Worldcon day 4: Hugos!
Aug. 31st, 2026 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacSunday I was feeling poorly most of the day, so I skipped out on logging in to any program items. Had I been scheduled for a panel I could have made it, but anything I didn't have to do seemed a bit much.
But by evening I was a little better, so I watched the Hugo Awards ceremony - almost the whole thing - even though I had no horses in this race. I'm really out of it as contemporary SF and fandom go, and few of the finalists in any category had I even heard of. (Official statistics)
When I signed up for programming, I had to join the convention, and this made me eligible to vote for the Hugos. So I downloaded the finalist packet, but I didn't have time before the deadline to do very much with it, and I didn't vote. I read a few of the short fiction nominees, but, as it happens, none of the ones I read were among the award-winners.
The only Dramatic Presentation finalist I saw, in either category, was KPop Demon Hunters. I rather doubt I've had put it in first place, but on the other hand the other movies in that category were on my not-see list, so maybe I would have.
Only three or four people buried down amid the credits in the fan categories had I heard of at all. Once upon a time I'd have known everybody in those categories personally.
But I enjoyed the ceremony, even if it was a parade of people I hadn't heard of except for some of the presenters (and a few winners: Picacio, Clarke, Scalzi). I appreciated the acknowledgements that many of the sf community weren't there because of difficulties in travel to the US, I enjoyed the unusual animal facts from emcee T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon).
Now I want to read the Related Work winner (Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer) and the Graphic Story winner (Fred Fordham's adaptation of A Wizard of Earthsea).
But by evening I was a little better, so I watched the Hugo Awards ceremony - almost the whole thing - even though I had no horses in this race. I'm really out of it as contemporary SF and fandom go, and few of the finalists in any category had I even heard of. (Official statistics)
When I signed up for programming, I had to join the convention, and this made me eligible to vote for the Hugos. So I downloaded the finalist packet, but I didn't have time before the deadline to do very much with it, and I didn't vote. I read a few of the short fiction nominees, but, as it happens, none of the ones I read were among the award-winners.
The only Dramatic Presentation finalist I saw, in either category, was KPop Demon Hunters. I rather doubt I've had put it in first place, but on the other hand the other movies in that category were on my not-see list, so maybe I would have.
Only three or four people buried down amid the credits in the fan categories had I heard of at all. Once upon a time I'd have known everybody in those categories personally.
But I enjoyed the ceremony, even if it was a parade of people I hadn't heard of except for some of the presenters (and a few winners: Picacio, Clarke, Scalzi). I appreciated the acknowledgements that many of the sf community weren't there because of difficulties in travel to the US, I enjoyed the unusual animal facts from emcee T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon).
Now I want to read the Related Work winner (Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer) and the Graphic Story winner (Fred Fordham's adaptation of A Wizard of Earthsea).
no subject
Date: 2026-09-02 01:26 am (UTC)If I may recommend...
Date: 2026-09-03 03:39 am (UTC)A "WSFS membership" (what we used to call a "supporting" or "non-attending" membership) in each year's Worldcon pays for itself handsomely, in that after the Hugo nominations are complete, members are sent the "Hugo voters' packet," which contains, typically, material enabling the member to make reasonably informed votes in all the categories. This typically includes ebook copies of all six nominated novels, novellas, novellettes, and short stories, plus the novels nominated for the Lodestar (children's/YA SFF) and sample works by the writers nominated for the Astounding award (formerly the "John W. Campbell" award, i.e., best new writer).
Since the WSFS membership typically costs $50, the novels alone (six novels at roughly $15 each for ebooks) are a bargain; and these are novels (and novellas, novelettes, and stories) curated by the massmind of a thousand or so people who really love SFF.
In four main categories of this year's packet, there was not one work among the novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories that I did not enjoy, and I regarded two of the novels (neither of them the actual winner), three of the novellas, and two novelettes as just absurdly excellent: plus two of the short stories actually upset me. (I regard this as a good thing. My model for this is Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild," which I've read four times and it's upset me more every time. Now that's powerful writing.)
I've already purchased my WSFS memberships for the next two Worldcons, Montréal '27 and Brisbane '28. (In the unlikely event I actually get to attend one or both of them, the memberships are convertible to full attending memberships by paying the difference from the going rate for an attending membership at the time of the conversion.)