2017 Nerds of a Feather Hugo Award Longlist, Part 2: Visual Work Categories

Welcome to our continuing presentation of the Nerds of a Feather 2017 Hugo Award Longlist (see part 1 here). Today will look at Graphic Story and the two Dramatic Presentation categories. 

As before, we here at 'nerds of a feather, flock together' are presenting a collective longlist of potential Hugo nominees that we think are worthy of your consideration. These selections represent the spectrum of tastes, tendencies, and predilections found among our group of 13 writers.

As a reminder, this list should not at all be considered comprehensive. Some outstanding works will not make our longlist for the simple reason that we have not seen or read it. We encourage you to think of this as a list of candidates to consider alongside works which you are already familiar, nothing more and nothing less.

Graphic Story

Landry Mark, Art by Ashley Witter and Richard Pace. Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water [Titan Comics, 2016]

Liu, Marjorie., Art by Sana Takeda. Monstress: Awakening [Image Comics, 2016]

Sanderson, Brandon & Rik Hoshin. White Sand: Volume 1 [Dynamite Comics, 2016]

Vaughan, Brian K., Art by Cliff Chiang. Paper Girls: Volume 1 [Image Comics, 2016]

Vaughan, Brian K., Art by Fiona Staples. Saga: Volume 6 [Image Comics, 2016]

Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

Arrival, directed by Dennis Villeneuve [Paramount Pictures, 2016]

Captain America: Civil War, directed by Joe & Anthony Russo [Marvel Studios, 2016]

Deadpool, directed by Tim Miller [20th Century Fox, 2016]

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, directed by Gareth Edwards [Lucasfilm, 2016]

Sense8: Happy Fucking New Year, directed by Lana Wachowski [Netflix, 2016]

Zootopia, directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Moore [Walt Disney Pictures, 2016]

Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Ash vs. Evil Dead (Season Two), created by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Tom Spezialy [Starz, 2016]
Recommended Episodes: "The Morgue" (Ep 2), "Ashy Slashy" (Ep 8)
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Season One), created by Max Landis (BBC America, 2016)
Recommended Episode: "Two Sane Guys Doing Normal Things" (Ep 8)

Game of Thrones (Season Six), created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss [HBO, 2016]
Recommended Episodes: "The Door" (Ep 5), "Battle of the Bastards"(Ep 9)

The Expanse (Season One), created by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, [Syfy, 2016]

Recommended Episode: "Leviathan Wakes" (Ep 10)

iZombie (Season Two), created by Rob Thomas [CW, 2016]

Recommended Episodes: "Salivation Army" (Ep 19), "Love & Basketball" (Ep 5)

The Shannara Chronicles (Season One), [MTV, 2016]

Stranger Things (Season One), created by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer [Netflix, 2016]
Recommended Episodes: "Chapter Four: The Body," "Chapter Six: The Monster"

Westworld (Season One), created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy [HBO, 2016]
Recommended Episodes: "Trompe L'Oeil" (Ep 7) "The Bicameral Mind" (Ep 10)

X-Files (Season Ten), created by Chris Carter [Fox, 2016]
Recommended Episode: "Founders Mutation" (Ep 2)

POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004. Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan.

2017 Nerds of a Feather Hugo Award Longlist, Part 1: Fiction Categories

In the midst of last year's slate voting controversy, our erstwhile founding editor The G asked the flock here at Nerds of a Feather if we would come together to put out a longlist of works we would recommend for Hugo consideration. Flock Together we did.

The rules for inclusion were simple--just: (a) meet the eligibility criteria; and (b) be "award worthy" (i.e. good). Given the subjectivity of the latter, it should come as no surprise that the selections on our longlist reflect the spectrum of tastes, tendencies and predilections found among our group of writers. You'll find selections ranging from the obscure and literary to the unabashedly popular and commercial, and from all corners and subdivisions of the genresphere.

That said, this is not nor intends to be a comprehensive survey of the field. Some books that are undoubtedly "award worthy," for example, are absent for the simple reason that we haven't read them yet. Thus we encourage you to think of this as a list of candidates to consider--alongside others. 

Given the vast number of Hugo categories, we've also made the decision to split the longlist up into multiple posts. Today we look at the fiction categories (Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story). For fiction that is available free of charge, we've embedded a direct link to the story. For novels and works of short fiction that are not available for free, the embedded link redirects to a review. 

In the interest of being transparent, it is worth noting that several of our writers have published fiction in 2016. Because it would be a conflict of interest, we are not including them on our longlist, but would still invite anyone interested to take a look at their work. Charles has a list of his eligible fiction here and Chloe has her list of fiction here.

Novel

Anders,  Charlie Jane. All the Birds in the Sky [Tor, 2016]

Bennett, Robert Jackson. City of Blades [Broadway Books, 2016]

Elliott, Kate. Poisoned Blade [Little Brown for Young Readers, 2016]

Gonzalez, Manuel. The Regional Office is Under Attack! [Riverhead, 2016]

Hatton, Jackie. Flesh and Wires [Aqueduct Press, 2016]

Hutchinson, Dave. Europe In Winter [Solaris, 2016]

Jemisin, N.K. The Obelisk Gate [Orbit, 2016]

Older, Malka. Infomocracy [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]

Sapkowski, Andrzej. The Tower of the Swallow [Orbit/Gollancz, 2016]

Squailia, Gabriel. Viscera [Talos, 2016]

Tilahun, Na'amen Gobert. The Root [Night Shade, 2016]

Thompson, Tade. Rosewater [Apex, 2016]

Whitehead, Colson. Underground Railroad [Doubleday, 2016]

Yap, Isabel. Hurricane Heels [Book Smugglers, 2016]

Novella

Cade, Octavia. The Convergence of Fairy Tales [Book Smugglers, 2016]

Foster, Emily. The Drowning Eyes [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]

Lavalle, Victor. The Ballad of Black Tom [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]

McGuire, Seanan. Every Heart a Doorway [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]

Penny, Laurie. Everything Belongs to the Future [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]

Shi, Gu (translated by S. Qiouyi Lu and Ken Liu). "Chimera" [Clarkesworld, 2016]

Wallace, Matt. Pride's Spell [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]

Wallace, Matt. Lustlocked [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]

Wilson, Kai Ashante. A Taste of Honey [Tor.com Publishing, 2016]



Novelette

Debonnaire, Meredith. "The Life and Times of Angel Evans" [The Book Smugglers, 2016]

Hoffmann, Ada. "The Scrape of Tooth and Bone" [GigaNotoSaurus, 2016]

Lemberg, Rose. "The Book of How to Live" [Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 2016]

Miller, Sam. "Angel, Monster, Man" [Nightmare, 2016]

Owomoyela, An. "Unauthorized Access" [Lightspeed, 2016]

Takács, Bogi. "Standing on the Floodbanks" [GigaNotoSaurus, 2016]

Vernon, Ursula. "The Tomato Thief" [Apex, 2016]

Wong, Alyssa. "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay" [Uncanny, 2016]

Wallace, Matt. "Small Wars" [Tor.com]



Short Story

Bolander, Brooke "Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies" [Uncanny, Issue 13]

Bulkin, Nadia. "The House That Jessica Built" [The Dark, 2016]

Cox, Stephen. "1957" [Apex, 2016]

Harris, Nin. "Butter-Daughters" [Sockdolager, 2016]

Iriarte, José Pablo. "Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic" [Strange Horizons, 2016]

Jemisin, N.K. "The City Born Great" [Tor.com, 2016]

Killjoy, Margaret. "Everything that Isn’t Winter" [Tor, 2016]

Little Badger, Darcie. "Black, Their Regalia" [Fantasy, 2016]

Moher, Aidan. "The Penelope Qingdom" [Mothership Zeta, 2016]

Nichols, Russell. "u wont remember dying" [Terraform, 2016]

Onyebuchi, Tochi. "Screamers" [Omenana, 2016]

Rustad, A. Merc. "The Gentleman of Chaos" [Apex, 2016]

Tidbeck, Karin. "Listen" [Tor.com, 2016]

POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004. Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan.

Weekend Mixtape (1.27.17)

I realize most of us are tense and nervous right now, but it's the weekend, and everyone needs a little relief from time to time. With that in mind, I'd like to share a short playlist for your Friday commute or lazy Saturday morning. It's warm and sunny, like a perfect California day. So put the top down--literally or metaphorically--and enjoy!


Oh, and thanks to Tia for posting this on my behalf! -G

Thursday Morning Superhero

Joe Hill and company have teamed up with Israel Skelton to raise money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and other charities.  Proceeds from items containing the Biblio Key that can be purchased here will raise money for some extremely valuable causes.  I have a couple of keys (and some great Chew items!) from Skelton Studio and have been blown away by everything.  Hill promises that the Biblio Key will make an appearance in a future Locke and Key issue and the keys in this sale are limited to 600 and contain multiple signatures, including Hill and Locke and Key artist Gabriel Rodriguez.  Go buy an amazing collectible and support a worthy cause!

Pick of the Week:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #66 - I am a huge fan of Alopex and am thrilled to have another issue that revolves around her story after she vanished a few issues back after trying to kill Splinter and the Turtles.  Alopex's development throughout this series has been an absolute joy.  She was an interesting villain working with the Shredder, but evolved into more than a mutant fox who was a foe to the turtles.  She became a character that I invested in, only to have Kitsune take control of her mind and force her back towards the darker side of things.  Raph and Angle have tracked Alopex to Alaska and are making one last attempt to help her rid herself of the demons that plague her.  In addition to the development that Alopex has had throughout the series, her impact on Raph is noteworthy and has really changed the dynamic of him and his relationship to everyone else.  It is nice to find closure in this arc and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead now that this book is closed.

The Rest:
Saga #42 - This issue was a giant punch in the gut and I curse Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples for making me feel things.  The final pages of this issue are extremely powerful and will haunt my dreams for the weeks to come.








Dept. H #10 - Matt and Sharlene Kindt's underwater Whodunit continues this week as we gain some valuable insight into what could be motivation for the murder.  Through a heartfelt flashback, we learn about Mia's childhood and how her father's devotion to his exploration came at the expense of her mother and other relationships.  This issue was a nice break from the drama that is currently happening in the underwater lab, and shined some valuable light on what Mia was like as a child.  I love the breadth of characters that the Kindt's have delivered and have enjoyed peering into the past in an attempt to uncover what is happening in the present.

Daredevil #16 - I continue to enjoy the hell out of Charles Soule's run with the Man without Fear.  If you recall, Daredevil put a bounty on his own head to deal with the grief of what happened to Blindspot, only to find out that Bullseye ended up taking someone up on the offer.  In addition to punching a lot of baddies in an attempt to make sense of what happened, Daredevil speaks to a Catholic priest to attempt to put everything into a proper context.  Turns out this priest is a member of The Ordo Draconum, a militant Catholic order founded in the 15th century.  Through his self reflection via the priest's advice and through stopping Bullseye, Daredevil is ready to move on and wraps things up confessing his true identity to the priest.  I am excited to see what the next arc will bring us!

Star Wars #27 - In an odd flashback of an issue, we continue with the story of Yoda and things have taken an odd turn.  It seems the planet that was calling to Yoda is inhabited only by children and has a mountain that seems to be made up of a blue rock that is filled with the force.  This draws Yoda to the mountain, only to lead to his capture by another group of children who chain him up in chains made up of this mysterious blue rock.  While it was far from my favorite issue in the series, there is enough mystery to bring me back to learn more of this mountain.




POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.