We are thrilled to report this morning that “Mono No Aware” by Ken Liu, the lead story in our anthology The Future Is Japanese has been nominated for the most prestigious award in science fiction, The Hugo Award.
The Hugo Award is voted on by the fans, specifically the fans who are members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention—and of course virtually everyone in SF publishing also attends the convention and nominates and votes each year. So it’s really an honor, and it is our second Hugo nomination. Two years ago editor Nick Mamatas was nominated for Best Editor, Long Form.
It’s also very nice to see that our book has gained some attention—these days thanks to ease of reading online, stories that are available for free on the Web often have an advantage, if only because they’re easier for the fans to read and consider and pass around. Anthology stories often do less well come award season, so clearly very positive word of mouth carried the day with “Mono No Aware.”
We also feature the Upside-Down Japanese Girl Seal of Approval
Naturally, there’s also the issue that Ken himself is a very prolific writer of short stories, so people do seek his work out, and people like voting for him. So that it was our Ken Liu story and not the other dozen or so he published this year that was so honored is a special thrill.
To celebrate, we have lowered the price of the ebook edition to $3.99 for the rest of the month. Whether you like Kindle or Apple, SONY or NOOK, go check out The Future Is Japanese, cheap!
Aaand, if you’re so moved by your reading, remember that you can vote for Ken’s story, and stories by Bruce Sterling, Rachel Swirsky, David Moles, and Catherynne M. Valente, or the anthology itself (the Hugos lack an Anthology category) for the almost-as-prestigious LOCUS Awards until April 15th. So get to reading! We like prizes!