Nominations Open for 2016 Hugo and 1941 Retro!

Got this in the mail:

MidAmeriCon II is pleased to announce that nominations for the 2016 Hugo Awards and the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards is now open!

As a member of Sasquan, you are eligible to nominate works for both awards. The nomination period is now open, and will close on March 31, 2016 at 11:59 pm PDT. You can find all the details for this process on the MidAmeriCon II website at http://midamericon2.org/the-hugo-awards/hugo-nominations/.

 

Well, I don’t know about you, but the enmity and illwill surrounding the nominations last year have made me want to win seven nominations this year. Let us break the record! Again!

All that is needed to provoke the usual suspects into their usual paroxysms of public phrenzy is to recommend works on their merits, regardless of various politically correct checklists making sure authors are awarded on the basis of skincolor, ethnic origin, sex, sexual perversion, political utility, or connection to the insiders who regard the award as theirs. It is yours, dear reader.

Myself, I have not decided for which works to vote, except that  I hereby encourage my readers to vote for my work, and encourage fans of Jeffro Johnson to put him on the ballot as Best Fan Writer, or for multiple columns on Appendix N on the ballot for Best Related Work.

Does anyone have anything he suggest I read as a worthy of nominating?

For the 1941 Retro-Hugo, this was smack in the richest period of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, and so there is plenty of tales by Manly Wade Wellman, L. Sprague de CampJames Blish, Theodore Sturgeon, Frank Belknap Long, Willy Ley, Henry Kuttner, Frederik PohlC. M. Kornbluth Alfred Bester,  Eric Frank Russell and Clifford D. Simak to chose from.

I list only the ones I have read:

  • Second Stage Lensmen by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
  • The Vortex Blasters by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
  • Goddess of Fire by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • The Living Dead by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • Jorge Luis BorgesThe Garden of Forking Paths (El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcan) for short story
  • Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
  • Seesaw by A.E. van Vogt (Weapon Shops of Isher)
  • Not the First by A.E. van Vogt
  • The Howling Tower by Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story)
  • Jay Score by Erik Frank Russell
  • Reason by Isaac Asimov
  • Liar! by Isaac Asimov
  • Not Final! by Isaac Asimov
  • Half Breed by Isaac Asimov
  • Logic of Empire by Robert Heinlein
  • We Also Walk Dogs by Robert Heinlein (Future History)
  • By His Bootstraps by Robert Heinlein
  • Universe by Robert Heinlein
  • Common Sense by Robert Heinlein
  • Solution Unsatisfactory by Robert Heinlein
  • Elsewhen by Robert Heinlein (aka Assignment in Eternity)
  • Sixth Column by Robert Heinlein
  • –And He Built a Crooked House by Robert Heinlein
  • The Incomplete Enchanter by  L. Sprague de Camp , Fletcher Pratt
  • The Iron God • novelette by Jack Williamson
  • L. Sprague de CampLest Darkness Fall (novel)
  • Robert A. HeinleinMethuselah’s Children
  • C. S. LewisThe Screwtape Letters

Good heavens! Merely seeing the names of the authors writing in 1941, from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Fritz Leiber brings a sense of wonder and loss: Wonder, for these humble pulps produced so much worthy science fiction and seeded so many dreams. Loss, that there are none their equal writing today.