NOVEL: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins; Fourth Estate)
I called it! I totally called it. Is this the end of the squandered promise of sf? Well, no; but probably not insignificant, either.
NOVELLA: “All Seated on the Ground”, Connie Willis (Asimov’s Dec 2007; Subterranean Press)
NOVELETTE: “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”, Ted Chiang (F&SF Sep 2007)
SHORT STORY: “Tideline”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Jun 2007)
Novella and novelette are as expected, and I’m pleased about the Chiang and less pleased about the Willis. Bear beating Michael Swanwick and Mike Resnick is a bit of a surprise, but not an unwelcome one.
RELATED BOOK: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press)
Well, I thought this was a two-horse race between Barry Malzberg and Shaun Tan. Apparently not! I thought Brave New Words was an admirable project, though, so this is ok with me.
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: LONG FORM: Stardust (Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Paramount Pictures)
Interesting that it managed to beat out Heroes S1; I look forward to the voting stats on this one.
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: SHORT FORM: Doctor Who: “Blink” (Written by Stephen Moffat. Directed by Hettie Macdonald. BBC)
Hardly an undeserving winner, although I was rooting for “Human Nature”.
EDITOR, SHORT FORM: Gordon Van Gelder
EDITOR, LONG FORM: David G. Hartwell
I hope Long Form isn’t just going to oscillate between Hartwell and PNH.
PROFESSIONAL ARTIST: Stephan Martiniere
SEMIPROZINE: Locus, Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong & Liza Groen Trombi
FANZINE: File 770, Mike Glyer
FAN WRITER: John Scalzi
I called this, too, and am not unhappy about it. Although hopefully he’s not going to go on to win for the next twenty years straight …
FAN ARTIST: Brad Foster
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (Not a Hugo): Mary Robinette Kowal
Wow. Another surprise — not just that Scott Lynch didn’t win, but that the only short fiction writer on the ballot did — and, again, not an unwelcome one.
So: a decent set of winners for the most part. Cheryl Morgan has a few notes about finishing positions; interesting to see that Scalzi came second in Best Novel (apparently, by nine votes).
Further reactions here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.
vector-bsfa.com 
Here’s the link for the detailed voting breakdowns. Interesting results in a few places, to say the least.
I am glad to read that Elizabeth Bear’s short story has won this year’s Hugo. A pleasant surprise!
On the other hand, the only worthy nominee on the novella shortlist (Shepard) finished at the very end of the field … and the prize went to a mediocre little feelgood X-mas story. The mind boggles.
Brasyl finished fifth apparently.
Somewhat ambivalent about Scalzi’s win. On the plus side it’s someone different. On the minus side Dave Langford seems less willing to call me an ignorant idiot every few months.
I wouldn’t even begin to know how to vote for that category though. I’m not even sure what it represents.
In retrospect, I think we should have guessed that Stardust would sweep the BDP-LF category, for the same reason that Neil Gaiman always wins when he’s nominated for short fiction.
Rainer, that’s a mediocre little feelgood X-max story by Connie Willis. There’s nothing mind-boggling about its victory – it was the most foregone conclusion on a ballot that turned up very few surprises.
Larry: ooh, stats! Some notes:
— Brasyl got the most nominating ballots in its category, yet finished last
— Good to see votes for Pushing Daisies, even if it didn’t make the ballot
— Not only did Langford get comprehensively beaten by Scalzi, he very nearly didn’t make the ballot in the first place!
— I’m a bit surprised Halting State did as badly as it did in the final vote
— As Rainer says, depressing to see the results of the novella category in detail
— The novelette category was a strong field, but I’d still have liked to see a higher placing for “Finisterra”
— I am impressed by how completely Elizabeth Bear dominated her category
— Best Related is interesting: Malzberg and Tan were the front-runners, yet Tan finished last at the end of it
— And Gordon van Gelder was fourth on first-preference votes, but consistently picked up the most votes every time someone was eliminated
What I thought interesting was the huge scale of Scalzi’s victory, and Blink’s – unless I missed one, those were the only two to win their categories before the final elimination round. The wind was obviously blowing towards Blink, over the last six months, but I don’t think anyone would have seen it as such a landslide – ditto Scalzi.
Stephen H. Silver reports on the other awards given out at the same ceremony, including a First Fandom Hall of Fame to Mike Ashley.
Scalzi was reported as saying: ‘John has asked people to vote for someone else next year – that’s very sweet of him’ by Cheryl Morgan on her Live Blog which I watched.
Disappointed for Brasyl. Fifth place, but Liked YPU and Last Colony.
Although I love reading ansible a lot, and highly rate Dave Langford as a fan writer, I think that Scalzi (who contributed to a fanzine I did) is a deserving winner.
Would have loved Chris Garcia to win one of the two he lost, just for his exuberance and hard work and effort.
I hope it opens the field a bit, but still reckon that some Brit Fans should be up there. Nice to see Mike Glyer win another Hugo, he has been working hard on File for a while now, uping his game I reckon. Although I would have liked Chal or Drink Tank or Argentus to win.
I was sorta hoping somewhere Locus would not win Best Semi – denying grist for mills, but no such luck.
James
Don’t you think your Best Editor – Long Form winner fatigue is a bit premature? Patrick has only one Hugo, and this is only David’s second win.
Kathryn: yeah, it’s premature. Chalk it up to slight annoyance that no British editors got even a single nomination, and general paranoia about Hugo voter conservatism, not any reservation about the deservingness of David and Patrick.
Abigail: whil I share a certain mild cynicism about the Stardust win, I did enjoy it a lot — increasingly so as the film progressed.
It’s also worth noting that (via my job) I know two people who are not SF/Fantasy fans and who have never heard of Neil Gaiman but who rate it as one of the best “feelgood” films they’ve seen in years and have watched it repeatedly on DVD. So anecdotally it does seem to be one of those films that can get under people’s skins.
Also, despite his youthful vigor and young blonde wife, David is 67 years old, so the chances of him dominating the category for a LOCUS-like period of time are slim. Also, they’ve just canned the semi-prozine category, limiting his options for nomination.
Kathryn, I am genuinely delighted for David, and a big supporter of Patrick. But the problem with the problem with the category of Editor, Long Form is that most of the voters don’t have the foggiest idea who edits any particular book. Except for Tor books, where the name of the editor is printed in the book. So over and above the fact that Tor editors are often manifestly worthy of the award, until other publishers follow the same route Tor editors are going to have an in-built advantage in this category.
And you’re a bit hard on David, aren’t you. He’s only 67 – he’s got years of awards left in him yet!
Aaarg. That’s not why people know David and Patrick. (Maybe it has to do with all those decades of fanac?)
While I think both are worthy winners of the award, is it any better that they vote for the names they know from decades of fanac rather than the names they know because they’re in the front of Tor books?