Let’s take a look right quick:
Back in February, I said this would be the Sad Puppies Novel list:
A Long Time Until Now – Michael Z Williamson
Seveneves – Neal Stephenson
Uprooted – Naomi Novik
Honor At Stake – Declan Finn
The Just City – Jo Walton
Somewhither – John C Wright
The Fifth Season – NK Jemisin
The Aeronaut’s Windlass – Jim Butcher
Nethereal – Brian Niemeier
Strands of Sorrow: Black Tide Rising – John Ringo
And a month and a half later, this is the Sad Puppies Novel list:
Somewhither – John C Wright
Honor At Stake – Declan Finn
The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass – Jim Butcher
Uprooted – Naomi Novik
A Long Time Until Now – Michael Z Williamson
Seveneves – Neal Stephenson
Son of the Black Sword – Larry Correia
Strands of Sorrow – John Ringo
Nethereal – Brian Niemeier
Ancillary Mercy – Ann Leckie
The only difference was I assumed Correia would bow out again (which isn’t to say he won’t) and stuck in Jemisin and Walton, who were tied only to be beaten by Leckie by one vote probably voiced in the month between when I made my call and when Kate closed the comments section. As Judgedeadd points out below, votes for Leckie were miscounted, so I called it right back in February after all. Jemisin and Walton should both be on the list with 8 votes each.
We’re on the cutting edge here at Cirsova, folks.
It may have been a mistake to post a recommended reading list with probably over a million words of content two weeks before nominations close. Unless it was a clever trick to say “aha! Sad Puppies was about the discussion, not the final list!” in which case, well played. That means that those who came over from places like File770 to leave comments and votes are now Sad Puppies.
Without the synergy between Sads & Rabids this year, I think we’ll see less of a direct impact this time around, but I think that it gives a pretty good look at how the Hugo noms would’ve shaken out with or without the Puppies. Plus, it may give the statisticians out there a better look at just how much pull Vox has. There was a lot of talk last year that there were actually only a handful of Sad Puppies and the 500 or so Vile Faceless Minions were the deciding factor.
Vox has been posting his own list slowly over the course of the last month and a half showcasing some of his own bizarre and sometimes hilarious picks. After a friend and I clicked through some titles the other night, absolutely cracking up laughing, I’ve decided that Chuck Tingle probably deserves an award for something . Maybe not a Hugo, but sure, man, somebody toss that guy a trophy.
In any case, the lack of media circus with its libelous accusations this year can’t be a bad thing.
Below are my own picks and recommendations (in categories where I recommended more than 5, I’m not saying who I did and didn’t vote for).
Best Novel
Torchship – Karl Gallagher
The Sceptre of Morgulan – Matthew D. Ryan
Best Dramatic Presentation Short
Star Wars: Tie Fighter – Paul Johnson
Modern Educayshun – Neel Kolhatkar
iZombie: Blaine’s World – Michael Fields / Rob Thomas
Best Dramatic Presentation Long
Jupiter Ascending – The Wachowskis
Best Related
Retrospective: Appendix N – Jeffro Johnson
Safe Space as Rape Room: Science Fiction Culture and Childhood’s End – Daniel Eness
The Story of Moira Greyland – Moira Greyland
Gamergate Life – Kukuruyo
Best Graphic Story
Rusty & Co.: Circus Minimus – Mike R.
Gamergate Life – Kukuruyo
Best Fanzine
The Book Wars
Castalia House
Superversive SF
Lurking Rhythmically
Mad Genius Club
File 770
Best Fancast
Honey Badger Radio
NEET Life: Dead Gamers Talking
Best Fanwriter
Sci-fist
Dyvers
Douglas Ernst
Jeffro Johnson
Planetary Defense Commander
Ron Edwards
Zenopus Archives
Best Fan Artist
Kukuruyo
Jabari Weathers
Too bad one of the requirements for Semi-Pro Zine is having at least 4 issues; if the field is really as thin as Kate suggests, it would be a great opportunity for Cirsova to swoop in and raise some eyebrows. We may have 4 issues by next spring, though. More on that soon, I hope!
Cirsova 
“Jemisin and Walton, who were tied only to be beaten by Leckie by one vote”
Actually (as I pointed out back in the MGC comment thread) this was a miscount, Leckie had two votes less than claimed, so her place on the List ought to be conceded to Jemisin.
I saw that! Thanks. Also, that means, on my assumption that Larry bows out, I was 10 for 10.
So the sad puppy list has Leckie on it. Leckie is the darling of the progressive SF crowd. I haven’t followed any of the hugo or puppy news or threads this year. Apparently I missed something important. There was some sort of voting on a forum I recall. The whole point of the puppies, as I understood, perhaps wrongly, was to get overlooked authors on the list, authors that were popular but weren’t part of the progressive clique. Leckie is the least overlooked author in the history of the genre. I don’t care one way or another but clearly I missed something.
Well, this time around, it was just open suggestion, and then votes were tallied. There were a lot of noms with only a couple of votes (myself included!) that I suppose folks could have and could still check out. SP4 tried to be something and do something very different this time. I don’t know that it produced a better list but it did produce a list that a lot of folks biggest complaint has been there’s not enough to complain about. I think even last year, SP was more about process than product, else Goodnight Stars and Totaled (which would’ve probably been adored had they not been linked to the puppies) would not have been on the slate.
In a way, though, this has made Vox’s list a bit more interesting, even if it doesn’t line up in a lot of spots with who I’d go with. It actually has people clicking through to stuff.
The way the list was selected made it open for anyone to post. Some File770 folk posted. Their picks made it on the list. And now people are in a conniption about it:
“Do I have an obligation to let people know that names were added to the recommendation/slate by anti-slaters? Not because I want to make SP4 look better but because they are being accused of stuff when what they did was what they said they would: Anyone could recommend. Non-puppy machinations that I argued against right here are being claimed as puppy machinations. That’s just wrong. What is our personal responsibility? What is our group responsibility? How are we any better than the puppies if we let a lie stand? This, this is why I was so against filers participating.”
From File770. And, no, I won’t deign them with a link.
Glyer being mad that File770s went over and nominated him was icing on the cake. Never mind that a bunch of people who weren’t from File770 pretty much said “Glyer’s a total heel, but File770 is one of the best places to go for a day-to-day look at the happenings in SF”.