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Here are the winners of the 2016 Hugo Awards

Here are the winners of the 2016 Hugo Awards

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Once again, slated works were largely outvoted

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This year’s World Science Fiction convention, MidAmeriCon II, is currently being held in Kansas City, Missouri. And during tonight’s Hugo Awards ceremony, voters largely rejected the slated works that had been placed on the ballot.

The Hugo Award is one of the major awards for speculative fiction novels, shorter stories, magazines, editors, and other works. Unlike the Nebula Awards, which are voted upon by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), the Hugo Awards are selected by members of the convention.

The award is a major one: having Hugo Award Winning Author splashed across the top of a book or on an author’s bio is a really helpful thing when it comes to attracting the attention of readers, bookstore buyers, and Hollywood.

The award hasn’t been without controversy in recent years. Last year, a group of fans calling themselves the Sad Puppies decided to game the system and force their own narrow group of works onto the ballot. The reasons for this are complicated, but when the 2015 awards were handed out, voters widely rejected the slated nominees. The controversy helped push the awards to a record number of nominating ballots, up fifty percent from last year.

Here are the winners (indicated in bold):

Best Novel (Works 40,000 words and above)

  • The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
  • Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
  • The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)
  • Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

Best Novella (Short works between 17,500 and 40,000 words)

  • Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
  • The Builders by Daniel Polansky (Tor.com)
  • Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)
  • Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)
  • Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon)

Best Novelette (Short works between 7,500 and 17,500 words)

  • Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)
  • And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb 2015)
  • Flashpoint: Titan by CHEAH Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
  • Obits by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)
  • What Price Humanity? by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)

Best Short Story (Short works less than 7,500 words)

  • Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)
  • Asymmetrical Warfare by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)
  • If You Were an Award, My Love by Juan Tabo and S. Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)
  • Seven Kill Tiger by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)
  • Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)

Best Related Work

  • No Award
  • Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986 by Marc Aramini (Castalia House)
  • The First Draft of My Appendix N Book by Jeffro Johnson (jeffro.wordpress.com)
  • Safe Space as Rape Room by Daniel Eness (castaliahouse.com)
  • SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by Vox Day (Castalia House)
  • The Story of Moira Greyland by Moira Greyland (askthebigot.com)

Best Graphic Story

  • The Sandman: Overture written by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III (Vertigo)
  • The Divine written by Boaz Lavie, art by Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka (First Second)
  • Erin Dies Alone written by Grey Carter, art by Cory Rydell (dyingalone.net)
  • Full Frontal Nerdity by Aaron Williams (ffn.nodwick.com)
  • Invisible Republic Vol 1 written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, art by Gabriel Hardman (Image Comics)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

  • The Martian screenplay by Drew Goddard, directed by Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions; Kinberg Genre; TSG Entertainment; 20th Century Fox)
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron written and directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
  • Ex Machina written and directed by Alex Garland (Film4; DNA Films; Universal Pictures)
  • Mad Max: Fury Road written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris, directed by George Miller (Village Roadshow Pictures; Kennedy Miller Mitchell; RatPac-Dune Entertainment; Warner Bros. Pictures)
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt, directed by J.J. Abrams (Lucasfilm Ltd.; Bad Robot Productions; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

  • Jessica Jones: "AKA Smile" written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Studios; Tall Girls Productions; Netflix)
  • Doctor Who: "Heaven Sent" written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay (BBC Television)
  • Grimm: "Headache" written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, directed by Jim Kouf (Universal Television; GK Productions; Hazy Mills Productions; Open 4 Business Productions; NBCUniversal Television Distribution)
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "The Cutie Map" Parts 1 and 2 written by Scott Sonneborn, M.A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy, directed by Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller (DHX Media / Vancouver; Hasbro Studios)
  • Supernatural: "Just My Imagination" written by Jenny Klein, directed by Richard Speight Jr. (Kripke Enterprises; Wonderland Sound and Vision; Warner Bros. Television)

Best Editor, Short Form

  • Ellen Datlow
  • John Joseph Adams
  • Neil Clarke
  • Jerry Pournelle
  • Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form

  • Sheila E. Gilbert
  • Vox Day
  • Liz Gorinsky
  • Jim Minz
  • Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist

  • Abigail Larson
  • Lars Braad Andersen
  • Larry Elmore
  • Michal Karcz
  • Larry Rostant

Best Semiprozine

  • Uncanny Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, and Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky
  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews
  • Daily Science Fiction edited by Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden
  • Sci Phi Journal edited by Jason Rennie
  • Strange Horizons edited by Catherine Krahe, Julia Rios, A. J. Odasso, Vanessa Rose Phin, Maureen Kincaid Speller, and the Strange Horizons staff

Best Fanzine

  • File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
  • Castalia House Blog edited by Jeffro Johnson
  • Lady Business edited by Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan
  • Superversive SF edited by Jason Rennie
  • Tangent Online edited by Dave Truesdale

Best Fancast

  • No Award
  • 8-4 Play, Mark MacDonald, John Ricciardi, Hiroko Minamoto, and Justin Epperson
  • Cane and Rinse, Cane and Rinse
  • HelloGreedo, HelloGreedo
  • The Rageaholic, RazörFist
  • Tales to Terrify, Stephen Kilpatrick

Best Fan Writer

  • Mike Glyer
  • Douglas Ernst
  • Morgan Holmes
  • Jeffro Johnson
  • Shamus Young

Best Fan Artist

  • Steve Stiles
  • Matthew Callahan
  • disse86
  • Kukuruyo
  • Christian Quinot

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2014 or 2015, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)

  • Andy Weir *
  • Pierce Brown *
  • Sebastien de Castell *
  • Brian Niemeier
  • Alyssa Wong *

* Finalists in their second year of eligibility.

The immediate takeaway from tonight is that once again, slated works added to the ballot through a coordinated campaign have trouble swaying voters, although they were not unanimously dismissed, but in these instances, the awards largely went authors and works that really didn’t need help from slated works in the first place, such as Andy Weir or Neil Gaiman. In all other instances, voters opted to give the awards to extremely deserving works, such as N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season and Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti.