stormsewer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stormsewer) wrote2020-05-14 09:55 am
stormsewer) wrote2020-05-14 09:55 am
2019 Hugo wrap-up
Before we get started on this year's Hugo Awards, I thought I should finish out thoughts about last year's.
First, my rankings for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form. I wrote these out last summer but never posted them. This is the only category outside short story, novelette, novella, and novel in which I evaluated every single nomination.
6. Black Panther
The secret, highly advanced African nation of Wakanda gets drawn into larger conflicts.
I'm frankly a little unsure why people thought this was so great. I mean, it wasn't terrible, but it seems a pretty standard-issue superhero film to me. I mean, c'mon, trial by combat is not the way stable and enlightened societies choose their leaders— it's nonsensical.
5. Avengers: Infinity War
The fight against Thanos reaches a head.
I'm not really a fan of huge ensemble films like this, but as far as they go this was pretty good, if only because previous MCU films made me care about at least some of the characters. Thanos is kind of boring as a bad guy, though, don't you think?
4. A Quiet Place
Humans struggle to survive after an invasion by powerful creatures that kill anyone who makes a sound.
Kind of a gimmicky premise, but it was well executed.
3. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
A young man ends up needing to take over for Spiderman, but he gets help from alternate universes.
This was pretty great; in particular it did a great job of playing to the strengths of animation as a medium. The MC was maybe a bit over-powered by the end, though...
2. Annihilation
A woman agrees to join a team investigating the mysterious and deadly Area X in hopes of finding out what happened to her husband there.
I loved the book, and though it seems to be a minority opinion, I thought this was a good adaptation overall (I'm just going to overlook that crap about Hox genes or whatever). I admit I imagined the MC as more of a Tilda Swinton type, but I'm pretty fond of Natalie Portman, so I'll let it pass.
1. Sorry to Bother You
A guy in an alternate (or near-future?) Oakland gets a job as a telemarketer to make ends meet, but soon finds things getting crazier than expected.
Likely another minority opinion. I really doubt this is going to win (it's probably going to be Black Panther), but I thought this was frickin' awesome. It makes you feel uncomfortable in the best way, and I appreciate the brazen weirdness of it all. It had an ending that confused me at first until after staring at the credits for a few minutes it finally occurred to me what had happened, which was pretty wow.
Since the final results are already in, I'll just discuss it here: Spiderman won. Not a bad choice; my top two choices were probably a bit too weird for the voters as a whole. Though my top choice came in dead last in the voting. Oh well.
As for other categories...
For Best Series I voted for The Laundry Files, Charles Stross's meshing of Lovecraft with the spy genre, which I've always enjoyed. Becky Chambers's Wayfarers won.
For Best Related Work, I voted for The Hobbit Duology documentary, digging into why the Hobbit movies sucked so bad. It was the only nominee I had encountered before the nominations came out, and I really enjoyed it. Unsurprisingly,Archive of Our Own won. That's probably deserved, but as just now was the first time I'd ever visited the site, it didn't make sense for me to vote for it.
I didn't make any votes for Best Graphic Story (or Editors, or Artists, or Zine, or Fan whatever, or Art Book, or Young Adult Book).
For Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, I voted for Dirty Computer, because Janelle Monáe is the best, THE BEST [1]. I ranked the "Janets" episode of The Good Place at number two, and the "Jeremy Bearimy" episode number three. "Janets" won, well deserved.
I've never voted for Best Fancast before, but this year I did, because I love < a href="https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/">Our Opinions Are Correct and have listened to every episode except one [2]. Apparently I'm not alone in that, because it won.
For the Award Previously Known As the Campbell Award, I voted for Vina Jie-Min Prasad, pretty much entirely on the strength of "A Series of Steaks". She came in dead last. (As a sideline, the actual winner's acceptance speech is nominated for Best Related Work this year and seems to be the reason it is now called the Astounding Award, instead.)
Alright, some thoughts on the winners in the main categories, then.
The Harrow piece won best short story, which, okay, that seemed a little pandering, but okay. My top choice, "STET", came in fourth.
The winner for novelette was the one I ranked last; my top pick ("Nine Last Days on Planet Earth") came in fourth.
Artificial Condition won best novella, also my top choice.
For novel, my number two pick, The Calculating Stars, won. So that's nice [3]. However, my top pick, Space Opera, came in dead last. What is wrong with you people?
[1] It's also worth noting that the wonderful Tessa Thompson played a key supporting role in both my top Dramatic Presentation choices.
[2] The one I haven't listened to is the one about Stephen Universe, because I've only watched the first ten or so episodes, and I don't want spoilers.
[3] Interestingly, the sequel didn't even get nominated this year.
See also:
Novels
Novellas
Novelettes
Short stories
First, my rankings for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form. I wrote these out last summer but never posted them. This is the only category outside short story, novelette, novella, and novel in which I evaluated every single nomination.
6. Black Panther
The secret, highly advanced African nation of Wakanda gets drawn into larger conflicts.
I'm frankly a little unsure why people thought this was so great. I mean, it wasn't terrible, but it seems a pretty standard-issue superhero film to me. I mean, c'mon, trial by combat is not the way stable and enlightened societies choose their leaders— it's nonsensical.
5. Avengers: Infinity War
The fight against Thanos reaches a head.
I'm not really a fan of huge ensemble films like this, but as far as they go this was pretty good, if only because previous MCU films made me care about at least some of the characters. Thanos is kind of boring as a bad guy, though, don't you think?
4. A Quiet Place
Humans struggle to survive after an invasion by powerful creatures that kill anyone who makes a sound.
Kind of a gimmicky premise, but it was well executed.
3. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
A young man ends up needing to take over for Spiderman, but he gets help from alternate universes.
This was pretty great; in particular it did a great job of playing to the strengths of animation as a medium. The MC was maybe a bit over-powered by the end, though...
2. Annihilation
A woman agrees to join a team investigating the mysterious and deadly Area X in hopes of finding out what happened to her husband there.
I loved the book, and though it seems to be a minority opinion, I thought this was a good adaptation overall (I'm just going to overlook that crap about Hox genes or whatever). I admit I imagined the MC as more of a Tilda Swinton type, but I'm pretty fond of Natalie Portman, so I'll let it pass.
1. Sorry to Bother You
A guy in an alternate (or near-future?) Oakland gets a job as a telemarketer to make ends meet, but soon finds things getting crazier than expected.
Likely another minority opinion. I really doubt this is going to win (it's probably going to be Black Panther), but I thought this was frickin' awesome. It makes you feel uncomfortable in the best way, and I appreciate the brazen weirdness of it all. It had an ending that confused me at first until after staring at the credits for a few minutes it finally occurred to me what had happened, which was pretty wow.
Since the final results are already in, I'll just discuss it here: Spiderman won. Not a bad choice; my top two choices were probably a bit too weird for the voters as a whole. Though my top choice came in dead last in the voting. Oh well.
As for other categories...
For Best Series I voted for The Laundry Files, Charles Stross's meshing of Lovecraft with the spy genre, which I've always enjoyed. Becky Chambers's Wayfarers won.
For Best Related Work, I voted for The Hobbit Duology documentary, digging into why the Hobbit movies sucked so bad. It was the only nominee I had encountered before the nominations came out, and I really enjoyed it. Unsurprisingly,
I didn't make any votes for Best Graphic Story (or Editors, or Artists, or Zine, or Fan whatever, or Art Book, or Young Adult Book).
For Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, I voted for Dirty Computer, because Janelle Monáe is the best, THE BEST [1]. I ranked the "Janets" episode of The Good Place at number two, and the "Jeremy Bearimy" episode number three. "Janets" won, well deserved.
I've never voted for Best Fancast before, but this year I did, because I love < a href="https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/">Our Opinions Are Correct and have listened to every episode except one [2]. Apparently I'm not alone in that, because it won.
For the Award Previously Known As the Campbell Award, I voted for Vina Jie-Min Prasad, pretty much entirely on the strength of "A Series of Steaks". She came in dead last. (As a sideline, the actual winner's acceptance speech is nominated for Best Related Work this year and seems to be the reason it is now called the Astounding Award, instead.)
Alright, some thoughts on the winners in the main categories, then.
The Harrow piece won best short story, which, okay, that seemed a little pandering, but okay. My top choice, "STET", came in fourth.
The winner for novelette was the one I ranked last; my top pick ("Nine Last Days on Planet Earth") came in fourth.
Artificial Condition won best novella, also my top choice.
For novel, my number two pick, The Calculating Stars, won. So that's nice [3]. However, my top pick, Space Opera, came in dead last. What is wrong with you people?
[1] It's also worth noting that the wonderful Tessa Thompson played a key supporting role in both my top Dramatic Presentation choices.
[2] The one I haven't listened to is the one about Stephen Universe, because I've only watched the first ten or so episodes, and I don't want spoilers.
[3] Interestingly, the sequel didn't even get nominated this year.
See also:
Novels
Novellas
Novelettes
Short stories