2010 Hugo Awards Voter Packet Now Available!2010 Hugo Awards Voter Packet Now Available!

If you’ve ever wondered how the winners of the Hugo Awards are decided, wonder no more. You can instantly receive many of this year’s Hugo-nominated works, decide the winners by submitting your votes, and you do not have to attend the World Science Fiction Convention to do so.

Here’s how it works:

1. The 2010 Hugo ballot was announced last month, but the 2010 Hugo Awards Voter packet was just made available this week. Members of this year’s World Science Fiction Convention (also known as Aussiecon 4) will be the voters that decide this year’s Hugo winners. The convention takes place in Melbourne, Australia this September, and the winners will be announced there. There are two types of registration for the convention: attending and supporting. Both registration types are allowed to vote. Attending costs more and allows attendees to physically attend the con in Melbourne. However, if you don’t have plans to attend but want to vote in the Hugos, then you want a supporting membership, which costs 70 AUS (Australian dollars). That converts to approximately $63 to $65 USD. You can register here.

2. In return, attending and supporting memberships receive the 2010 Hugo Voter Packet, an electronic packet of this year’s nominated books, stories, graphic novels, and art, including all of the following in their entirety:

Best Novel
* Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor)
* The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
* Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
* Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
* Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
* The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Best Novella
* “Act One” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
* The God Engines by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
* “Palimpsest” by Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace; Orbit)
* Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow (Tachyon)
* “Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days; Pyr; Gollancz)
* The Women of Nell Gwynne’s by Kage Baker (Subterranean)

Best Novelette
* “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
* “The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos)
* “It Takes Two” by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three; Night Shade Books)
* “One of Our Bastards is Missing” by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three; Solaris)
* “Overtime” by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
* “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

Continue through for the rest of the list…

Best Short Story
* “The Bride of Frankenstein” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 12/09)
* “Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
* “The Moment” by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints; Hadley Rille Books)
* “Non-Zero Probabilities” by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
* “Spar” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

Best Related Work
* Canary Fever: Reviews by John Clute (Beccon) (Excerpt)
* Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees by Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
* The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children’s and Teens’ Science Fiction by Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland) (Excerpt)
* On Joanna Russ edited by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
* The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms by Helen Merrick (Aqueduct) (Excerpt)
* This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”) by Jack Vance (Subterranean)

Best Graphic Story
* Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
* Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics) (Link to issues #10 and #11)
* Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
* Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment) (Link)
* Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

Best Semiprozine
* Ansible edited by David Langford (Links)
* Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
* Interzone edited by Andy Cox
* Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
* Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fanzine
* Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
* Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey & Mark Plummer
* CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III (Link)
* Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
* File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
* StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith (Links)

Best Professional Artist
Package includes works by:
* Bob Eggleton
* Stephan Martiniere
* John Picacio
* Daniel Dos Santos
* Shaun Tan

Best Fan Artist
Package includes works by:
* Brad W. Foster (Link)
* Dave Howell
* Steve Stiles
* Taral Wayne

Best Fan Writer
Package includes works by:
* Claire Brialey
* Christopher J Garcia
* James Nicoll
* Lloyd Penney
* Frederik Pohl (Link)

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Package includes works by:
* Saladin Ahmed
* Gail Carriger
* Felix Gilman
* Seanan McGuire
* Lezli Robyn

For an sf/f fan, this is the deal of the year. If you consider how much it would cost for the novels and graphic novels alone, it would cost more than $65 to purchase those. Astonishing value here, folks. Do not miss out.

Deadline to register and vote is 31 July 2010 23:59 PDT. Make your choices heard — and vote!