Novel:
Ancillary Mercy 1.
Seveneves 2.
Novella:
The Builders, by Daniel Polansky
Wind In The Willows meets Mack Bolan to the tune of Let The Bodies Hit The Floor. A lot of gratuitous violence with just enough plot to tie it together.
Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor 3
It’s a good fish out of water story about a “tribal” girl who went against her culture’s traditions, left her tribal lands, and did great things on her way to university.
Penric’s Demon, by Lois McMaster BuJold 4
It’s a good, well developed fantasy story about a kid who accidentally acquires a demon, and how he and the demon adjust to each other. It is very well crafted with a bit of a twist at the end. The internal conflict is partially between Pen and his demon, and partially between Pen and people who want his demon.
Perfect State, by Brandon Sanderson 2
It starts off as a fantasy, and then turns out to be hard SF. Very good slipstream, with a completely unseen twist at the end. A brain in a jar who perceptually exists in a virtual world created just for him, and then has to interact with other brains in jars for the first time. It’s a pretty common trope in SF, and it does call into question exactly what it is to be Human.
Slow Bullets, by Alastair Reynolds. 1
Interestingly, the slow bullet seems to be tangential to the story. A soldier gets put onto the wrong ship, then a trip goes wrong, and results in them taking a long trip into the future. It goes deep into the philosophy of good, bad, religious conflict, and redemption.
These are all so good that picking an order is difficult.
Novelette
What Price Humanity, by David Van Dyke 3
Space fighter pilot discovers he’s a disembodied brain in a VR simulation. Entirely predictable. The only twist to the trope is that it’s human engrams programmed into high quality simulation systems controlling missiles. Aside from that it could be straight out of Ender’s Game.
And You Shall Know Her By The Trail Of Dead, by Brooke Bolander
Very, very gritty. Some of the grit is funny, though. Like the saying “Dumber than a sack of skullfucked squirrels.” “Mafioso squirts that came from ballsacks and bad decisions.” “Go fuck your own ass with a fish-hook dildo.” “She tastes like a chainsmoking asshole that just underwent a malt liquor enema.” Synthetic humans inhabiting both a body and a virtual world fighting other programs and fragments of code. Nice twist at the end.
Folding Beijing, by Hao Jingfang, tr. Ken Liu 1
Obits, by Stephen King 2
Flashpoint Titan 4
Pretty straightforward space opera. It reads like the first chapter of a larger novel.
Short Story
“Asymmetrical Warfare” by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015) 3
“Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015) 1
Head and shoulders better than the rest of the category.
“If You Were an Award, My Love” by Juan Tabo and S. Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)
So, Vox Day and his minions are reduced to satirizing past finalists?
“Seven Kill Tiger” by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House) 4
Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services) 5
How the hell did this get nominated for a Hugo? Oh, that’s right, Puppies.
No Award 2
Related Work:
No Award. 1
Best Graphic Novel:
The Divine 1
The only graphic novel this year that presents a complete story arc. Excellent use of Asian folklore. Excellent modern fantasy. The art is good, but it does contain one of my pet peeves of the genre. If artists are going to depict firearms in detail in their works then they should take some time to study how the damned things actually work. Getting the firearms wrong is something so common in graphic novels that when I don’t see it I am pleasantly surprised. But in this case I can overlook the problem because the rest of the work is so good.
Invisible Republic 2
The concept is excellent, the art is outstanding, the storytelling is good. It has the kind of story arc of a first chapter, or first act, in a larger work. If it had been a complete story arc then it would be number 1.
The Sandman 3
The concept is unique. The art is exceptional. It’s a good first chapter in a larger work, but not even close to a complete story arc.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
The Martian 1
Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
I’m not familiar with any of the finalists, and I didn’t bother with the category.
Best Fanzine
File 770 1
I know it made it onto a slate because Vox Day wanted to pull reverse psychology. Sorry VD, it’s not going to work this time.
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