Yess. Brennan does an amazing job laying clues for this without giving the game away, and it's fun to reread and pick up on all the blatant hints that went whoosh over your head the first time through. One of my favorite reveals in fiction (the others being in Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward and Steven Brust's Dragaera series).

Note, those of us who nominated because we were members of Chicon are not eligible to vote unless we join LoneStarCon (supporting or otherwise).

I am so excited to see Zen Cho nominated for the Campbell. http://zencho.org/stories/ has some of her work if anyone wants to check it out.

And now I can finally post a link to a piece of spoilery fanart I've been wanting to share for ages!

Daine, Skysong, and ... a couple special guests.

It always puzzled me, as a child, why the evil sea monster appeared to be wearing lipstick.

Okay, cool! That might explain why it felt off to me, actually--because she kept saying "adios," so I was trying to place her accent to a Spanish-speaking country and failing. Portuguese makes sense.

Things I know about this show, going in:

There is a character named Spike. He smokes cigarettes.
Gurer vf n punenpgre anzrq Snlr. Fur unf ovt obbof.
It's sort of like Firefly? Maybe?

Episode 1: Asteroid Blues

The version I have is dubbed, which is disconcerting, since I've been watching a lot of subbed anime lately.
Do the weird, arty camera angles mean this is some sort of flashback? I guess I'll find out.
Cool credits. It's scrolling too fast for me to really read, but I did catch that it's 2071.
Jet's design looks an awful lot like Zhao from Avatar. Well, Zhao if he were a cyborg. Thinking of him as one of the good guys is going to take some getting used to, and the fact that he shares a name with another Avatar character doesn't help with my confusion.
The animation of the ship traveling through (I presume) hyperspace is . . . odd, and a little nauseating.
Kitty! Also a bunch of people, but the cat is cuter. I am really happy to see it survived the shoot-out.
V cerfhzr gur jbzra jr'er trggvat nyy gur obbo fubgf ba vf Snlr.
So I guess the drug--red eye?--gives you super reflexes and reaction times or something? I assume there are some negative side-effects as well, but not sure what.
That seems like an exceptionally clear prophecy--he'll meet the hitman who's doing red-eyed drugs north of town, and the hitman's girlfriend will try to kill him. Not sure why Spike's giving the fortune-teller so much grief. He was expecting Google maps-level of directions?
"I was killed once before. By a woman." Very noir.
Those are the least situationally aware mob employees ever. Isn't "check for eavesdroppers" criminal enterprise lesson number one?
What accent is the woman's English voice actress trying to use? It doesn't sound like one I've heard before.
That . . . that is quite the hat, Spike.
Does Spike has some moral opposition to dealing in drugs or something? Otherwise it's kind of ridiculous to destroy an extremely valuable vial just to make a point. You're broke, Spike! You could have used the money you would have made from selling it!
Is the point that Asimov's (that's the bounty they're chasing, right?) drug dose has run off, or that Spike is such an amazing fighter that he can beat him even under the influence?
I like the animation of the chase scene a lot. More terrestrial scenes and fewer hyperspace ones, please.
"We will never get out of here. I will never see Mars." Portentous dialog is portentous. Maybe it sounds better in the original Japanese?
. . . and then she dies. Fb znlor gung jnfa'g Snlr nsgre nyy? Vg vf navzr; V fhccbfr znal bs gur jbzra znl unir ovt obbof. Be fur'f abg npghnyyl qrnq.
Hah. I like the bit with the zero-G floating cigarette.

So far, I would describe the show as okay but not really gripping. The plot of that episode was simplistic (helped along by the extremely literal prophecy), and the dialog (or at any rate the translations) was pretty wince-inducing in places. I like the animation when they're not in hyperspace, though, and the music is great. I'll give it a few more episodes to prove itself.

A New Leader
Episode 40

Poor Howard, demoted to playing exposition fairy. Not that it's not necessary, because last episode left me confused. So: Barge belongs to the Space Force, Libra belongs to White Fang, and Howard's unnamed faction has the Peacemillion. I think.
Aww, is Howard feeling abandoned by Zechs?
I thought the guerrillas Heero helped were the Maganacs, but the aboutgundamwing.com Glossary of Characters tells me no, it's someone else. So what are the Maganacs doing, anyway?
Relena's ideas here ARE "grossly simplistic," but her political maneuvering against Dermail is well done.
Why would you head back to Earth after all the effort you JUST WENT TO get into space, Noin? I am genuinely confused about her motivations. Is she desperate to get back to protecting Relena? But she did such a bad job at it last time.
Official subtitles: "How would you like a mission, like in the old days?" Unofficial subtitles: "You fancy coming onboard once more, for old time's sake?" I think the unofficial ones make more sense; I never got the impression that Howard was giving Duo missions before, only resupply and other assistance. But maybe I missed something.
Dorothy's protectiveness of Relena is kind of cute, if also kind of devious. I can't tell if she genuinely thinks Dermail would benefit from going into space, or if she's just trying to maneuver him out of Relena's way. Though she does seem sincere in her mourning at the episode's end.
"We're altering course to avoid the colony's rebel army." Does he mean White Fang? But . . . White Fang doesn't honestly seem to represent most of the colony's inhabitants. They're originally Treize faction sympathizers, right? I think in this case random redshirt dude is the confused one, not me.
"That force is unnecessary in outer space!" Oh, Wufei, never change. I love that the other pilots' assessment of him, both this episode and last, is ". . . yeeeeah, he's just gonna do his own thing and we have no hope of changing it," by the way.
"It's natural that when more than one person is involved the second person can be a source of confrontation." Hey, I think Relena is espousing Sethra Lavode's Theory of Warfare here!
Quinze, you apparently missed villain lessons #1: the hero ain't dead until you find the body.
Zechs, that's an . . . interesting interpretation of political realities.
Oh, Heero and Relena. Your love is so suicidal. Incidentally, I think this is the first time anyone has attempted suicide in quite some time, and it wasn't even one of the pilots! Nice job, guys.
"And what do you plan to do with this spaceship?" "I'm not quite sure about the ship." "You're kidding!" Thank you, Duo, for saying what I was thinking. This acquiring of ships with no future plans for them seems to be endemic in the show, ala Heero and Quatre back in episode 29.
I like how Heero just assumes it's Wufei who was attacking White Fang, when there's really no way he can know. Of course, he's right.
"We will eliminate Earth, the force that conflicts with Space" . . . and also provides Space with food, and raw materials, and ALL OF THE THINGS THEY NEED TO LIVE. Or are we supposed to believe the colonies are wholly self-sustaining? Because I never got that impression before.
Is Heero shooting Zechs's image on video with his finger supposed to be menacing? Because I am afraid it actually only manages to achieve hysterical.

Trowa's Return to the Battlefield
Episode 39

Interesting that Zechs thinks he has nothing left to protect now that Sanc has fallen; I thought protecting Relena was also one of his key goals. Does he feel like she's betrayed him by taking Romefeller's offer and thus no longer matters?
"No, peace shouldn't come so easily." I guess this is the moment when Zechs steps off the cliff toward his Grand Plan of Doom?
All carping aside, this is the first Zechs scene I've enjoyed in a while. He and Quinze play off each other very well.
"We merely adopted the beliefs of our founder, Heero Yuy." I assume Quinze means Heero Yuy version 1.0, but even so, I . . . don't actually think White Fang shares his beliefs. Which involved, you know, PACIFISM.
Marquis Weridge! I remember you! I thought you were the same person as Pagan for several episodes, but I worked out the difference eventually. And now Relena's ascension to Queen of the World makes even more sense as a political ploy, because presumably Weridge was maneuvering behind the scenes to try to get his granddaughter into the position. I wonder if there is fic about that.
Why are Weridge's allies asking Dorothy's opinion, though? Isn't she solidly in Dermail's camp?
. . . what is Noin WEARING? That cowgirl shirt is, umm, a thing that she wears I guess. Pair it with Trowa's clown pants and you'll have hands-down the show's most hideous outfit.
Is the implication that Hilde was painting graffiti on the mobile suits, or that someone else was? Either way it's a nice visual joke.
"Don't get me angry, if you value your life." What, Duo is the Hulk now?
I like how rapidly Duo's expression changes from scowl when he's watching the White Fang recruiters stalk off to grin when he notices Hilde's there. And then when they're playing with apples he lets his real expression show again and it visibly scares Hilde. The way he shields is interesting to me, as is his body language--still and ready to pounce when no one's watching, constantly spinning and moving when he thinks someone is.
Wait, I thought Wufei blew up the lunar base? This is the second time I've thought it's been destroyed only to find it still happily producing mobile suits. It must be one damn big base.
"They've attacked without confirming our IFF!" I assume that's some sort of identification code. That is a little rude of them, but, umm, Noin, you guys ARE an armed rebel ship. I don't think confirming your code would make them any less likely to shoot at you.
Interesting the Trowa uses his Taurus the same way he uses Heavyarms: two guns, raised simultaneously, shoot until you run out of ammo. Other people in Tauruses (Taurii?) have very different styles.
How did Duo get there? People's ability to teleport to be wherever the action is in this show will never cease to bemuse me.
Who IS fighting in this battle? White Fang, okay, Noin-Quatre-Trowa, okay, Duo, okay, the "Space Force"--is that the last remnants of the Federation Space Force? I can't tell who's on what side.
Ooh, I LIKE Deathscythe's shield animation.
"I'm here to save the guy that destroyed you, Deathscythe." Hah, nice callback to episode 20.
"Have you forgotten me already? I'm one of the best friends you've got!" ...nice job messing with the amnesiac, Duo, given that you have spent zero one-on-one time with him when he was in his right mind.
Subtitle difference: after Quatre thanks Duo "from his heart," the officials have "You shouldn't get your hopes up too high. I'm not especially devoted." The unofficials have, "Don't get your hopes too high. I'm prone to having affairs." Why, Duo, you flirt.
. . . and oh, God, we're back to Heero swearing to kill Relena? This was something I DID NOT MISS about the show's early episodes, and I would have been just fine leaving it there.

The Birth of Queen Relena
Episode 38

Random people are battling each other in space. I'm not sure who, where, or why, and I'm not sure if it matters.
"Why are you guys bringing this meaningless war to space?!" That's a perfectly reasonable question, Wufei. I knew I liked you for a reason.
"I can't believe the Gundam's this strong!" Uh, where were you the last 37 episodes, random redshirt guy?
"I get the feeling you aren't here to fight," Wufei tells Noin with a very odd expression. I know in his original design he was supposed to be a Newtype, with a "sensing people's intentions" power--I guess this is lingering from that?
Noin, I think you're a fascinating character, but your complete obliviousness to your role in Sanc's collapse is not endearing you to me as person.
"That must mean the son in the family's come home." Wufei gets a lot of crap in fandom for being sexist, but between this and nagging Hilde to make him a steak a few episodes back I'm starting to think Duo's not much better. Quatre's sisters couldn't be running the company why, exactly? Oh, wait, apparently they are. It's good to know Quatre at least doesn't have any problem with women.
Duo, how the hell did you get into Quatre's private satellite?
What Quatre learned from his stay in the pacifistic Sanc Kingdom was that they "have to fight"? Pacifism, how does it work again?
I do like the emotional tension of this scene between Quatre and Duo, though--Duo the closest to despair of the five of them, and Quatre needing to cling to the possibility of peace to maintain his fragile mental balance.
"This place is a bit too high class for me." Another consistent character note carried over from previous episodes: Duo's discomfort with Quatre's privilege.
Incidentally, wasn't Sally supposed to be in space looking for Trowa? Where the hell did she disappear off to?
"A Circus" will never stop making me laugh.
I wish Catherine was less one-note as a character. I think she has the potential to be interesting--the show could use more civilians--if only she had goals that didn't center around Trowa.
Trowa goes from clown pants to normal pants between one scene and the next, with no obvious opportunity to change (Catherine is still in costume). I guess having him go into space to fight wearing clown pants was too ridiculous even for Gundam Wing.
Subtitle difference! Officials have Quatre saying, "You saved my soul, Trowa." Unofficials have "You saved me, my soul." And then Trowa can psychically sense Quatre crying from space. I don't even like this pairing, and I can't avoid slashing it.
I LOVE Dorothy's black dress. I wish I could pull off cosplaying her, but alas my eyebrows cannot match hers.
Creepy Treize is creepy.