The Hugo Awards: 3 Reasons I Care and You Should Too

The Hugos, sometimes called The Science Fiction Achievement Awards, were awarded this past weekend at the 73rd WorldCon, held in Spokane, Washington. The Hugo Awards are unique because they are awarded by popular vote of Science Fiction/Fantasy readers from around the world who are members of the World Science Fiction Society. Anyone who pays the supporting membership price, around $50 for 2016, can be a member, vote in the current year and nominate a book, movie, magazine, podcast, short story, etc. for the following year. Translation into English is a per-requisite, making this award a little less “worldly” than all of the promo material might suggest, but still, this is a chance for American/English book fans to speak their piece. I’ve never given the Hugo Awards much thought, to be honest. I like what I like and make my book purchases based on recommendations and word of mouth, not based on what people I don’t know think about a book I’ve never heard of. However, the pleasant sounding democratic voting of the Hugos was tarnished, if not completely busted, by this year’s ballot manipulation by a group of readers calling themselves the Sad or Rabid Puppies, depending on the depth of their hatred and the violence of their rhetoric. See, these Puppies are a group of self-professed disaffected white men who feel that Speculative Fiction has been taken over by Social Justice Warriors who are more interested in PC diversity than in actual story. They circulated a list of their “…