2015 HUGOS: The Three-Body Problem Joins Best Novel List After Withdrawal

The drama around the 2015 Hugo awards continues to build, with mainstream media starting to pay more attention to the fracas. I myself have decided to buy a $40 supporting membership so that I can vote on the awards this year, something I would have never done if the machinations of the execrable Vox Day and others who are either willfully or witlessly pursuing similarly questionable goals of freeping the Hugo awards had not been brought to my attention by John Scalzi and others. Happily, this means that I will be able to participate in the process of nominating for the 2016 Hugo Awards as well. Anything I can do to stand with people like Scalzi, Martin and Connie Willis against people who think they need to "take back" something because those people think that we should "go back to the good old days" is something I am happy to contribute to.

Anyway, there are some silver linings to be had and one of them is that the great book The Three-Body Problem by Chinese author Cixin Liu (translated into English by Ken Liu) has been added to the list of nominees for Best Novel for the 2015 Hugo Awards with the withdrawal by Markos Kloos of his book from that category thanks to its inclusion on the Sad Puppies/Rabid Puppies slate and his aversion to being associated with them.

So, the final list of nominees for Best Novel are now:

• Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
• The Dark Between the Stars, Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)
• Skin Game, Jim Butcher (Orbit UK/Roc Books)
• The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, Ken Liu translator (Tor Books)

The winner will be announced on August 22. I would be fine with any of these winning, except for Kevin Anderson, who is responsible for the horrors that are the recent "XXX of Dune" books he coauthors with Brian Herbert.