I watched the Hugo Awards on Twitter – it was not very satisfying. I don’t know personally any of the nominees, and I had not read any of the nominated works. I usually read classic SF, so I had not even read any of the nominated authors, except a couple of stories by Gaiman that I have as MP3 files.

The Hugos, were interesting and there was a certain contact high from reading the tweets from the ceremonies. I decided that I should pay more attention this year.

If you spend $50 right now (it goes up over the months) you can become a supporting member of the Australian Worldcon. This is not a ticket to attend the con, but it does allow you to nominate and vote for next year’s Hugo awards. More important, the $50 gets the finalist’s books mailed to you so you can decide on who to vote for (see disclaimer below). You get about $125 worth of new books and magazines for your $50, plus the right to vote for the ones you liked. I think this is a good deal.

Still, $50 is a bit pricey. I already have enough 50 year old books, but I am looking to read some new stuff – to cleanse my palate so to speak. I am going to sleep on this, but I may just send them the money.

Disclaimer – I just read the following comment:
The voter package is an initiative that has been run by John Scalzi for the past two years. While we are all very grateful to John for what he has done, there is no guarantee that we will want to put in the same amount of work next year. While Kevin and I will do everything we can to encourage it, there is no guarantee that it will happen again next year, so please don't advertise it as such.

I am of the opinion that the book publishers will send out books to the Hugo voters if John Scalzi does not. It would make sense to have the voting members have access to the book, and I am sure a Hugo logo will help a book’s sales.