He handed out special awards to those he felt were deserving, including some who Worldcon’s data shows would have been nominated had it not been for the Sad Puppies campaign. The Three Body Problem won the prize for the best novel. But this is not why his success-as well as the success of the (few) winners in the other categories-is so noteworthy.
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Some other categories were labeled “No Award” since voters either objected to the nominees or didn’t want to partake. The Puppies gathered a large group of like-minded people to nominate and vote for their own slate.
Illustrator Julie Dillon took home the award for Best Professional Artist, while director James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy won for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, in a category that also included fellow Marvel Studios production Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As we previously reported, this year’s nominations process was hijacked by a campaign calling itself Sad Puppies, whose stated mission was to counteract what its members saw as the domination of the Hugos by elitist and insular academics and others who marginalize more mainstream and populist sci-fi. The Hugos picked up on the ballot-stuffing, and none of the the Puppies’ picks won.
After a year of controversy, an unprecedented number of voters turned out to vote on the prestigious science fiction Hugo Awards. Of course, he then characterizes his opponents as people who vote purely on the idea, “Ooh, we’re going to vote for this author because they’re not white”, which is something no one in the history of the Hugo Awards voting process has ever said.
Torgerson has it wrong-particularly in a genre where some of our best stories have protagonists who have three genders. I might not sign up for all those things, but I can sure understand the desire for them – but why not nominate more stories that really qualify?
The sci-fi and fantasy prose fiction that dominates the Hugos and the WSFW has experienced a steady progressive evolution in recent years, with more diversity in both talent and output – a phenomenon that may feel familiar to comics fans.
Best Professional Editor Long Form: No award.
Acclaimed as the best Chinese sci-fi novel, “The Three-body Problem” received the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award in 2006 and 2010. If you need some good science fiction everyone can agree on, start with her.
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Following the ceremony on Saturday, George R.R. Martin held the “Alfie Awards”, (named after author Alfred Bester), in which he honored Patrick Rothfuss, Ursula Vernon, Jo Walton, John Joseph Adams, and Liz Gorinsky (all authors who would have been on this year’s ballot if not for the puppies).
