Gaiman, Game of Thrones, Locus win Hugos

The Hugo Award winners on Sunday night in Chicago. (WCB Photo by Tom Wray)

The Hugo Awards, essentially the Oscars of science fiction, were held at Chicon 7 in Chicago on Saturday, Sept. 2. The ceremony was also broadcast to Dragon*Con in Atlanta.

Author John Scalzi, himself a nominee for short story, was the emcee for the awards.

The winners are:

2012 Hugo Award (Photo courtesy
of HugoAwards.com)

Best Novel: Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor)
Best Novella: “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, September/October 2011)
Best Novelette: “Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)
Best Short Story: “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2011)
Best Related Work: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Third Edition edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls, and Graham Sleight (Gollancz)
Best Graphic Story: Digger by Ursula Vernon (Sofawolf Press)
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): Game of Thrones (Season 1) (HBO)
Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): “The Doctor’s Wife” (Doctor Who) (BBC Wales)
Best Editor (Short Form): Sheila Williams
Best Editor (Long Form): Betsy Wollheim
Best Professional Artist: John Picacio
Best Semiprozine: Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi, Kirsten Gong-Wong, et al.
Best Fanzine: SF Signal, edited by John DeNardo
Best Fan Writer: Jim C. Hines
Best Fan Artist: Maurine Starkey
Best Fancast: SF Squeecast, Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente

This year was the first for the Best Fancast award, added to include the growing number of webcasting in fandom.

There were some issues, however. The biggest one with the Ustream broadcast. According to news website io9.com, the livestreaming service’s automated bots shut down the broadcast after clips of the nominees for Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) were shown. The feed was shut down just as winner Neil Gaiman got onto the stage. The broadcast was unable to resume despite the fact the Hugos and Chicon had full permission from the studios to use the clips in the ceremony and in the webcasting. (Full story on io9.com here.) This was especially frustrating for io9 because one of their own writers, Charlie Jane Anders, won her first Hugo that night.

Other awards included the The John W. Campbell Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2010 or 2011, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award). Hugo nominee E. Lily Yu received the award at the start of the ceremony.

Chicon 7 also presented a Special Committee Award to Chicago resident and science fiction author, editor, and collector Robert Weinberg.
The 2012 Hugo trophy base was designed by artist Deb Kosiba, who had also previously designed the bases for the 2005 and 2006 Worldcons.

The Windy City Banner will post highlights from the award ceremony this week.

Author

Illinois Eagle Staff

Related Articles