Much Ado is my favourite Shakespeare play, and it not even being top ten absolutely boggled me.

Thank you :)

As we read through it, there was much gesticulating and swearing in the flat.

To see or not to see? Every single Shakespeare play – ranked! Antony and Cleopatra? Exhausting. Lear? Magnificent but flawed. Hamlet? Limitless. For Shakespeare’s birthday, the Guardian’s former theatre critic ranks all the plays

I would characterise this list as “incorrect” and “baffling”.

But it is also interesting I think how the churning need for content drives this. Ranks within ranks, lists within lists, forever.

Which mainly aggravates me because it feels work-coded, ngl. I only think of quarters with my work brain on.

Tiktok loves a list, a roundup, a ranking (and it's not alone on that). What I find interesting is how it seems to steadily be homing in on smaller chunks of time in which to rank. It's not just the best of the year anymore. First it was six from six, and now I'm seeing rankings for the quarter.

Interview: S.L. Huang Hugo Award winning and Nebula Award finalist S. L.  Huang's next book is The Language of Liars   (Tordotcom), a pulse-pounding sci-fi that e...

Because things may well have got lost in the excitement yesterday, sharing now - alongside our review of The Language of Liars (which I thought was great), @gabrielle-h.bsky.social had an interview with S. L. Huang up on @nerdsofafeather.bsky.social for release day. You can read it here.

Wolves I'm definitely with you on. For all that I loved Granite Silence (and I did, so much), I am less convinced it will make the Clarke because I think it's open to interpretation how SF it is. Depends how the Clarke jury take it. I wouldn't be super shocked either way.

Thank you :)

I hoped for, but did not expect, Fellman (though I think possible to see him on the longlist, and I'll be keeping an eye out when the stats come). Alas for the other two and the difficulties of transatlantic publishing.

Can confirm v good and interesting. I think it does a really good job with its subject matter/emotional heft.

Congratulations!

We are proud to be Hugo Finalists for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine Thank you all to those who nominated us!

Congrats to youuuuu!

And to you! Hurrah for Strange Horizons!

You can follow all the finalists (or at least all the ones who have Bsky accounts) for the 2026 Hugo Awards right here with this starter pack.

go.bsky.app/mR4XaC

It's me! Nominated for a Hugo Award! Awwww yeah.

A cartoon. John, Alison and Liz are wearing Octothorpe T-shirts and matching purple baseball caps while standing behind a market stall clad in a very slightly different purple and with various delicacies upon it. The sign above the stall reads “Octothorpe 158 Hugo HOT takes”, with “HOT” in a little tiny fire. The sign below the stall reads “Always half-baked! Fresh off the griddle! Three-pack special!”

We’re releasing early today, with a Hugo Awards finalists special! We discuss what ended up on the ballot and give some off-the-cuff remarks about it all. We’re also thrilled to be finalists again: a huge thanks to all who nominated us.

Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/158-i-am-t...

Egg mayonnaise sandwiches are a crime against god.

Which is kind of what I’m asking - where is the line? I’ve seen discussion of this in previous years where “a post on my own blog ranking finalists with reasoning” would count as dismissal, but I don’t know if that’s where you come down on this.

Book Review: The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang Linguistics science fiction that isn't  just the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis redux? And that will emotionally devastate you? Hook it to my veins....

I've got a review up at @nerdsofafeather.bsky.social today of The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang. It's a thoughtful, substantial novella tackling language, politics, culture and power, and one that absolutely kicked me in the face by the end (in the best possible way).

Yeah, p much exactly this.

Is it? I don't know that I would have found it so last year. If anything, the opposite.

And the thing is when the nominees are announced is when the buzz is, when the conversation starts happening. It's harder to restart it a month later.

And I think context - where we're discussing it and how - does make a difference. But in a "don't tag the author/finalist, don't wave your disagreement directly in their face" way, not a "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" way.

Because personally, I think it is really important - as part of taking the awards as seriously as they deserve - to discuss the shortlists and the relative merits of the nominees. WITHOUT BEING A DICK, I stress. But honestly.

Where is the line for "dismissing"? Like, can someone (a reviewer, say) do a post discussing all the finalists in a category and weighing the positives and negatives? Is that dismissing?

While I think a lot of this thread - and the spirit behind it - is good, I do want to grapple with the idea of "dismissing" the finalists.

Obviously I am on team "don't be a dick". Don't @ someone to tell them they and their work suck (in a Hugo context or ever).

But...

Son of Nobody by Yann Martel review – Life of Pi author discovers a long-lost poem from Troy An epic poem about the Trojan war is merged with the domestic heartbreak of the scholar who discovers it in this ambitious, structurally problematic novel

I don't need more books to read right now, I already have more things I'm excited for than I have time to read.

But...

God this is tempting.

The second half was very very good. I would say the first half was… fine. Ed would think I was being harsh.