Of the fiction categories, this has the most Chinese-language finalists; they are all recognisably sfnal, in the same genre, if perhaps a little old-fashioned compared to the English-language finalists. Each of these has one cool idea, which drives the story, and they are all decent pieces of work. My personal ranking is as follows:

6) 白色悬崖，鲁般 / “The White Cliff”, by Lu Ban

Perhaps here I felt the cultural gap at its greatest. The topic of the story is death with dignity, of producing a simulated virtual environment for those who are about to go; in Belgium, where we’ve had legal euthanasia since 2002, we think about these things in a different way and the story’s big idea doesn’t quite land right; it didn’t also have the emotional punch that I anticipated for this topic.

(And on a technicality, the English translation provided is rather poor, but you can see what is meant without too much effort.)

5) 还魂，任青 / “Resurrection”, by Ren Qing 

Second paragraph of third section:

Another story about death, but here there’s a whole industry of bringing people back, partially alive, for a second go. Nothing terribly wrong with it, but Silverberg’s “Born with the Dead” did it better back in 1974.

4) “DIY”, by John Wiswell 

Second paragraph of third section:

It was midafternoon. Noah was in his bedroom with the blinds drawn like an appropriately pissy teenager, hunched over his concentrator rig. A concentrator is one of those “baby’s first levitation” kits, a series of glass rods with minor magical charge that can float briefly in the air. Noah repurposed the kit to draw water from the air itself. After a week of tedious experiments, he had a cup one quarter full of water. Or was that three-quarters empty?

A story of kids using bulletin boards and magic. I felt it rather uneasily merged two different kinds of world-building, and did not quite work for me.

3) 命悬一线，江波 / “On the Razor’s Edge”, by Jiang Bo

Second paragraph of third section (in Chinese, the supplied English translation has different line breaks):

A Chinese space mission comes to the rescue of the Americans and Russians in the International Space Station, and you kinda know what’s going to happen as soon as it becomes clear that one of the Americans is a cute woman; and yet the narrative pace, even in translation, is tremendous and I found myself getting really invested in it as we got to the climax. Perhaps the most old-fashioned of the stories in this category, but rather well done.

2) 火星上的祝融，王侃瑜 / “Zhurong on Mars”, Regina Kanyu Wang

Second paragraph of third section:

This is also a story which uses an old trope – the AIs who are left behind after humanity has quit the scene, familiar from Zelazny’s “For a Breath I Tarry” and Aldiss’s “But Who Can Replace a Man?”, but this time set on Mars, with call-outs to Chinese mythology. It’s rather deep for such a short piece, and I enjoyed it a lot.

1) “Rabbit Test”, Samantha Mills

Second paragraph of third section:

Grace doesn’t know, and doesn’t care, and certainly isn’t laughing. She waits for Sal at the coffee shop, and every sip of spark makes her stomach roil with nerves.

I thought this was tremendous – a story about a near-future USA where abortion rights have been gruesomely restricted, a scenario which unfortunately seems less and less unrealistic, interleaved with well-researched historical reflections. An angry and timely piece that has my vote.

2023 Hugos:
Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Graphic Story or Comic | Best Related Work | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist | Lodestar Award for Best YA Book | Astounding Award for Best New Writer

6) “The Difference Between Love and Time“, by Catherynne M. Valente

Second paragraph of third section:

I’ve seen them everywhere. Still do. The space/time continuum gets around.

I’m afraid that these abstract tales of romance involving ineffable archetypes don’t do much for me. It will probably win the award.

5) 时空画师，海漄 / “The Space-Time Painter”, by Hai Ya

Second paragraph of third section:

Great that we have a Chinese-language story in the top six in this category, but this is a fairly standard haunted museum tale, with some nice local Beijing colour which however doesn’t elevate it past fifth place for me. (No translation was provided, but it’s easy enough to run the text through the online resources.)

4) “A Dream of Electric Mothers”, by Wole Talabi

Third paragraph (there are no sections):

“Are you okay?” I ask my colleague, the honorable minister of information and culture, who is fiddling with his bronze-framed spectacles nervously as we exit the white-walled womb of the secure ministerial conference room. He was one of only two dissenting votes in the cabinet and the only cabinet member I have ever engaged with more than a professional politeness since I was appointed by the Alaafin three months ago. This is the first consultation I will be a part of, but the records show that he voted against the previous four as well. I have come to like him, but I find his apparent resistance to the consultation curious, especially since he is the one that will be responsible for the report and official broadcast once we are done.

Interesting speculation of combining ancient wisdom with information technology in an alternative history West Africa.

3) “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You“, by John Chu

Second paragraph of third section:

He always fights as though his only hope is to win on points. That doesn’t matter so much. One time, someone lands a lucky punch and breaks his hand on Tom of Finland Guy’s body. The guy’s face is flushed. He winces and howls in pain. Everyone backs away from him then runs away. The punch itself doesn’t even register on Tom of Finland Guy. He just stares at his midsection.

This has by far the best title of anything nominated in any category for this year’s Hugos. It’s a fun and passionate story about having a crush on the guy in the gym, who turns out to have divine superpowers.

2) “We Built This City“, by Marie Vibbert

Second paragraph of third section:

Her mother bursts into the room the second she arrives, a tiny tornado with a gray buzz cut. “Are you okay? Did anyone get violent?”

It’s odd how little sf we get that addresses the future of labour relations. This is a nicely observed vignette of a dystopian future city on the edge of nowhere, where the maintenance workers are in conflict with the management.

1) “Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness“, by SL Huang

Second paragraph of third section:

Only, at the same time “Sylvie” was driving Ron Harrison into a panic, someone named Sylvie was sending very similar messages to a hedge fund manager in Connecticut, a museum curator in British Columbia, and a political consultant in Florida, along with thirteen other men identified so far. Millions of messages over dozens of services, spanning across a full decade.

I thought this was very good, a reflection on the current state of AI, told in the authentic voice of an investigative journalist, getting in a few digs of social commentary as well, with hyperlinks to genuine media articles. It gets my vote.

2023 Hugos:
Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Graphic Story or Comic | Best Related Work | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist | Lodestar Award for Best YA Book | Astounding Award for Best New Writer

Not too much commentary here: I know what I like and what I don’t like, and I also know that my tastes don’t always correspond to the wider electorate.

Best Fan Artist

Slightly surprised here that none of the finalists is living in China – this is often a low-turnout category at nominations stage. Anyway, here we go:

6) Orion Smith Sorry, this didn’t do much for me.
	5) España Sherriff Not much to judge from in the packet.
4) Iain Clarke I generally like his stuff a lot, but I liked other submissions more this year.
	3) Alison Scott This is the most interesting piece, a moody tribute to Jan Pieńkowski (partly AI-generated).
2) Laya Rose This was the only art in the packet that really grabbed me.
	1) Richard Man Very unusual to have a photographer in this category, but his series of portraits of leading figures in the SF community is very charming and evocative.

Best Professional Artist

A much stronger Chinese presence here, some of it of really gorgeous quality.

	6) Paul Lewin. Only one piece submitted, and it’s OK, but others are better,
5) Kuri Huang Gorgeous use of colours and movement. Not quite so sure about the human figures.
	4) Jian Zhiang Breathtaking future machinery, reminiscent of Chris Foss. A bit sterile.
3) Enzhe Zhao More future machinery, but this time with a little bit more humanity to put it in scale.
	2) Alissa Wynans Nicely framed studies of human or animal figures in a lush fantastic background.
1) Silja Hong This gorgeous set of images really did take my breath away.

2023 Hugos:
Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Graphic Story or Comic | Best Related Work | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist | Lodestar Award for Best YA Book | Astounding Award for Best New Writer

This is one of my favourite categories for the Hugos, and this year I think there is a clear winner.

6) Buffalito World Outreach Project, by Lawrence M. Schoen

Second paragraph of third chapter (the Bengali translation):

A single short story translated into into thirty languages, including “Croation” [sic] and two varieties of Spanish. I absolutely support its eligibility for the category – to be eligible, a nominee “if fictional, is noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional text, and … is not eligible in any other category.” The story “Buffalo Dogs” itself was first published in 2001, so it is not eligible for this year’s Best Short Story or Best Novelette categories (at 7800 words it’s on the cusp between them). And the whole point of Buffalito World Outreach Project is that it’s noteworthy not for the primary text but because of the translations. You can get it here.

However, to adapt Dr Johnson, this is a case of being impressed that the thing has been done at all, rather than wondering if it has been done well. I am glad that this has been done, but the other five finalists are more worthy winners.

(Also, although Lawrence M. Schoen is the finalist, what about the thirty or so people who did the translating?)

5) Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, by Kyle Buchanan

Second paragraph of third chapter:

So, would Mad Max work just as well if it were a TV show?

A detailed account of the making of Mad Max: Fury Road, featuring interviews with many many people from the cast and crew. It’s the unabashed writing of a super-fan (and top NYT reporter), who holds both the film and the director/producer George Miller in the highest regard. I was not so blown away by the film myself, and I confess I lasted only fifty pages into an intense book about a subject which doesn’t interest me all that much. You can get it here.

4) Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir, by Wil Wheaton

Second paragraph of third chapter, with footnote:

In addition to the things we Star Trek people usually do at conventions (signing autographs, posing for pictures, answering questions, and saying “Engage!”), I took a group of people from the ACME Comedy Theatre with me to perform a sketch comedy show. The entire convention experience is chronicled in “The Saga of SpongeBob Vega$Pants,” which is the centerpiece of my first collection of essays, Dancing Barefoot.*

* I’m so proud of this little book. I often look back at my early writing and cringe (you’ve probably cringed with me a few times just in this text) but Barefoot is nothing but joyful memories and the very best I could do at the time. I don’t encounter copies of it very often (its entire run was less than five thousand), but it is where I started, and it will always have a very special place in my heart.

Again, a book on a subject that I am not all that invested in (Wil Wheaton), written by an author who is deeply and passionately committed to that subject (Wil Wheaton). In fact this is an update of an autobiographical book first published in 2004, with explanatory footnotes telling us how his life and attitudes changed between then and 2021, with Star Trek: The Next Generation probably the single topic with most coverage but plenty else as well (for instance, there’s a gruelling account of a family medical emergency).

I found the result is a bit unsatisfactory; the structure is choppy, as most of the content is recycled from Wheaton’s blog, and some of the content is repeated, usually more than once, especially the question of how lousy his parents were. And there is a running joke, which gets old rather fast, about how much he hates his editor for the crime of, er, editing. But I give a couple of plus points for actually having the footnotes at the bottom of each page rather than the end of the book. You can get it here.

3) Ghost of Workshops Past: How Communism, Conservatism, and the Cold War Still Mold Our Paths Into SFF Writing, by S.L. Huang

Second to fourth paragraphs of third section:

Milford, I was told.
Milford.
And again Milford

I generally prefer my Best Related Work nominees and finalists to be books, but I am still rating this blog post ahead of two serious non-fiction monographs. It’s a straightforward analysis of how the standard model of writer training workshops among the sf community emerged from the Cold War, and how it doesn’t really work all that well for non-white aspiring writers. This is an important topic, but not a huge one, and the blog post deals with it efficiently and succinctly. You can read it here.

2) Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History, Vol 1, ed. Yang Feng

Second paragraph of English introduction to third chapter (an interview with Liu Shahe [1932-2019], who is much better known as a poet and calligrapher than an sf fan):

Liu Shahe was not trained in the humanities; he studied agriculture at Sichuan University. Amongst the older generation of Sichuanese writers, he was one of the rare people with a profound interest in natural science. He was also curious about the unknown. When Shi Bo, the editor-in-chief of The Journal of UFO Research visited him in Chengdu, he had an entire speech about dozens of examples of humans encountering UFOs, convinced that extraterrestrial civilizations existed.

English-speakers have been given enough information through the Hugo packet to make it clear that this is a major and important compendium of interviews with seven crucial people in the history of the development of science fiction in China. Unfortunately only one is a woman (Yang Xiao), but this is clearly a work in progress. Not easily available outside China, other than through the Hugo packet.

1) Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes, by Rob Wilkins

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Granny Pratchett, Terry’s paternal grandmother, rolled her own cigarettes. Then, having smoked them, she would take the butts from the ashtray, pick the paper apart and return any strands of unburnt tobacco to the tin where she kept her supply. Waste not, want not. As Terry wrote in a short essay about her in 2004, ‘As a child this fascinated me, because you didn’t need to be a mathematician to see that this meant there must have been some shreds of tobacco she’d been smoking for decades, if not longer.’

As I wrote when this was up for the BSFA Award (which it won), this is a very good book about a very important subject. A lot of us know parts of the Terry Pratchett story – I first heard him speak in public in Cambridge in, I think, 1987, and last saw him at the 2010 Discworld Convention, and spoke to him a couple of times in between. It’s lovely to have it all between two covers, with the laughs and the tears, and with Rob also explaining the complicated nature of his relationship with Terry over the years, beginning as amanuensis and ending as nurse. I am voting for it and I expect that others will do so as well. You can get it here.

Here is a nice photo that I took of Rob Wilkins with Aliette de Bodard, the evening that they both won BSFA Awards in April. (The two winners who I myself voted for.)

2023 Hugos:
Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Graphic Story or Comic | Best Related Work | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist | Lodestar Award for Best YA Book | Astounding Award for Best New Writer