Sunday morning award rant

[rolanni]

So, most of you won't know -- or care -- that the World Science Fiction Society, which administers the Hugo Awards, decided at the business meetings in Seattle and KC (which all WorldCon members may attend, and may also vote on proposals) that they'd give a Hugo for Best Series (written) a whirl and see what happens.

For those who haven't already run away screaming, here's the nut of the definition, from the WFCS:

An eligible work for this special award is a multi-volume science fiction or fantasy story, unified by elements such as plot, characters, setting, and presentation, which has appeared in at least three volumes consisting of a total of at least 240,000 words by the close of the calendar year 2016, at least one volume of which was published in 2016.

There's never been a Hugo for Best Series, which might strike some as odd, seeing as series is, and has always been, the backbone of science fiction and fantasy literature.  The thought, for many years, was that A Good Book Will Out, no matter if it was part of a series, or a standalone, and, indeed, many books which were parts of series have won the Novel Hugo (The most puzzling being the "second" book in the "Cyteen Trilogy" -- which really wasn't a trilogy, but a single novel broken into three when it was published in mass market.  But I digress.*).  In any case, the system kinda sorta worked most of the time, for most of the works involved.

Sort of like Ankh-Morpork under the Patrician's rule, really.

However, the idea of a Series Hugo had been kicked around for a number of years, and the Collected Wisdom of the Business Meetings decided to go for it, despite the very real difficulties in administering -- or even voting on -- such an award.

What difficulties, you may ask?

Well, the sheer volume of works written in series is one difficulty (remembering that series are the backbone of sf/f, despite the sudden numbers of people who are now shocked, shocked! to learn that there have ever been any series books published in SF/F before, oh, last week).  For instance, here's a list of the series which are eligible for award consideration for the 2016 Hugos.

Scary, right?  The amount of reading facing a conscientious voter is just. . .horrifying.  Nobody can read that much, even if you (as said conscientious voter) decide to "only" read the qualifying novel for each series, and allow it to be representative of the whole.

The series definition as given by the Society strongly favors trilogies.  Longer series, such as the Discworld, or, oh, the Liaden Universe® -- while employing repeating characters and a consistent setting, and which, in simple numbers, far exceed a paltry 240,000 words -- do not tell a single story, but many, many stories.  (To put that 240,000 words into perspective, Steve and I have published over 300,000 words of short stories just in the Liaden Universe®.)

This suggests a way to thin the herd, and make it (a little) easier for conscientious voters to actually read the field -- rename the Series Hugo the Trilogy Hugo, and keep all else the same.

Of course, that puts the rest of us -- and according to the File 770 list, there are many of us -- kind of back out into the Outer Darkness; and I can hear the screams and the gnashing of teeth from here.

Let me say here that I applaud the effort to acknowledge the form that has been (she repeats tiresomely) the backbone of our field.  And I appreciate the work and thought that the drafting committee obviously put into the project.

But I think that, in the search for a nice, simple, compact award, much nuance has been lost, and real world complexity ignored.

How do we produce an award for long works that's more reflective of the actual world of publishing?  Heck if I know.

One thing that I do think would help the Hugo Awards overall is One and Out.  This would allow room for more works to be considered, rather than allowing entropy to rule, as it has in the past.  I believe that there is a difficulty when the same publication can reliably win a Hugo Award for 30 years.  And there is strong evidence that the winners cannot be counted upon to recuse themselves.

This would, of course, take some of the fun out of the collection and display of multiple Hugo Nominee pins, but I'm sure another game will arise that will be just as much fun for the participants.

So. . .a rant without a solution for your Sunday morning.

Time for me to go to work.

____________
*Faulty memory department.  Thanks to Melita66 for straightening me out.

Comments

[melita66.livejournal.com]

Didn't the hardcover version of Cyteen win? It was published in 1988, and won in 1989. The 3 paperbacks were published in 1989. Bujold won in 2004 with Paladin of Souls, a loose sequel and Rowling won with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, book 4 of the series.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Oops.

Fixed, thanks.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I think One And Out, at least within that category, seems pretty reasonable. Writers, at least, could presumably still get a wide array of Hugo pins without also locking in Michael Whelan as Best Artist for fifteen years. (Not that he's not brilliant, but.)

Introducing both a Hugo Trilogy Award and a Hugo Long Series Award might be ways to acknowledge the backbone forms, but if a trilogy goes all Douglas Adams on somebody they probably shouldn't be able to win both for the same series. (Going forward from the time the award was implemented, no retroactively punishing, say, GRRM who believed he was going to write a book a trilogy however many books it takes. :))

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

That's a scary long list. And very, very incomplete. A number of the series I read aren't on it and should be.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I started down that road, but came up against the "published a new book in 2016" filter and/or the "240,000 words" filter.

You're right, though, the amount of work involved in just policing the eligible works is mind-numbing. The list over at File 770 was put together by a volunteer, but it goes without saying that some books will have been lost in the shuffle.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

For instance! I published two short stories in the Archers Beach/Carousel universe in January 2016, thereby making the entire series eligible for Hugo consideration.

Boy, am I glad that I don't have one thing to do with administering this...

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

most trilogies are defined by 4 or more books...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Nope. In English "trilogy" means a group of three related works -- artwork, opera, poetry, short stories, novels, &c.

Many intended trilogies do grow a fourth, or even a fifth relation, and at that point, in written fiction, the work is no longer a trilogy, but a series. MizKit mentions The Hitchhiker's Guide, and the Game of Thrones, both of which grew beyond their intended length. It happens rather a lot, actually, but at the moment the fourth book is published, the works are collectively a series.

Multiple series eligibility

[spacecowboy528.livejournal.com]

I went through that list and it looked like there were at least 4 writers who have multiple series listed. Including Chris Nuttall with a crazy and insane 5.

[ejmam.livejournal.com]

I think it wasn't the business meetings at Spokane and KC, but the hosts at Helsinki who decided to try the new category. A local conference can throw in an extra category if they want, and I guess they wanted. That means that the category goes away after this year, unless it's so popular that the business people bring it back.

It looks like the definition just makes trilogies the minimum. I'm not as sure it strongly favors them, but I guess we'll see. I think voters will have to plan on reading just the latest in the story rather than starting at the beginning of each series, which will skew things a bit towards shorter things, but the complexity and delight of the larger works should make up for that. If I read a book and am delighted to find that it is the end or the middle of a series, that's a strong vote for that book.

[bookworm1398.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the objection to best series here. Yes, there are a lot of series, but there are also a lot of novels and short stories, more than anyone could possibly read. Nominating and voting for best series shouldn't be any more difficult than nominating/voting in those categories.

A One and Out rule seems reasonable, is anyone proposing it?