Leckie and Stephenson among Hugo Award finalists

Novels by Ann Leckie and Neal Stephenson are amongst the finalists for this year’s science-fiction Hugo Awards.

In the best novel category, the titles in contention are: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit), The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc), The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit), Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow) and Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey).

The awards, which are also for films and TV, are for science fiction and fantasy works and are voted for by anyone who is a member of (i.e. has paid to attend) WorldCon in the US.

Doctor Who is nominated in the ‘best dramatic presentation – short form’ category for the ‘Heaven Sent episode, whilst Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ex Machina and Mad Max: Fury Road are all in the running for the ‘best dramatic presentation – short form’ award.

The Hugos gained widespread media attention last year when two authors withdrew their work from the awards claiming alleged right-wing activists were skewing the voting process.

Marko Kloos Annie Bellet withdrew after a group called the Sad Puppies reportedly paid for fans to go to Worldcon, so they could influence their votes.

The Sad Puppies group is allegedly politically right-leaning and leader Brad Torgersen said he wanted to change what he called the Hugos’ favouring of works that were “niche, academic, overtly to the left in ideology and flavour”.

George R R Martin later urged “every true fan” of science fiction and fantasy to vote to “help protect the integrity of the rocket”.

The full list of this year’s finalists are on the Hugo Awards website.

The winners will be announced in August.