Every year, the Hugo Awards announcement arrives with some dumb intercenine politics. Every year a small number of alt-right self-publishers try to game the ballot. Every year, they lose the awards. Every year, people call for the Hugos to change the way nominees are chosen. Every year the Hugos don't really change a thing.

This year, there are fewer of the alt-right on the nominee slate, but they're still there. Let's not let those jackasses obscure the fact that some great books are on this list, including Charlie Jane Anders's terrific debut novel All the Birds in the Sky. Especially noteworthy is the comics category, which features comics written by Seattle writer G. Willow Wilson, Ta-Nahisi Coates, Brian K Vaughan (who's competing against himself with the latest collections of Saga and Paper Girls,) and Marjorie Liu.

Still, the Hugo Awards have to fix themselves sometime. Maybe next year?