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awards: hugo awards

Winds in the East...Mist Coming In... (Hugo Season Approaches)

It's almost nomination time for the Hugo Awards! As someone invested in recommendations as a type of critique/conversation, I'm thriving.

Worldcon in 2026 will be in LA. If you'd like to nominate for the 2026 Hugo Award, you can do so by being a member of the Seattle Worldcon or purchasing at least a WSFS membership from LAcon V. There's a medium-length guide here on the whole process. Nomination is step one: Seattle and LA WSFS members build the short lists as a collective.

However! Even if you don't plan to become a member (the membership fee is $50 and times are hard), everyone can share the things they would nominate if they could via the Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom, or make their own lists and post them on socials with the #HugoAward tag. Lots of people (it's me; I'm people) have gaps on their nomination forms and are looking for cool stuff to check out. Consider making a rec list/thread!

A disclaimer: the following are my personal nominations that I'll submit next year, not official Hugo finalists. I know the nominations/finalist language can be confusing. ( Read more... )

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Rec-Cember Day #6

I took a small break from recs in order to reread the entire Murderbot Diaries series, so I could go into my ARC of Platform Decay PRIMED and EDUCATED. But yesterday was Thursday, and there's a new issue of Intergalactic Mixtape, and I'm claiming those recs for this project.

Today's Recs:

From IGMX:

Anatomy of a Sex Scene: Heated Rivalry Edition by Jenny Hamilton
everyone HATES a negative review by marines
Hollywood is Dead. Long Live Hollywood. by Vance K.

The recs are in IMGX 32 if you want the details, but the essays/video don't really need extra commentary from me! They're great.

Bonus rec:

The WYRMHOLE: if you like short original fiction recs, storytelling, puns, and unhinged anecdotes, this newsletter is a fun time.

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Rec-Cember Day #5

My partner wanted to catch up on Stranger Things so we can watch the finale. I suspect the Duffer Brothers and I are destined for a breakup after this show is over, although I do appreciate some of the book references.

Today's Rec:

Sailing With Phoenix
Over the summer, a dude started sailing solo from Oregon to Hawai'i on a sailboat with his cat. He came across my TikTok FYP randomly, about a week into his trip. He has a whole Youtube channel documenting his decision to go, leaving his job, buying the boat, prepping the boat, and then the actual journey. He's since decided to get a new boat and sail non-stop around the world, and is documenting that journey. My autistic self was immediately charmed by him. And I learned a lot about boats and sailing (I love when people get intensely into a special interest and share it with people.) He has short form content on his TikTok but I really like the longer form videos and how he builds the narrative over time on Youtube.

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Rec-Cember Day #4

Today I spent a few hours organizing my Friends of the Library book storage room. The way we're organizing it will never last, but it'll be a nice place to start from. I have to figure out how to offload so much 80s/90s mass market romance after a woman left us her entire collection in her estate. Lower prices? Special bag sale? I'm stumped.

Today's rec:

In today's Intergalactic Mixtape, I recced two essays I enjoyed. I will copy myself in order to a) go to bed already and b) promote the latest issue, if you're into SFF news. Here are the links; full recs are at the link above!

#1: Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine: in conversation (space opera, empire, two very clever authors being thoughtful)
#2: The Year Of The Crone (a ~~new~~ old bombshell has (re)entered the villa)

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Rec-Cember Day #3

In an effort to consider things I like outside of reading, I have expanded!

Today's Rec:

The Sam Sanders Show — Gaga’s Back, Fish Is Tinned… Is the Economy Okay?
I love Sam Sanders dearly as a journalist, critic, interviewer, and cultural commentator, so I will follow him everywhere. In this episode, there's a segment about recession indicators, and at the end one of the panelists cited Sinners. When I listened to this episode, I was like, "JAIL FOR 10,000 YEARS!", but in the end they got me and I was convinced. It's a great episode, but this segment had me rolling. The show in general is excellent and well worth a follow.

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Rec-Cember Day #2

Vaccines always hit me hard. I'm very jealous of people who can get them and then continue on their way with no issues. :P To make myself feel better, I bought some MTG cat tokens (this version) and some dice to use for 1/1 counters. I was also very tempted by a EDH precon for the Edge of Eternities release (ROBOTS), but I resisted (barely).

Today's Rec:

( cover )

Finder by Suzanne Palmer
First published in 2020, Finder is the first book in the Finder Chronicles, a space opera series about saving the world, but also learning to trust and care for people. The first book is a fetch quest set amidst a civil war in a rural system. Fergus Ferguson must reclaim a stolen ship with nothing but his charm, cleverness, and creativity while surviving acts of war and some weird ass aliens that regularly menance everyone for no discernable reason. This is one of my favorite space opera series and has everything I love. Emotionally stunted man on the first step of his healing journey? Check. Snarky teen sidekick? Check. Political intrigue and machinations? Check check. [redacted for spoilers] ship? Triple check. I love Fergus so much and I just want to grasp everyone's hands and plead with them to read this book (and all the other books). I want everyone to meet Fergus and see what I see about him: the collapsing singularity of his capacity to love, sealed behind trauma and self-recriminations and fear of being known, and how on this mission the people who come to value him introduce the first cracks in that shell. (The aliens help...in a weird way.)