Well, it looks like the Hugo Awards are pretty much busted this year.
So it occurred to me: there are a lot of very sharp, very well-informed SF/fantasy fans that read this blog (and at least one award-winning SF author that I know of). So why not do a little awarding of our own?
And so I would like to welcome you to the First Annual We Hunted The Mammoth Serious Kitten Awards.
Nominate your favorites in the categories below — and if there are any more categories you think I should add, suggest them. Every category with at least 5 nominees will be voted on in a future post; the rest will be dropped.
Use your best judgment when choosing the right category for your nominations. Speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, all good. EBooks, self-published books, all fine. I’ll make other rules/clarifications/pronouncements as necessary.
The only thing that isn’t fine: No nominations for anyone or any work included in the Sad Puppies or Rabid Puppies Hugo slates, except in the “worst” categories, if you think they deserve it. The point is to highlight work that might otherwise get overlooked because of the Sad/Rabid Puppies ballot-stuffing.
The categories:
- Best Novel (published in 2014)
- Best Novella (published in 2014)
- Best Short Story (published in 2014)
- Best SF-related Nonfiction Book (published in 2014)
- Best Comic/Graphic Novel (published in 2014)
- Best Webcomic (ongoing, but has to have appeared in 2014)
- Best SF site (ongoing, but had to exist in 2014)
- Best SF blog (ongoing, but had to exist in 2014)
- Best SF movie (released or or shown on television in 2014, i.e. SyFy movies count)
- Best SF TV series (for episodes from 2014)
- Best SF podcast/Youtube channel (ongoing, had to exist in 2014)
- Best SF Twitterer (ongoing, but had to be on Twitter in2o14)
- Coolest SF person (ongoing, but had to be cool in 2014)
- Biggest SF asshole (ongoing, but had to be an asshole in 2014. Can include those associated with Sad Puppies and/or Rabid Puppies)
- Worst SF novel
- Worst SF movie
- Worst SF TV series
.NEW CATEGORY: Best SF game
Have at it! Make sure you specify what category your nomination should be in! The winners will win … something!
EDIT: Added a category.
A question from a person that likes the genre but does not follow Hugos … What are Sad and Rabid Puppies?
Best novel: The Getaway God by Richard Kadrey
Best webcomic: Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew (started in 2003 I think, but still being updated regularly)
Since you aren’t the Hugos, don’t you think you should add “Sf/Fantasy Video Game” to the list of categories?
And if you do add a “SF Video Game” category. I’d nominate Alien: Isolation
@Ælfscýne
A group of racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic far-right reactionaries, including good old Vox Day, who stuff the voting ballots in favour of bigot approved writers because they think sci-fi/fantasy has been taken over by the “SJW” menace. Basically #GamerGate, to the point where many if not all of them are #GamerGaters.
Two right-wing groups which resolved to stuff the Hugos’ ballots with authors who share their political leanings. Because the Hugos have been overrun (OVERRUN, I SAY!) with SJWs. Or something.
Graphic Novel – Ms Marvel: No Normal, just because it made my 10-year-old daughter fall in love with comics.
Added bonus: Her same-aged friend (a girl of Afghan descent whose family’s religious but not too terribly strict – kinda like Ms Khan’s 😀 ) also read it and is now as all about the character as my daughter.
Yeah, yeah – I know that it was nominated for the Hugos and is already a favorite, but the puppygators don’t like it.
For any steampunks out there who haven’t yet seen this–not eligible for a Hugo this year but hopefully it’ll be nominated for one next year:
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/
Do actors who starred in SF/F movies or shows count for this? If so:
Coolest SF/F person nominee: Emma Watson (Harry Potter), for her UN speech.
Biggest SF/F asshole nominee: Adam Baldwin (Firefly), for coining the #GamerGate tag.
Otherwise I don’t have much.
Time’s pretty limited and I’ve been using it to catch up on Terry Pratchett (who I scandlously didn’t discover until only a few years ago… Vimes <3 ).
A good side to this has been that I've been able to also introduce the aforementioned daughter to the Tiffany Aching books which she's devored amd then proseltyzed to her classmates.
Hit Post too soon.
So I’ll use the nominations of you good people for recommendations 😀
Devoured* and*
re: time & typos: I’m typing this with one hand while stirring a mixture to make coconut ice cream.
Best novella: Scale Bright, by Benjanun Sridangkaew
Best short story: The Dryad’s Shoe, by T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon)
Best webcomic: Unsounded, by Ashley Cope
And just one thing about the puppies:
WHAT IN THE HELL ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY SAY THAT SCI-FI’S GOTTEN TOO POLITICAL?!?
They act like allegory, (at least attempts at) diverse representation, and pushing a line of thought are NEW aspects of the genre.
Best SF TV series (for episodes from 2014) – Orphan Black, for its kickass clone storyline as well as its diverse female-centric roles, and asking questions about bodily autonomy and what makes a family while totally kicking ass. Plus Tatiana Maslany.
Because SF wasn’t political back in the day and Dune, The Time Machine, and Frankenstein were all just figments of our collective imagination.
And I second M.’s nomination for Steven Baldwin for biggest asshole.
I mean, there ARE bigger assholes in Sci-Fi, but his assholishness was fully revealed in 2014. That ought to count for something.
Not a nomination, but sf related so not entirely off topic. I just bought the Alien quadrilogy for ten bucks at Target and just started watching Alien 3 for the first time in about twenty years. I just realized that Fiorina is totally an MGTOW colony!
Anyway, I’m behind on fiction but do want to nominate Tatiana Maslany and Orphan Black.
yama – And Star Trek.
Just a series about explorin’ space and sleeping with hot aliens.
That’s it.
Ninja’d by Sandra Regina because I was blathering on about a 23 year old movie!
Aside: Has anyone seen/heard/read anything about Jim Butcher’s reaction*?
The Dresden Files aren’t exactly heavy reading and I know that their problematic elements are too much for some, but I’ve enjoyed them and Butcher’s always seemed like a pretty good guy…
…I’d be sorely disappointed to find out that he’s a-OK with the aims of the puppygators.
*I’ve seen that he was contacted prior to his inclusion on their slate, but it’s my understanding that he didn’t necessarily know about their politics.
@proxieme, I don’t know specifics, but John Scalzi has been urging people not to judge the various authors because of their being featured on a Puppy slate. Apparently some of them didn’t know what was going on, some weren’t even contacted, some aren’t involved with Puppy politics but their work is still good, etc.
So for whatever that is or is not worth. I’m really only in the loop on any of this due to following Scalzi on Twitter.
As far as Mammoth nominations go, my budget mostly keeps me in the paperbacks of yesteryear, so I’m not very hip with 2014’s stuff.
Although for webcomics, I quite enjoy Dark Legacy. Very funny riffing on WoW and WoW players, drawn by a WoW player.
For best short story: http://www.wattpad.com/story/27334017-nieve-and-her-seven-brothers
I feel like Mammoth-teers would appreciate it 😛
What, they think we’d travel the universe and find only white dudes and scantily-clad, beautiful (by Earth standards) women everywhere they go?
I think that’s pretty telling of their world view.
I tried thinking of nominations, but I’m drawing blanks. : P I haven’t had a lot of time to read/watch/enjoy new things over the past year. I’ve been so busy catching up on stuff I’ve missed from previous years!
@Kootipatra
Not sure exactly how to quote on here, if at all, but yeah that is probably one of the worst side-effects of this whole mess. From what I understand, they’re more interested in nominating people they feel are under looked conservative authors, than people who necessarily share their exact same views (although some certainly seem to).
That is something to keep in mind when dealing with groups like this. Not all conservatives are reactionary, Ayn Rand thumping (usually “deeply religious” ) nutters. Political views, like anything else, are a spectrum, and only a small, extreme fringe clings to an absolutist stance on them. There are more people than you’d think who are economically conservative, but are quite a bit closer to centrist or progressive on social issues (I know quite few people who, while pretty religious, believe all of the recent anti-gay laws are pure, unrestrained big-government, and are against them for that reason, for example). Basically, there’s a lot of nuance, and the only people we should outright be completely against are the extremists on either side. Extremism in just about any form is almost always bad 🙂
As for sci-fi nominations… uhh, I’m in a bit of a tough spot here. Most of the sci-fi I read is military sci-fi and those guys do tend to be on the more conservative side of things ^^; If David Weber would get his act together and get his Honor Harrington series going again, I’d probably put him in there. He’s actually an interesting guy. Identifies as religious and conservative, but the future he writes about in his sci-fi is a place where race, gender and religion (for the most part) have become non-issues. In the 2000 years between now and when his novels take place, there’s been so much racial mixing, with lots of diverse ethnicities popping up, and his cast is pretty much split down the middle between men and women, all of whom are depicted as incredibly skilled and capable at their jobs (I’m especially fond of Susan Hibson, a 5’2″ marine officer who kicks all sorts of ass in and out of her powered armor, and is shown to be exactly as capable, and lethal, as the 7 foot tall hulk of a marine she’s usually paired with).