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.
@Paradoxical Intention
SF in this context doesn’t mean sci fi, but speculative fiction. It covers a much wider range of genres. IMHO, Big Hero Six definitely qualifies.
Yeah, but he’s also extremely wealthy. : /
Ah, thanks for the clarification! 😀
And for some brain bleach that is sort of related:
http://happyplace.someecards.com/celebrities/it-seems-like-the-avengers-cast-started-this-family-feud-drinking-game-before-even-going-on-air/
Hello, and Shut up, Woody!
Also:
Best novel: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Best webcomic: Erfworld
Thanks for the blog 🙂
I nominate @arrroberts for Best SF Twitterer, because he’s thoughtful and interesting and writes horrendously bad puns.
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel (Best Novel 2014)
Kelly Sue Deconnick’s Bitch Planet has to take best comic, because otherwise what are we even doing here
I love, love, LOVE Bitch Planet but it did only release one issue in 2014 – so I’d be inclined to hold it back for next year.
Glad to see all these nominations! Feel free to nominate more than one book/person/etc per category; the main reason for this is to let people know about good stuff.
I’ll add a Best SF game category.
And if you think there are some nominees on the Sad Puppies slate who don’t deserve to be lumped in with them, I can bend the rules and allow them, or maybe set up another category for them..
MrFoster, I have mixed feelings about Helix. I’ve watched a bunch of this season (haven’t watched the first one) and more or less enjoyed it, but, yeah, it’s ridiculous in a lot of ways. And its use of music is probably the worst I’ve run across ever, especially when they try to use it in a comic or ironic way.
Biggest SF asshole: Vox Day.
@Apansirus:
Please tell me you’re nominating that ironically.
Uhm, David, am I the award-winning SF/F author of which you mention? Just curious. I didn’t think anyone knew about me at all, let alone when I post anonymously.
Cassie’s Major Domo:
I was thinking he was talking about Shaenon, aka Shaenon Garrity, the mad genius behind Narbonic/Skin Horse (along with other stuff I keep meaning to hunt down and devour):
http://www.narbonic.com/
http://skin-horse.com/
Ah, I figured I was too obscure. I have won an award, but haven’t had that many publications yet.
Winner in all Best Ficton categories: “Far Beyond the Stars“.
Okay, so if we’re doing best SFF game (I assume we’re talking console/computer) my nom has got to be Dragon Age Inquisition. If you know anything about the designer, Bioware, they tend to make GG people twitch for doing things like being respectful of women, minorities, gays and lesbians. You know, all that evil SJW stuff.
Could I throw in a nomination for @DystopianYA on twitter?
They poke a good bit of fun at stereotypes in the Dystopian Young Adult novels.
https://twitter.com/DystopianYA/status/582902607787720704
Oh, and someone mentioned on my Twitter feed that George R.R. Martin has put in his two cents on the Hugo nonsense.
Hmm, I’d love to nominate some games, but all the ones released in 2014 are either still sitting on my wish list or I haven’t played them yet (mostly the former). I can nominate some webcomics though: Questionable Content, Darths & Droids, and seconding Order of the Stick.
For biggest SF asshole, I’ll agree with the nominations for Adam Baldwin (he was in The Last Ship in 2014, which I think counts as SF, not that I’ve really watched it) for starting the GG tag and Vox Day/Theodore Beale.
For Best SF TV Series, I nominate Sleepy Hollow. Team Good Guys is roughly evenly split male/female (it… fluctuates) and is roughly half POC (see previous), which was nice to see.
Oh if there’s a SF game category now? Let me nominate Alien: Isolation for successfully scaring this seasoned horror veteran.
And let me say a few things more about Helix because Futrelle himself talked about it: I definitely enjoyed watching both seasons that have aired so far, just not in the way I was expecting to enjoy it. It’s the definition of brainless fun and even if I was expecting meatier scifi horror it has more than a few charms that keep me coming back.
Now I’m going to have “Do you know the way to San Jose” stuck in my head again.
Thank you for the mention, but I’m working hard to get on next year’s Puppy ballots by promising to a) hate all the things they would like me to hate, b) not make gay wedding pizzas, and c) eventually stop writing SF to make room for a more deserving man.
If I appear on any award nomination lists, I will have to decry my nomination as a transparent attempt by the SJW cabal to fill a quota of inferior females.
Anything by Terry Pratchett that qualifies that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet
feeeeeeeeeeeemales
First time poster, long time reader. I don’t really feel like I’ve read enough to give an answer for some, but for those I have:
Novel : The Bone Clocks by David Mitchel
Novella: The Mothers of Voorhisville by Mary Rickert
Short Story: A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch
Comic: Saga vol. 3 by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
Webcomic: Blindsprings by Kady Fedoruk
SF site: IO9
SF Movie: Edge of Tomorrow
TV Series: I honestly can’t decide between Orphan Black and Steven Universe (if its meant to be single episodes I’ll say By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried, and Steven and the Stevens)
Podcast: Welcome to Nightvale
Game: Child of Light
OT but I do like this theory about Orson Lannister from Game of Thrones