This year’s nominations for the Hugo Awards have been announced, and while I definitely can’t comment about all the nominated works, from what I’ve read it looks like a pretty decent list as recent ones go.
I haven’t read any of the novels, so can offer no comment there.
The novella category: Ian R. MacLeod’s "Breathmoss" (from ASIMOV’S) is a sprawling and lyrical SF tale and well worthy of its nomination. It’s probably the best of the novellas I read from the list, although unfortunately I missed Paul Di Filippo’s A YEAR IN THE LINEAR CITY; Di Filippo is one of my favorite writers, and this book slipped past my radar thanks to its UK-only publication. (As a side note, it’s surprising to me that a book-length novella with no US distribution even made it onto the ballot!) I also didn’t catch Neil Gaiman’s CORALINE, but I did read the rest of the nominees, none of which I would have gone out of my way to recommend. "Bronte’s Egg" by Richard Chwedyk, which recently took the Nebula in this category, involves an artificial life form called the saurs, miniaturized dino-pets that are a fad of this future that has passed its time. I found this one overlong and not terribly engaging. Charles Coleman Finlay’s "The Political Officer" did nothing for me, while Pat Forde’s "In Spirit" is an abitious time travel yarn involving 9/11, that is questionable in terms of its science fictional aspects–and probably drew a lot of votes by pushing the readership’s "grim fascination" buttons by dealing with the topic so head on.
In the novelette category, there are three superior candidates–Gregory Frost’s "Madonna of the Maquiladora," Maureen F. McHugh’s "Presence," and Charles Stross’ "Halo." I missed the others. I’d be psyched to see any of these three win.
The short story category is typically weak, with Jeffrey Ford’s "Creation" clearly the best. The Swanwick nominees here failed to do anything for me, particularly "’Hello,’ Said the Stick," and I suspect Swanwick is now cruising on habitual Worldcon voting the way Mike Resnick has been for years. (I have really enjoyed a lot of Swanwick’s work in the past, as well as his recent "Legions in Time" from a recent ASIMOV’S, but haven’t been overly enamored of his recent Hugo noms.) The most interesting story surrounding this category was the original nomination, and subsequent disqualification, of John F. Flynn’s "A Gift of Verse," a story that appeared at an obscure website called NEXXUS. I read the story, and found it only slightly better than fan fiction, and I’m not the only one to have suspected a voting campaign on this one, considering many SF writers and readers in the know had never heard of the market or the author. Ultimately, the story was stricken from the ballot because it had seen publication elsewhere three years ago, to be replaced by "Lambing Season" by Molly Gloss, a story which didn’t do much for me, but is scads better than the Flynn.
My predictions (all of which likely to be wrong!): Best Novel to Michael Swanwick for BONES OF THE EARTH, Best Novella to Richard Chwedyk for "Bronte’s Egg," Best Novelette to Charles Stross for "Halo," and Best Short Story to Michael Swanwick for "The Little Cat Laughed To See Such Sport." These are winner guesses, not my personal choices. And for the John W. Campbell Award? I’m guessing Charles Coleman Finlay.