An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000

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Engaged, passionate, and consistently entertaining, this is a book for those who enjoyed Walton's previous collection of essays from Tor.com, the Locus Award-winning What Makes This Book So Great. The Hugo Awards, named after pioneer science fiction publisher Hugo Gernsback, and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Society, have been given out since 1953. They are widely considered the most prestigious award in science fiction. Between 2010 and 2013, Jo Walton wrote a series of posts for Tor.com, surveying the Hugo finalists and winners from the award's inception up to the year 2000. Her contention was that each year's full set of finalists generally tells a meaningful story about the state of science fiction at that time. Walton's cheerfully opinionated and vastly well-informed posts provoked valuable conversation among the field's historians. Now these posts, lightly revised, have been gathered into this book, along with a small selection of the comments posted by SF luminaries such as Rich Horton, Gardner Dozois, and the late David G. Hartwell.

Reviews

A remarkable guided tour through the field--a kind of nonfiction companion to Among Others. It's very good. It's great. --Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing, for Among Others

This is certainly going to be a book that I'll go back to again and again. --Andrew Liptak, Kirkus Reviews, for What Makes This Book So Great

There are the books you want to give all your friends, and there are the books you wish you could go back and give your younger self. And then there's the rare book, like Jo Walton's Among Others, that's both.--Charlie Jane Anders, io9, for Among Others

Akin to a genre version of Nancy Pearl's Book Lust. Walton's affection for many of these titles is contagious, and fans will find their own reading lists growing. --Library Journal, starred review, for What Makes This Book So Great

A well-informed and thoroughly engaging companion, especially for fans of contemporary SF. --Toronto Row, for What Makes This Book So Great

Author Bio

Jo Walton''s Among Others won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012. She also won the World Fantasy Award in 2004 for Tooth and Claw, the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award in 2015 for My Real Children, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.