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April 4, 2010

OM NOM NOM NH
Posted by Abi Sutherland at 06:38 PM * 37 comments

The Hugo nominations have just been announced, and you’ll note that not only are a number of Making Light regulars on the list, but Patrick is once again up for Best Editor, Long Form (along with his sometime assistant and paduan, Liz Gorinsky; always two there are.)

Inside baseball people will also note that one of the Best Novel nominees, the really excellent Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson, was edited by Teresa.

However, I am certain that they would not let any professional rivalry enter their tranquil home.

(runs away now)

[Teresa adds: And Dave Howell is up for Best Fan Artist! Is that cool, or what?]

Comments on OM NOM NOM NH:
#1 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 07:11 PM:

Congrats to everyone on the shortlists!

Interestingly, there seem to be a lot of ties this year -- the novel, novella, and novelette shortlists both feature six items.

#2 ::: Erik Nelson ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 07:15 PM:

Is
OM NOM NOM NH
an abbreviation for
"Omigod! Nomination! Nomination! Nielsen Haydens!"?

#3 ::: joann ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 07:35 PM:

One devoutly hopes that having two things named "Palimpsest", albeit in different categories, isn't going to confuse anyone unduly.

#4 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 07:54 PM:

Joanne: I haven't read Cathrynne's "Palimpsest", but according to the reviews it's genre fantasy (albeit innovative and finely written fantasy). My "Palimpsest", in contrast, is hard SF, subspecies: Time Opera.

(Time Opera is like Space Opera, only with time machines instead of starships. Ahem. I invented it, so that's my definition.)

#5 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 07:58 PM:

joann, having read both and found them memorable, I can say that I doubt it.

#6 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 08:37 PM:

And as with a lot of things you write, Charlie, it includes a dollop of existential horror: your characters live in a universe utterly bereft of causality. Everyone in that world, in all of that history, could be murdered by someone popping out of nowhere, for no reason apparent to them. Our everyday linear progressions of cause to effect turn out to be illusions, ones that can be dispelled at any moment. A nuclear explosion could wipe out New York or Washington DC, and we who live in this timeline would have no warning and no way to prepare.

That's a worldview that is implicit in a fair amount of time travel fiction, but few others put it so much in the foreground.

#8 ::: Samuel Bierwagen ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 09:01 PM:

Looks like The Island by Convicted Felon Peter Watts is up for Best Novelette.

(Also eligible for a prize: That Sentence for Most Capitalized Words.)

#9 ::: Serge ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 09:19 PM:

My congratulations to the Fluorospherians who made it to the final list.

#10 ::: kid bitzer ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 09:22 PM:

whoa--very impressive!

having never won any awards for anything, i feel totally outclassed.

many congratulations to everyone! and may the best authors/editors/sub-editors/spouses-of-editors win!

#11 ::: pericat ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 10:13 PM:

I got an award, once. A second place UIL solo flute piece. I was petrified. I detest even ensemble performing, and solo was and is Right Out. I think they gave me the medal for not throwing up on their shoes.

Can you imagine the fortitude necessary to listen to rank upon rank of teenage flautists? It makes reading slush look like quiet, fulfilling work.

(But I'm forgetting my manners: w00t, home team! Congratulations on your nominations - the stronger the field, the more you shine.)

#12 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 10:52 PM:

pericat, 11: UIL, really? I didn't know you were from Texas! (Unless you don't mean University Interscholastic League, in which I scurry off, shamefaced in my provincialism.)

I hated solo and ensemble too. Also all-region. But band sightreading was fun!

#13 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: April 04, 2010, 11:38 PM:

I once gave half of an acceptance speech for the John W. Campbell Not-A-Hugo Award. That's pretty certainly the closest I'm ever going to come to actually winning a Hugo myself.

(It also allowed me to experience what it was like to be Schrödinger's Cat, but I've told that story before.)

#14 ::: pericat ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 12:46 AM:

TexAnne @12 I am originally of Texas; and so provincial myself that I didn't even think UIL might need spelling out, so thank you!

#15 ::: Earl Cooley III ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 12:54 AM:

My best UIL result was 5th in AAA Texas in Slide Rule. It was pretty cool being the only non-jock to earn a letter jacket at my school that year.

#16 ::: Madeleine Robins ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 01:28 AM:

Yay Yay Yay to all--but I'm so glad to see Julian Comstock getting some love. I really thought that was one splendid book.

#17 ::: Dave Langford ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 09:51 AM:

Charlie #4: Time Opera is like Space Opera, only with time machines instead of starships. Ahem. I invented it, so that's my definition.

Oddly enough, there is already a TIME OPERA entry in the SF Encyclopedia-in-progress. It begins:

A potentially useful item of TERMINOLOGY which has yet to be generally adopted. It seems to have been coined by Anthony BOUCHER in his MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION editorial introduction to the first story in Poul ANDERSON's Time Patrol sequence, "Time Patrol" (1955 FSF): "Space operas are all very well; but for real honest swashbuckling adventure, spiced with intellectual paradoxes and startling historical contrasts, give me that rarer art form, the time opera." Damien BRODERICK independently invented it as the subtitle of his The Dreaming Dragons: A Time Opera (1980). [...]

#18 ::: Christopher Kastensmidt ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 12:09 PM:

Big congrats to Patrick and all the other nominees!

#19 ::: Tazistan Jen ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 05:08 PM:

Has anyone read Feminist Cabal? It sounds fabulous. Also, I love "Time Opera," both the term and the genre.

#20 ::: Jules ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 05:47 PM:

I must admit, to my shame, that I haven't read anything by *any* of this year's Campbell nominees. Any pointers to stories that are worth reading?

#21 ::: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 06:30 PM:

In #15 Earl Cooley III writes:

My best UIL result was 5th in AAA Texas in Slide Rule. It was pretty cool being the only non-jock to earn a letter jacket at my school that year.

Like, wow, man.

It's like being a gunslinger: "See that kid? He's the Fifth Fastest Slide Rule In Texas!"

#22 ::: Joel Polowin ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 07:43 PM:

Jules @ 20: I enjoyed Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue and am now half-way through the sequel, A Local Habitation. Noir-ish murder-mystery urban fantasy set in San Francisco; the narrator, Toby Daye, is a half-human, half-Sidhe PI.

A third in the series is due out in September; two more are "confirmed as following", which I take to mean that she's got contracts for them.

Then there's her other series, coming out under the pen name "Mira Grant" -- Feed is supposed to be out at the end of April, the second around June of next year, and I don't know if there's a date for the third yet. This stuff is, I gather, more along the lines of zombies and pandemics, so I probably won't read them even though the author is a friend of mine (OB disclaimer).

Seanan also does a lot of song writing and performing. She's got a couple of excellent CDs out. But that's not relevant for the Campbell.

#23 ::: Dave Howell ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 08:12 PM:

If a picture's worth a thousand words, can I get nominated in the "Short Story" category too?

Aaaaaaaaaaa! I'm on the ballot! I'm on the ballot! Gibber gibber wave-arms-like-Kermit frighten-nearby-cats ahhhhh!

{singing} One Of These Things, Is Not Like The Others... four cartoonists, and me. Four people who have been nominated at least eight times before (each!) . . . and me.

I'm Getting a Hugo Pin! I'm Getting a Hugo Pin!

And let's all just take a moment to savor the oh-so-sensual flavor of somebody being nominated for a Hugo for making a Hugo. Mmmmm, self-referential stew.

#24 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 08:28 PM:

Congratulations everyone! And yes, Dave, that's amazing, and unique...like your design and fabrication for the Hugo base.

#25 ::: Joel Polowin ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 08:36 PM:

Dave Howell @ 23 -- "One of these things is not like the others" but that really was a lovely Hugo design. It's nice to see that a number of people seem to have agreed about that.

#26 ::: Simon W ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 09:04 PM:

Dave Howell @ 23 - judging by the pictures on your website of the bases you created, it's a well deserved nomination, congratulations.

#27 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 09:59 PM:

Dave @17: okay, so I've re-invented the wheel. From the 1950s. Ah, well. At least I mounted it on the exact same axle :)

#28 ::: TomB ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 10:45 PM:

Dave @23: You're going to need a tiny base for it.

#29 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 11:05 PM:

I don't understand why none of the 2009 Hugo Winners here has said the obvious to Dave. No, not "the cake is a lie!"

#30 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 11:26 PM:

Okay, Xopher, I'll bite: what is it that you're thinking of?

#31 ::: Joel Polowin ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 11:31 PM:

Xopher @ 29: Well, they did last year.

#32 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: April 05, 2010, 11:38 PM:

Oh, rats. Well, Joel, that would be why. David, Joel has it.

#33 ::: Allen Baum ::: (view all by) ::: April 13, 2010, 02:39 AM:

Very cool. If Dave winds a Hugo for the best Hugo, do we all get sucked into some kind of time-like loop, and end up giving out Hugos for winning Hugos?

#34 ::: Allen Baum ::: (view all by) ::: April 13, 2010, 02:40 AM:

Very cool. If Dave winds a Hugo for the best Hugo, do we all get sucked into some kind of time-like loop, and end up giving out Hugos for winning Hugos?

#35 ::: Dave Howell ::: (view all by) ::: April 13, 2010, 05:51 PM:

TomB @28: Oh, damn you. I am. Leftover granite, cut down with the tile saw, some of the remaining shiny maple leaves, hmmmm. A miniaturized duplicate would be absurdly difficult, but a small companion piece is quite do-able. Like I need another project or something. Damn you.

#36 ::: abi ::: (view all by) ::: April 13, 2010, 05:58 PM:

Tom shoots, Tom scores.

Dave, do you have a set scoring system, like Teresa does for cataplexy? How many points is sucking you into a new project worth? Or does one roll, say, 1d6? Then adjust the score?

#37 ::: Paul A. ::: (view all by) ::: April 15, 2010, 01:00 PM:

I see I've already been trumped in the Earliest Known Citation stakes, but I wanted to note that I've been calling Simon Hawke's Time Wars series "Space Opera, only with time machines instead of starships" for years now.

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