2021 Hugo Awards

I didn‘t really follow the whole process, as I only vaguely care about awards, but here you are anyway—the results!

Best Novel
2040 final ballots cast (86.4%)
1093 nominating ballots for 441 nominees, finalist range 309-132

• Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tor.com) —> I agree, Murderbot is fun, even if the middle dragged a bit.
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) —> read and disliked this one.
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press / Solaris)
• The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books / Solaris)
• Harrow The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com)

Best Novella
1691 final ballots cast (71.6%)
778 nominating ballots for 157 nominees, finalist range 219-124

• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tor.com)
• Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com) —> on my TBR pile… soon! Maybe…
• Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com)
• Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com) —> did I just get that?
• Finna, Nino Cipri (Tor.com)
• Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tor.com) —> on my TBR pile… soon! Maybe…

Every single one of that category is from Tor. Apparently they give good Novella… *smirk*

Best Novelette
1499 final ballots cast (63.5%)
465 nominating ballots for 197 nominees, finalist range 108-33

• Two Truths and a Lie, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)
• “The Inaccessibility of Heaven”, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2020)
• “Monster”, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• “The Pill”, Meg Elison (from Big Girl, (PM Press))
• “Helicopter Story”, Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• “Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2020)

Best Short Story
1574 final ballots cast (66.6%)
586 nominating ballots for 634 nominees, finalist range 65-35

• “Metal Like Blood in the Dark”, T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
• Little Free Library, Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com) —> a friend of mine did the podcast narration, I really need to listen to it…
• “A Guide for Working Breeds”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris))
• “Open House on Haunted Hill”, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots – 2020, ed. David Steffen)
• “The Mermaid Astronaut”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
• “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse”, Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020)

Best Series
1872 final ballots cast (79.3%)
727 nominating ballots for 180 nominees, finalist range 300-87

• The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells (Tor.com) —> totally agree!
• The Lady Astronaut Universe, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books/Audible/Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction/Solaris) —> read the first one and one or two short stories. It was ok, but not enough for me to continue..
• October Daye, Seanan McGuire (DAW)
• The Interdependency, John Scalzi (Tor Books)
• The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)
• The Daevabad Trilogy, S.A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)

Quite a good run for Martha Wells and Murderbot!

Best Graphic Story or Comic
1048 final ballots cast (44.4%)
303 nominating ballots for 254 nominees, finalist range 43-24

• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings (Harry N. Abrams)
• Ghost-Spider vol. 1: Dog Days Are Over, Author: Seanan McGuire, Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa and Rosi Kämpe (Marvel)
• Monstress, vol. 5: Warchild, Author: Marjorie Liu, Artist: Sana Takeda (Image Comics) —> Still very, very good!
• 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)
• Invisible Kingdom, vol 2: Edge of Everything, Author: G. Willow Wilson, Artist: Christian Ward (Dark Horse Comics)
• DIE, Volume 2: Split the Party, written by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics)

I am tempted to get Parable of the Sower, I will see. My track record with Octavia Butler so far was mixed.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
1551 final ballots cast (64.7%)
574 nominating ballot for 192 nominees, finalist range 164-56

• The Old Guard, written by Greg Rucka, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Netflix / Skydance Media)
• Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), written by Christina Hodson, directed by Cathy Yan (Warner Bros.)
• Soul, screenplay by Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers, directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Kemp Powers, produced by Dana Murray (Pixar Animation Studios/ Walt Disney Pictures)
• Palm Springs, written by Andy Siara, directed by Max Barbakow (Limelight / Sun Entertainment Culture / The Lonely Island / Culmination Productions / Neon / Hulu / Amazon Prime)
• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, written by Will Ferrell, Andrew Steele, directed by David Dobkin (European Broadcasting Union/Netflix)
• Tenet, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner Bros./Syncopy)

Old Guard is on my Netflix watchlist and the comic is kicking about in my comiXology app as well. Another one I finally want to get to in the new year.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
1667 final ballots cast (70.6%)
454 nominating ballot for 321 nominees, finalist range 130-30

• The Good Place: Whenever You’re Ready, written and directed by Michael Schur (Fremulon / 3 Arts Entertainment / Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group)
• The Expanse: Gaugamela, written by Dan Nowak, directed by Nick Gomez (Alcon Entertainment / Alcon Television Group / Amazon Studios / Hivemind / Just So) —> what season and episode is that??? Expanse is great!
• The Mandalorian: Chapter 16: The Rescue, written by Jon Favreau, directed by Peyton Reed (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+) —> so good! One of the reasons I got Disney+. Just for this series totally worth it!
• The Mandalorian: Chapter 13: The Jedi, written and directed by Dave Filoni (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+)
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Heart (parts 1 and 2), written by Josie Campbell and ND Stevenson, directed by Jen Bennett and Kiki Manrique (DreamWorks Animation Television / Netflix)
• Doctor Who: Fugitive of the Judoon, written by Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall, directed by Nida Manzoor (BBC)

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (presented by the World Science Fiction Society)

• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions)
• A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
• Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido) —> pretty good UF, I don‘t regret reading it.
• Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (Margaret K. McElderry/ Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing)
• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads)
• Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet / Hot Key)

I left out a few. If you want to see the full list, just follow the link at the top.