I have been so busy with home remodeling projects I completely forgot about the Hugo Awards ceremony Saturday night. Not that I could have attended in person, since I was safely in Kansas and not attending WorldCon in Reno, Nevada. After a long day of window and swatch shopping and incremental steps forward on a couple of renovation projects, I stumbled into bed. Before nodding off, my nightly routine includes a quick check of four mobile sites via my Nook Color – my e-mail, RSS news feed reader, Facebook and finally Twitter (and sometimes the weather if it’s thunderstorm season). Several people I follow (authors mostly) were simultaneously posting about the Hugo Award ceremony, occurring at that exact moment and some of my bookworm Twitter friends posted they were watching the ceremony live via the WorldCom Ustream video feed. I clicked on the link in one of the Tweets and connected to the live video stream.
And for the next ninety minutes (and into Sunday morning), I watched somewhat choppy video (probably my fault since my master bedroom is as far away as I can get from my wireless access point without leaving the house) and listened to the presenters (Robert Silverberg was hilarious!) and acceptance speeches (some of these folks need professional help or less partying and more sleep) from my Nook Color. If you’d asked me twenty years ago when I embarked on a career in Information Technology if I’d be watching something like the Hugos (or any live event) on a small color touchscreen tablet, I would have probably snorted in disbelief. Such technological wonders came from the minds of Star Trek writers. Oh me of little faith.
Below are the results from my four favorite categories:
Best Novel (Presented by TimPowers)
I read 3/5 of the Best Novel nominees (click on the title links to peruse my reviews). I’m glad Connie won (again … this is her eleventh Hugo) for her massive and excellent novel.
Winner: Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Best Short Story (Presented by David D. Levine)
Each of the title links below take you to a discussion thread at the Beyond Reality GoodReads group that also includes a link to the story.
Winner: “For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010)
“Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Tor.com, November 17, 2010)
“The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (Presented by Bill Willingham)
The only film I did not watch this past year was “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” which I’d never heard of until I saw the trailer via the awards ceremony stream. I’m satisfied with the winner, as Inception definitely made me think and wonder for days after watching it.
Winner: Inception, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, screenplay by Steve Kloves; directed by David Yates (Warner)
How to Train Your Dragon, screenplay by William Davies, Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders; directed by Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders (DreamWorks)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, screenplay by Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright; directed by Edgar Wright (Universal)
Toy Story 3, screenplay by Michael Arndt; story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich; directed by Lee Unkrich (Pixar/Disney)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (Presented by George R. R. Martin)
I watched all the Doctor Who episodes listed, and would have had a devilsh time deciding which was the best. I’m partial to the ‘A Christmas Carol’ episode from last December, but the other two were equally well done. I apologize for the crude language below, it’s the actual title of the work.
Winner: Doctor Who: “The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang,” written by Steven Moffat; directed by Toby Haynes (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: “A Christmas Carol,” written by Steven Moffat; directed by Toby Haynes (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: “Vincent and the Doctor,” written by Richard Curtis; directed by Jonny Campbell (BBC Wales)
Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury, written by Rachel Bloom; directed by Paul Briganti
The Lost Thing, written by Shaun Tan; directed by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan (Passion Pictures)
And for the true math geeks (myself include) who want the nitty-gritty number-crunchiness stats, here’s a link to the Hugo voting overview.
