Hugo Nominees 2021 - Preliminary Thoughts

The short-listed nominees for the 2021 Hugo Awards have been announced.  Like many, I have thoughts.

Best Novel -

• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press / Solaris)
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Harrow The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com)
• Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tor.com)
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
• The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books / Solaris)

As I have suggested in the past, the nominators seem to be focused on a limited range of authors.  I purposely didn't read Harrow The Ninth or The City We Became in 2020 because I knew they would be on the short-list this year.  I did read Network Effect as I was working through the prior novella-length entries in that series already.  

The point is that four of the six nominees have had other works nominated recently.  Of the other two, Martha Wells' series is popular with many nominators.  I was unaware of Piranesi before it was nominated.  Upon reading the summary at Goodreads, I have high hopes for this book.  I can't say where it will appear on my ballot, but the concept sounds interesting to make it worth my time to read.

At least three of the works are subsequent entries in a series.  In my experience, subsequent entries in a series rarely surpass (much less equal) the quality of the first entry.  Very rarely.  If the initial entry didn't win, then I doubt subsequent entries will do any better.

I participate in the Hugo Awards to encounter new works and/or authors that I might have otherwise missed.  Having so many repeat nominees and/or serial entries diminishes that possibility.

Meryl Streep is the only actor that gets nominated for an Oscar for almost every movie she makes.  That's a bit odd, but it's Meryl.  Now we have a cadre of four authors that are repeatedly making the short-list?  Nope.

Best Novelette -

I nominated the novelette I Sexually Identify As A Helicopter by Isabel Fall.  I found it remarkable.  The con staff has shown the title as "Helicopter Story".  The original publisher, Clarkesworld, has indicated that the author changed the name at some point in time.  The author has indicated a willingness to accept the award.  It is Isabel's prerogative to rename the story.  While I will use the new title for participation in reading/reviewing/ranking the nominated works, I do wish that Isabel had kept the original name.  The only way to beat bullies is to never give them an inch of what they are asking.  Isabel was indeed bullied last year over this story.

Best Series - 

This is the first category where I would like to have a method for putting certain titles below "No Award" without harming the chances of the rest of the field.  I don't know that I will have time to sample all of the series.  While I have heard good things about a few of the nominees, I consider only one of the three series that I have sampled to be worth considering for the award in this category.

Best Related Work -

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form - 

There is at least one and perhaps two nominees in each of these categories that I would like to put below "No Award" without harming the chances of any of the rest of the nominees.  Alas, this is impossible.

Best Graphic Story -

• DIE, Volume 2: Split the Party, written by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics)
• Ghost-Spider vol. 1: Dog Days Are Over, Author: Seanan McGuire, Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa and Rosie Kämpe (Marvel)
• Invisible Kingdom, vol 2: Edge of Everything, Author: G. Willow Wilson, Artist: Christian Ward (Dark Horse Comics)
• Monstress, vol. 5: Warchild, Author: Marjorie Liu, Artist: Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
• Once & Future vol. 1: The King Is Undead, written by Kieron Gillen, iIllustrated by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, lettered by Ed Dukeshire (BOOM! Studios)
• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings (Harry N. Abrams)

On a positive note, there isn't a Saga entry for this year.  On another positive note, I have been meaning to read DIE Volume 2.  On a negative note, Monstress is nominated for the fifth consecutive year.  I have thoroughly enjoyed Monstress.  I might even put Volume 5 in the first spot on my ballot.  But I am suspicious when consecutive works in a series always find their way onto the short-list over and over with only 303 people nominating in the category. 

Best Semiprozine - 

Escape Pod & PodCastle do not seem to be properly placed in this category.  They are both podcasts that are comparable to podcast nominees from prior years in the "fancasting" category that were also headlined by professional writers.  Fortunately, I probably will not get to this category.  If there was a means of placing those nominees below "No Award" without harming the chances of the rest of the nominees, then I would surely use it.

Best Fancast - 

While there are a couple repeat nominees, there are also several new titles.  I'm looking forward to sampling their work. [updated] I just couldn't do it.  There were too many repeats to want to wade through all of the entries to give them a fair sampling.

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I wish entertaining times for everyone in the coming months.  If you haven't participated in the Hugo Awards in the past, then I recommend you give it a try.  You will encounter some of the best work being done in the genre.