For the second year running, the biggest prize in science fiction and fantasy writing has been monopolised by nominations from Sad and Rabid Puppies groups, who campaign against works ‘overtly to the left’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The annual Hugo awards for the best science fiction of the year have once again been riven by controversy, as a concerted campaign by a conservative lobby has dominated the ballot.

The Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies movements, which both separately campaign against a perceived bias towards liberal and leftwing science-fiction and fantasy authors, have managed to get the majority of their preferred nominations on to the final ballot, announced today.

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This means that voters on the prestigious awards will now be choosing from a shortlist which includes SJWs Always Lie, an essay about “social justice warriors” by Rabid Puppies campaign leader Vox Day; a self-published parody of erotic dinosaur fiction called Space Raptor Butt Invasion, by Chuck Tingle; and My Little Pony cartoon The Cutie Map.

Since 2013, the Sad Puppies has posted recommendations of works to combat the Hugo tendency to reward works that writer Brad Torgersen deemed “niche, academic, overtly to the left in ideology and flavour, and ultimately lacking what might best be called visceral, gut-level, swashbuckling fun”. Supporters are encouraged to buy memberships to the annual World Science Fiction Convention, which enables them to nominate works chosen by the campaign and vote on the final selection for the Hugo awards.

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A breakaway, more political faction called the Rabid Puppies was formed in 2015, the year the prize was most rocked by the twin campaigns. After the shortlist was dominated by nominations from the Sad and Rabid Puppies’ lists, Game of Thrones author George RR Martin said the Hugos were “broken”, while previous Hugo winner Connie Willis pulled out of presenting a prize, saying her presence would “lend cover and credibility to winners who got the award through bullying and extortion”. In the end, members of the World Science Fiction Society rejected finalists in an unprecedented five categories, voting for “No Award” rather than any of the nominees backed by the campaigns.

Led by Beale – who writes under the name Vox Day and was once dubbed “the most despised man in science fiction” by the Wall Street Journal – the Rabid Puppies has been successful in getting its nominations on the shortlist again this year; out of 80 recommendations posted by Beale on his blog, 62 have received sufficient votes to make the ballot.

The shortlist for best novel is Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit); The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc); The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin (Orbit); Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow); and Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey). Of these two, Butcher and Stephenson, were on the Rabid Puppies’ slate, while both of those plus Leckie’s Ancillary Mercy were recommended by the Sad Puppies group.

British author Alastair Reynolds, whose novella Slow Bullets was featured on both the Sad Puppies’ and Rabid Puppies’ lists despite his request they remove him, is on the novella shortlist alongside Brandon Sanderson and Nnedi Okorafor. Other well-known names include horror icon Stephen King, nominated in the novelette category for his story Obits, and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, who is nominated for the latest volume in his Sandman graphic novel series, The Sandman: Overture.

At MidAmeriCon II this year, it was announced that more than 4,000 nominating ballots were cast for the 2016 Hugo awards, almost double the previous record of 2,122 ballots. This news was initially greeted with cautious optimism, but the shortlist shows that the Puppies and their supporters have redoubled their efforts to “game” the awards.

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The shortlist will be voted upon and the winners revealed at the forthcoming Worldcon in Kansas City, Missouri, in August.

The Puppies factions will undoubtedly be celebrating their successes on the ballot, but for many people engaged in the science-fiction and fantasy genres this news will not be well-received. The Hugo awards, once the watchword of quality in the SFF world, appear to have been utterly derailed for the second year running.

2016 Hugo awards finalists

Best novel (3,695 ballots)

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)

The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin (Orbit)

Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

Best novella (2,416 ballots)

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

The Builders by Daniel Polansky (Tor.com)

Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)

Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)

Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon)

Best novelette (1,975 ballots)

And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb 2015)

Flashpoint: Titan by Cheah Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)

Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)

Obits by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)

What Price Humanity? by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)

Best short story (2,451 ballots)

Asymmetrical Warfare by SR Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)

The Commuter by Thomas A Mays (Stealth)

If You Were an Award, My Love by Juan Tabo and S Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)

Seven Kill Tiger by Charles Shao (There Will Be WarVolume X, Castalia House)

Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)

Best related work (2,080 ballots)

Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986 by Marc Aramini (Castalia House)

The First Draft of My Appendix N Book by Jeffro Johnson (jeffro.wordpress.com)

Safe Space as Rape Room by Daniel Eness (castaliahouse.com)

SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by Vox Day (Castalia House)

The Story of Moira Greyland by Moira Greyland (askthebigot.com)

Best graphic story (1,838 ballots)

The Divine, written by Boaz Lavie, art by Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka (First Second)

Erin Dies Alone, written by Grey Carter, art by Cory Rydell (dyingalone.net)

Full Frontal Nerdity by Aaron Williams (ffn.nodwick.com)

Invisible Republic Vol 1, written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, art by Gabriel Hardman (Image Comics)

The Sandman: Overture, written by Neil Gaiman, art by JH Williams III (Vertigo)

John W Campbell award for best new writer (1,922 ballots)

Pierce Brown

Sebastien de Castell

Brian Niemeier

Andy Weir

Alyssa Wong

Read the 2016 Hugo nominations in full

• This article was amended on 27 April 2016. An earlier version said the Worldcon in August was happening in Kansas. That has been corrected to say Kansas City, Missouri.