This one will be shorter than my last, since I don't have much to say (yet) about the three fan categories I want to touch on.
BEST FANCAST is a stupid new Hugo category created to keep "fancasts" out of the hoary old Best Fanzine category. The nominees this year include three Puppy picks, and two that were not on the slates. I haven't heard any of the five. I doubt I will be voting in this category.
BEST FANZINE is the aforementioned hoary old category that dates back almost to the start of the Hugos. Here They Speak Twilltone and Gestetners, and then oldtimers mutter darkly about Ditto. But there are e-zines here as well. The Puppies grabbed four of the five slots in this category. Only JOURNEY PLANET was not part of the slates. However, one of the Puppy finalists, BLACK GATE, has withdrawn, leaving three. The only one I know well is Dave Truesdale's TANGENT, the online continuation of the an actual print fanzine that Truesdale has been publishing since the 70s. TANGENT has been nominated for Hugos before, I believe, though I don't think it has ever won. It's what trufans call a "sercon" zine, that is, mostly book reviews and criticism. Book reviews also seem to be the main focus of ELITIST BOOK REVIEWS, another Puppy pick... which seemed to me a lot like TANGENT, but not nearly as well done. There are much better review 'zines and blogs than these to be found on the internet, among them PAT'S FANTASY HOTLIST, the WERTZONE, BLOG OF THE FALLEN, and last year's winner, A DRIBBLE OF INK, but none of those made the ballot, so we will need to choose from those that did. I don't always vote in the Fanzine category (please note, I am saying I do not vote, not that I vote NO AWARD, two different things), but I expect I will this year. I still need to check out a couple of the remaining nominees, and look more deeply at the ones I was already familiar with.
BEST SEMIPROZINE. This category has always pissed me off, since it was created largely to kick LOCUS out of Best Fanzine, where it was winning every year. Of course, once Semiprozine was created, LOCUS proceeded to win that a bunch of times too, until the rules were jiggered once again to kick it out once more. (This is one reason I oppose jiggering the rules, even to stop the Puppies). They really ought to call this category BEST SEMIPROZINE THAT ISN'T LOCUS. But they don't. We have five finalists here, only two of which are from the slates... and one of those, ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS IN FLIGHT MAGAZINE, has been loudly declaring that they were not informed and never asked to be on anyone's slate. I am really only familiar with LIGHTSPEED and STRANGE HORIZONS from this category. Both of those are pretty good. If anyone has an opinion to offer on the others, do speak up. If I have time to check them out, I will... if I don't, I will abstain in this category, i.e. not vote. I won't go NO AWARD, since I do think the two semipros I know are worthy. Not as worthy as LOCUS, mind you, but there you are...
And that's all I have to say about those. For now, at least.
Talk among yourselves.
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What would you like your trophy to look like ? A happy playful puppy perhaps ? :P
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They do a nice printed magazine, but because of shipping costs, I know they've offered PDF versions of current issues.
Dr. Phil
And it's true, Mr Martin, we had never even HEARD of this bunch of loonies till a few days before the shortlist went up. You have to remember, even with the Internet, not everybody knows what is going on in US fandom. Frankly, I suspect they put us up because the title starts with A in Ralan. We were terribly excited to get the email and said yes, please do put us up...and then one of us said, "Uh, guys, take a look at this.." And then we discussed it and argued about it and then suddenly the deadline was over and we were still on the list, so we're just getting on with things and see what happens. I don't care if we don't win - we probably won't because some hate us for being on the slate and the Puppies supporters hate us for being ungrateful " - "loudly declaring" is it? But if we get a few more subscriptions as a result, I for one will be delighted.
Edited at 2015-05-02 11:12 am (UTC)
I was wondering what pre-draft insight you had on the gaps the Giants are looking to fill this weekend...
Thanks!
-kp
Eli can't throw game-winning TDs when he is lying on his back.
Huge huge portuguese fan here. I'm a great fan of your work especially ASOIAF, and, even if I know you probably won't see this, I wanted to ask what are your thoughts on the massive changes being presented in this season's GOT?
I'm referring mainly to things like the -SPOILER ALERT- Sansa Stark-Ramsay Bolton engagement. It's quite the blow when they start doing things out of your storyline, I can't know if they're just spoiling the series or giving spoilers to your future books..
Thank you so much! :)
Miguel Mata
A post by Mary Robinette Kowal did spur me to buy a basic membership, so I could vote for and support the authors whose work excels - my small contribution to restoring balance to the force. I doubt that I'll ever understand the depths of all of this though. I do think however that I have gained an understanding of where you derive some of your inspiration for the intrigue at the core of Game of Thrones. ;)
It's similar to how I had to vote the very talented Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd, below No Award the two or so times he was nominated in Fan Artist. Clearly, he and xkcd started off as fan art, albeit published online rather than in a fanzine. But by the time he was nominated, xkcd was how he supported himself, albeit somewhat more indirectly than by selling art to prozines and for book covers. And no one could point to any non-xkcd art they were nominating him for.
The hardest categories for me will be the two editor categories. Last year I just abstained from voting on those. This year, I feel strongly enough about Vox Day that I think he should be below No Award, which means I have to figure out where to rank the other nominees. I feel fairly strongly that No Award should really only be used when there really is no one deserving of the award, so I feel like I'm going to need to research all of the other nominees fairly closely to make an informed vote list.
And, yes, I know this is a very specific/selfish question, but I was hoping to hear some other opinions.
Also, for those of you who have read the series, should I just skip to Skin Game? And is it even fair to compare Storm Front to the latter entries?
I apologize for this being (at best) tangentially on-topic!
Thanks,
JT
PS I also want to thank George for your great books and also for inspiring me to finally be a Supporting Member!