Most of the time, the blurb: “Winner of the Hugo Award” meant that the book inside wasn’t going to hold my attention, and would — on occasion — make me wonder why I wasted my money.

Long time Gentle Readers know that Larry Correia and I are friends. Anyone who bought a copy of Monster Hunter International saw a quote from this blog on the cover of that tome — of which I am still humbled that Larry would do so. A couple of years ago, Larry stated that the Hugo Award had been taken over by Leftists With Agendas, and that Hugo awards were being given to reward ideological goodthink on the part of writers, rather than storytelling.

He was pooh-pooh’d. So he started the Sad Puppy campaign to prove that ideology mattered more than story-telling as far as awarding the modern Hugo.

He was right. Holy [deleted] was he right.

The vitriol aimed at Larry Correia, Brad Torgersen and the writers they recommended has been sickening. The lies, the slander and the spittle-flecked libel they have endured has been eye-opening.

Equally impressive is the mental contortions that the defenders of the status quo ante bellum (Trust me: anyone who doesn’t think that the Sad Puppy campaigns triggered a war in literary circles might want to get his head-space and timing checked. Just saying.) are going through to justify their actions. I’m here to tell you, some of their thought processes are downright schizophrenic … and that does a grave disservice to schizophrenics everywhere.

Apparently when the entire sodding world thinks that the Hugo Award is: “the premier award in the science fiction genre” (Wired magazine); “undoubtedly science fiction’s premier award” (Tor.com); “among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing” (LA times); and “science fiction’s most prestigious award” (Salon.com) what the world actually meant is that the Hugo only belongs to a small group of dedicated WorldCon members — nobody else counts, doesn’t matter how much of a Science Fiction Fan you are, it’s not your award.

Usually followed up with something along the lines of: If you don’t like it, there are plenty of other awards out there.

Well, yes, but when was the last time anyone saw a Tiptree Award seal on the cover of a book? Quick! What is a Prometheus Award and what was the last book cover you saw one on?

Huh.

Now I discover that Marko Kloos and Annie Bellet — both nominated by The Wrong Kind of People this year — have withdrawn their works from nomination.

And, since Annie Bellet is a bi-sexual, card-carrying Socialist her getting hammered by the Righteous Indignation of the Agenda Mandarins kind of puts the lie to the claims that Sad Puppies is all about patriarchal white male conservatives.

Sigh.

Both are excellent authors, and both deserved their nominations. They both deserve their shot on the stage, and I’m afraid that neither one will ever get another nomination.

The Powers That Be at the Hugo have already made some claims about “re-writing” things in a couple of years to “make sure” that any evil like Sad Puppies never darkens their happy little Nerf World ever again.

And once the Leftists With Agendas find out that Marko is a full-on wookie-suiting, gun-loving libertarian, they’ll drop him so fast people on the far side of this little green dirtball will get whip-lash. And Annie will have to kow-tow to the right people, and somehow I don’t think kow-towing is in her nature. I could be wrong … but I don’t think so.

Truth be told, I’m getting angry enough that two excellent authors are getting the shaft because they dare to hang out with Doubleplus Ungood Badthinkers that I’m wondering if a Hugo delenda est option isn’t preferable.

Raze the whole thing to rubble and cinders; see what rises from the ashes.