Anybody who has been following this blog for a while will know that I have been occasionally frustrated with the Retro Hugo Award finalists and winners, because all too often, people seem to be voting and nominating based on name recognition rather than quality and so we see weak works by big names get nominated or even win, while lesser known stories and authors are ignored.
Part of the problem is that while we have excellent crowdsourced recommendation systems for the current year Hugos such as or the HugoAward Nominees Wiki, there is nothing of that sort for the Retro Hugos. So I thought, “Why don’t I start an open recommendation spreadsheet for the Retro Hugos?”
I was actually planning to do this last year, but then I caught the flu and was out of commission for much of the nomination period and in the end could barely get my own nominations done in time.
But the idea lingered in the back of my mind and so I decided to create a recommendation spreadsheet for the 1945 Retro Hugo Awards. .
If there is a 1944 work of science fiction, fantasy or horror you feel is missing, please add it to the spreadsheet. The more of us contribute, the better. Also, please spread the word about the 1945 Retro Hugo Award spreadsheet. You can use this handy shortlink:
And if you’re wondering what is eligible for the 1945 Retro Hugo Awards, Paul Fraser of SF Magazines has you covered with this overview of 1945 Retro Hugo eligible fiction, complete with links where to find the works in question.
Another problem with the Retro Hugos is that while there are plenty of reviews for current works out there, which help us to find works we enjoy and may want to nominate, reviews of older SFF, particularly older SFF from a specific year, are much thinner on the ground. So I decided to do my part and review works eligible for the 1945 Retro Hugos at this blog. And if I could persuade others to do the same, we might manage to offer a good overview of eligible works to potential Retro Hugo nominators.
Then I thought, “Why not have a dedicated site for reviews of Retro Hugo eligible works? I could crosspost my own reviews there and link to those of other people.” And this is how Retro Science Fiction Reviews was born.
Right now, there is only an introductory post over there. The first review will go up tomorrow both here and at Retro Science Fiction Reviews.
Of course, I am only one person and obviously cannot review everything that came out in 1944. Not to mention that there are many works and whole fields I don’t know very much about. And like everybody I have my own biases. There are authors and works I just don’t care for.
Therefore, I need your help. Have you reviewed an SFF work that came out in 1944 and is eligible for the 1945 Retro Hugos? Then mail me a link to your review or leave it in the comments. Would you like to review a 1944 work and don’t have a place to post your review? You can also mail me the whole review and I will post it over at Retro Science Fiction Reviews, giving you credit, of course. You can contact me at cora(at)corabuhlert.com.
So let’s work together to improve the Retro Hugos.
sending...