{"id":23043,"date":"2026-05-02T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=23043"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:06:48","slug":"how-i-would-vote-now-1980-hugo-awards-best-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/how-i-would-vote-now-1980-hugo-awards-best-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Would Vote Now: 1980 Hugo Awards (Best Novel)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Nominees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Fountains of Paradise<\/em> by Arthur C. Clarke<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Wings of Song<\/em> by Thomas M. Disch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Harpist in the Wind<\/em> by Patricia A. McKillip<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jem<\/em> by Frederik Pohl<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Titan<\/em> by John Varley<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Actual Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. The Fountains of Paradise<\/em> by Arthur C. Clarke<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Titan<\/em> by John Varley<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Jem<\/em> by Frederik Pohl<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Harpist in the Wind<\/em> by Patricia A. McKillip<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. On Wings of Song<\/em> by Thomas M. Disch<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How I Would Have Voted <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    (Abstain)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Explanation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    I didn’t like any of the books this year, though none of them were particularly objectionable or bad (at least, not of the ones I read). The Fountains of Paradise<\/em> just didn’t hold my interest, and I got bored and put it down. As for Harpist in the Wind,<\/em> I never got to it because I ended up DNFing the first book in the trilogy, The Quest of the Riddle-Master.<\/em> I wanted to like it, but I was just totally lost, especially when some of the characters were dead\u2026 maybe? Or maybe it was a dream? McKillip is clearly a beautiful writer, but writing a clear and engaging plot is clearly not her strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As for the other three, I screened them for objectionable content with AI, and based on that, I chose not to read them. I’ve found that I have to do this with all the Hugo Award nominees because some of the books are just way beyond the pale. On Wings of Song<\/em> is apparently about a 14 year old child’s supernatural sexual awakening. Titan<\/em> is apparently about a bunch of libertine, pansexual astronauts on a starship making first contact (in more ways than one) and spreading free love across the galaxy. Jem<\/em> is apparently about the evils of colonialism and capitalism in a world where Malthus was right and Thomas Sowell is wrong (and you thought Ayn Rand’s preaching was bad).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1980 was the tail end of the New Wave, when science fiction went totally woke before “woke” was even a thing. But by this point, the movement was already starting to feel tired. It wasn’t until the mid-80s that a lot of these toxic ideologies were in full retreat, making room for some truly great books like Ender’s Game<\/em> and Hyperion.<\/em> At the same time, because the movement was already starting to burn itself out, none of these New Wave books is particularly terrible. Just more of the same tired thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    How I Would Vote Now: All Years<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Nominees The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke On Wings of Song by Thomas M. Disch Harpist in the Wind by Patricia A. McKillip Jem by Frederik Pohl Titan by John Varley The Actual Results How I Would Have Voted (Abstain) Explanation I didn’t like any of the books this year, though none… Continue reading How I Would Vote Now: 1980 Hugo Awards (Best Novel)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[327,1489,567,2028,2238,2624],"class_list":["post-23043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arthur-c-clarke","tag-frederik-pohl","tag-hugo-awards","tag-john-varley","tag-patricia-a-mckillip","tag-thomas-m-disch","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-5ZF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23043"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23123,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23043\/revisions\/23123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}