So, it appears I now have four Hugos. That’s pretty amazing. If I seem to be somewhat less enthusiastic this time, it’s not because winning is getting old, it is because we were not supposed to win this one.
I am, of course, very pleased that Neil and Sean got an opportunity to go on stage, having not been able to make it to Melbourne last year. I’m absolutely delighted that Kate has got a rocket, as I think her readings are one of the main reasons why Clarkesworld is so popular.
On the other hand, I really wasn’t expecting us to win this. All of the pundits beforehand were predicting that Locus would win, because Charles Brown was a Guest Ghost of Honor at the convention. Everyone was expecting Liza to go up there and make a very emotional speech about how much we miss him. Maybe she’s relieved that she didn’t have to do it, but the audience wasn’t. During the commentary Mur commented on how muted reaction was to our win. The perception seemed to be that we had rained on Charles’s party.
Looking at the stats, Locus had a clear lead all the way through until the final round of voting when Lightspeed‘s votes were redistributed, so this was a classic case of a very popular nominee failing because a majority did not want it to win, and were prepared to accept any other winner. I guess that’s what’s happens when you have won as many Hugos as Locus has.
For my part, I knew Charles fairly well and was proud to call him a friend. I had been the recipient of his generosity on many occasions. Like Gary and Jonathan, I miss chatting to him about books. All I can say is that I hope, wherever he is now, that he’s getting plenty of good meals, and is still getting all of the good new novels before anyone else. If that’s the case I suspect he won’t mind too much about losing this one.
Was the celebration muted, or just not as effusive as, say, the response to Lou Anders’ win? My theory is that anybody’s first win will get the biggest response, partly because Hugo voters love to see somebody new get the award. Subsequent wins are cheered more sedately.
I’m sure you are right about that, but as I wasn’t in the auditorium it is hard for me to tell whether the response was normally muted or exceptionally muted. Mur has not been to as many Hugo ceremonies as you, so she may not be attuned to such things.
On the other hand, just about everyone I know was expecting Locus to win, and was not unhappy about that the way people had been when it was seen as winning “all the time”.