The 2010 Hugo Award Winners were announced on Sunday night. Of course, this being a science fiction award, it’s only appropriate that they be announced from THE FUTURE, so the results were available early this morning, US time.
It turns out that I voted for 1.5 of the fiction award winners: China Mieville’s The City and The City shared the Best Novel award with Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, and I also voted for the Charlie Stross novella. The other two categories, I’m basically OK with– I “NO AWARD”-ed “Bridsicle,” but that whole category was pretty weak, and it wasn’t as awful as “Spar.” The Peter Watts novelette that won was at least had some clever and novel gee-whiz elements, and other people are less bothered by his “My angst, let me show it to you, and just in case you missed it, I’ll tell you about it, too” presentation than I am.
Really, kind of an “Enh” result for a pretty “Meh” year. In other categories, Patrick Nielsen Hayden won a second “Best Editor, Long Form” Hugo, and Fred Pohl got a well-deserved “Best Fan Writer.” Shaun Tan won “Best Professional Artist” as well, and we’re fans of his here at Chateau Steelypips (Kate bought a Shaun Tan print a while back, from The Arrival, which is awesome, so it’s nice to see him win prizes. the others, I really don’t have any opinion of, as I don’t think I saw any of the dramatic presentation nominees.
Anybody with strong opinions on the subject who hasn’t already vented them somewhere else, though, feel free to talk about it in the comments.
You know, I’m actually reading The Windup Girl right now, mostly out of sheer, vicious-minded stubbornness; I don’t actually expect it to get any better. I actually expect it to get worse.
When I finish, I expect I will review it in another venue, but it isn’t going to be kind.
I’m glad that Girl Genius won for Graphic Story, since I think that comic is great.
Somewhat impressive that a Doctor Who episode won Dramatic Presentation-Short form, even with the vote split three ways (although I was hoping “Epitaph 1” would sneak through).
I’m with Michael I on Girl Genius; fantastic story, brilliantly told. I’m slightly concerned about GG getting the ‘best graphic story’ award in its first two years, though – GG deserves it, but there is other good stuff out there and I’d hate to see the award disappear because people assume there isn’t enough of a field to support it.
As for that particular Doctor Who story, the less said the better. I mean, it was better than “The End of Time”, but that’s like being more functional than a cardboard jellyfish.
Fred Pohl getting an award for fan writing, however, is pure awesome.
Is it too early to place bets on next year’s winners? For novel, I’d put the early $$$ on Peter Hamilton’s “The Evolutionary Void” I just finished it, and it puts a sweet ending to the Commonwealth Saga Duology and The Void Trilogy. No Deus Ex Machina this time around. It’s terrific.