The Best Novel category at the Hugo Awards has resulted in a tie this year. China Miéville’s The City & The City received the double honour along with Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl at the ceremony, held at Aussiecon in Melbourne, Australia.
Both novels have received the lion’s share of plaudits during award season in 2010. The City & The City was nominated for the Nebula but lost out to The Windup Girl, and took home the Arthur C Clarke Award as well as the BSFA. The Hugo is considered to be the most prestigious of all science fiction awards, however, and the profile of both books will be raised tremendously by the fact that a tie has only happened twice before. The most recent was in 1993, when Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon The Deep shared the prize with Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book, and before that in 1966, when Frank Herbert’s Dune tied with Roger Zelazny’s …And Call Me Conrad.
Other awards went to Charles Stross for his novella ‘Palimpsest’, Peter Watts for his novelette ‘The Island’, and Will McIntosh for his short story ‘Bridesicle’. Moon, directed by Duncan Jones, beat off Star Trek for the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form award, and Doctor Who took the gong for the Short Form category, winning with ‘The Waters Of Mars’.
The full list of winners is below.
* Best Novel: TIE: The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK); The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
* Best Novella: ‘Palimpsest’, Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace, Orbit)
* Best Novelette: ‘The Island’, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos)
* Best Short Story: ‘Bridesicle’, Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
* Best Related Book: This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This Is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)
* Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne And The Heirs Of The Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
* Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
* Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Who: ‘The Waters Of Mars’ Written by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
* Best Editor Long Form: Patrick Nielsen Hayden
* Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
* Best Professional Artist: Shaun Tan
* Best Semiprozine: Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, and Cheryl Morgan
* Best Fan Writer: Frederik Pohl
* Best Fanzine: StarShipSofa edited by Tony C Smith
* Best Fan Artist: Brad . Foster
And the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer (presented by Dell Magazines): Seanan McGuire
