Members of the World Science Fiction Convention, who get to vote on the Hugo Awards, are eligible to receive the Hugo Awards Packet. This is, basically, a download link for many of the nominated works. And here's the important bit, for those who can't make it to Worldcon: a supporting membership, which costs $50, makes one eligible to vote. So, what's in this year's packet? Let's take a look!
But first, as a refresher, here's my post with the list of finalists.
Best Novel
The packet game is weak for Best Novel this year. Of the six nominated works, only two are available in full: Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee and Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. I still need to read the Scalzi before voting, but the Yoon Ha Lee novel is brilliant. Just be sure to read Ninefox Gambit first.
Dollar value based on ebook price on Amazon right now: $15.37
Best Novellas
All six novella are available. Only one of these is available to read for free online, as the rest are sold as books, so this is great! Some really awesome work in this category.
Dollar value based on ebook price on Amazon right now: $25.95
Best Novelette
All of the novelettes are available. This one is more about convenience, as the stories are all available online.
Best Short Story
Same as novelettes. All are available. And this one is also more about convenience, as the stories are all available online.
Best Series
This is where it goes bonkers. The Divine cities isn't available, but for the rest are, at least in part. You've got three Brandon Sanderson novels, a novel and a novella from Lois McMaster Bujold, five Marie Brennan novels, two Martha Wells novels (plus an excerpt from a third), and six novels and a whole bunch of short stories from Seanan McGuire.
Dollar value based on ebook price on Amazon right now: $176.81
Best Graphic Story
Only Black Bolt is unavailable in the packet. So we have five graphic novels here.
Dollar value based on ebook price on Amazon right now: $60.84
Best Editor: Short Form
There's a bunch of samples from everyone, but most editors' stuff is already available for free. However, there are two anthologies which aren't.
Dollar value based on ebook price on Amazon right now: $6.37
Best Young Adult
The only novel missing here is The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman. So that's five novels, including the very recently reviewed here In Other Lands.
Dollar value based on ebook price on Amazon right now: $41.56
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author (not a Hugo):
Not everyone of the nominees has a novel out, but four of them do, including Rivers Solomon's amazing An Unkindness of Ghosts, which should have been on the Best Novel ballot.
Dollar value based on ebook price on Amazon right now: $25.60
So that's a whole lotta content for $50. Specifically, that's $352.50 worth of content, plus a whole bunch of other content you could seek out for free (there are links in the post with the finalists).
