Some thoughts on Puppy Depression

So a couple of years ago, Larry Correia set out to prove the Hugo voting was biased, so he created Sad Puppies. Over the course of two years the International Lord of Hate achieved this. The sheer bigotry and intolerance of the Social Justice Warriors were shown as they attacked not the works of the Sad Puppies Authors, but the authors themselves.

Larry, whom I know to be a mostly gentle giant, with a rather warm personality (aside from an absolute intolerance of stupidity with which I empathize) and a Person of Color in his own right was attacked as a racist, misogynistic, homophobe.

Now, we know if you’re a POC it’s impossible to be racist — unless of course you happen to have the wrong politics — as for being a woman-hater I suspect this is news to his 6 foot Nordic Goddess of a wife, of whom, I’m told, Larry lives in justifiable fear, and I’ve never understood the term homophobic, as I’m not generally scared teh gheys are going to break into my house and interior decorate me to death, and neither I suspect is Larry.

Those of us on the “wrong” side of the fence have watched authors, good authors and good people, some of whom are personal friends denigrated and destroyed for the cardinal sin of “badthink.” They tried this with Larry and Vox Day both last year, neither of whom give the proverbial crap about what anyone thinks of them, but the ILH proved his point — nominate conservative or libertarian authors and not only is there no way they win an award, they’ll get destroyed for trying.

Fast forward to this year, and Larry has better things to do, like writing books, and having hordes of fans throw money at him, and buying enough guns to overthrow a large third-world nation, so Brad Torgerson has taken the reins.

Now Brad is a capital fellow, rather moderate in his politics and overall a gentle, abstemious individual.

That said, he took over Sad Puppies this year in order to show that A. nothing’s really changed. B. Show that conservative authors and fans really don’t care about politics, we just want to read great stories and C. Maybe get an award or two — or at least a nomination — for some authors who deserve it and should have been winners years ago. (On that note: One of you Social Justice Warrior idiots want to explain to me why Jim Butcher has never been so much as NOMINATED? The Dresden Files are widely considered one of the best Urban Fantasy series ever written, have been consistent best sellers for 15 flipping years and are just FUN. Oh yeah, there’s the reason, Butcher doesn’t put his politics in his books. He just writes fun books. My bad, I forgot SFF wasn’t supposed to be fun. He did have a dinosaur once though, granted it wasn’t a whiny little bitch who got his ass kicked while his girlfriend simpered, but it WAS a dinosaur.)

So Torgerson put together a slate of pretty good books, including some guys who should have been nominated years ago — like Kevin J. Anderson (oh wait, I forgot, he writes tie-ins and makes lots of money, so bad. Because, reasons.)

So here, forthwith, are the nominations. I would invite you to take a look. There’s a lot of solid work on here, to include a couple things from Baen but a lot from a lot of other houses as well. Good stuff all, and all worthy of a nomination. (If there’s any justice in the world Skin Game will win the Hugo. It’s the best work yet by a top-notch author at the top of his game. Hilariously enough, Butcher, no conservative, is being attacked as a “Nazi” for being on the list. )

Remember, only YOU can prevent Puppy-related Sadness.

 

Best Novel

The Dark Between the Stars – Kevin J. Anderson – TOR

Trial by Fire – Charles E. Gannon – BAEN

Skin Game – Jim Butcher – ROC

Monster Hunter Nemesis – Larry Correia – BAEN

Lines of Departure – Marko Kloos – 47 North (Amazon)

Best Novella

“Flow” – Arlan Andrews Sr. – Analog magazine November 2014

“One Bright Star to Guide Them” – John C. Wright – Castalia House

“Big Boys Don’t Cry” – Tom Kratman – Castalia House

Best Novelette

“The Journeyman: In the Stone House” – Michael F. Flynn – Analog magazine June 2014

“The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale” – Rajnar Vajra – Analog magazine July/Aug 2014

“Championship B’tok” – Edward M. Lerner – Analog magazine Sept 2014

“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium” – Gray Rinehart – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

Best Short Story

“Goodnight Stars” – Annie Bellet – The Apocalypse Triptych

“Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer” – Megan Grey – Fireside Fiction

“Totaled” – Kary English – Galaxy’s Edge magazine

“A Single Samurai” – Steve Diamond – Baen Big Book of Monsters

Best Related Work

“Letters from Gardner” – Lou Antonelli – Merry Blacksmith Press

“Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth” – John C. Wright – Castalia House

“THE HOT EQUATIONS: THERMODYNAMICS AND MILITARY SF” – Ken Burnside

“Wisdom From My Internet” – Michael Z. Williamson

“Why Science is Never Settled” – Tedd Roberts – BAEN

Best Graphic Story

“Reduce Reuse Reanimate (Zombie Nation book #2) – Carter Reid – (independent)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

“The Lego Movie” – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

“Guardians of the Galaxy” – James Gunn

“Interstellar” – Christopher Nolan

“The Maze Runner” – Wes Ball

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

Grimm – ” Once We Were Gods” – NBC

The Flash – “The Flash (pilot)” – The CW

Adventure Time – “The Prince Who Wanted Everything” – Cartoon Network

Regular Show – “Saving Time” – Cartoon Network

Best Editor (Long Form)

Toni Weisskopf – BAEN

Jim Minz – BAEN

Anne Sowards – ACE/ROC

Sheila Gilbert – DAW

Best Editor (Short Form)

Mike Resnick – Galaxy’s Edge magazine

Edmund R. Schubert – Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

Jennifer Brozek (Shattered Shields)

Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Shattered Shields)

Best Professional Artist

Carter Reid

Jon Eno

Alan Pollack

Nick Greenwood

Best Semiprozine

Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

Abyss & Apex

Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine

Best Fanzine

Tangent SF On-line – Dave Truesdale

Elitist Book Reviews – Steve Diamond

The Revenge of Hump Day – Tim Bolgeo

Best Fancast

“The Sci Phi Show” – Jason Rennie

Dungeon Crawlers Radio

Adventures in SF Publishing

Best Fan Writer

Matthew David Surridge (Black Gate)

Jeffro Johnson

Amanda Green

Cedar Sanderson

Dave Freer

The John W. Campbell Award

Jason Cordova

Kary English

Eric S. Raymond