Congratulations to all of the Hugo nominees!

I spent a quiet weekend with the family and wasn’t online much. That said, I did manage to see that the Hugo nominees for 2012 were announced. I’ve seen various comparisons to the Hugos made. Some liken them to the People’s Choice awards; others to the Oscars. In prestige, they are among the tops awards in science fiction because they are voted on by the fans; the people who pay out good money to read the books and stories and blogs and listen to the podcasts. I think these are fair comparisons. In some ways, the Hugos also remind me of baseball’s All Star nominations. They are all around fun and this year we are fortunate to have such a great list of nominees on the final ballot.

I’ve been focusing on short fiction this year, so I have not read any of the novels that were nominated (although I’ve made it about 1/5th of the way through A Dance With Dragons). I have read much of the short fiction on the list and it is all deserving of nomination.

I was delighted to see Apex magazine and Lightspeed get a nomination for best semiprozine.

I am especially glad to see SF Signal get not one but two Hugo nominations: one for best fanzine and the other for best fancast. John DeNardo and his folks do a wonderful job over at SF Signal and it is really deserving of both nominations.

There is always some debate attached to awards in science fiction, but for me, the Hugos remind me that science fiction is a fun genre. They bring out the fan in me and you can bet I’ll be eagerly awaiting the results of this outstanding ballot later this year.

Congratulations to all the nominees this year!