Shiver me Timbers! The 2019 Hugo Winners – The Conclusion!

~ Captain's Quarters

Ahoy there me mateys!  The Hugo Winners have been announced!  Let’s see how I did.  I be using the list as published on Tor.com with links to me reviews where applicable.  The winners are listed in bold.  A reminder that I only be tracking the categories of specific interest to me.  They be:

Best Novel

  • The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
  • Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)
  • Revenant Gun, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
  • Space Opera, by Catherynne M. Valente (Saga)
  • Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik (Del Rey / Macmillan)
  • Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)

Hoped for Winner:  Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)

Expected Winner: The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

Thoughts:  A very well-deserved win about a Lady Astronaut.  It be the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.  And the award was presented by Dr. Jeanette Epps an actual Lady Astronaut!  That does make me happy.

Best Novella

Hoped for Winner:  Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Expected Winner: I don’t know!  Let’s go with The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)

Thoughts:  I LOVE MURDERBOT!!!  Arrrr!

Best Novelette

Hoped for Winner:  “The Thing About Ghost Stories,” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine 25, November- December 2018)

Expected Winner:  “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections,” by Tina Connolly (Tor.com, 11 July 2018)

Thoughts:  I was suprised by this win but have to admit the story is excellent.  The winning story was in me top three for sure.

Best Short Story

Hoped for Winner:  “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” by P. Djèlí Clark (Fireside Magazine, February 2018)

Expected Winner: “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” by P. Djèlí Clark (Fireside Magazine, February 2018)

Thoughts:  Ummm no.  I loved the winning story but it should not have won.  Bah.

Best Series

  • The Centenal Cycle, by Malka Older (Tor.com Publishing)
  • The Laundry Files, by Charles Stross (most recently Tor.com Publishing/Orbit)
  • Machineries of Empire, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
  • The October Daye Series, by Seanan McGuire (most recently DAW)
  • The Universe of Xuya, by Aliette de Bodard (most recently Subterranean Press)
  • Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)

Hoped for Winner:  Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)

Expected Winner: Hmmm toss up between October Daye (cause of popularity) or the Machineries of the Empire (because of the hype of how different it be).  Again that be going on reviews I have read because I haven’t read any of those books meself.

Thoughts:  I was so pleasantly surprised but super happy about this deserved win.  For those who haven’t read this wonderful series yet, check out me reviews below.

Side note:  The next two awards are technically not Hugos but are given out on the same day.

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

  • Katherine Arden (2nd year of eligibility)
  • S.A. Chakraborty (2nd year of eligibility)
  • R.F. Kuang (1st year of eligibility)
  • Jeannette Ng (2nd year of eligibility)
  • Vina Jie-Min Prasad (2nd year of eligibility)
  • Rivers Solomon (2nd year of eligibility)

Hoped for Winner:  Katherine Arden

Expected Winner:  Katherine Arden

Thoughts:  This saddens me.  Ye won in me world Katherine Arden!  Seriously, I love ye!

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

  • The Belles, by Dhonielle Clayton (Freeform / Gollancz)
  • Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt / Macmillan Children’s Books)
  • The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black (Little, Brown / Hot Key Books)
  • Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
  • The Invasion, by Peadar O’Guilin (David Fickling Books / Scholastic)
  • Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman (Random House / Penguin Teen)

Hoped for Winner: None.  Though of course one will be chosen.

Expected Winner:  Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt / Macmillan Children’s Books)

Thoughts:  Aye, I thought so.  Bleh.

So there ye have it.  I got 2 out of 7.  Many surprises here.  But I suck at picking award winners.  Congrats to all the winners this year!!  Here’s to 2020 in New Zealand!

For those interested in how the voting broke down this year click here!

x The Captain

30 thoughts on “Shiver me Timbers! The 2019 Hugo Winners – The Conclusion!”

  1. Pingback: Shiver me Timbers! An Anniversary! – Captain's Quarters

  2. You did better than me with your hoped for winners! None of my personal hoped fors won 😦 Though I did enjoy quite a few that did anyway so I can’t really complain. There were definitely some surprises in there. I sadly didn’t manage to read the novellas or novelettes but I’m curious to read Artificial Condition now.

    Oh and thanks for sharing that voting breakdown, I hadn’t seen that! Really interesting to learn how all the votes were spread.

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    1. Ye must read artificial condition. So fun. I LOVE MURDERBOT!!! I did think spinning silver was an amazing book and that would have been me second choice in the novel category. I think it was better written than Chambers book by a smidgen but just liked Chamber’s book better. Thanks for sharing yer thoughts!
      x The Captain

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      1. I definitely will – I don’t know what/who murderbot is but it already has me intrigued!! I sadly didn’t manage to read the nominated Chambers book (only the first in the series) but great you liked it – and I guess even if it didn’t win best novel, the fact the series won best series is a pretty good consolation! 🙂

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  4. The Zen Cho novelette, is that the one about dumplings?! Because I LOVED that story. But also I love dumplings. So not much of a surprise there. Also- I was so glad to see TCS won best novel. (It was also my favorite.) I wish P. Djeli Clark has gotten some more love though. He deserves it.

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      1. I read both! I didn’t like The Fated Sky as much as I loved the other two. The short story is one of the best I think I’ve ever read.

        And for Zen Cho, I’ll have to look it up. I actually have read it, but I think it was in an anthology and I don’t remember. I’ll have to look up the dumpling story. It was a Tor free download earlier in the year.

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      2. I read the short story first and thought it was stunning. One of the best I ever read too. I wasn’t as enamoured of the fated sky. She is supposedly writing one more about mars. I am not sure if I am going to read it.

        I found the dumpling story and put it in the list to read. I have a slew of those short stories to read. Maybe over the long weekend coming up.
        x The Captain

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      7. It is very likely available for free on Tor.com – which is where I received it from. I really enjoyed it- but then I love all things food (it also had food magic).

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  7. I just recently learned about Mary Robinette Kowal when I saw a Twitter thread she wrote rebutting how women can’t/shouldn’t be astronauts because they don’t know how women pee in space that went viral on Twitter. I was so interested of her history of peeing in space that I added all of her books to my TBR.

    According to the Hugo folks, what separates a novella from a novelette? I’ve never heard of a novelette before, but I do love novellas, so maybe this is a form for me.

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    1. MRK is so wonderful. All of her articles about space and the writing of her space books are just frickin’ awesome. I follow her blog and really enjoy her books so far. But she seems cool as a person too. Her Hugo speech was lovely. And she be a puppeteer.

      According to the Hugo website: Best Novel: Awarded for a science fiction or fantasy story of forty thousand (40,000) words or more.
      Best Novella: Awarded for a science fiction or fantasy story of between seventeen thousand five hundred (17,500) and forty thousand (40,000) words.
      Best Novelette: Awarded for a science fiction or fantasy story of between seven thousand five hundred (7,500) and seventeen thousand five hundred (17,500) words.
      Best Short Story: Awarded for science fiction or fantasy story of less than seven thousand five hundred (7,500) words.

      When I follow the Hugos next year I will make sure to add that info in!
      x The Captain

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