Hugo ballot is up -- Little Brother up for best novel!

Hot damn! The 2009 Hugo Awards ballot is live and it's a doozy, and not just because I'm on it twice (Best Novel: Little Brother and Best Novella: True Names, with Ben Rosenbaum). No, it's better than that -- the entire ballot is just killer, especially my competition in the Best Novel category (hell, three quarters of the authors were invited to my wedding, and I'd have been delighted to have the remaining one in attendance). A million thanks to all of you who nominated both works!

I can't wait to see who wins (and no matter who wins, I can't wait for the annual Hugo Losers party, which is bound to be a hell of a thing and a half). I'm going to the WorldCon for the awards, of course -- my tux is hanging in its dry-cleaning bag awaiting its annual airing.

And hey, look at that, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who edited Little Brother, is also up for Best Editor!

Best Novel
* Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
* The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
* Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK) — Free download
* Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
* Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Novella
* “The Erdmann Nexus” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
* “The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF Aug 2008) – Read Online
* “The Tear” by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
* “True Names” by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2) — Free download
* “Truth” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Novelette
* “Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s Jan 2008) — Read Online
* “The Gambler” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Fast Forward 2) — Read Online
* “Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF Jan 2008)
* “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s Feb 2008) — Read Online
* “Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008) — Read Online

Best Short Story
* “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Jul 2008) — Read Online
* “Article of Faith” by Mike Resnick (Baen’s Universe Oct 2008)
* “Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
* “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
* “From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Feb 2008)

Another thing about this ballot -- it's the copyfightingest ballots in my memory, filled with writers and editors who advocate for sharing, fanfic, and looser copyrights.

Hugos 2009

[#1 posted by Anonymous , March 19, 2009 11:40 PM]

That's going to be close. Anathem was just way too far out on the made up words graph from xkcd for me, and both The Graveyard Book and Zoe's Tale weren't really original stories, rather an adaptation and a alternate viewpoint. If Doctorow doesn't win, my money's on Gaiman.

[#2 posted by Kieran O'Neill , March 19, 2009 11:53 PM]

And all four of your competitors for best novel are books you've promoted by blogging about them. (That's a good sign.)

[#3 posted by Pseudothink , March 20, 2009 12:00 AM]

Two well deserved nominations, grats! I'm glad to own signed copies of both (well, sort of..."True Names" is on my signed iPod). Those "Free Download" links are rather conspicuous, in a very good way.

[#4 posted by Bluraven , March 20, 2009 12:33 AM]

Congratulations Cory! Your works certainly deserve this attention! Best of Luck!

[#5 posted by Lauren O , March 20, 2009 12:40 AM]

Awfully high concentration of monkeys in the short story category there.

[#6 posted by TroofSeeker , March 20, 2009 12:46 AM]

Congrats, Cory! And may the best author win.
I'll buy Little Brother as soon as I finish this Brother Odd stuff.
I want to buy the book because you deserve to be paid for the work you do. So let's buy his book, my squidly friends, and support the arts and the artists. A culture without art is little more than Uru Kai.

[#7 posted by Carl Rigney , March 20, 2009 12:56 AM]

@5 Lauren O, that's 5.4 monkeys per short story. A new record I suspect.

Congratulations Cory!

That's a great lineup for best novel, although I'm hoping Little Brother will take it, since The Graveyard Book already got a Newbery. Entertaining as it would be to see if Gaiman would say "F***, I won another Hugo" in French at the Montreal Worldcon where he's Guest of Honor.

I loved Gardner's "Ray Gun: A Love Story" (available free online), and am happy it got nominated. I really like how in recent years nearly all of the shorter works (and many of the novels) have been made available online so all the voters at least have the chance to compare them.
It'd be sweet if Amazon had a button to click to say "Download all Hugo nominees to my Kindle, kthxbye."

Or a bigger button saying "Download all Hugo nominees EVER to my Kindle".

[#8 posted by Trilby , March 20, 2009 1:12 AM]

Clearly I am very dense, but what is the difference between a Novella and a Novelette? Are Novellas older?

[#9 posted by Crawford Tillinghast , March 20, 2009 1:16 AM]

Novellas are male, novelettes are female.

[#10 posted by homodachi , March 20, 2009 2:05 AM]

Not to mention--

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
* Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

[#11 posted by iRoy , March 20, 2009 2:31 AM]

I'm now calling it the Official Charles Stross Hugo Nomination Drinking Game!

hic!

[#12 posted by MarkHB , March 20, 2009 4:16 AM]

I've got no idea how I'm gonna choose on this one. The line-up is just incredible this year, and they're all absolutely thumping good books in utterly different ways.

Congratulations, Cory - well deserved and I wish you the best of luck!

[#13 posted by Anonymous , March 20, 2009 4:49 AM]

Just on the FYI - I tried to buy Little Brother from both Borders & Waterstones here in Cambridge England. Neither had copies. Closer questioning revealed they had no Cory Doctorow books at all. I shuffled off back to Amazon for my copy, but I worry that your distribution in the UK may not be running at 100%.

[#14 posted by Rotwang , March 20, 2009 4:58 AM]

Congrats, Cory.

I can't believe Iain M. Banks Matter didn't get nominated...

[#15 posted by arkizzle , March 20, 2009 5:56 AM]

Well play, my man! Well played. And fine company to be as well. Excellent work.

And I'll add my voice to Rotwang's on the absence of Banks.

[#16 posted by Ranessin , March 20, 2009 6:05 AM]

Wow, all of the nominations for Best Novel were actually some of my favourite books last year. Personally I like Anthem most, but all others were great too.

[#17 posted by orangeorangutan , March 20, 2009 6:14 AM]

Twice? Truly exceptional. I haven't read any of your fiction work yet, Cory, but I'm going to order one your books this weekend. Good luck to you!

[#18 posted by Auto Parts for Brains , March 20, 2009 6:27 AM]

Okay, I have to get my hands on these soon. Good luck on the nominations. Being nominated is already a testament to your skill. I wish you the best. :)

[#19 posted by ROSSINDETROIT , March 20, 2009 6:35 AM]

Anathem was a disappointment for me after The Baroque Cycle and Crypto. Little Brother exceeded all expectations and it's been a pleasure to share and recommend it.
Good luck, Cory!

[#20 posted by Purly , March 20, 2009 6:53 AM]

Yay. I hope you win! I have a feeling the Gaiman book will though.

[#21 posted by Anonymous , March 20, 2009 8:07 AM]

#8, the Novella/Novelette distinction is based upon length.

For the Hugos it goes:
-Short Story [less than 7.5k words]
-Novelette [7.5k-17.5k words]
-Novella [17.5k-40k words]
-Novel [more than 40k words]

But I think those words are calculated using some arcane publishing formula based upon page length and averages rather than a computer's 'count words' function.

[#22 posted by jere7my , March 20, 2009 10:21 AM]

Trilby, novellas are longer. The SFWA says anything from 7500 - 17,500 words is a novelette, and anything from 17,500 - 40,000 is a novella. Anything longer is a novel. (I'm not sure the Hugo nomination rules have exactly the same word counts, but the basics are the same.)

[#23 posted by Orky , March 20, 2009 10:48 AM]

I liked Anathem a lot, actually. The made up words didn't bother me at all, and actually served to draw me more into the story and the world of Arbre, with its entertainingly parallel history.

I also read Iain M. Banks's Matter, which I also enjoyed a lot. If it were also on the ballot, it would be hard to choose.

Little Brother is still on my to-read list, I really need to get to it, but my to-read list is pretty big now. Actually it's more of a heap, but physically stacked, but in a random-access, not a FILO fashion. Which means I have a large selection of unread books from which I can choose depending on my mood.

[#24 posted by Fiz , March 20, 2009 10:49 AM]

And coincidentally enough, the copy I ordered from Amazon arrived today, in pristine condition. Has that New Book smell. This was my very first purchase from Amazon.com, and I believe I've made it the right choice, eh?

I'll start on it right after I finish 1984. I'm just starting to read it for the first time. I know. Don't judge me.

[#25 posted by Gilbert Wham , March 20, 2009 10:52 AM]

#5: there's a torrent pack of Hugo & Nebula winners & runners-up, from inception to about the early 00's kicking about if you look for it...

[#26 posted by Davevonnatick , March 20, 2009 11:03 AM]

If Little Brother doesn't win, it's only becuase THEY don't want it to. :-) Super Awesome Great Book - BTW - even if I had to sneak into the "juvenile" section to get it.

[#27 posted by Anonymous , March 20, 2009 11:34 AM]

Congratulations, my good man. You and they are in excellent company.

[#28 posted by Anonymous , March 20, 2009 2:34 PM]

In an act of perversion (or guilt-laden irony, at least), a free download of Little Brother was the very first book I put on my new Kindle. Oh Amazon, the cognitive dissonance is killing me!

P.S. Don't trust anybody over -- oh, crap.

[#29 posted by Chuck , March 20, 2009 2:59 PM]

Woohoo! I've already read all the novel nominees (got that part taken care of), and nominated three of them.

Running down some of the non-free stuff might take a little bit of doing. (But I'm pretty sure the local library has complete sets of The Last Man.)

[#30 posted by TheMadCreator , March 20, 2009 5:28 PM]

Grats, Cory!

I went to a booksigning with Neal Stephenson in Menlo Park after the release of Anathem. I mentioned your short story "The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" due to it's superficial similarity to Anathem. He said he hadn't heard of you or that story, BUT I BET HE'S PAYING ATTENTION NOW!!!!

p.s. Little Brother was the best book I've read in YEARS!

[#31 posted by Willis , March 20, 2009 5:33 PM]

Congrats on the Nom Nom nomination, Cory, and its a good thing that "The Gambler" by Paolo Bacigalupi is in the Novelette category, cause I would be forced to root for him over all others. Woo! Hometown represent!

[#32 posted by Lord Xenu , March 20, 2009 6:19 PM]

...up against "The Graveyard Book" and "Anathem" no less. 2008 was a helluva year for SF.

[#33 posted by wykkyd , March 20, 2009 6:21 PM]

no women?

[#34 posted by minTphresh , March 20, 2009 6:22 PM]

bigtime congrats on the nomination, cory! wow, that is some heavy company you are keeping there, standing on the shoulders of giants. gonna be hard to get small again! best of luck, and take it home for the win!

[#35 posted by GuidoDavid , March 20, 2009 8:48 PM]

I have only read Little Brother, unfortunately. However, is the only one that is available for free.

Congratulations for your great work, Cory, and for sharing it with us, all around the world.The novel was excellent and made me remember San Francisco in a very vivid way.

[#36 posted by John A Arkansawyer , March 21, 2009 5:40 AM]

GuidoDavid @ 35:

My library loaned me Saturn's Children for free, and I believe they have the others for loan as well. (I know they have Little Brother, as I made a point of requesting they order it.)

If I had to vote right now (and I probably won't be voting), it'd be a hard choice between those two, which Saturn's Children would probably win, today at least.

Maybe I should read the other three. Hm.

[#37 posted by Nawel , March 21, 2009 8:35 AM]

Well, Best wishes!

[#38 posted by Anonymous , March 22, 2009 1:46 AM]

Fantastic. Got me back into SciFi again and read your book in one and a half days (not that unusual - I'm in Uganda with a LOT of free time). Great book, hope you win.

And now you started me on this perverse hunt for free scifi ebooks. Blew my bandwidth for the month downloading books and plowing through two right now. You bet your boots Im buying them when I'm through too... there's some awesome stuff out there