2005 Hugos

Emerald City has all of the winners.

I'm a little disappointed by the best novel winner, but not surprised. This was my tentative prediction. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell got far and away the most publicity of any book on the short list and was well-known to the US voters who still constituted a majority. I don't think it's the best book -- I've been in the process of reading it for a while and it's dreadfully slow, if well-written -- but it has a lot of advantages in a vote.

River of Gods is probably the best book overall (although I'll be reading all of the nominees and coming to my own conclusion there), but it and The Algebraist aren't even published in the US yet. For River of Gods to finish second given that is amazing. Iron Council isn't the book that Miéville is going to win with, no matter how good, since it's too political for US voters. That leaves Iron Sunrise, which didn't finish as high as I expected given the hard SF vote.

I also guessed The Incredibles, which is the most popular of the movies even though Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is probably the better movie.

Nice to see Stross pick up a Hugo for the novella, though. The short story category was, as commonly reported, very weak.

I have on order, will be ordering, have sitting around, or am currently reading all of the best novel winners, the novella winner, and the novelette winner, so I'll end up reading significantly more of the field this year than in most Hugos past.