Serving some more generation change with the Hugo Awards

I mentioned back in February that the Nebula Award finalists were a giant scream of generational change. Well, the Hugo Award finalists are out and guess what, the change continues.

I'm thrilled to see The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi in the list, along with the novelettes "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky and "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster. This novel and two novelettes were among the best stories I read last year, and are well deserving of this honor.

I'm also thrilled to see so many other exciting writers like N. K. Jemisin, Kij Johnson, Will McIntosh, Cherie Priest and John Scalzi on the list. Online magazines are well represented, as is the ever-great StarShipSofa in the Best Fanzine category. All of this reinforces my view that change is bubbling through the genre these days. And I'm not the only one to pick up on this.

Anyway, congrats to all the Hugo finalists!

Comments

[Mike Resnick]

Right. Let's get rid of all them Oldpharts.

-- Mike Resnick

[Jason Sanford]

Another youngster I enjoyed seeing on the list wrote that fun story "Bride of Frankenstein." Can't quite place the author's name, but I totally enjoyed hearing him read the story at last year's Context, and being kind enough to sign his copy for me.

And it's also exciting Frederik Pohl is finally getting his due as a fan writer. He might go places if he keeps that up. :-)

Seriously, while there are some great new writers on the list, there's also some great writers there who have been around a while. So while I'm happy about the generational change, that doesn't mean I'm not also excited to see the established writers I love being finalists. All in all, I think this is a well-rounded and very good final ballot.

[William Schafer]

In my opinion, Resnick's seriously overrated. We're thinking of cutting him back to appearing only in every _other_ issue of Subterranean.

Bill
SubPress

[Blue Tyson]

Nah, that is too much, you should cut him back to only appearing quarterly. :)