Are the Hugo nominees really the best sci-fi books of the year?

The sci-fi calendar revolves around prizes. From April to September, the best or simply the kookiest sci-fi books of the year are celebrated in a packed schedule of awards. On 4 April alone, the Tiptree award was scooped up by dual winners Jo Walton and Monica Byrne, while the British Science Fiction Association awards were announced at Eastercon.

Locus magazine’s annual publicly voted awards are a useful guide to the best recent science-fiction writing, with William Gibson’s The Peripheral, Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Causal Angel and Kameron Hurley’s The Mirror Empire among the titles that reveal the rough outline of science fiction and fantasy in 2015. It has been a wonderful year for quality imaginative storytelling, but very little of that quality was reflected in arguably the field’s best-known awards, the Hugos.

Reactions to this year’s Hugo award shortlists, announced on 4 April, ranged from the bemused to the befuddled, with the most common response being, who are these people? Beyond the best novel category, the nominations were populated by names few people had heard of. So what is going on?

The answer is that it is the result of a block-voting campaign by a small clique of American writers and fans to reassert their ownership of the Hugos, for the not-so-covert purpose of boosting the organisers’ own status. The awards are voted on by members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). A membership costs around $40 (£27), and there is no need to attend the event to vote.

By putting forward a slate of predominantly American nominees, the campaign organisers have been able to lever the votes of a minority of non-attending members to “hack” the voting process and dominate the award nominations. Remarkably, this is all within the rules of the Hugos, and the moral defence put forward by campaign organisers for what many people would consider cheating is their belief that block voting is common in the award-giving process.

The Hugos and Worldcon have always been – much like the baseball World Series – a world event in name only. Hugo winners have been overwhelmingly from the US, with almost no non-anglophone works even considered for the awards. But over the past decade or so, the Hugos and Worldcon have become much more diverse and interesting, with many more women, writers of colour and international voices among nominees and winners. It’s that diversity which has been lost in this orchestrated backlash.

Nothing in American culture is immune from the bitter political schism that divides the liberal and conservative sectors, and the Hugo awards have been shown to be no exception. Sci-fi has always had a strong conservative streak, and it has always done battle with more liberal forces in the genre. But while most of those involved with the campaign for Hugo nominations identify as conservative, this is not a conservative movement in either essence or principle.

What the Hugo awards are vulnerable to isn’t the bitter argument between liberals and conservatives, but the clever manipulation of such differences by self-promoters. Most writers, even in relatively commercially genres like sci-fi and fantasy, sell remarkably low numbers of books. It’s not surprising, then, that some writers ramp up political arguments as a way of gaining the attention they crave, and pulling publicity stunts like block-voting campaigns. Some involved with the block vote no doubt believe they are on a righteous crusade against liberals in sci-fi. But that only makes them more easily exploited by those who are only interested in gaining status and selling books.

Still, there is a lot of good to be found in this year’s Hugo awards. Jim Butcher receives a best novel nomination for Skin Game, from his massively popular Dresden Files series, and will go head-to-head with last year’s winner Ann Leckie, whose Ancillary Sword is up for best novel. The exceptional Ms Marvel Volume 1: No Normal by G Willow Wilson also scooped a nomination, while Wesley Chu and Julie Dillon are odds-on favourites in their respective categories. We are assuming, of course, that any awards will be given this year. The arcane Hugo voting process, combined with rancour stirred up by the block vote, means that no award is a realistic outcome in almost every category.

Amid such drama, it’s easy to lose sight of a few simple facts. Sci-fi and fantasy are in a creative golden age, with superb, imaginative works being made both within the genre and in the wider literary world. This creativity is fuelled in large part by the genre’s growing diversity – to be a truly global art, it must be made by a globally diverse roster of creators.

When a small clique of men go to such great lengths to disrupt something so powerfully creative, it demonstrates only that they are scared and threatened by its existence. So, if the nominees for Hugo awards strike you as more interested in self-promotion than quality storytelling, you have no shortage of alternative awards to choose from. Start with the Tiptree winners, and work your way out from there.

Hugo nominees for best novel

Ancillary Sword Ann Leckie (Orbit)

The Dark Between the Stars, Kevin J Anderson (Tor Books)

The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison, AKA Sarah Monette (Tor Books)

Lines of Departure, Marko Kloos (47North)

Skin Game, Jim Butcher (Roc/Orbit)

Hugo nominees for best novella

Big Boys Don’t Cry, Tom Kratman (Castalia House)

Flow, Arlan Andrews Sr (Analog)

One Bright Star to Guide Them, John C Wright (Castalia House)

Pale Realms of Shade, John C Wright (from The Book of Feasts and Seasons, Castalia House)

The Plural of Helen of Troy, John C Wright (from City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)

Hugo nominees for best novelette

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium, Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show)

Championship B’tok, Edward M Lerner (Analog)

The Journeyman: In the Stone House, Michael F Flynn (Analog)

The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale, Rajnar Vajra (Analog)

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, John C Wright (from The Book of Feasts and Seasons, Castalia House)

Hugo Nominees for best graphic story

Ms. Marvel Vol 1: No Normal written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt, (Marvel Comics)

Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery written by Kurtis J. Weibe, art by Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)

Zombie Nation Book #2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate by Carter Reid (The Zombie Nation)

Saga, Volume 3 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick written by Matt Fraction, art by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)