Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #15 June 2015 | Page 10

Hugo if you want to
By Ian Millsted
I first became aware of the Hugo awards when I was
about thirteen. The school library had a reasonably decent supply of science fiction, much of it easily spotted on the shelves due to being the yellow jacketed
Gollancz editions that were around in the 70s. Some
of these bore messages on the front cover identifying
them as a ‘Hugo and Nebula award winner’. I could
work out that these were some kind of awards given to
science fiction in the same way that films won Oscars
but beyond that I gave it little thought.
I’ve always read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, as
well as much else besides, but only in the last fifteen
years have I followed SF&F in a more fannish way.
As well as reading science fiction I started to read
about science fiction and started to meet and talk with
others about science fiction. I joined local SF groups;
first in Norwich then in Bristol. I went to a few conventions. I liked most of the people I met and enjoyed
the ongoing conversations about SF and fantasy and I
enjoyed it even when the people I met held views with
which I did not agree. It made me think that much
harder about why I held the views I did.
Sometimes those conversations were about awards.
One of the things that became clear to me very early
on is that the awards within the SF world were indeed
like the Oscars for movies i.e. they were intrinsically
very silly. Silly in different ways perhaps, but very silly all the same. The Hugos had the distinction of being
less silly than some. And many people clearly cared a
great deal about them.
Like many people I’ve followed the recent fallout
from the Hugo nominations for 2015 with a morbid
curiosity that I, personally, feel somewhat uneasy
about. For those coming to this new I would suggest

a visit to the File 770 site (http://file770.com/) for the
best round up of the story so far. Make sure you’ve got
a couple of hours if you plan on catching up. Suffice to
say that the main debate is between right and left leaning types in the world of SF publishing and how their
respective works are recognised in the Hugo awards.
Before I offer my personal observations please allow
me to declare such interests as I may have. Having
attended Loncon 3 in 2014 I could have nominated for
this years Hugos but didn’t. I now wish that I had although it would have made little difference, I suspect.
If I had sent in nominations they would have been
something like the following. Guardians of the Galaxy,
Under the Skin and Captain America: The Winter Soldier for best film. Mark Plummer and Claire Brialey
for best fan writer. Brad Foster for best fan artist. Back
Issue and Alter Ego for best semiprozine. Ann VanderMeer for best editor (short form). Banana Wings for
best fanzine. Probably a few others too, but you’ll get
the gist from that. Some of those made the shortlists
anyway. Of the others, I doubt one extra nomination
would have made much difference.
My second declaration of interest is to state roughly where I stand politically. Here in the UK I would
describe myself as generally of the centre in political
terms. If I lived in the US (and I have spent about a
year of my life there) I would describe myself as pro
Democrat, although not uncritically. I am, I suppose,
a product of my age and location. I strongly support
the idea of a National Health Service or similar. I like
the idea that even the police in my country don’t carry
guns and the prospect of letting private citizens do
so is alarming. I’m in favour of free speech. I don’t believe big government is an inherently bad thing but it
can be unintentionally bureaucratic and inefficient.

10