Hugo Nominations: Best Related Work

This is an odd group of nominees, several of which appear to have nothing to do with Science fiction or fantasy, and as such hardly seem to qualify for a "Best Related Work category. Which is sad, because there was quite a variety of interesting and unquestionaly relevant works published this year. But this is what we have to work with.


“Why Science is Never Settled”, Tedd Roberts

Published in two parts on the Baen.com website, this nominated related work is in part a fairly straightforward description of the scientific process as performed in the modern scientific community, from the basics of the scientific method through to publication in peer-reviewed journals. The author states clearly that he, as a research scientist himself, agrees with the process. But. There's the other part to this, which I find myself a bit uneasy about in terms of how it's expressed even though I agree with it in both principle and fact.

The author is very concerned with what he fears is a general belief that science is "settled" - and that this is a problem both of the general public who don't understand that science keeps moving, that theories are tested and sometimes re-evaluated, and sometimes replaced with a theory that better explains the facts, and of the scientific community, which he suggests clings to consensus even when new theories are shown to be more effective in explaining phenomena.

Yes, both these things can be shown to happen, but putting too much emphasis on them also opens the door to the kind of thinking that says intelligent design should be accepted as an alternative theory to evolution because it challenges the status quo, or that the near-universal consensus on the human role in climate change means it's an outmoded theory that is only being held to because people fear change. I may be reading too much into Roberts' essay, but there it is.

Above and beyond that, I'm not sure that this is all that strongly related to science fiction or fantasy. Certainly there were a good many works published last year that were more closely related - the second volume of Patterson's biography of Heinlein, Jill Lapore's Secret History of Wonder Woman, critical looks at the fiction of Greg Egan and Robert Heinlein, the second volume of Jonathan Eller's study of Ray Bradbury, and critical essay collections by various people looking at sff, to mention just a few.



The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF”, Ken Burnside

The hardest of hard sf writers and fans insist that sf should always be based on science that works. No transwarp drives to get us quickly to the action, no ansibles to give us faster than light communications, no transporters to mysteriously beam us up. It's not an argument I agree with, although I'm one of those who is comfortable seeing science fiction and fantasy as a continuum, with a great deal of material that one might label science fantasy in the rich, yummy middle. Ken Burnside starts from the premise that hard sf should conform to physics, and proceeds from there:

Ignoring thermodynamics is one of the cardinal sins of science fiction authors writing military SF; the same authors who wouldn't dream of saying that a Colt 1911A fires a .40 caliber bullet will blithely walk into even more galling gaffes through simple ignorance and unquestioned assumptions.

In this essay, Burnside takes on many of the "errors" made by science fiction writers who fail to appreciate the way that the laws of physics would shape travel - and war - in space: "As combat moves from the bosom of the Earth, and into orbital and interplanetary space, it will be limited by increasingly complex logistics and by thermodynamics."

He addresses such topics as the impossibility of stealth in space, the need for plausibility in propulsion systems (you can take off, orbit and land, or you can travel from orbit onwards, but you can't do both in one ship), and the weapons and tactics that would work in real space combat.

There's some interesting technical material here, and it clearly has something that some of the other nominations lack: actual relevance to science fiction or sff fandom.

( Discussion of a nominated work of John C. Wright behind the cut. I am including discussion of this work out of respect for the Hugo nomination and voting processes despite this person's history of public hate speech. Feel free to skip. )

Letters from Gardner, Lou Antonelli

The Hugo Voters Packet includes a "preview" of this book, which appears to contain roughly one-third of the material in the published version. My impressions are based on this truncated text.

Letters from Gardner is several things all at once - a folksy autobiography, a home for some early short stories that are, if they were ever published at all, not out of print, and some scattered advice on how to become a writer. Oh, and there's some correspondence with editor Gardner Dozois, hence the title.

Unfortunately, Antonelli is not really notable enough for anyone other than his fans, friends and family to find a memoir all that fascinating, the stories are, as early stories tend to be, somewhat lacking in many areas - not the least of which is female characters who are more than window dressing - the writing advice is pedestrian, and Dozois' notes to a promising novice writer are pretty much what you'd expect any editor to write under such circumstances. And - one of my personal pet peeves, having worked as a proofreader myself - the book is quite sloppily copyedited.


Wisdom from My Internet, Michael Z. Williamson

I am at a complete loss in trying to figure out what on earth this compendium of mostly unfunny one-liners has to do with science fiction or fantasy. Ok, he mentions Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and a few other sff texts that have become part of mainstream culture in North America, but I really don't think that's enough to justify the nomination.

And there's really not much more to say about it.

Anthology: Bless Your Mechanical Heart, Jennifer Brozak (ed.)

"Bless Your Mechanical Heart," edited by Jennifer Brozek, is structured around a rather interesting theme. As Brozek notes in her Introduction, it's the idea of

...the poignant, sympathetic robot/cyborg that just doesn’t get it… or does get it and can’t do anything about it. That’s what makes some of these stories a kick in the teeth or encourages the reader to sigh with a knowing smile. We all recognize the humanity in the protagonists, even if they don’t recognize it themselves.

And the stories are for the most part very good, and all of them rung thoughtful changes on the theme. One thing I found interesting about many of them - particularly in light of the reference Brozak makes to the 'humanity' of the cybernetic protagonists - was that the authors had so fully and gendered these mechanical men - and women - that I found it somehow wrong not to use gendered pronouns in discussing them.

In Seanan McGuire's "The Lamb," highly realistic androids are placed in classrooms as a deterrent to bullying; programmed both to be targets - so that they, and not vulnerable human children and youths are bullied, assaulted, and tormented - and witnesses who speak out on graduation day concerning the abuse each one has experienced at the hands of their classmates.

Fiona Patton's "The King's Own" tells the story of an android soldier, a member of the special guard of a king in exile, whose special programming allows him to learn emotion and self-awareness, and the human soldier who tells him a lifetime of stories - starting with The Velveteen Rabbit - that show him how.

Mira lives in a world where drone bombs take out random targets at regular intervals. Three years ago, the target was her girlfriend Amy. Mira still grieves for her miscarried child, while her husband Jeff buries himself so deep in his work it's as if he wasn't there. Mira has an android housekeeper named Rachel, who once belonged to Amy, who has been programmed by Jeff to be Mira's substitute lover, and who wants to make Mira happy - but what Mira wants is a child to raise. "The Strange Architecture of the Heart," by Lucy A. Snyder, is funny and sad by turns, and ends with an unexpected answer to Mira's longing.

Jean Rabe's "Thirty-two Twenty-three" looks at what happens when a malfunctioning robot programmed to be a judicial assistant is reprogrammed with everything necessary to serve the religious needs of a diverse group of parishioners on a mining colony.

A batman - or batwoman - is a personal servant assigned to a commissioned officer. In "Just Another Day in the Butterfly War" by M. Todd Gallowglas, a cybernetic batwoman watches over two agents whose role in a temporal war is to keep the enemy from changing the timeline - and changing it back if they succeed.

In "Ever You" by Mae Empson, soldiers killed in battle - and of course, there is a long and bloody war as the background to the story - are brought back to fight again, and again, and again, cloned brains in synthetic bodies. To properly integrate their memories before going back to the front, these "Re-issues" spend a week with someone from their life before going off to fight and die - but at what emotional cost to the spouse, sibling, parent, friend who sends them off - again, and again, and again?

In Sarah Hans' "Rest in Peace," a lonely robot faces centuries alone after the human she has cared for and served through twelve regenerations dies.

A robot, well-maintained, can remain functional for a very long time - and in Dylan Birtolo's "Seeds of Devotion" we meet a robot programmed to do one special thing long after its owner is gone.

"The Imperial Companion" by Lillian Cohen-Moore presents us with a synthetic being designed as the friend and companion of a royal prince, who is reawakened centuries after the violent death of his charge.

Christopher Kellan's "In So Many Words" is a love story, its protagonist a robotic Cyrano de Bergerac who must woo his beloved for another - the human who is his master.

In "Do Robotic Cats Purr in Outer Space?" by Kerrie Hughes, a robotic therapist with the body of a cat and the preserved memories and personality of a human negotiates a subversive deal with one of her clients to secure a future for both of them.

Jason Sanford's "We Eat the Hearts that Come for You" is a tragic tale of a cyborg lover programmed to do the unthinkable - and suffer for it - again and again.

"AIDEd" by Minerva Zimmerman is a chilling tale of escalation of hostilities - set in a futuristic schoolground where students are assigned androids to protect then from any and all dangers.

Mark Andrew Edwards' "The Body as a Ship" follows an aging man through the process of replacing his failing organs one by one.

In the evocatively titled "Of Metal Men and Scarlet Thread and Dancing with the Sunrise" by Ken Scholes, a mechanical servitor, programmed with the knowledge to destroy a city, becomes a dangerous weapon.

In Jody Lynn Nye's "Lost Connection," a woman who has remained too dependent on her childhood robotic companion finds finds someone who will need her old friend far more than she ever did.

Peter Clines' "The Apocrypha of Gamma-202" broaches the question of how a society of robots might view the ancient memory of a creator, Man.

As promised, these tales have a particular poignancy to them, a humanity that is all the more potent because its subjects are so like us - and yet so unlike us. An enjoyable and satisfying collection.



*Lately, I've been thinking a lot about gender balance in anthologies. In this and all future anthologies I comment on, I'll be making notes on this issue. This anthology contains 17 stories, 10 of which are identifiable as being written by women.

Hugo Nominations: Best Editor, Long and Short Form

Evaluating the editorial categories is more difficult than the literary categories - an editor faces a number of practical constraints that can inference the quality if any given work, and may produce a number of works in a given year. In both categories, I've read anything that was part of the Hugo Voters Packet, and if nothing was included, or what was included was insufficient for me to draw any conclusions, I made attempts (without going broke) to acquire samples of work I could use to make a fair determination.


Best Editor, Short Form

Of the four Hugo nominees [1] for best editor, short form, I had already read and enjoyed a 2014 anthology co-edited by two of the nominees, Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt - Shattered Shields, which Schmidt submitted for consideration [2]. Another Brozek-edited anthology, "Bless Your Mechanical Heart," was included as part of the Hugo Voters Packet [3].

I've been aware of Mike Resnick as an editor for many years and have read and enjoyed a few of the anthologies he's edited, though not recently. He is currently the editor of the sff magazine Galaxy's Edge, so I acquired a couple issues from 2014 (I was not prepared to buy them all) and browsed through them.

Which left me with only one nominee that I had no previous knowledge of as an editor. Fortunately, an anthology co-edited with Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse, was included in the Hugo Voters Packet, which enabled me to come to some conclusions about this nominee's short-form editing skills [4].

There are some editors whose work I actively seek out, some editors whose anthologies I'll gladly buy if the subject matter interests me or there's a story from an author I like, and some editors whose anthologies I don't find all that interesting and am quite unlikely to purchase. Based on the material I looked at for this award category, Brozek, Schmidt and Resnick fall in the second category, and the final nominee in the third.



Best Editor, Long Form

In this category, only Sheila Gilbert and Anne Sowards submitted material for the voters to consider. Sowards offers a list of the novels she edited in 2014, while Gilbert (who, being the Chief Editor of DAW, may well have had more control over rights to distribute) provided the first chapters of all the novels she worked on last year (great marketing ploy, as well as being quite useful).

Being inclined to fairness, I attempted to find at least a representative sample of the works edited by the other nominees. I had no intention of attempting to read all the novels, but I did read reviews of as many of them as I could.

My deliberations are of course informed by the fact that Gilbert, Sowards and Minz have all at one time or another over the years edited books that I've read and enjoyed, and there's a good chance that Weisskopf has, too - I just haven't been able to confirm it. At the same time, I have also considered what the nominees have said, in interviews or statements readily available on the Internet, about their editorial philosophies and thoughts on the state of science fiction and fantasy because as editors, they play a role in shaping the genres. [5]

When all the available data is factored in and sent tumbling around in the vast echoing spaces of my brain, the conclusions I arrive at are that Gilbert comes closest to my ideal of a great editor, and I'd likely pick up and look at a book I knew she'd edited (though not necessarily read or buy it) just because I enjoy so many of the authors she's worked with and books she's edited. Anne Sowards and Jim Minz have solid client lists. Toni Weisskopf lost me with her "us and them" approach to the genre as exemplified in the guest column "The Problem of Engagement" she wrote on Sarah Hoyt's blog last year [6]. And then of course, there's the fifth nominee, whose editorial agenda and perspectives on the genre are so far from my own that I wouldn't vote for him in a thousand millenia of WorldCons.



[1] Edmund R. Schubert withdrew his nomination after the ballots were finalised.

[2] Comments on this anthology can be found at http://bibliogramma.dreamwidth.org/122289.html

[3] Comments on this anthology can be found at http://bibliogramma.dreamwidth.org/159133.html

[4] Comments on this anthology can be found at http://bibliogramma.dreamwidth.org/153351.html

[5] For another (and far more knowledgeable) perspective on the Editing awards, check out Jim C. Hines' thoughts: http://www.jimchines.com/2015/05/hugo-thoughts-editors/

[6] http://accordingtohoyt.com/2014/03/10/the-problem-of-engagement-a-guest-post-by-toni-weisskopf/