Editing year’s best annuals isn’t a competitive thing. You don’t watch what your colleagues are doing with a win-lose mindset, and you’re always aware that it all comes down to a difference in taste. We’ve just recently seen the tables of contents for Gardner Dozois’ and Ellen Datlow & Gavin Grant & Kelly Link’s books listed on the net, and David and Kathryn listed their SF book the other day. This morning I see that Kathryn has posted the table of contents for the Year’s Best Fantasy on her blog, and I think it looks like a terrific book. I often disagree about their SF volume, but as I looked down their table of contents for this book I found myself nodding my head, and thinking ‘good book’. You guys should definitely check it out. I would have done it slightly differently, were the world just up to me, but only slightly.

I was talking to a friend on the weekend who is about to read the zero-th draft of Neil Gaiman’s new novel Anansi Boys, and I have to admit to suffering a small pang of envy. I think Neil is getting better and better as a prose writer. His short fiction has been becoming more and more impressive over the past couple years, and American Gods was a terrific book. Given that there isn’t an actual first draft yet, I’m guessing it’ll be some months before I get to read the book, but I’m really looking forward to it.

And that covers the main fiction categories. I’ve got much less fixed views on most of the remaining categories, so here are a few quick notes.

Best Related Book
I’d probably restrict myself to nominating Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James’ excellent The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction and Damien Broderick’s terrific (and highly entertaining) x, y, z, t: Dimensions of Science Fiction.

Best Dramatic Presentations
I really don’t care… I guess I’d just give it all to The Incredibles and go home.

Best Professional Editor
Cheryl makes some good points at Emerald City about book editors not getting a fair go. Certainly people like Ginjer Buchanan, Juliet Ulman, David Hartwell, Diana Gill, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden all deserve attention. Still, it all comes back to the magazines. Just on the year we’ve had I’d nominate Ellen Datlow first, followed by Gordon and Gardner. My fourth and fifth slots would go to Juliet Ulman and David Hartwell. Could have been others, but they’re a strong group.

Best Professional Artist
Again, I don’t have a strong feeling here because I don’t have a clear idea of who did what during 2004. I’d probably opt for Les Edwards and John Picacio, for their small press work.

Best SemiProzine
The boss, the big guy, Charles is the only nomination I have. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the category fills out.

Best Fanzine
I read very little in the way of fanzines, so I’ll stick with Cheryl and Emerald City.

Best Fan Writer
Probably Cheryl, Langford and Matt Cheney, all of whom do good stuff.

Best Web Site
And Mark and Locus: Online for this one. I do think it’s the best SF site out there, and it would get my vote. I suspect, though, that if people stopped splitting there votes between SciFi.com, SciFiction, and SciFi Weekly – which are all the one site really – they would run away with it.

Best Short Story
If the novelette category was difficult, this is even worse. There were hundreds of strong stories published during the year, and a good number of them deserve Hugo attention. Still, there can be only five. The best single short story that I read during the year was Margo Lanagan’s completely remarkable “Singing My Sister Down”. Beyond that you come down to personal favorites. I loved the Rickert and Ford stories, and the Kelly and Pratt are excellent. For what it’s worth, I preferred Tim’s story from Lenox Avenue to the more celebrated “Hart and Boot” (which is excellent too).

1. Lanagan, Margo, “Singing My Sister Down”
2. Rickert, M., “Cold Fires”
3. Ford, Jeffrey, “The Annals of Eelin-Ok”
4. Kelly, James Patrick, “The Best Christmas Ever”
5. Pratt, Tim, “Life in Stone”

Best Novelette
This is one of the hardest categories to pick. There were a lot of very fine novelettes published in 2004, and in too many places to mention. I could easily have put together a list of ten or more, but these five are my final choice. Looking back, Chris Rowe’s remarkable “The Voluntary State” still seems like the SF story of the year. It had that dislocating sense of strangeness that makes SF special. Kelly Link’s delightful “The Faery Handbag” was the best fantasy story of the year, though her “Stone Animals” is also remarkable. I loved Jeff VanderMeer’s “Three Days…” from Polyphony – it’s enigmatic, distant and has stayed with me long after reading. The Wolfe is classic Wolfe, which means it’s as good as it gets, and Baxter doesn’t get the Hugo attention he deserves. Any of these would be a worthy winner, should they make the final list. I’m dubious they will, though…

1. Rowe, Christopher, “The Voluntary State”
2. Link, Kelly, “The Faery Handbag”
3. VanderMeer, Jeff, “Three Days in a Border Town”
4. Wolfe, Gene, “The Lost Pilgrim”
5. Baxter, Stephen, “PeriAndry’s Quest”