Hugo voting strategies

Fandom, science fiction
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In the light of what the Puppies did to the Hugos, and with the ballot now seemingly finalised, it’s time to look at how to vote, if you’re going to vote. If you’re upset and frustrated with what those Puppy assholes did to the Hugos, what are your possible strategies? As I see it, there are five possible responses

  1. Business as usual. Vote for the candidates you like, whether or not they’re on the ballot thanks to the Puppy slates.
    Noble, but a political act needs a political response. Whatever else happens, giving the Puppies a win is legitamising their slate building. Nor can you be confident that their nominations are uniformly so terribly you’ll No Award them naturally (though it is the way to bet). Remember: it doesn’t matter what your intentions are, the Puppies will take a win as their victory over all the evil unpeople ruining the Hugos until now.
  2. Bugger this for a game of soldiers. Don’t vote, go do something else. If the Puppies want the Hugos, they can have them.
    Tempting, especially if you were already half convinced the Hugos were no longer worth the renown they’re hold in. It’s no secret the Hugos have had problems staying relevant in an ever bigger science fiction landscape and it’s always an option if you don’t have the spoons to worry about this and think other awards do it better anyway. For me this is no option, but if we keep having a Puppy infestation and the WSFS is helpless to deal with it, this will become a possibility.
  3. No Award the feckers. Vote for the non-Puppy candidates, then vote No Award. Deidre Saoirse Moen has a nifty guide on how to do this.
    If you reject option one or two, this is the minimum you should do to combat the slate voting. Some people however think this isn’t going far enough.
  4. No Award all the things. Since the slate voting has polluted the Hugos to such a large extent, any winner, Puppy or not, has won unfairly. Therefore No Award everything and put it to rights in the retro Hugos (if possible).
    This is one option I first heard at Eastercon, just after the nominations were known, before the withdrawals and disqualifications. The problem with this is that this isn’t what the Retro Hugos –intended to award those worthy sf works published before the Hugos existed — are meant for and there’s no guarantee this will be possible. Therefore:
  5. A variant on the last one: No Award those categories with majority (3 or more) Puppy candidates, treat every other category as normal.
    The option I’ll be choosing. If I don’t vote for any Puppies, then some categories become a farce, like best novelette, which Thomas Olde Heuvelt then would win by default. Much as I’d root for his first Hugo win, it wouldn’t be a fair win, as his peers are not available to compare his story against.

So what would that last option mean for my Hugo ballot? That I would No Award the following categories, with either no, one or two non-Puppy candidates:

  • Best Novella
  • Best Novelette
  • Best Short Story
  • Best Related Work
  • Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
  • Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
  • Best Editor, Short Form
  • Best Editor, Long Form
  • Best Professional Artist
  • Best Fanzine
  • Best Fancast
  • Best Fan Writer
  • John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo)

That’s thirteen categories which the Puppies ruined; imagine if all those were No Awarded, that sends a pretty clear message of rejection, grim as it is. It would still leave four categories worth voting in:

  • Best Novel
  • Best Graphic Story
  • Best Semiprozine
  • Best Fan Artist

One thing is certain: it makes my Hugo reading a lot easier…

Shaun Duke’s Non-US SF/F Fandom Survey

Fandom, Fantastika
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Shaun Duke, one part of The Skiffy and Fanty Show, has created a Google docs survey to get non-American perspectives on the Hugo Awards. The Skiffy and Fanty Show has spent much of last year and this year looking at science fiction and fantasy outside of the Anglophone countries and is a great way of discovering new writers. Why not fill out the survey if you’re not a yank and interested in fandom?

Will 2015 see the end of the Hugo Voters Packet?

Fandom, science fiction
Published on 4 Comments on Will 2015 see the end of the Hugo Voters Packet?

The Hugo Voter Packet is one of those ancient traditions surrounding the Hugo Awards that’s actually quite recent, instigated by John Scalzi a couple of years ago as a way to make it easier for voters to read as much of the shortlisted books and stories (etc) as possible. As a side effect, it also increased interest in Worldcon supporting memberships, as $40 could get you a shitload of books and the right to vote in the Hugo Awards. Last year was my first Worldcon and getting that packet was great, as it introduced me to a whole lot of authors I’d otherwise might’ve missed, like Max Gladstone, Sofia Samatar, Ramez Naan and others.

There was a bit of controversy over the Packet though, as Orbit, the publisher of three of the best novel nominees, decided not to include the books for reasons that basically boiled down to not wanting to give away several thousands copies of books. Speculation was that being an UK publisher, they of course sold fewer copies of any book in the first place than an equivalent American publisher and whereas for the latter a few thousand copies was doable, for Orbit it would mean giving away almost an entire print run…

This year we’re in a perfect storm. For the average non-Puppy voter, the Voter Packet is a lot less attractive with all that Puppy Poo on it, while publishers might be wary to put their books on it due to the rocketing number of supporting memberships bought since the shortlist announcement. Sasquan is on track to become one of the largest, perhaps the largest Worldcon ever and what’s more, most of the memberships are supporting, not attending.

So if voters are less eager for the Packet anyway and publishers less willing to include their books now the membership is getting bigger and bigger, does this mean 2015 will make the Packet obsolete?

Hitsugi no Chaika

Anime, Art & Criticism
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Chaika opening credits

Hitsugi no Chaika — Coffin Princess Chaika is a 2014 anime series based on a light novel series, light novels being short, usually illustrated novels aimed at a youngish public in Japan. Many of those are on the formulaic side, shall we say, but they make good fodder for anime series and a lot of contemporary television anime in Japan is now driven by light novel adaptions. Light novels do have something of a reputation as making lousy animes, not helped by the glut of harem fantasy adaptations, where some bland bloke is trust into some sort of magical situation as the saviour of the world, involving lots and lots of young girls throwing themselves at him for unclear reasons. The unsatiable desire for new series leads to a lot of twelve episode animes with little to distinguish themselves.

Akari, Chaika and Toru

Hitsugi no Chaika could at first glance be mistaken for one of those. You got the nominal protagonist Chaika as the innocent abroad just this side of being sickly sweet, the male focus character Toru and his “sister”, Akari, prone to violent outbursts and accusations of lechery against him. All three are fairly stereotypical characters, found in every other anime series, caught up in what seems like an equally stereotypical love triangle.

Chaika acts shocked

What saves it is the humour, which is a cut above the usual “hilarious” slapstick or offensive sexist japery, but is actually based in the characters and themselves. It helps that they’re all likeable people as well, including the antagonists. Chaika is a bit too cute at times, naive, innocent, but also stubborn and determined to fulfil her mission. Akari is hotheaded but not obnoxiously so and is toned down somewhat after her introduction; both she and Toru are competent, professional warriors in a world where war has ended five years ago with the defeat of emperor Arthur Gaz.

Chaikas pursuers

Chaika is Gaz’s daughter, lugging a coffin around the former emperor to get his remains back from the eight heroes that defeated him, to give him a proper burial. She runs into and hires Toru and Akari after the former saves her from an unicorn, set upon her by a group of agents from the current regime, wanting to stop her, fearing what she might do with the remains. These are not your usual villains, but decent people with some doubt on whether they’re in the right from time to time, especially as the cracks in the new world order start to show. I like the design of the various characters as well, especially this chap, who looks like a Jack Kirby design.

background characters

Speaking of character design, what I also found interesting was while all the main characters look pretty much in the style of modern fantasy anime, the background characters look more like they’d wandered in from a lesser studio Ghibli movie. Much less colourful, much more realistic body types. Nowhere near the quality of a Ghibli production of course, but the feel is the same.

Akari attacking

All in all Hitsugi no Chaika is an entertaining anime series much better than it needed to be. Watch it.