2023 Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Voting

Chengdu Worldcon, the 81st World Science Fiction Convention, received 1,674 valid ballots, down from 2,235 at Chicon 8. There were 1,847 valid nominating ballots (1,843 electronic, four paper), up from 1,368.

Nomination statistics weren’t released until the very last of the 90 days allowed, just before our deadline. They don’t include author names for nominees, and generally don’t offer explanations for why several items were dropped as “not eligible.” To avoid making assumptions we are keeping comments brief in the write up, with some additional commentary at the end.

The procedure for counting nominations re­mains the E Pluribus Hugo, or EPH, system. The rather complicated point system gives a single point to each voter’s ballot, dividing that point among the nominees. The points are counted, the two nominees with the fewest points are compared, and (points notwithstanding) the one with the fewest nominations (votes) is dropped. The process repeats until down to six finalists; the last position on the ballot is determined strictly by votes unless there’s a tie. This system compli­cates discussing how close a runner-up was to making the ballot, as some nominees might have eliminated others earlier on if they’d had just a few more points.

Once again, it’s time to explain the Australian ballot preference system (also called ranked vot­ing or “Instant Runoff Voting”) used for the Hugo Awards. First-place votes (including those for No Award) are counted in column one. If no entry has the majority of the vote then the entry with the fewest votes is dropped (e). The dropped en­try’s second-place votes now become first-place votes (column two) and the process is repeated until a nominee has a majority of the votes (usu­ally six drops, with six finalists), deciding first place. Second place is determined by dropping the winner, counting their second-place votes as if they were first, etc. Therefore, the item that originally placed second doesn’t necessarily win second place. Likewise, third place is decided by dropping both first- and second-place winners, promoting the next eligible entry, and counting all over again. The system ensures that the winner is liked by a majority of voters, even though it may not have received a majority of first-place votes.

BEST NOVEL

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher won easily, start­ing the first round with more than twice the first-place votes of the closest contender, then leading all the way through the voting to take the Hugo in just five rounds. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree started with a less dramatic lead in the voting for second place, but took it in five rounds without a contest. The Kaiju Preservation Soci­ety by John Scalzi took third in similar fashion, followed by The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia in fourth, The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal in fifth, and Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir in sixth. This was King­fisher’s fifth Hugo Award nomination (including another this year for novella) and second win under this pen name; she has an additional three nominations and two wins under her real name, Ursula Vernon. Babel by R.F. Kuang would have made the ballot, but was dropped as ineligible.

BEST NOVELLA

Seanan McGuire’s Where the Drowned Girls Go started with a big lead in first-place votes, and held on to win only five rounds. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Ogres led all the way in voting for second place, taking it in the usual five rounds. The voting for third started with T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead leading in the first three rounds, but then C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End jumped into the lead in last round to take third. The King­fisher then took fourth place in three rounds without challenge, Nghi Vo’s Into the Riverlands followed in fifth, and Alix E. Harrow’s A Mirror Mended in sixth. This was McGuire’s 23rd Hugo Award nomination and sixth win. Becky Cham­bers declined nomination for A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.

BEST NOVELETTE

“The Space-Time Painter” by Hai Ya started the voting for first place with a big lead in the first round and never faced a serious challenge, win­ning in six rounds. Second was a closer contest, but “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Ad­dress God with the Informal You” by John Chu held onto the lead through five rounds to take second. “A Dream of Electric Mothers” by Wole Talabi then took third without significant chal­lenge. Fourth was more of a contest, with “Mur­der By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness” by S.L. Huang leading in the first round, just four points ahead of “The Differ­ence Between Love and Time” by Catherynne M. Valente, only to see the Valente and “We Built this City” by Marie Vibbert tie for the lead in the sec­ond round; then the Huang dropped, the Vibbert got the bulk of its second-place votes, and took fourth in the third round. The Huang then took fifth in two rounds, and the Valente ended up in sixth. This was Hai Ya’s first Hugo Award nomi­nation and first win. “Color the World” received enough nominations to make the ballot, but was declared ineligible. The author of “Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold” declined nomination.

BEST SHORT STORY

Samantha Mills’s “Rabbit Test” won decisively in a single round, having more first place votes than all the other nominees combined. John Wiswell’s “D.I.Y.” then led all five rounds for second place, and Regina Kanyu Wang’s “Zhurong on Mars” took third in similar fashion, followed by Ren Qing’s “Resurrection” in fourth. Lu Ban’s “The White Cliff” snagged fifth place in just one round, and Jiang Bo’s “On the Razor’s Edge” ended up in sixth. This is Mills’s first nomination and win. “Fongong Temple Pagoda” was deemed ineligible.

BEST SERIES

The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchai­kovsky won without serious challenge, starting with more than three times the first-place votes of the closest contender, holding onto that lead to take the prize in only four rounds. The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch started thevoting for second with just a two-point lead on Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series, but gradu­ally increased its lead to win. Similarly, the Scholo­mance series by Naomi Novik took third in four rounds. The McGuire led the first round of voting for fourth place, but the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir pulled ahead in the second round to take fourth in three rounds. The McGuire then took fifth place, and the Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett ended up in sixth. This is Tchaikovsky’s third Hugo Award nomination, and first win.

BEST RELATED WORK

Rob Wilkins’s Terry Pratchett: A Life With Foot­notes won in a single round, with almost four times the first-place votes of the closest contender, Yang Feng’s Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History, which went on to take second place, leading all the way through five rounds of vot­ing. Similarly, Kyle Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road took third without significant chal­lenge, followed by Wil Wheaton’s Still Just a Geek in fourth, S.L. Huang’s “The Ghost of Workshops Past” in fifth, and Lawrence M. Schoen’s Buffalito World Outreach Project sixth. This is Wilkins’s first nomination and win. This is one category with explanations of why nominees were deemed ineligible: History of Chinese Science Fiction in the 20th Century was dropped as one of the authors was on the Hugo subcommittee; The Art of Ghost of Tsushima was ineligible due to prior publication in English.

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams by Bartosz Sztybor, Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello, Ro­man Titov & Krzysztof Ostrowski won dramati­cally, coming in with a huge lead in first-place votes and going on to win in a quick three rounds. DUNE: The Official Movie Graphic Novel, written by Lilah Sturges and illustrated by Drew Johnson & Zid, took second place in five rounds without serious challenge. The voting for third place started out with Supergirl: Woman of To­morrow, written by Tom King and illustrated by Bilquis Evely & Matheus Lopes, in the lead for the first three rounds, only to see Monstress, Volume 7: Devourer, written by Marjorie Liu and illus­trated by Sana Takeda, jump ahead to take third in the fourth round. Supergirl then led all three rounds to take fourth place. Once & Future, Vol­ume 4: Monarchies in the UK, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Dan Mora, took fifth, leaving Saga, Volume 10, written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples, to take sixth.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION –

LONG FORM

Everything Everywhere All at Once started with a big lead in first-place votes, and as soon as No Award dropped, picked up enough votes to win in the second round. Turning Red then led the vot­ing for second place all the way, taking it in five rounds, and the next two places went in similar fashion, with Nope third and Severance, Season One fourth. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever took fifth in just one round, and Avatar: The Way of Water ended up sixth. Nomination was declined for Prey; The Sandman Season 1 and Andor Sea­son 1 were both declared “Not eligible per 3.8.3.”

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION –

SHORT FORM

The Expanse: “Babylon’s Ashes” had an easy vic­tory, coming in with a big lead in first-place votes and going on to win in only four rounds. Andor: “One Way Out” started the voting for second place with just a one-vote lead ahead of Stranger Things: “Chapter Four: Dear Billy”, but built on that lead, gradually pulling ahead to take second place in five rounds. Stranger Things: “Chapter Four: Dear Billy” then took third in four rounds, and the rest of the places went in similar fashion, with Andor: “Rix Road” fourth, For All Mankind: “Stranger in a Strange Land” fifth, and She-Hulk: “Whose Show Is This?” sixth. This is the sixth Hugo Award nomina­tion and third win for an episode of The Expanse. Sandman “The Sound of her Wings” was dropped from nomination as ineligible; Severance “The Way We Are” was “not eligible per 3.8.3”, and The Deep was ineligible due to prior presentation.

EDITOR – LONG FORM

Lindsey Hall won in just five rounds, having start­ed the voting with a solid lead, and holding on to win. Haijun Yao then led all the way in voting for second, and Lee Harris took third place with simi­lar ease. Fourth saw a bit more of a contest; Sarah Peed had a slim lead in the first two rounds, but when Huan Yan dropped most of their votes went to Ruoxi Chen, who took fourth in three rounds. Sarah Peed then took fifth place in two rounds, leaving Huan Yan to take sixth. This was Hall’s first nomination and first win.

BEST EDITOR – SHORT FORM

Neil Clarke started with three times the first-place votes of the closest contender, and won easily in three rounds. Sheree Renée Thomas started the voting for second place with a mod­est 25-vote lead, briefly lost the lead to Xu Wang in the third round of voting, but reclaimed it in the fourth round, and took second place in the fifth round. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki took third place unchallenged in four rounds; Scott H. Andrews took fourth place in similar fashion, Xu Wang took fifth, and Feng Yang took sixth. This is Clarke’s 15th Hugo Award nomination and fifth win overall, and his 11th nomination and second win in this category.

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

Enzhe Zhao started the voting with a huge lead, and took the Hugo in a single round. Kuri Huang led all the way in the voting for second place, taking it in five rounds; Sija Hong similarly took third in four rounds. Fourth place started with a brief contest, with Jian Zhang one point ahead of Alyssa Winans in the first round, but then Winans pulled ahead by one point in the second round and took fourth in the third round. Jian Zhang took fifth place in one round, and Paul Lewin fol­lowed in sixth. This was Zhao’s first nomination and win. Guo Jian declined nomination.

BEST SEMIPROZINE

Uncanny won for the second year in a row, but it had to fight for it; Strange Horizons had a 24-point lead in the first round of voting, and held onto the lead for five rounds, but then FIYAH dropped, and Uncanny picked up enough votes to win in the sixth round. Strange Horizons then went essentially unchallenged in the voting for second place, taking it in one round. FIYAH then took third place in just three rounds, followed by Escape Pod in fourth, PodCastle in fifth, and khōréō in sixth. This is Uncanny’s eighth nomination and seventh win.

BEST FANZINE

Zero Gravity Newspaper started with the most first-place votes, and despite being briefly over­taken by Journey Planet in the fourth round, immediately took back the lead in the fifth round, and won in the sixth. Journey Planet then led all the way in five rounds to take sec­ond. There was a real contest for third place: Chinese Academic SF Express led the first three rounds, well ahead of closest contender Nerds of a Feather, but Nerds picked up steam over the next two rounds, and finally pulled ahead to win in the fourth round. Chinese Academic SF Express then led the first two rounds of votingfor fourth place, only to have Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog take the lead in the third and final round. Finally, Chinese Academic SF Ex­press held onto its lead to take fifth place in a single round leaving Galactic Journey to take sixth. This was the first nomination and win for Zero Gravity Newspaper.

BEST FANCAST

Hugo, Girl! started out the voting with a hefty lead in first-place votes, and once Hugos There dropped, picked up enough votes to win in just two rounds. Then Hugos There, despite having had the fewest first-place votes initially, picked up the lion’s share of Hugo, Girl!’s second-place votes, and led the voting through five rounds to take second place. The Coode Street Podcast took third in four rounds without challenge, followed similarly by Octothorpe in fourth, Worldbuilding for Masochists in fifth, and Kala­nadi in sixth. This was the second Hugo Award nomination and first win for Hugo, Girl!.

BEST FAN WRITER

Chris M. Barkley won, coming in with a solid lead in first-place votes and holding on for six rounds to win – just one vote ahead of River­Flow, who went on to take second place in five rounds. Arthur Liu dominated the voting for third place, taking it in just three rounds. Bitter Karella followed in fourth place, Jason Sanford took fifth, and Örjan Westin ended up in sixth. This was Barkley’s second nomination and first win. Nominee Paul Weimer was deemed ineli­gible.

BEST FAN ARTIST

Richard Man won, starting with a big lead in first-place votes and going on to take the Hugo in only five rounds. The rest of the places also went without significant challenge: Iain J. Clark took second in five rounds, Laya Rose landed third in four rounds, Alison Scott took fourth in just two rounds, España Sheriff snagged fifth in a single round, and Orion Smith ended up in sixth. This was Man’s first Hugo nomination and first win.

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK (NOT A HUGO)

Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor won easily, starting with a substantial lead in first-place votes and never seriously challenged in the five rounds of voting. The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik led the voting for second place all the way through five rounds of voting. The remaining places all went without significant challenge: Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders took third place in four rounds, In the Serpent’s Wake by Rachel Hart­man came in fourth in three rounds, Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods snagged fifth in just a single round, and Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn took sixth. This was Okorafor’s second Lodestar nomination, and second win; she also has five Hugo nominations and two wins.

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (NOT A HUGO)

Travis Baldree was a shoo-in, starting with the most first-place votes – more than three times the votes of the nearest competitor – and won in only two rounds. Second place saw a three-way skirmish, with Everina Maxwell leading the first two rounds, only to see Maijia Liu take the lead in the third round; Maxwell then pushed back into the lead in the fourth round, only to see Isabel J. Kim vault ahead in the fifth round to take second place. Maxwell then took third place in four rounds without challenge. Fourth place saw a bit of a contest; after Naseem Jamnia led for the first two rounds, Maijia Liu surged into the lead in the third and final round. Jam­nia then took fifth place in two rounds, and Weimu Xin took sixth. This was Baldree’s first year of eligibility. Xiran Jay Zhao was dropped from nominees as ineligible.

–Carolyn Cushman

Editor’s note: The article above is from our February issue of Locus, and below is part of the Editorial column from the same issue.

The nomination charts show a number of anomalies that are unexplained. Some of those anomalies that have set a small portion of the internet ablaze focus on Babel by R.F. Kuang, fan writer Paul Weimer, “Fogong Temple Pagoda” by Hai Ya, and Astounding nominee Xiran Jay Zhao, who were all marked “not eligible.” None of them know why it happened and no explanation is being offered. And Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series was up for both Long and Short Dramatic Presentation, but in an ouroboros moment, Season 1 was removed from Long because the episode had more votes, but then the episode was marked “not eligible” for the Short award, for reasons no one outside of the Hugo Awards team can glean from the WSFS Constitution, at least in the conversations we’ve been following. So Sandman was dropped from two awards categories.

There are also questions about the actual numbers themselves, which don’t follow the usual statistical patterns for Hugo nominations. I hesitate to speculate, but it doesn’t look good and there are a lot of theories flying around. If you want to dig in, File 770 is, as always, keeping apace of events; Cora Buhlert has a summary of questions <corabuhlert.com/2024/01/21/the-2023-hugo-nomination-statistics-have-finally-been-release-and-we-have-questions/>; Heather Rose Jones did a statistical survey of the last few years of Hugos: <alpennia.com/blog/comparison-hugo-nomination-distribution-statistics>.

Dave McCarty, who was the lead on the awards administration team, responded with a statement on File 770 behalf of the Hugo team, “After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.” This obviously does not answer any questions. At all. On his Facebook wall, he said that he was the head of the team and the responsibility falls on him, but also has been condescending to people for continuing to ask questions about it, which is also not a good look. I don’t know if we will find out what happened, but this all erupted during our deadline for this issue. I feel for the creators whose work was erased,  for the remaining finalists and winners, and for the rest of us who are left wondering what just happened -– we didn’t need another “asterisk” Hugo year and this hurts everyone.

–Liza Trombi

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This report and more like it in the February 2024 issue of Locus.

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