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.
Webcomic: Girl Genius.
Best SF Webcomic: Has no one nominated Derelict? Let’s fix that. Also, if you aren’t reading Vattu, better get started now; it’s only going to get longer and more intricate!
http://derelictcomic.com/
http://rice-boy.com/
Oh, hey, and while we’re here, let’s add Blue Delliquanti’s awesome webcomic O Human Star!
http://ohumanstar.com/
Best Game: Dragon Age:Inquisition‘s already been nominated. How about some Indie games too? This War Of Mine and Broken Age should totally be in the scrum.
http://www.11bitstudios.com/games/16/this-war-of-mine
http://www.brokenagegame.com/
Best SF Blog Site: How about Patrick Rothfuss’s blog, home of (among other things) the Worldbuilders charity: http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/
Honorable mention: David Brin’s website, Contrary Brin. Though he talks about modern politics more than actual speculative fiction. http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/
Can I suggest a New Category? Best SF Anthology: I nominate Valor and The Sleep of Reason . They’re both comic anthologies, so I guess they could get in on Best Graphic Novel, too.
http://www.fairyloguepress.com/products/valor-anthology
http://ironcircus.com/shop/ebooks/25-the-sleep-of-reason-pdf-ebook.html
I feel like I haven’t consumed enough other media this year to make an informed decision in the other categories. To paraphrase Brent Spiner’s character in <Independence Day, I don’t get out much.
Sigh. there should be a lot more italics formatting in that there post. Well, at least I wasn’t devoured by the blockquote monster. 🙁
I’d like to nominate “The Book of Strange New Things” by Michel Faber as best science fiction novel of the year.
Coolest person associated with science fiction: Scalzi.
I am assuming that, like Hugo nominations, one can nominate five works or people in a given category. If not, please consider the first entry in each category as my nomination.
Best Novel: City Of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
Lock In by John Scalzi
Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear
Best Novella: Grand Jete by Rachel Swirsky
Best Short Story: Toad Words by Ursula Vernon
When It Ends He Catches Her by Eugie Foster
Best Webcomic Stand Still Stay Silent by Minna Sundberg
Biggest SF Asshole Vox Day
Larry Correia
Tom Kratman
John C. Wright
Might not qualify (published Jan 2015) but for best SF novel I’d nominate “Unhappenings” by Edward Aubry.
OK, I’ll bite. These are off the top of my head. I might be able to add more once I do some research.
Best novel: The Martian by Andy Weir
Best Sf-related nonfiction: That Heinlein biography: Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Vol. 2- The Man Who Learned Better, 1948-1988. I haven’t read it, but it’s one many people have mentioned as being unfairly robbed of a nomination by the Puppies slates.
Best SF site: IO9.com
Best SF blog: Scalzi’s Whatever: whatever. scalzi.com
Best movie: Guardians of the Galaxy
Best TV show — Person of Interest (it’s about artificial intelligence and the surveillance state)
Coolest SF person: Andrew Chu has had a good year
Biggest SF Asshole: Vox Day gets a Lifetime Achievement Award for that one
Worst SF movie: Sharknado 2?
Worst SF TV series: Any of that crappy teen angst supernatural stuff on the CW. Let’s say, The Originals.
Seconding the recommendations for Dark Legacy Comics and Big Hero 6.
I know the post is focused a bit more on the Speculative Fiction part of SFF, but I’m a bit more into the fantasy part of it, so I hope it’ll be alright if I offer some fantasy suggestions (they can always be ignored for the actual ballot).
I haven’t completely caught up with the show, but I’d like to nominate Avatar: Legend of Korra. It did show in 2014, but I don’t think the episodes I’ve watched were the ones that aired then. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve watched so far.
Sinfest is kind of a SF/F webcomic with its cast of fembots and devil people.
I’m also a huge fan of Discworld novels after discovering them in 2010/2011, but I don’t think any of those books qualify for 2014. Just adding to the praise of Terry Pratchett’s works.
I would like to nominate Interstellar for best SF movie. I did also enjoy Lego movie.
Worst SF movie was Transcendance. I kept rolling my eyes at the science and plot holes.
So for short stories I’d like to nominate “Trigger Warning” from Neil Gaiman, probably specifically the awesome Doctor Who short story from the collection about The Kindred.
For webcomic I’m totally seconding Girl Genius.
For tv show… Does Steven Universe count? They *are* a mysterious alien race with such advanced technology they call it magic.
Um, dang, I know I had more. Gotta think some more.
Best graphic novel nomination: Emily Carrol’s Through the Woods (horror anthology)
I don’t have answers for 2014. The books I read are from much earlier, and I don’t watch much TV. For game, I pick Destiny.
Well, if Dragons at Crumbling Castle counts, I pick that for best fantasy. It’s a compilation of Terry Pratchett’s earliest work though, so I don’t know if that qualifies.
We can nominate multiple things? Okay then *cracks knuckles*
Best Novel: Echopraxia, by Peter Watts
Best Comic/Graphic Novel: Ms Marvel. Also the IDW My Little Pony comics.
Best Webcomic: by “Appeared in 2014,” do you mean, “have strips published in 2014,” not that it has to have started in 2014, right? If so… Order of the Stick, same as many here.
Best SF movie: I second (or third or fourth) the recommendations for The Lego Movie, Big Hero 6, Maleficent and Guardians of the Galaxy. I would also add Lucy, Edge of Tomorrow, and probably Snowpiercer.
Best SF TV series: Orphan Black, Person of Interest.
Biggest SF asshole: Vox Day, no question.
Worst SF movie: Transcendence.
Worst SF TV series: CSI: Cyber.
I would like to nominate Clariel by Garth Nix for the novel category.
For best comic/graphic novel, I would like to nominate Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rift.
I see someone else has already nominated Legend of Korra, so excellent…I would also hope that Adventure Time has a mention in the TV category.
I am totally bookmarking this post as a future suggested reading list. When I get done my current kick of French historical fiction and back to SF, whenever that may be.
Damn, none of the TV shows I want to recommend were from 2014. Black Mirror is new to us here in the US, but ran from 2011-2013 in the UK. The Returned, the original one is too old, the American version too new. 12 Monkeys is 2015.
But I have some movies to nominate:
Best SF movie: Lucy (I know, it’s very silly, but it was entertaining) and Under the Skin (was in some 2013 film festivals but wasn’t released commercially until 2014).
Yes, they both star Scarlet Johansson.
Worst SF film, though I suppose some people wouldn’t call it that, Left Behind. (but it was entertaining; I love bad Nicolas Cage movies)
I have to admit, though, that there are still lots of horror/SF films from 2014 I haven’t seen yet. Most of those I have seen from 2014 were kind of meh.
Has anyone glanced at any of the books Beale wanted nominated? I just looked at some of them at Amazon and…holy shit. I expected “traditional” stories with war, macho heroes, and a lot of erasure, and several probably are, with any sexism and xenophobia more or less unintentional. But a book Beale pushed is Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth John C. Wright (someone Beale is quite enamored with given how often his name shows up on Beale’s list). At first it goes on about the potential dangers of transhumanism contrary to all the libertarian-themed SF but the book also makes mention of an essay on “how the genre’s obsession with strong female characters is nothing less than an attack on human nature”. I think even Beale doesn’t go quite that far; he apparently has written stories with soldier women as protagonists (but he thinks this is just fantasy and certainly doesn’t believe in actually letting women serve militarily).
A quick look at Wright’s other work and his positive reviewers show he has nearly identical views to Beale, and his fans really like calling him a modern-day G, K, Chesterton. Somehow I think anyone being called that is someone to avoid now.
OK, most of my reading etc is too early, but there have been suggestions I agree with.
Webcomic – Girl Genius or Order of the Stick or Darth & Droids.
Novel – The Goblin Emperor. Hmm…I enjoyed reading it but kinda think he got off easy in it. Also, I want a sequel.
Have a ‘look inside’ one of the Hugo nominees for this year:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wisdom-My-Internet-Michael-Williamson-ebook/dp/B00QZV08SW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429080347&sr=8-1&keywords=williamson+wisdom+from+internet
I can’t believe this drivel has actually been dignified with a cover and an Amazon webpage, let alone a nomination for any kind of award. It’s a perfect example of how this kind of person just doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘funny’.
Webcomics: Ava’s Demon, Bad Machinery
Game: Dark Souls 2?
Novel: Septimus Heap: Fyre
Am I doing it right?
I want to put soemthing by Margaret Weis and/or Tracy Hickman because DragonLance but I haven’t read any new stuff
Best Comic/Graphic Novel : Saga & Rat Queens & Ms Marvel (sorry that’s three but it’s hard to choose; If I really have to choose, Saga)
Best SF movie : Captain America 2
Best SF TV series : Steven Universe
Best SF podcast : Does Welcome to Night Vale count? idk
Coolest SF person (ongoing, but had to be cool in 2014) : Terry Pratchett (he was technically a SF person and he was definitely cool in 2014. I know I’m stretching it. idc)
Biggest SF asshole : Moffat
Worst SF movie : Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Worst SF TV series : Supernatural
Oh, and I enjoyed the movie “Anna” (MindScape) even if it was a bit predictable, I found myself enamored with the characters. Trigger warning on the movie
Oh, Girl Genius fans!
For those of you who are interested — they’re Kickstartering their next graphic novel collection, and they’re almost funded. (I don’t read my comics digitally if I can help it.)
Best SF podcast: Has to be “Welcome to Nightvale”! 😀
Best SF TV Series: American Horror Story
@ David – Black Mirror ran a Christmas Episode in 2014, does that count?
Best Webcomic: So many to choose from, but I think “Sister Claire” by Megan Rose Gedris deserves an A++ for representation.
Coolest SF person: Probably Neil Gaiman? He seems to be the go-to guy for SF street-cred, as far as I’m aware… he probably doesn’t need any more accolades, though.
Biggest SF asshole: Stephen Moffat. Booooo!
Oh, can we have an animation category? Because Adventure Time and Gravity Falls probably deserve a mention, too! I guess they still count as TV series…
How strict are we being with number of nominations per category here?
If Welcome To Nightvale doesn’t get the podcast category, its Twitter feed is pretty great, too.