As the Hugo and Retro Hugo voting is due to finish tomorrow (07:59 BST on Thursday in the UK and Eire), this is a quick post about the finalists—but mostly a plug for Anthony Boucher’s Retro novella We Print the Truth. More about that later.
First off, let’s remember that the winner of any Hugo Award is a result of this equation:
Success = (a) Author popularity x (b) Work availability x (c) Work quality x (d) Zeitgeist.
(a) Author popularity use to depend on a writer’s general attractiveness, e.g., How well liked were his/her stories or fanzine articles? How affable or entertaining a convention presence were they? What had their lifetime impact been? Nowadays, a writer’s popularity will be partially or largely related to their “tribe” and social media presence. For the Retro Hugo awards in particular, the writer’s lifetime achievement will probably dominate (minor stories by major writers have already won Retro Hugos).
(b) Work availability once meant that it was better to appear in, for example, Astounding or Galaxy rather than in Fantasy Book, or any of the British SF magazines. Nowadays, free online trumps paid online or paper (hence the near total omission of F&SF, Asimov’s SF, and Analog from recent final ballots).
(c) Quality is not as big a deal as you might think. Jo Walton noted in her recent Hugo Awards book that the Hugos get it right about two-thirds of the time. For the Retro Hugos I’d shoehorn memorability into the quality category; a story fondly remembered will be thought of as “quality”—even though there may be sixty or seventy years of rose-coloured slow glass between the memory and the actuality.
(d) There are many examples of zeitgeist: New Wave, the 1970’s wave of feminism, SJWs versus Puppies, #MeToo, etc.
Okay, onto the 2019 Hugo Awards. I have little to say about these as I have read virtually none of the fiction or non-fiction, and saw little media. What can I say apart from, “I’ll try and do better next year.” The convention sent out a very good voters’ package too.
I did read Jo Walton’s An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards 1953-2000, and Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction (and voted for them in that order—I may write a review and say why later). I also voted for a few other things, Rocket Stack Rank, Beyond Ceaseless Skies, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, etc.
I read most of the fiction on the 1944 Retro Hugos final ballot and voted like this:
Best Novel:
Gather, Darkness! by Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Astounding Science-Fiction, May-July 1943)
Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Unknown Worlds, April 1943)
The Weapon Makers by A.E. van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, February-April 1943)
Das Glasperlenspiel [The Glass Bead Game] by Hermann Hesse (Fretz & Wasmuth)
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis (John Lane, The Bodley Head)
No award
Earth’s Last Citadel by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner (Argosy, April-July 1943)
Comment: I really liked the two Leibers, especially Gather Darkness!, but would be happy if either won (I think Gather, Darkness! is better technically and more fun, but realise that Conjure Wife may be seminal). I hope Leiber’s vote isn’t split and something else comes through the middle. I did not like the Moore/Kuttner (I can’t understand why it was nominated), and am baffled that Moore’s solo novel Judgement Night didn’t make the final ballot. This gives me a bad feeling in my water about how this year’s awards will turn out.
I didn’t have time (i.e. too lazy and not sufficiently organised) to read the Hesse or Lewis even though I had copies.
Best Novella:
We Print the Truth by Anthony Boucher (Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1943)
Clash by Night by Lawrence O’Donnell (Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore) (Astounding Science-Fiction, March 1943)
Attitude by Hal Clement (Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1943)
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft, (Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Arkham House)
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Reynal & Hitchcock)
The Magic Bed-Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons by Mary Norton (Hyperion Press)
Comment: A weak category this year, as seen by the inclusion of two children’s books (although these are maybe here as a diversity vote, +translation, +woman, i.e. zeitgeist, or as a more general attempt to make the genre seem respectable). I don’t object to children’s books on the ballot (I would have voted for J. K. Rowling’s winner) but there is a difference between “children’s” and “YA” books.
Notwithstanding this, I read the Saint-Exupéry and found its quirkiness, homilies, and views on adult behaviour quite interesting to begin with—but eventually got bored with it. I didn’t read the Norton or the Lovecraft.
Of the remainder, the standout story for me is the Boucher novella We Print the Truth. I’d love it if this won, not only because it deserves to, but because he lost out last year and probably doesn’t have many chances left. However, Boucher isn’t that well known as a writer, and it’s a fantasy, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the Clement or Kuttner/Moore won. The Clement is a weaker early work but the Kuttner/Moore would be an okay choice.
Best Novelette:
Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett (C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner) (Astounding Science-Fiction, February 1943)
The Proud Robot by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner) (Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1943)
Thieves’ House by Fritz Leiber, Jr (Unknown Worlds, February 1943)
The Halfling by Leigh Brackett (Astonishing Stories, February 1943)
Citadel of Lost Ships by Leigh Brackett (Planet Stories, March 1943)
Symbiotica by Eric Frank Russell (Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1943)
Comment: I liked all these bar the Russell—which is a weak adventure story in my opinion—and Brackett’s Citadel of Lost Ships (The Halfling is better), although both are okay. The obvious winner here is Mimsy, but there are two Kuttner stories on the ballot so the vote could be split, something that could also happen to Brackett (she had two on the ballot last year as well—is this because people like Brackett or is it a zeitgeist vote for a woman?) I just hope the Russell doesn’t come through the middle of these two pairs.
I’d like to mention Malcolm Jameson’s story Blind Alley, which should have been on the final ballot.
Best Short Story:
King of the Gray Spaces (R is for Rocket) by Ray Bradbury (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1943)
Yours Truly – Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch (Weird Tales, July 1943)
Exile by Edmond Hamilton (Super Science Stories, May 1943)
No award
Doorway into Time by C.L. Moore (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September 1943)
Death Sentence by Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1943)
Q.U.R. by H.H. Holmes (Anthony Boucher) (Astounding Science-Fiction, March 1943)
Comment: What a strange category—half the stories are good, and half are average or poor. Asimov would probably take this on name recognition were it not for the fact that Bradbury and Bloch have equal recognisability, and better stories to boot.
Best Professional Editor, Short Form:
John W. Campbell
Dorothy McIlwraith
Mary Gnaedinger
Donald A. Wollheim
Oscar J. Friend
Raymond A. Palmer
Comment: Campbell and the also-rans, I’m afraid.
Best Professional Artist:
Hannes Bok
J. Allen St. John
Margaret Brundage
William Timmins
Virgil Finlay
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Comment: I’ve put Finlay near the bottom as nearly everyone votes him a lifetime achievement award every year. Boris Dolgov should have been on the ballot.
Good luck to all the finalists, although you’d be better off trying to maximise your scores in each of the four categories above. ●
Edited 1420: minor changes.
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