Hugo History

Join us as we discuss the Hugo award winning book for 1967, Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. 

For an episode on 'the American revolution in space', I invited PhD political scientist and SFF fan, James Hedrick of the fantasy podcast, Something About Dragons. 

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

You can find Christine's other podcast, History Klaxon, where she talks about historical topics (currently on fo...

Another episode that's a bit different this month, but we'll be back to Hugo winners in November with Heinlein's final Hugo-winning novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  

I asked Olav Rockney, who is one of the humans behind the Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, to choose a book to chat about with me and he picked The Way the Future Was, Frederick Pohl's memoir and love letter to the SFF fan community. Pohl is best known for Gateway, which won the Hugo in 1978, but this memoir came out before his Hugo-award winning novel! 

Intro sou...

This is a slightly different style of episode for Hugo History! In it, Christine chats with award-winning author Premee Mohamed about her forthcoming book, Wickhills, and then they discuss the 1982 Hugo-nominee, Little, Big, by John Crowley.

Intro sound by Breakz Studios!

Come find us on patreon for more info: https://www.patreon.com/cw/hugohistory/posts

If you're interested in more History content from Christine, you can also find her at History Klaxon, which is both a podcast and a youtube channel. 

Some of Premee's earlier works that we mentioned:  

Join us as we discuss one of the Hugo Award winners for 1966 (there was a tie!): Roger Zelazny's ...And Call Me Conrad, which was retitled This Immortal when it was published as a fix-up novel. 

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Evan May, a Canadian fantasy author and historian. He is the author of Easter Pinkerton and the Case of the Heretic Blood. You can find...

Join us as we discuss one of the Hugo Award winners for 1966 (there was a tie!): Frank Herbert's Dune. 

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Stephen Kotowych, who is probably best known for putting together yearly anthologies on the Year's Best Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy. The kickstarter for volume 4 closed in May, but the book should be available to non-backers in early Fall. Stephen is also...

Join us as we discuss the eleventh Hugo Award winner: Fritz Lieber's The Wanderer.

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Roseanna Pendlebury, who is an incredibly prolific fan writer and nominated for the Hugo for BEST Fan Writer this year. She writes for Nerds of a Feather, Ancillary Review of Books, and on her own blog. You can find her on Bluesky at @chloroformtea.bsky.soc...

Join us as we discuss the tenth Hugo Award winner: Clifford D. Simak's Way Station, also known as "Here Gather the Stars." 

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Paul Weimer, who is an incredibly prolific fan writer. He writes for Nerds of a Feather and podcasts at Skiffy and Fanty. 

From about 5:30 to about 16:40, Christine is recapping the book, which has A LOT of spo...

Join us as we discuss the ninth Hugo Award winner: Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle.

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Vancouver-based horror writer, Joseph Andre Thomas, who has most recently published a short story in the Between Doorways: explorations into liminal space, a short story collection edited by TJ Price.

From about 4:50 to about 21:39, Christine is recapping the boo...

Join us as we discuss the eighth Hugo Award winner: Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. 

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Elias Eells of Bar Cart Bookshelf, where he reviews books and makes cocktails to go with them! You can buy his book, Cocktails and Consoles, whereever books are found. He also has an amazing sounding short story, "The Peacock Wizard and the...

Join us as we discuss the seventh Hugo Award winner: Robert A. Miller's Canticle for Leibowitz. 

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Josh Nudell, historian and speculative fiction fan. You can find Josh on Bluesky @jpnudell.bsky.social and more of his writing on his website. 

From about 6:19 to about 23:53, Christine is recapping the book, which has A LOT of spoilers. The rest of th...

Join us as we discuss the sixth Hugo Award winner: Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers! 

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is journalist and long-time Doctor Who podcaster, Warren Frey, @freyburg.bsky.social, from Radio Free Skaro.

From about 4:18 to about 27:30, Christine is recapping the book, which has A LOT of spoilers. The rest of the episode isn't spoiler free, but that section goes throu...

Join us as we discuss the Hugo Award winner for 1959: James Blish's A Case of Conscience.  You can find the book on the Internet Archive here.

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Alana Vincent, a scholar who studies the portrayals of religion in literature, especially in Science Fiction and Fantasy. They are a series editor for Bloomsbury Studies in Popular Fiction and Religious Dynamics. The most...

Join us as we discuss the Hugo Award winner for 1958: Fritz Lieber's The Big Time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Time_(novel)

You can find the whole book at The Internet Archive.  

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Nora Spurling of Leaf It To Us, where they take plants out of the background and talk about that fascinating group that's so essen...

Join us as we discuss the third Hugo Award winner: Robert A Heinlein's Double Star, which won in 1956.

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

Hugo History has a patreon! 

This month's guest is David Blaeser, a Vancouver-based fiber artist who is reading his way through all the Hugo and Nebula winners. You can find him on instagram.

From about 3:30 to 20:55, Christine is recapping the book, whic...

Join us as we discuss the second Hugo Award winner: Frank Riley and Mark Clifton's They'd Rather Be Right, which is often called 'the worst book to ever win the Hugo'!!

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Rob Tomshany, @robtomshany.bsky.social‬, who has near encyclopedic knowledge of 50s and 60s sci fi and fantasy. 

From about 2:05 to 9:37, Christine is recapping the book, which...

Join us as we discuss the first ever book to win a Hugo Award: Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demolished_Man

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is Miles Reid-Lobatto of Casual Trek. You can find Miles on Bluesky at @milesreidlobatto.bsky.social and his podcast at @casualtrek.

From about 5:45-19:00, Christine is recapping the book, which has A L...