2009 Hugo Award Nominees

2009 Hugo Award Nominations

It looks to be like the year of YA for the Hugo Awards with two teen titles up for best novel: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, along with Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi.

Zoe’s Tale, while not officially “YA”  is YA appropriate and features a young teen MC.  (It is, however, shelved with the adult SF/F titles.)

Interesting.

Here is the rest of the line-up:

Best Novel
(639 Ballots)

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Novella
(337 Ballots)

• “The Erdmann Nexus” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
• “The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF Aug 2008)
• “The Tear” by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
• “True Names” by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)
• “Truth” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Novelette
(373 Ballots)

• “Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s Jan 2008)
• “The Gambler” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Fast Forward 2)
• “Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF Jan 2008)
• “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s Feb 2008)
• “Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)

Best Short Story
(448 Ballots)

• “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Jul 2008)
• “Article of Faith” by Mike Resnick (Baen’s Universe Oct 2008)
• “Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
• “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• “From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Feb 2008)

Best Related Book
(263 Ballots)

• Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press)
• Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
• The Vorkosigan Companion: The Universe of Lois McMaster Bujold by Lillian Stewart Carl & John Helfers, eds. (Baen)
• What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Beccon Publications)
• Your Hate Mail Will be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 by John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)

Best Graphic Story
(212 Ballots)

• The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle Written by Jim Butcher, art by Ardian Syaf (Del Rey/Dabel Brothers Publishing)
• Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
• Fables: War and Pieces Written by Bill Willingham, pencilled by Mark Buckingham, art by Steve Leialoha and Andrew Pepoy, color by Lee Loughridge, letters by Todd Klein (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic Story and art by Howard Tayler (The Tayler Corporation)
• Serenity: Better Days Written by Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews, art by Will Conrad, color by Michelle Madsen, cover by Jo Chen (Dark Horse Comics)
• Y: The Last Man, Volume 10: Whys and Wherefores Written/created by Brian K. Vaughan, penciled/created by Pia Guerra, inked by Jose Marzan, Jr. (DC/Vertigo Comics)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
(436 Ballots)

• The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, story; Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, screenplay; based on characters created by Bob Kane; Christopher Nolan, director (Warner Brothers)
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army Guillermo del Toro & Mike Mignola, story; Guillermo del Toro, screenplay; based on the comic by Mike Mignola; Guillermo del Toro, director (Dark Horse, Universal)
• Iron Man Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, screenplay; based on characters created by Stan Lee & Don Heck & Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby; Jon Favreau, director (Paramount, Marvel Studios)
• METAtropolis by John Scalzi, ed. Written by: Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder (Audible Inc)
• WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
(336 Ballots)

• “The Constant” (Lost) Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, writers; Jack Bender, director (Bad Robot, ABC studios)
• Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen , writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)
• “Revelations” (Battlestar Galactica) Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, writers; Michael Rymer, director (NBC Universal)
• “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” (Doctor Who) Steven Moffat, writer; Euros Lyn, director (BBC Wales)
• “Turn Left” (Doctor Who) Russell T. Davies, writer; Graeme Harper, director (BBC Wales)

Best Editor, Short Form
(377 Ballots)

• Ellen Datlow
• Stanley Schmidt
• Jonathan Strahan
• Gordon Van Gelder
• Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form
(273 Ballots)

• Lou Anders
• Ginjer Buchanan
• David G. Hartwell
• Beth Meacham
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Best Professional Artist
(334 Ballots)

• Daniel Dos Santos
• Bob Eggleton
• Donato Giancola
• John Picacio
• Shaun Tan

Best Semiprozine
(283 Ballots)

• Clarkesworld Magazine edited by Neil Clarke, Nick Mamatas & Sean Wallace
• Interzone edited by Andy Cox
• Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
• The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, Kris Dikeman, David G. Hartwell, & Kevin J. Maroney
• Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fanzine
(257 Ballots)

• Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
• Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
• Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian III
• The Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia
• Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
• File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

Best Fan Writer
(291 Ballots)

• Chris Garcia
• John Hertz
• Dave Langford
• Cheryl Morgan
• Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist
(187 Ballots)

• Alan F. Beck
• Brad W. Foster
• Sue Mason
• Taral Wayne
• Frank Wu

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
(288 Ballots)

• Aliette de Bodard*
• David Anthony Durham*
• Felix Gilman
• Tony Pi*
• Gord Sellar*

~ Darcy

Chesley and Costa Book Awards

The Chesley Awards are out now.  And the winners are:

• Best Cover Illustration – Hardback Book: Donato Giancola, The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald (Tor)
• Best Cover Illustration – Paperback Book: Donato Giancola, Crystal Dragon by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (Ace)
• Best Cover Illustration – Magazine: Cory and Catska Ench, Fantasy & Science Fiction, 3/07
• Best Interior Illustration: James Gurney, Dinotopia : Journey to Chandara (Andrews McMeel)
• Best Gaming Related Illustration: Donato Giancola, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (Sigil Games Online)
• Best Product Illustration: Todd Lockwood, “War of Angels”, poster for Bullseye Tattoo
• Best Monochrome – Unpublished: Donato Giancola, “Season of Change”, Pencil and Chalk on Toned paper
• Best Color Work – Unpublished: Donato Giancola, “Red Sonja”, Oil
• Best Three Dimensional Art: Vincent Villafranca, “Conscious Entity and Its Maker”, Bronze
• Best Art Director: Irene Gallo, Tor Books
• Award for Artistic Achievement: Michael Wm. Kaluta

via Sci Fi Awards Watch

If you are into cover design it’s well worth it to take a look at the other nominees on the ASFA’s page.

Next up: Costa Awards go to the following for in the Children’s Book Category.

Children’s Books

• Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray 
• The Carbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd 
• Just Henry by Michelle Magorian 
• Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine 

via Bookshelves of Doom

/grats all around!

Amazon’s Best Books of 2008

Amazon has resently posted their editorial picks for 2008.  The results:

• Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery
• The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford
• The Resurrectionist by Jack O’Connell
• Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson
• Last Dragon by J.M. Mcdermott
• Black Ships by Jo Graham
• The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
• Matter by Iain M. Banks
• Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik (<3 <3 <3)

Though I have to wonder about these Best of 2008 lists that are popping up.  Are we skipping Thanksgiving and Christmas now too and jumping straight to years end?  @#$!  Bah. Forgive me, I’m still a bit bitter about the fact that by my local drugstores replaced the Halloween candy with christmas stuff ON Halloween. 

The real reason behind these sudden lists is that the book business is gearing us up for the holiday season, making us aware of what’s hip and on  the market.

Info found on SF Signal

PW’s Best Books of 2008

Publisher’s Weekly names their picks for the best books of 2008 this week.  Here are their selections for SF/Fantasy/Horror, Comics, and Children’s Fiction. 

And look, Graceling made the list for Children’s Fiction! Woot!

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

The Living Dead
Edited by John Joseph Adams
(Night Shade)
This superb reprint anthology runs the gamut of zombie stories, with entries by a plethora of renowned and outstanding authors from all sides of the genre.
Pump Six and Other Stories
Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
Bacigalupi’s extraordinary debut collection of futuristic tales, most of which focus on the very personal consequences of environmental disaster, delivers astute social commentary in poignant, revelatory prose.
Ink and Steel
Elizabeth Bear (Roc)
The secret war between fae and the Elizabethan court comes to light in this dramatic tale of espionage, seduction and the literal magic of poetry and plays.
City at the End of Time
Greg Bear (Del Rey)
Bear returns triumphantly to large-scale science fiction with this complex, difficult tale of Seattle drifters sent on a mission to preserve the universe’s last vestiges of consciousness.
Fallen
Tim Lebbon (Bantam Spectra)
Lebbon blends wonder and nightmare in this vividly memorable novel of aging voyagers whose quest for glory takes a dark turn when they encounter ancient and terrifying gods.
Filter House
Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct)
Shawl’s exquisitely rendered debut collection weaves threads of folklore, religion, family and the search for a cohesive self through a panorama of race, magic and the body.
Half a Crown
Jo Walton (Tor)
Walton wraps up her Small Change trilogy with a powerful tale of an alternate 1960 in which a fascist Britain, attempting to emulate Nazi Europe, finally pushes its citizens too far.

Comics

Aya of Yop City
Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie (Drawn & Quarterly)
Abouet’s funny and lighthearted story about life on the Ivory Coast in the late 1970s continues an affectionate look at a bygone lifestyle. 
What It Is
Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
The trail-blazing indie cartoonist returns with a triumphal, exhilarating look at the creative process that serves as both a memoir and a how-to book. 
Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child
Rick Geary (ComicsLit) 
Precise yet unnerving b&w illustrations capture the media circus of greed and fame around the “Crime of the Century.” 
Alan’s War
Emmanuel Guibert (First Second)
A French cartoonist listens as an American GI recalls his life as a soldier during WWII and his subsequent disillusionment with American bravado, creating a fantastic, humane memoir. 
Kramers Ergot 7
Edited by Sammy Harkham
(Buenaventura Press)
Harkham gives a generation of cutting-edge cartoonists an oversized palette—the pages are newspaper tabloid-size—resulting in a dizzying banquet of visual overload.
The Education of Hopey Glass
Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
Perpetual punk Hopey Glass must face the loss of her ambitions in yet another stunning book from Hernandez. 
Slam Dunk
Takehiko Inoue (Viz)
This spirited manga about high school basketball depicts all the passions of life on and off the court in high style. 
Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight
Chris Onstad (Dark Horse)
Anthropomorphic slacker animals battle to find the meaning of masculinity in this quirky, hilarious collection of the popular Web comic Achewood. 
Bottomless Belly Button
Dash Shaw (Fantagraphics)
As a longtime marriage unwinds, the effects on a family are examined in this highly affecting mix of comics, diagrams and symbols by a major new talent. 
Tamara Drewe
Posy Simmonds (Houghton/Mariner)
A visiting journalist upends a writer’s retreat in the English countryside and the village around it in this sly, wise adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd.
Skim
Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books)
A gorgeous, poetic pen line and sharp dialogue bring this angsty story of a disaffected teenage girl to life.
Travel
Yuichi Yokoyama (Picturebox)
A train journey becomes a madly energetic blueprint for an alternate reality in this abstract, experimental manga. 

Children’s Fiction

Chains
Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster)
A young slave in New York City offers readers a provocative view of the Revolutionary War, within the context of a fast-moving, emotionally involving story; an NBA finalist.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves
M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
With an eye trained to the hypocrisies and conflicted loyalties of the American Revolution, Anderson resoundingly concludes the finely nuanced bildungsroman begun in his National Book Award–winning novel.
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf)
Even better than the National Book Award–winning original, this vivid sequel finds the four Penderwick sisters plotting to foil their aunt’s matchmaking schemes for their widowed father. 
Masterpiece
Elise Broach (Holt)
With overtones of The Borrowers and Chasing Vermeer, this inventive mystery about a boy, a beetle and an art heist is packed with seductive themes: hidden lives and secret friendships, miniature worlds lost to disbelievers. 
Graceling
Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)
An exquisitely drawn romance, political intrigue, a take-charge heroine and a magnificently imagined fantasy realm—this riveting debut offers something for almost everyone, adults as well as teens.
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
In a dystopian fantasy that blends elements of classical mythology, a kill-or-be-killed competition and reality television, the author explodes a series of surprises, all the while challenging readers to consider how far her heroine can go while retaining her humanity. 
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow (Tor)
Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract real-life surveillance, this techno-thriller imagines a teen arrested and held in a Guantanamo-like setting by an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack.
Bog Child
Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling)
The discovery of a child’s ancient corpse launches this multilayered novel about moral choices, set in Northern Ireland amid the Troubles in 1981.
Dark Dude
Oscar Hijuelos (Atheneum)
The smooth, jazzy flow of the narration—along with very funny writing—sweeps readers through a ’60s-era story about a Cuban-American teenager in search of his identity. 
Tender Morsels
Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
Dense, atmospheric prose holds readers to a cautious pace in an often dark fantasy that explores the savage and gentlest sides of human nature and how they coexist. 
Savvy
Ingrid Law (Dial)
A cinematic and vibrant debut novel introduces a family whose members are each endowed with a different supernatural gift, or “savvy,” on their 13th birthdays. 
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
E. Lockhart (Hyperion)
Big ideas—about class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought—are an essential part of the fun in this sparkling, mischievous novel, an NBA finalist, about a sophomore girl who decides to infiltrate an all-male secret society at an elite boarding school.
Sunrise over Fallujah
Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic)
Written from the point of view of the rank-and-file, this pointed novel allows American teens to grapple intelligently and thoughtfully with the war in Iraq.
Nation
Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)
In a superb mix of alternate history and fantasy, Pratchett balances the somber and the wildly humorous as his protagonists, lone survivors of disasters, suffer profound crises of faith.

Word Fantasy Award Winners

SF Awards Watch posted the winners of the World Fantasy Awards from the convention last week.  And here they are again:

Novel: Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada/Penguin Roc)
Novella: Illyria, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing)
Short Story: “Singing of Mount Abora”, Theodora Goss (Logorrhea, Bantam Spectra)
Anthology: Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, Ellen Datlow, Editor (Tor)
Collection: Tiny Deaths, Robert Shearman (Comma Press)
Artist: Edward Miller
Special Award, Professional: Peter Crowther for PS Publishing
Special Award, Non-Professional: Midori Snyder and Terri Windling for Endicott Studios Website