The Stars Came Back, 119 Amazon reviews, ~3500 copies sold) on his list. It’s been nominated for a Prometheus, and that alone should give Scalzi & Co a coronary.

    1. Actually don’t know on that one. Brad was the mastermind behind the Campbell list. I’ll have to look. I’ve not read your stuff yet.

      1. Only one book published so far. Sequel nearing 120k words, prequel around 35k words, kids’ early reader now being illustrated (battle of Marathon story, aimed at boys age 5-8).

        By way of background my NRA shooting instructor cert only recently lapsed, I’m a licensed explosives manufacturer for Boomershoot (be happy to see you there some time – shooting at explosive targets at 500 yards is a hoot; 25 yards downright thumpy!). and I write with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.

    2. Good to see you’re working on a sequel to “The Stars Came Back,” Rolf. For that matter, I’d actually love to see someone turn it into a movie or miniseries, especially since you’ve done most of the work for them, script-wise… 😉

      1. Believe me, I’d love to see a movie / miniseries out of it too. Not just for the $$, though that would be great, but I’d love to have something on the screen that I’d actually want to go see. So many theaters, so much potential, so much crap.

  29. Any particular reason for only four Campbell nominees?

    Vox has me (Rolf Nelson, “The Stars Came Back”, 119 Amazon reviews, ~3500 copies sold, originally indie now with Castalia House) on his list. It’s been nominated for a Prometheus Award by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which by itself should give the militant left coronaries. No reason not to fill all possible spots on the slate.

  30. As far as TV shows, I agree with Grimm, but I think OUAT deserves some recognition, too. I think that’s a great show. Really liking the new show Forever, but I don’t know if that’s eligible or if it’s too new.

    Totally agree that Guardians of the Galaxy should at least get a nom, though I kinda think it should win. It was just all-around excellent. (Although I do agree with the feminists that the “whore” line was inappropriate. One small blemish on an otherwise perfect movie.)

    Skin Game gets my vote for novel, though. Obviously. It was freaking amazing. That series just keeps getting better and better (unlike most long-running series). (What is the plural of ‘series’? Serieses? Seri?)

    And I think I’m gonna have to nominate the Christmas Noun story for best short story.

    1. Re: Guardians

      The line was spoken by Drax, who (at least in the movieverse) has as a major character trait that he constantly misunderstands the world around him and spouts off weird, wildly inappropriate things. From his intro right to the coda where he still doesn’t quite understand why “murder” is Something that Exists.

      I’m willing to give Gunn the benefit of the doubt that depicting the character doing that was not the same thing as excusing or advocating it.

      Anymore than, say, Rocket mocking the grief of widowers was an attempt to legitimatize anti-widower sentiments. If I’m wrong, may I be impaled by the arm of a sentient tree.

      1. I just think that, given that the female character had shown no tendency toward sexuality or promiscuity, it kind of came out of nowhere. If he’d used the word ‘bitch’ instead, it would have, in my opinion, been much more fitting. It would have been just as insulting/rude, but would have fit with the fact that she’s a tough chick instead of insinuating that he, for no reason, thinks that she is promiscuous. And given that his species is entirely literal, it seems like for him to call her a whore, he’d actually have to believe that she was literally a whore. Which, like I said, he has no reason at all to think. I just really think they should have used ‘bitch’ there instead. Just as insulting and therefore funny, but without the strange and undeserved accusation of sluttiness.

      2. @shawna
        Drax was repeating what he overheard the prison horde yelling about Gamora. Unless we’re supposed to suddenly assume the inhabitants of a supermax prison in space are all clean-spoken choirboys, that line was PERFECTLY in character both for Drax and the scene itself

    2. Ehh, I gave up on OUAT mid season three. I felt like the writers were just jerking the audience along, trying to squeeze in as many Disney cameos as possible.

    1. He understands well enough. He got a taste of the inquisition when he ran a Felicity Savage piece about “diversity” and decided on the better part of valor. He has decided to join Orwell’s Sandbox where words like “harassment” and “racism” are as malleable as clay and always end up looking straight at the new villain in radfem’s phantom march on Selma, the ethnic European male unlucky enough to be born a heterosexual. Davidson has been forced to adopt Audre Lorde’s vision of what SFF should look like while pretending such a thing doesn’t even exist. To do otherwise and use a normal dictionary and normal definitions of a hate group will bring the Two-Minute Hate down on his head.

      There is nothing more delicious than seeing a group of insane bigots team up with naive middle class Dudley Do-Rights and give nomination after nomination to what in principle are a clone army of David Dukes while pretending to be against the principles David Duke stands for, if you can call naked race and sex hatred and supremacy a “principle” or “politics.” Davidson has forgotten that no matter what he does he is white and male and that within this ideology the best he can ever hope to be is a giant ear that “just listens,” parrots the terrible Jim Crow of the “cis normative” and be a good little “ally” to the new moral leader of SFF and the opposite of the straight white male: the gay non-white woman.

      The real march has been out of WisCon, over the SFWA and now WorldCon. To pretend otherwise and not dare to speak that name is funny and pitiful more than anything else.”Feminism is the answer, and Audre Lorde is our prophet” is the real game and last year produced the most bald-faced terrible and bigoted fiction in over a half-century of award nominations. This year it’s only a question of where these morons will burn crosses in their feral obsession to marginalize men and whites and abolish gender the way sane people used to think about abolishing slavery.

      In tandem with military fiction, next year we should introduce a campaign where fierce women who have always fought should shed their privilege and sign a petition to be forced to sign up for the military draft at age 18. Then you’ll really see a lot of sad faces and lying.

      1. Mr. May,
        I’m other things in addition to being “white” (which according to the US census options I am not) and “male”, I am many other things, including intelligent and capable of making choices in a reasoned manner, something that apparently eludes many commenting here.
        No surprise. Look where I am.

        1. Look where you are? In a really old blog post’s comments that nobody other than the host is reading anymore? Bravo, genius.

          1. What do you expect from a guy that bought the rights to a defunct magazine in order to glom onto its previous gravitas…and thinks a book written in the 1950s is about the failure of the vietnam war…

  31. I haven’t seen any mention of Sanderson’s Words of Radiance, which I thought was a fantastic book. Is that not eligible for some reason? I did sign up as a supporter, so I’ve got to figure out what all the rules are for voting.

    1. Nominate whatever you want, as long as it was published in the last year. These are just guidelines. Vote with your conscience.

    2. iirc, Sanderson was briefly mentioned above. He’s not on Larry’s list because he’s probably not going to need any help getting nominated.

    1. And, thinking ahead for Sad Puppies 4, MidAmeriCon in 2016 is in my neck of the woods – may be the only chance I get to meet/get autograph from you (unless you come to KC for a book tour before then)!

  32. Oh. wow. just, lol.

    Anyone else notice how the village idiot views the group?

    “Damien Walter ‏@damiengwalter

    Science fiction award under attack by religious fundamentalists. It could almost be the plot of a Philip K Dick novel.”

    And later…

    “Damien Walter @damiengwalter · 15h 15 hours ago

    If we’re “lucky” some Islamic fundamentalists will decide to hijack the Hugo award as well and they’ll cancel the Christian fundies out.”

    Funny, and here I thought my favorite authors were a varied and diverse bunch who are everything from Mormon and Catholic to Atheist and Asatru.

  33. The Locus recommended nomination list is a good example of what’s happening even in institutions that are pretending to maintain principles. Like Tor.com in general, that Locus list attempts and succeeds in being majority apolitical. The problem with each is they have this pesky group of idiotic supremacists they will not call out or get rid of.

    How do I know that’s true? I know it’s true because if Tor and Locus had authors who were openly supportive of Stormfront, the KKK and neo-Nazism I know they wouldn’t last one second at either place. The problem is one of principle, not exact names and targets. In fact each does have authors that are Stormfront, KKK and neo-Nazi and not only gives them a voice but will delete and ban commenters that point this hypocrisy out.

    When Lois Tilton at Locus reviewed the ugly anti-white racial revenge anthology We See a Different Frontier edited by Djibril Al-Ayad and Fabio Fernandes she wrote:

    “There is a sad irony in the fact that these stories have been written in English, arguably the most dominant imperialist tongue since Latin, which still exercises its influence from the grave of history.”

    As in all SJW narratives, Arabic simply disappears and English becomes sad and ironic by default. What really happened is Locus decided “sad” and “ironic” are now words without meaning. Now Locus has what is essentially the sequel to that – Long Hidden and the sadness of “white saviors” – on their recommended list, co-edited by two people who never shut up about the inferiority and “arrogance” of whites. They have Veronica Schanoes. I dare anyone to read that woman’s Twitter feed for a week and not have to gargle 151 Rum. There’s plenty more. One can only imagine how likely I’d be to make a Locus list or have articles at Tor if I were co-editor of Long Hidden and Tweeted most black men should come with trigger warnings for “unthinking… arrogance.” Or how about if I pushed a narrative about “black saviors” and declared I’m tired of blacks making the winning score in sports.

    Both Tor and Locus have destroyed their credibility by using words so selectively they become meaningless and throw their entire sites into a thing that cannot be depended on for anything other than surprise visits from double standards and stinking bigots.

    Either have principles or don’t. Either let all voices speak or apply the same boycott standards to all. If you won’t throw these people to the side, we’ll throw you to the side. The difference between us and SJWs is we’re giving you a choice, and that doesn’t include highly selective definitions of what is racism and bigotry. It’s called “equal protection” – look it up. And here’s a clue: it’s not my hurt privileged fee-fees.

  34. Dunno if you knew this, but Butcher was actually attacked by the SJWs a few years ago.

    In book 7 of the Dresden Files, Harry goes to Hyde Park, which is a neighborhood in Chicago. He describes it as a blend of the worst the city has to offer with the best it has to offer (the latter being the University of Chicago) Some people felt that this was racist because it played into ‘black neighborhood=high crime=worst parts of the city’ tropes. Butcher complained about this on twitter, and he got attacked for objecting to the criticisms. See: http://luciazephyr.dreamwidth.org/548703.html and http://karnythia.tumblr.com/post/7331120265/badpasiqueer-is-mad-at-jim-butcher

    Also, Ebenezer McCoy calls Listens-To-Wind “Injun Joe”, which was deemed to be (out of the context that the two are old war buddies and call each other insulting things all the time) offensive. http://deepermeaningbooks.blogspot.sg/2011/07/use-of-racial-slur-in-dresden-files.html

    1. Btw, as a random factoid, Mikki Kendall/Karnythia (who runs the ‘Esoterica’ tumblr I linked above) is currently co-editing an SFF anthology called “Long Hidden 2” which is described here: http://longhidden.com/2014/09/17/long-hidden-2-is-coming/ .

      She was also the editor in charge of the short-lived “Verb Noire” small press which spun out of Racefail: http://www.verbnoire.com/editors . The collapse of the company is discussed here: http://mcclernan.blogspot.sg/2013/12/what-did-mikki-kendall-do-with-verb.html .

      1. Are these people insane?
        Do they have lives beyond their grievances?
        Or have they simply become walking, talking grievance bundles?
        The sheer amount of willful ignorance, reading comprehension failure, and sheer oversensitivity is appalling.

  35. I agree with tons of things around here… but not about KJA. I LOVED him when i was a kid back in the 90s (his Star Wars and X-Files books were sooo much fun for me!). Grew up reading a ton of his books… but after rereading a lot of it, and reading a lot of his new stuff. It feels bad.

    I went and read all the NEW Dune books he and the younger Herbert put out of the last 15 or so years and they read well, but thinking about them afterwards and trying to read them a 2nd time later on… the books feel badly written and it doesn’t FEEL like it’s Herberts fault.

    One perfect example of what i mean; in the Dune House series we find out that the Baron Harkonnen was ‘poisoned’ by a Bene Gesserit and that’s why he is so massively fat and walrus-like later in life.

    At first that reads awesome, like ‘oh cool, that’s a great tie in and explains a lot!’. But then you really think about it and… it’s bullshit. It makes the Baron out to be far far less than he is in the original Dune books. Him being absurdly fat is supposed to represent his lust and greed – that he can always get exactly what he wants and make it work. The ‘poison’ cause tosses that whole thing out the window and… i dunno, it’s hard to really explain but it lessened the character for me.

    It wasn’t even just that one part, that entire series feels kinda backwards and full of bullshit and duct tape.

    But that’s just one thing, it honestly feels like KJA half-asses most of his writing, like he’s stuck in writing school. Sure, he does a great job supporting everyone in the community and helping out, but that also feels like a bad thing for him personally. It comes out in his writing – that everything he does, is written by someone who is just starting out, except he’s been around for DECADES.

    KJA does damn fine young adult work, but i can’t even slightly enjoy anything he comes out with anymore, i can’t handle the amateurish feel of everything he does.

    1. Here’s the thing about KJA’s writing, you can’t judge his solo works based upon the stuff that he writes to spec or in collaboration for other people’s IPs.

  36. I just defaulted almost exactly to this list. I added a short story by MZW. I will be reviewing my Amazon purchase history to see what changes I might want to make, but if I forget, at least I’m fucking with the Hugos.

  37. Plus, John Wright said that MHN was my best book

    Now, that’s just not true.

    Actually, frankly (sorry, buddy.) I kind of think MHN was a little weak. It seemed more like setup work for the upcoming stuff than most of your books do. Which isn’t to say that I disliked it, or disliked reading about Frank’s origin and back story, but… I dunno.

    Just, compared to MHA, I would definitely not call MHN your best work. *shrug*

    Anyway, yeah, I’ll probably vote for Skin Game. Because seriously, Butcher made me feel bad for the most evil human (thus far) in that universe. That’s good writing.

  38. You know, it’s a funny thing–
    I’ve read Larry Correia’s stuff for a few years. Not all of it, but probably 2/3 of what he’s put out. It’s fun, pleasurable reading. It’s actually pretty tight in places– more so than I expected.

    I have read some criticism of his works by people who have declared him to be racist, among other things. I can’t figure out where this comes from. I’m pretty sensitive to racism. I don’t like it, and don’t care to be around it. One of my few hot-buttons that I have to watch out for over-reacting at is to be called one. (When you find yourself hanging out with people in the shooting community, some people outside of the community have a habit of making sweeping judgments about you and the community, based upon their perceptions of a tiny minority of the community.) I haven’t picked up on ANYTHING racist or sexist in Correia’s writing, and in fact challenge anyone to point out to me something which would indicate that this was his bent.

    While part of me wants to see pure talent distilled from the slush pile under laboratory conditions without campaigning and such, we must concede that this is, by its very definition, a popularity contest. For a professional SF writer to campaign for his position on the ballot is no violation in any way. I routinely base my purchases of SF on Hugo and Nebula nominations and winners’ lists. This is about sound business, for an author to campaign his work to his fans, and contribute to organized efforts to get his work nominated again.

  39. Sigh. I get as annoyed as the next straight white guy at constantly being demonized, but this is just silly. I agree the Hugo’s are broken, but you’re breaking them even worse. I enjoy your books a lot, and a lot of the books on your slate, but I’m seriously considering boycotting your books out of disgust – I cannot take anyone who uses the phrase SJW to describe their opponents seriously. You should be fuckin’ ashamed.

    1. Thank you, noble Concern Troll, I will throw your condemnation on the condemnation pile with the rest of my condemnation.

      You know what, naw. Screw it. You say the Hugos are broken. Lots of people have been saying that for years. Behind closed doors and to their friends, authors complain about how the awards are unfair, biased, rigged to favor members of cliques, and about how they’ll never get a fair shake because they have failed to kiss sufficient social justice ass, but they did nothing. It got worse and worse and worse, until it got downright ridiculous, and still, you supposedly moderate types did nothing. The stranglehold got tighter and tighter, and still, you did nothing.

      Meanwhile, the awards became a joke to my people. We would have been content to leave them be, but the SJWs weren’t content to leave us alone.

      I am merely part of the inevitable backlash.

      Maybe if you’d taken your concern over the sanctity of the sacred awards and said something to the side out there slandering people and sabotaging careers for years, we wouldn’t have come to this point.

      But you didn’t. So now it is too late. If you’d not been such a useless, lukewarm failure, and shared your disgust with the people who have been doing privately for years what I’ve done openly recently, then you might have headed this off.

      If anyone should feel shame, it is people like you.

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