|
I agree that they are to a degree a popularity contest, but I think enough people nominate/vote based on merit to make it worthwhile. Also a popularity win here and there isn't going to destroy the world, it's just a fun little in-community vote. The rest of the world barely notices, unfortunately.
Next up for me was the award for Best Novelette, my rankings
1. The Lady Astronaut of Mars
2. The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling
3. The Waiting Stars
4. The Exchange Officers
5/no award/blank. Opera Vita Aeterna
This was a good slate, some seriously short good fiction here. For me, the top spot had to go to Lady Astronaut. It blew me away, but Truth was pretty close. I especially liked the double story thing the author had in there. Waiting stars was good enjoyable SF, hadn't read that author before, have to look into hir. Exchange Officers was decent, but couldn't compete with the above. Opera Vita Aeterna is a bit of a special case. For those unfamiliar with it, this is one of the controversial ones. It's a bit lengthy to go into here, but in short the author is very controversial in his view of things like race and sex/gender. Which leads to a 2nd debate over whether a work should be judged on merit alone, or if the author should be considered. If one would like to know more, google along the lines of "Vox Day hugo controversy". Personally, just on merit I feel the work is along the lines of Exchange Officers. It wasn't bad, but couldn't compete with this line up. (In the interest of full disclosure, I personally find the author loathsome. I'm glad I was able to read the work for free, cause I'm not sure that I'd have been willing to support him financially) So it will get 5/no award or blank (Thank you Rev. Bob, didn't know that was an option before.) I'm still thinking about it, one of the reasons I started this thread.
|