Hugo Results and Thoughts

So, the Hugo awards were announced this past weekend, and I thought it would be amusing to look back at how I ranked things, and how they ended up in the voting.

First up, short stories:

	My Choice	Award Order
1	Mono no Aware	Mono no Aware
2	Immersion	Immersion
3	Mantis Wives	Mantis Wives

Interestingly, I pegged this category. I have a feeling Mantis Wives struck others the same way it struck me, and hten that leaves a 50/50 chance for the order.


Novellettes:

	My Choice	Award Order
1	The Girl Thing Who Went Out for Sushi	The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi
2	Fade to White	In Sea-Salt Tears
3	In Sea-Salt Tears	Fade To White
4	The Boy Who Cast No Shadow	Rat-Catcher
5	Rat-Catcher	The Boy Who Cast No Shadow

This one was pretty good as well, with me getting the correct winner, but flipping around a couple of places below it.


Novellas:

	My Choice	Award Order
1	After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall	The Emperor's Soul
2	San Diego 2014	After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
3	The Emperor's Soul	The Stars Do Not Lie
4	On a Red Station, Drifting	On a Red Station, Drifting
5	The Stars Do Not Lie	San Diego 2014

I would talk about getting it completely wrong, here, except that I correctly placed the #4 story. Not much of an accomplishment, that. Interestingly, except for Stars, I personally enjoyed all of these and don't feel like the voting is out of line as much as reflecting a different overall enjoyment factor for the stories. I know I'm supposed to gripe about politics or the poor taste of the voters, but I can't bring up the bile right now.


Novels:

	My Choice	Award Order
1	Redshirts	Redshirts
2	Blackout	Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
3	Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance	2312
4	Throne of the Crescent Moon	Throne of the Crescent Moon
5	2312	Blackout

Again, I somehow managed to call 4th place (and first). I've talked to enough people to figure out that apparently Redshirts can be polarizing -- some love it, and some don't. Some people, of course, gripe about it winning (or blame it on political factions and the fix being in). But my review stated my reasons for the vote; I won't repeat all of them here.

I will say that it is interesting how different the rest of the order was. I'd truly like to know what those who loved 2312 and voted for it to be first place saw in the novel, as I apparently missed it.


Graphic Novels:

	My Choice	Award Order
1	Grandville	Saga
2	Schlock Mercenary	Locke & Key
3	Locke & Key	Schlock Mercenary
4	Saga	Saucer Country
5	Saucer Country	Grandville

Does this count as completely wrong? I think so. I share no special insights into the category.

I'm skipping my rankings of pro and fan artists, since there is little I can learn from them to apply to writing... at least at this point in time, for me. Also, I think the overall point has been proven that I don't necessarily align with the general fandom's rankings when it comes to these stories. This is something I've known, but it then reinforces the point made in Million Dollar Outlines that I should be studying the other, well-ranked stories to look for things I might want to include in my own.