2012 Hugo Awards

2012 Hugo Awards!

What Are You Hugo Awards?

The Hugo Awards are the premier award in the science fiction genre, honoring science fiction literature and media as well as the genre’s fans. The Hugo Awards were first presented at the 1953 World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia (Philcon II), and they have continued to honor science fiction and fantasy notables annually for nearly 60 years.

For a complete list of winner visit the Hugo site HERE

The Stories

BEST NOVEL

Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor)

Synopsis

Startling, unusual, and yet irresistibly readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled–and her twin sister dead.

Fleeing to her father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England–a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off…

BEST NOVELLA

“The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, September/October 2011)

Synopsis

Kit came to Nearside with two trunks and an oiled-cloth folio full of plans…

BEST NOVELETTE

“Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)

Synopsis

Doug and Judy have both had a secret power all their life. Judy can see every possible future, branching out from each moment like infinite trees. Doug can also see the future, but for him, it’s a single, locked-in, inexorable sequence of foreordained events. They can’t both be right, but over and over again, they are.

Obviously these are the last two people in the world who should date. So, naturally, they do

BEST SHORT STORY

“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2011)

Synopsis

“The Paper Menagerie” is about an American boy whose mother was a mail-order bride from Hong Kong. As he grows up, he becomes conscious of the prejudices of neighbors and classmates directed against his mother and himself, and he comes to resent her for tagging him as alien. But a collection of origami animals made by his mother when he was a child come to life and give him a message.

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

Digger by Ursula Vernon (Sofawolf Press)

Synopsis

“Digger is a story about a wombat. More specifically, it is a story about a particularly no-nonsense wombat who finds herself stuck on the wrong end of a one-way tunnel in a strange land where nonsense seems to be the specialty. Now with the help of a talking statue of a god, an outcast hyena, a shadow-being of undeterminate origin, and an oracular slug she seeks to find out where she is and how to go about getting back to her Warren”–Publisher’s web site.

The Adaptations

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

Game of Thrones (Season 1) (HBO)

Show Details

Game of Thrones is a medieval fantasy television series created for the U.S. channel HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin‘s series of fantasy novels, the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones. The series’ cast is mostly British and Irish. It is filmed at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast, as well as on location elsewhere in Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia, Iceland, and Morocco.

The first season debuted in the U.S. on April 17, 2011. Two days later, it was picked up for a second season, which began airing on April 1, 2012. Nine days after that, it was picked up for a third season.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

“The Doctor’s Wife” (Doctor Who) (BBC Wales)

Show Details

“The Doctor’s Wife” is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011 in the United Kingdom, as well as in the United States. It was written by Neil Gaiman and was directed by Richard Clark.

In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) receive a distress call from a living Time Lord, though all other members of the Doctor’s race were thought to beextinct. However, they discover that the call was bait to lure the Doctor to an asteroid outside the universe, where previously the energy of Time Lords’ TARDISes have been consumed by an entity called the House (voice of Michael Sheen). The matrix of the Doctor’s TARDIS is removed and placed in the body of a woman named Idris (Suranne Jones), who proceeds to help them escape.

“The Doctor’s Wife” was originally intended to be produced as part of the previous series, but was pushed back due to budget constraints. Gaiman drafted the script many times, having to add and remove characters and events as production saw fit. The episode was filmed in the autumn of 2010, and featured a makeshift TARDIS control room which was the design from a winner of a contest on the children’s programme Blue Peter. The episode was seen by 7.97 million viewers in the UK and was met with generally positive reviews from critics. The episode won the 2011 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

The Editors

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

Sheila Williams

About Shelia

She became interested in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (as it was then titled) while studying philosophy at Washington University. In 1982 she was hired at the magazine, and worked with Isaac Asimov for ten years. While working there, she co-founded the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (at one time called the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing). In 2004, with the retirement of Gardner Dozois, she became the editor of the magazine.

Along with Gardner Dozois she also edited the “Isaac Asimov’s” anthology series. She also co-edited A Woman’s Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women (2001) with Connie Willis. She has edited a retrospective anthology of fiction published by Asimov’s: Asimov’s Science Fiction: 30th Anniversary Anthology. Booklist called the book “A gem, and a credit to editor Williams.” Most recently, she edited Enter a Future: Fantastic Tales from Asimov’s Science Fiction.

She won the Hugo Award for Best Short Form Editor in 2011.

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

Betsy Wollheim

About Betsy

Elizabeth Rosalind Wollheim was born in New York, the daughter of legendary editor Donald A. Wollheim, and was intimately involved with professional SF from an early age. She attended Beloit College in Wisconsin in 1969, then transferred to Clark University in Massachusetts. She studied English at Clark while simultaneously studying art at the Worcester Art Museum School. After graduation in 1973 she lived in Cambridge for two years, and attended grad school in photography before taking jobs as a proofreader and darkroom technician for two magazine printing houses. She spent a few months in Mexico studying anthropology, but in 1975 returned to New York as associate editor at DAW Books, which her father founded in 1971. In 1985, when her father’s health began to fail, she took over as president of DAW, which she still runs, with Sheila Gilbert.

Wollheim met musician Peter Stampfel in 1975, and they married in 1982. Stampfel is now an associate editor at DAW. They have two children, and live in New York City.

The Art

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

John Picacio

About John

JOHN PICACIO is a World Fantasy Award-winning illustrator of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His artwork is noted for its diversity and range, often combining traditional drawing and painting with digital finishes, as well as exploring methods such as hand-made assemblages. His works have illustrated the covers of books by Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Dan Simmons, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeffrey Ford, Frederik Pohl, James Tiptree, Jr., Mark Chadbourn, and many more. He has produced cover artwork for franchises such as STAR TREK and the X-MEN.

His accolades include the Locus Award, four Chesley Awards, and two International Horror Guild Awards, all in the Artist category. He has been nominated eight consecutive years for the Hugo Award in the Best Professional Artist category (2005-2012), as well as a nomination for Best Related Book in 2007 (for COVER STORY: THE ART OF JOHN PICACIO). His illustrations have often been featured in the pages of SPECTRUM: THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY FANTASTIC ART.

Clients include Ballantine/Del Rey, Bantam, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, Tor Books, Pyr, Golden Gryphon Press, Subterranean Press, Roc Books, and many more. Recent works include covers and interiors for new Del Rey editions of Michael Moorcock’s legendary fantasy icon ELRIC as well as the 2012 calendar for George R. R. Martin’s A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. He and his wife Traci live in San Antonio, TX.

Web: www.johnpicacio.com
Blog: www.johnpicacio.com/blog.html
Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnPicacio
Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnpicacio
Wikipedia: John Picacio
Group Blog: Missions Unknown

See John’s Work
(Game of Thrones Gallery)