It has been a wait but the nomination stats are out. Are all your questions answered? Not entirely. https://www.thehugoawards.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Hugo-Award-Stats-Final.pdf - this has the previously released final voting stats at the start and then the nomination stats
Best Novel:
What happened to Babel? Babel came third on raw votes but lost to The Daughter of Doctor Moreau on the last elimination round. However, it also has an asterisk with a note saying "not eligible" with no further explanation. Not sure what that means and it is surprising to see EPH knock out a nominee with such a strong first-round vote. However, when you look at the EPH values, they don't change as other works are eliminated? Was it deemed ineligible during the EPH process rather than put through and then pulled out at the end? The numbers don't make sense to me yet.
The other missing "favourite", The Mountain in the Sea, came ninth on raw votes and was eliminated. The numbers make a bit more sense to me there.
The last big question I had about novels was about Chinese works. It looks like there were quite a few Chinese works on the longlist. The highest ranked of which was 造神年代 Age of the Godmakers. The stats don't give author or publisher details.
The other English-language work on the longlist is A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys.
Best Novella
The next mystery has a clearer answer: what happened to A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers. It came second on raw votes but was withdrawn which let What Moves the Dead onto the ballot.
Again, the longlist appears to have a number of Chinese works that fell just below the cut-off. Eighth place on raw votes was 圣物 Relics. In 12th place was the English-language work High Times in the Low Parliament by Kelly Robson.
Best Novelette
A couple of asterisks in the top ranked on raw votes. 涂色世界 Color the World was ineligible (again, not sure of author details). In fifth place Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold by S.B. Divya was withdrawn by the author (if memory serve me right, we knew this already but my googling is failing me).
There appears to be an error on the longlist. Turing Food Court appears twice, once at 10th place and once at 12th place on raw votes. It is listed as an English title first, Turing Food Court 图灵大排档, but I can't find a story with that name (maybe it is too early in the morning and I haven't had coffee yet).
Best Short Story
In sixth place on raw votes 尽化塔 Fongong Temple Pagoda was deemed ineligible. Overall, this was a strong category for Chinese works.
Best Series
A relatively straight forward category with few surprises but very few contributions from Chinese works. 深海余烬 Ashes in Deep Sea appears to be the highest-ranked Chinese work at 9th place on raw votes. Fans of older fantasy will be pleased to see Elric of Melniboné can still make a Hugo longlist. Sanderson fans may be less happy that Mistborn only comes in at 15th.
I'll skip through down ballot categories and pick out highlights.
Best Related Work
20 世纪中国科幻小说史 History of Chinese Science Fiction in the 20th Century was deemed ineligible because "one of the authors was on the Hugo subcommittee". 对马岛之魂艺术设定集 The Art of Ghost of Tsushima was ineligible because it had been published in English in 2020. I assume from the way it was listed that this was the Chinese language version, which feels like that it should get a second go but not the way the rules work I guess.
Best DramaTIc PresentaTIon, Long Form
Prey, the fun new Predator movie apparently declined the nomination - which is unusual for this category. Andor and The Sandman went into short form rather than as a series, whereas Severance went the other way around. Our Flag Means Death was on the longlist but didn't get enough votes to ensure we spent a section of 2023 arguing whether it counts as SF&F.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Sandman Episode 6: The Sound of Her Wings was ineligible but I don't know why. It is a bit odd and it looks like there is a bit of a bug in the Hugo rules. The Sandman didn't have an eligible entry in Short Form but was disqualified from Long Form because of its entry in Short Form...
The Deep by Clipping appears to have had a bunch of nominations but was on the ballot a few years ago. Not sure why people voted for it again?
Best Fanwriter
Paul Weimer came third on the longlist but is listed as "deemed ineligible"?
Hey, I'm 8th on raw votes. That's a sweet spot between feeling appreciated and impostor syndrome :).
That's it for the time being!
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