Gaiman won two Hugos in the past for best novel and I think it likely that Ocean was one of the books pushed off the slate by the puppy nominations. We will know in August when the first 15 in every cathegory with number of votes are published.
I mentioned it on GRR Martin's thread, and a poster told me that it had actually gotten a nomination in 2014 but Gaiman declined, because he already had three nominations. Curious as to why he declined - I googled it at lunch and found this:
He has been declining for a few years now. Declined for Anasi Boys back in 2006. And in 2014 declined for Ocean, even though he got a lot of votes.
And now that the nominees list is up on the web, people are asking me why Anansi Boys was withdrawn from Hugo consideration, and whether it was me that withdrew it. Yes, it was me. And I suppose partly I did it because I have three Hugos already, and I felt it was better to get more names on the ballot that weren't mine, and partly because I think I feel more comfortable when the things of mine that get Hugo nominations are marginally closer to SF than to pure fantasy, but mostly because when they told me Anansi Boys was nominated it just felt right to say no thank you, this time. Obviously I'm grateful to everyone who voted for it, and happy for the other awards that it's won and is nominated for, but on this one, well, it just felt right to say no. So I did.
"This list would have been even more pronounced if Neil Gaiman hadn’t turned down two Hugo nominations, one for Anasazi Boys and one for The Ocean at the End of the Lane."
(Of course, the fact that he already won a Nebula, and the National Book Award for Ocean may have had an effect.)
I tried to ask Jim Butcher on Twitter about his thoughts on being nominated by the puppies. He never answered though. Unlike other authors (who were either not pleased by the puppy nominations or are open supporters) he is staying completely silent on the matter.
I noticed that too. I went hunting for a response or something from Butcher, but nothing. It's not clear whether he agreed to be included or knew about the nomination. Or what he feels about it. (Probably wise to stay silent - a lot of his fans are most likely in the Sick Sad aka Rabid Puppy contingent. ) I did however notice that there were one or two people nominated by the Sad Puppies who declined their nominations.
Right now, I'm toying with picking up either The Goblin Emperor (although not a huge fan of steam punk and multi-cast books with hard to remember names) or Anne Leckie's Ancillary Justice - then Ancillary Sword. (She won last year.) They appear to be the only two interesting nominations this year...everyone else looks a bit, well hardly noteworthy.
Although a friend of mine is touting "The Martian by Martin Weir" - which I'm considering borrowing from her.
no subject
I mentioned it on GRR Martin's thread, and a poster told me that it had actually gotten a nomination in 2014 but Gaiman declined, because he already had three nominations.
Curious as to why he declined - I googled it at lunch and found this:
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/08/hugo-words.html
He has been declining for a few years now. Declined for Anasi Boys back in 2006.
And in 2014 declined for Ocean, even though he got a lot of votes.
And now that the nominees list is up on the web, people are asking me why Anansi Boys was withdrawn from Hugo consideration, and whether it was me that withdrew it. Yes, it was me. And I suppose partly I did it because I have three Hugos already, and I felt it was better to get more names on the ballot that weren't mine, and partly because I think I feel more comfortable when the things of mine that get Hugo nominations are marginally closer to SF than to pure fantasy, but mostly because when they told me Anansi Boys was nominated it just felt right to say no thank you, this time. Obviously I'm grateful to everyone who voted for it, and happy for the other awards that it's won and is nominated for, but on this one, well, it just felt right to say no. So I did.
https://chaoshorizon.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/the-hugo-and-nebula-awards-and-repeat-nominees-part-2/
"This list would have been even more pronounced if Neil Gaiman hadn’t turned down two Hugo nominations, one for Anasazi Boys and one for The Ocean at the End of the Lane."
(Of course, the fact that he already won a Nebula, and the National Book Award for Ocean may have had an effect.)
I tried to ask Jim Butcher on Twitter about his thoughts on being nominated by the puppies. He never answered though. Unlike other authors (who were either not pleased by the puppy nominations or are open supporters) he is staying completely silent on the matter.
I noticed that too. I went hunting for a response or something from Butcher, but nothing. It's not clear whether he agreed to be included or knew about the nomination.
Or what he feels about it. (Probably wise to stay silent - a lot of his fans are most likely in the
SickSad aka Rabid Puppy contingent. ) I did however notice that there were one or two people nominated by the Sad Puppies who declined their nominations.Right now, I'm toying with picking up either The Goblin Emperor (although not a huge fan of steam punk and multi-cast books with hard to remember names) or Anne Leckie's Ancillary Justice - then Ancillary Sword. (She won last year.) They appear to be the only two interesting nominations this year...everyone else looks a bit, well hardly noteworthy.
Although a friend of mine is touting "The Martian by Martin Weir" - which I'm considering borrowing from her.