My 2015 Hugo Nominations

As a member of last year's Worldcon, I'm eligible to nominate for this year's Hugo awards. I will probably become a member of this year's Worldcon in order to vote on the nominees, but we're not there yet, are we?

I am happy with the criteria I used last year -- was it a four-star work? Although there are probably better works than the ones I nominated, they probably won't get nominated anyway. So I'd rather see stuff I liked nominated than other stuff, which I probably won't like.

Best Novel

• Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson
• World of Trouble, Ben H. Winters
• V-S Day, Allen Steele
• Coming Home, Jack McDevitt
• Ancillary Sword, Anne Leckie

Best Novelette

• There Was No Sound of Thunder, David Erik Nelson

Best Related Work

• World of Fire & Ice, George R.R. Martin, Elio M. García Jr., Linda Antonsson

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Captain America: Winter Soldier
• Game of Thrones (Season 4)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

• "Turn, Turn, Turn," Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• "The Lion and the Rose," Game of Thrones

Best Fancast

• Sword & Laser, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt

Comments: World of Trouble was the only five-star novel in the bunch; definitely my favorite. Neither of the first two books in the trilogy made it into even the long version of the Hugo list, so I don't have much hope there. Both Coming Home and Ancillary Sword were nominated for Nebulas, so I think they have shots at the Hugo, though McDevitt has much more luck with Nebula nominations than Hugo ones. I am not actually finished with Words of Radiance, and I was planning to drop it until I figured out that another book that I wanted to nominate wasn't published in 2014. I have been having trouble figuring out which category Game of Thrones belongs in (they only get to be in one), so I figured I'd try both and let them choose. I have just been making my way through season one of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I thought I'd nominate the best one I've see so far. Sadly, it doesn't contain the best dialogue from the series so far.

Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?

Grant Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

Maria Hill: And what does that mean to you?

Grant Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "shield." 

And with Sword & Laser, I'm not convinced they're eligible, but they seem to think they are, so I'd rather nominate and let it get sorted out later. (They're not "professional," but I think they are "semi-professional," in which case there should be a separate "semiprocast" category.)