On Tuesday, April 2nd, the nominees for the 2019 Hugo Awards were announced, and just like everyone in the SFF Community, I was excited over all of the nominees and offered my congratulations (and consolations) to the authors, artists, editors and other nominees. The good news is, once again the nominees of the Nebulas and the Hugos contain different selections within each category, which means there are different works to consider for each category. In other words, someone who wasn’t nominated for a Nebula was nominated for a Hugo! The bad news is, I’m still reading (and watching) my way through these nominees. I’m going to have to start being realistic about how I’m going to present my predictions for the upcoming awards.
One of the issues about reading the nominations for literary awards is the actual reading of them. Time and money are the usual suspects as to why I’m falling behind on the reading. However, I can say that I fell behind in the reading of some of these nominations because I’m behind on the series. Dave Hutchinson, Yoon Ha Lee and Emma Newman are nominated for some of the awards for their novels that are part of a series. Unlike Nnedi Okorafor, Martha Wells and Seanan McGuire, reading novels takes longer than reading a novella. And, while I’ll be working my way through both Yoon Ha Lee’s and Becky Chambers’ series in time for the Hugo Awards Presentation, I won’t be able to complete them in time for the BSFA Awards. That being said, the nominations for “Best Novel” are just as puzzling as the “Best Novel” nominations for the rest of the awards, the novels/series are that good.
Another issue I’ve been having is the access to the stories themselves. I’ve been making numerous trips to the public libraries in my neighborhood and in the neighboring neighborhoods. Amazon Unlimited—Amazon’s digital library service—has been a huge help, as well as the many sales on e-books both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have had since January. However, many of the short stories and the novelettes are not as easy to access as you may think. Some of the nominees are available online for free by the publisher or the magazine that published them. The rest are not even available to purchase online unless you buy the entire issue the story was featured in. As of right now, I don’t know what I’ll do as each awards presentation gets closer.
Please keep in mind that I’m doing the Reading Challenge. I know about the nominations in the categories involving movies, television shows and video games. I’m working my way through those as well and I’ll give my predictions on those potential winners, too.
In terms some of the other awards, I tweeted a message to The Arthur C. Clarke Award Committee. They said that their awards ceremony will take place in July 2019, although the dates are still TBD. I want to say that we’ll probably get their nominations either at the end of April, or at the beginning of May. I don’t know which books will be selected for their nominations, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the nominees for the other awards are selected for this one. I’m looking forward to The Arthur C. Clarke Awards because their nominations are made up of both familiar and new names, as well as series a reader—such as myself—might have overlooked. I should also mention that as I’m posting this update, the nominations for the 2019 Locus Awards have not been announced yet. If there are any other awards I should look into, then please let me know.
On Monday, April 15th, the winner of the 2019 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award will be announced, but the award will not be presented to that winner until Balticon 53, which is taking place after this year’s Nebula Awards Presentation. I have either read or read most of the books of all the nominees. I have an idea of who my pick for this award is going to be, but that doesn’t mean that the author I choose is going to win. This will be the first of my awards videos I plan on making and uploading to YouTube. I can say all of the nominees on this list are worth reading, especially because three of the authors are nominated for other speculative fiction literary awards. However, this does not mean that the other three nominees should be overlooked. I have a feeling that we’ll receive more intriguing stories from them for a very long time.
That’s my update. I’ll be reading and posting my reviews and updates about each award presentation as they come and go. I’m making progress with my reading and I’m excited and conflicted about this year’s nominees. This means that many of the stories the authors have gifted readers with are that good, so it’ll be hard to determine just one winner. I’ve heard of ties happening in some cases and I doubt that it could happen this year, but you never know.
