Great Hugo Readthrough

Hugo Controversy

The Hugo Award is undergoing an… unusual amount of controversy this year. Apart from the Wheel of Time shenanigans, which would be the center of attention, normally (people are upset about a giant fantasy series getting the nomination, blah blah blah, my fandom is better than yours, blah blah, whatever), but there is another, much bigger issue: Vox Day got nominated for Best Novelette. The Wikipedia article is pretty nice about it, but Theodore Beale/ Vox Day is a truly horrible person. He genuinely thinks that minorities and women are genetically inferior, he uses racial epithets constantly, is homophobic, is the only person ever kicked out of the SFWA, he’s anti-semitic, he’s a fundamentalist Christian (not just a biblical literalist, he’s the really hateful kind of fundamentalist), he’s a men’s rights activist, he considers feminism and women’s suffrage a disease, claims there is no such thing as marital rape… it goes on. I’m not linking to his blog or any of his posts, but I’ve read a few, and they are fucking horrifying.

The SF/Fantasy fandom world is up in arms right now.

So, how did he get on the list of Hugo finalists?

Author Larry Correia got him on the list by advocating for him, that’s how.

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Hugo Nominees Announced!

Here’s the full list of nominees, and there are also Retro Hugo nominations this year. I’m planning on doing a read-through of all the novel nominations (at least for the regular ones, haven’t decided about the retro hugo nominees. Notable nominees: The ENTIRE Wheel of Time series. All of it. All 12,529 pages of it. …Luckily, I prepared for this eventuality, and have already started rereading it. I’m on book 8 of 15, though I still have to read both WoT short stories as well.

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Great Hugo Reread 1953: Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man

First Time/Reread: Reread. This was one of the books I read for James Gunn’s science fiction course I took at KU.
Acquired: Already owned, thanks to the aforementioned class.

Other Nominees:
The other nominees were not recorded until 1959, with the exception of the Retro Hugos.
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Great Hugo Reread 1951: Robert Heinlein’s Farmer in the Sky


First time/reread: Reread.
Acquired: Already owned.

Other nominees:
Isaac Asimov- Pebble in the Sky: Haven’t read.
C.S. Lewis- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: It’s Narnia, what else can I say? It’s fun.
Edward E. Smith- First Lensman: Still need to read it.
Jack Vance- The Dying Earth: Amazing author, but haven’t read this one.
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Great Hugo Reread 1946: Isaac Asimov’s The Mule

I will be posting the Great Hugo Reread every Saturday from here out.

First time/Reread: Definitely a reread.
Acquired: Already owned this one, though I lost my other Foundation books.

Other Nominees:
A.E. van Vogt- The World of Null-A (Awesome)
C.S. Lewis- That Hideous Strength (Never read it, heard good things)
Fritz Lieber- Destiny Times Three (Great author, never even heard of the book before)
Edward Hamilton aka Brett Stirling- Red Sun of Danger (Huh?)
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