The world’s most prestigious science fiction awards, the Hugos, have announced the nominations for best novel as: The Aeronaut’s Windlass, Jim Butcher (Roc); The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin (Orbit US); Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit UK); Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Macmillan UK); Seveneves, Neal Stephenson (The Borough Press). The winners in all categories will be declared at the World Science Fiction Convention which will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, USA over the long weekend of 17-21 August.
However, as per last year, there have been successful attempts to game the nomination process by two activist groups, the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies. The former group advocates traditional adventure fiction with a conservative leaning. Founder Brad Torgersen has complained that the sort of novels favoured by the Hugo have become, ‘niche, academic, overtly to the left in ideology and flavour, and ultimately lacking what might best be called visceral, gut-level, swashbuckling fun’. The latter group operates from an extreme rightwing position and is headed by the openly racist Theodore Beale/Vox Day – described by The Wall Street Journal as ‘the most despised man in science fiction’. In order to have the Hugos reflect their visions of SF the Puppies again, as last year, suggested ‘voting slates’ for their members to follow.