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Hugo Thoughts 1 Best Short Story
Jun. 1st, 2014 04:22 pmI have read all the short stories in the Hugo Nominations now. This was easy: they're all available on the web for free; they are short, and there are only four of them. (There is a rule that a work has to be nominated by 5% of all the people who nominate in that category to qualify for the shortlist, and so sometimes shortlists have less than five nominees. Also if there is a tie for fifth place in a category, there can more more than five nominees. In case you were curious.)
My placement, and my thoughts about the stories / reasons for the ranking (as spoiler free as possible) are as follows:
4) The Ink Readers of Doi Saket. This was my least favorite. Nothing wrong with it, I just couldn't get into it, really.
3) Selkie Stories Are For Losers. Lots of people liked this a lot, which is fine, but it wasn't my thing. I thought the characters and background were interesting but there was a lot of resentment and unhappiness and very little protagging for my taste.
2) If You Were A Dinosaur My Love. This one melted me when I read it. It's quite short, and has a very unusual sentence structure. I would say that the sentence structure, the reason for it, which becomes apparent near the end, and the rest of the use of language makes this far and away the most "literary" of the stories. I don't have a problem with that; literary SF goes all the way back to Bradbury and probably before, but some people might not like it for that reason. It is also the least science fictional; the idea of a research program to resurrect dinosaurs is a tiny part of the story and that's about it. But the power of the ending did it for me. YMMV.
1) The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere This one was so fun. The fantasy element is that it is no longer possible to lie without everyone knowing what you have done. But that element made such a huge difference and I loved the characters so much (and also the language issue that means that one character can relay information about another character's attitudes without realizing he has done so) that this one is my favorite.
I'm not going to rank No Award here; I wouldn't have a problem with it if any of these stories won. I enjoyed this category very much and appreciate being introduced to these writers.
Also, the Hugo Packet is now available; to get it you need your membership number and the PIN they emailed you when you bought your membership.
I don't remember if I mentioned it, but Orbit did not allow _Ancillary Justice_, _Neptune's Brood_ or _Parasite_ to be included in the Hugo Packet; instead they provided "substantial excerpts" I think they said; this works out to be about the first 100 pages of each. In my opinion this is not enough to make a fair assessment; I encourage voters who haven't read the books to hit up the library, soonest. ILL works, usually, but takes a while and voting closes at the end of July. Tor provided WoT in its entirety (which turns out to be one file; I suppose it's one of those "we couldn't possibly do this in paper because we couldn't bind this many pages as one codex" files.) And Baen, which likewise does not do things by halves, provided all three books in the Grimnoir trilogy, so those who want the background for Warbound have it. I am beginning with book 1.
My placement, and my thoughts about the stories / reasons for the ranking (as spoiler free as possible) are as follows:
4) The Ink Readers of Doi Saket. This was my least favorite. Nothing wrong with it, I just couldn't get into it, really.
3) Selkie Stories Are For Losers. Lots of people liked this a lot, which is fine, but it wasn't my thing. I thought the characters and background were interesting but there was a lot of resentment and unhappiness and very little protagging for my taste.
2) If You Were A Dinosaur My Love. This one melted me when I read it. It's quite short, and has a very unusual sentence structure. I would say that the sentence structure, the reason for it, which becomes apparent near the end, and the rest of the use of language makes this far and away the most "literary" of the stories. I don't have a problem with that; literary SF goes all the way back to Bradbury and probably before, but some people might not like it for that reason. It is also the least science fictional; the idea of a research program to resurrect dinosaurs is a tiny part of the story and that's about it. But the power of the ending did it for me. YMMV.
1) The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere This one was so fun. The fantasy element is that it is no longer possible to lie without everyone knowing what you have done. But that element made such a huge difference and I loved the characters so much (and also the language issue that means that one character can relay information about another character's attitudes without realizing he has done so) that this one is my favorite.
I'm not going to rank No Award here; I wouldn't have a problem with it if any of these stories won. I enjoyed this category very much and appreciate being introduced to these writers.
Also, the Hugo Packet is now available; to get it you need your membership number and the PIN they emailed you when you bought your membership.
I don't remember if I mentioned it, but Orbit did not allow _Ancillary Justice_, _Neptune's Brood_ or _Parasite_ to be included in the Hugo Packet; instead they provided "substantial excerpts" I think they said; this works out to be about the first 100 pages of each. In my opinion this is not enough to make a fair assessment; I encourage voters who haven't read the books to hit up the library, soonest. ILL works, usually, but takes a while and voting closes at the end of July. Tor provided WoT in its entirety (which turns out to be one file; I suppose it's one of those "we couldn't possibly do this in paper because we couldn't bind this many pages as one codex" files.) And Baen, which likewise does not do things by halves, provided all three books in the Grimnoir trilogy, so those who want the background for Warbound have it. I am beginning with book 1.
