Hugo Short Fiction

The Hugo is one of the big awards in the SF scene. One could discuss forever if it really reflects the best what the genre has to offer but at least it’s something worth looking at. I use my proven rating system with A for great, B for good (enjoyed it) and C for “didn’t like it”.

My reviews 2012

BEST NOVELLA

• (-) “Countdown” by Mira Grant (Orbit), available for $2.99 from Google or Amazon USA (but not in Europe)
• (-) “The Ice Owl” by Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction November/December 2011)
  not available as ebook
• (A) “Kiss Me Twice” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s June 2011)
  Police departments are supported by an AI in their investigations. Something starts to go wrong very soon and it all seems to be connected to the latest case. Great story with convincing characters and a believable near future setting. Highly recommended!
• (C) “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s September/October 2011)
  A fantasy story about building a bridge… Well written but I was completely bored by the plot. I understand the idea behind it and that undergoing a big project involves different things but this is common place (I experience it every day in my job) and it’s one of the least things I would like to read about.
• (-) “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” by Ken Liu (Panverse 3)
• (C) “Silently and Very Fast” by Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA)
  This is the story about an AI that slowly develops. I appreciate the skill with which the author puts the words together, however, I couldn’t get into the story and gave up after 20 pages. The reader has to do quite some work here and I wasn’t in the mood for that. Be prepared for disjointed chapters with almost no dialogues. Maybe there is a meaningful conclusion at the end but I am not eager to figure it out.

BEST NOVELETTE

• (B) “The Copenhagen Interpretation” by Paul Cornell (Asimov’s July 2011)
  The best word to describe this story is “Pulp”. Fast paced action that swings back and forth with a solution that didn’t satisfy me.
• (B) “Fields of Gold” by Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse Four)
  Dennis dies and finds himself at a party with other people who have long been dead. They hint that he might have been murdered so he tries to figure out what has happened in his life and his relationship. A so-so story. I liked the lists with things that Dennis wanted to achieve in his life but besides the main idea there was nothing noteworthy going on here. The portrait didn’t impress me much.
• (B) “Ray of Light” by Brad R. Torgersen (Analog December 2011), available for the Kindle (USA, GER)
  Aliens have darkened the sun and the human race is almost gone. Survivors are living at the bottom of the ocean and more or less get along. A new generation has grown up and questions if the sun is really gone… A true SF story with a very nice setting and a well worked out main character, but the “conflict” between young and old isn’t dramatic enough. It carries the story to an end that we have already seen before.
• (B) “Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)
  Judy is a woman who can see many possible futures and she can influence what is going to happen. Doug on the other hand can only see one future and has no way to change it. Things will happen as he remembers them so when both meet they already know how it will end. A wonderful idea but the execution is rather underwhelming because the author only stays at the surface. Why the heck is Doug not able to make different decisions? For sure Judy can help him to steer his life into a different direction, and if not why stay together with him?
• (-) “What We Found” by Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction March/April 2011)
  not available online

BEST SHORT STORY

• (B) “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld April 2011)
  I guess the story can be interpreted on different levels but I found it rather pointless. It’s well written though so just give it a try and see if it works for you.
• (B) “The Homecoming” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s April/May 2011)
  What would be the Hugo without a Resnick story. Better? One will never know. It’s a story about a son who comes back to earth to visit his old parents. To do the job he does as an exobiologist he had to undertake a big transformation that is never really described. His father doesn’t accept him anymore and his mother is too ill to recognize him. Can this visit make a change? Well written with some glimpses at an alien race but unfortunately also with an unconvincing father-son relationship.
• (B) “Movement” by Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s March 2011)
  Interesting description of a child that suffers under autism. Unfortunately the story has nothing to say, it just begs for understanding and on that level it succeeds. I wonder why it had been nominated because there aren’t any fantastic parts in it.
• (B) “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction March/April 2011)
  A young boy with a Chinese mother and American father remembers his childhood. His mom used to make origami animals that could even move (that’s the fantasy part). Very touching until the story starts to get too whimsical. I didn’t like the ending, to view the mother-son relationship from such a perspective I found unfair (you can’t blame your child…).
• (B) “Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue” by John Scalzi (Tor.com)
  An April’s Fool prank by John Scalzi (see his comment). A rather meaningless story but some funny dialogues that you might enjoy.

My reviews 2011

BEST NOVELLA

• (A) The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (already won the Nebula 2011)
  A story about a witch who dies and who gets summoned again and again in the next centuries to give advises. What a fantastic story with a great ending, one of my favourites.
• Winner (C) The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang
  I have reviewed it at Goodreads. It’s well written but the plot was too thin and didn’t capture me.
• (-) “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand
  Haven’t read it.
• (-) “The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis
  Haven’t read it.
• (A) “Troika” by Alastair Reynolds
  I have reviewed it at Goodreads. An immensly enjoyable story with many ideas, highly recommended.

BEST NOVELETTE

• (A) “Eight Miles” by Sean McMullen
  We write the year 1840. Eight miles straight up is the height that a man wants to reach to perform a secret experiment, a height that would kill a man… What starts as a classic, old-fashioned SF story quickly turns into a mystery with lots of action. Recommended!
• Winner (B) “The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele
  This is an hommage to the Mars with many references to novels and stories. It’s interesting and fun to read but nothing special and it didn’t make an everlasting impression.
• (C) “The Jaguar House, in Shadow” by Aliette de Bodard
  I didn’t get very far in the story. The names confused me and I finally stopped reading after 10 pages. Maybe I will pick it up again, other people liked it very much.
• (C) “Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly
  A big disappointment. On a space ship the oxygene won’t last long enough and drastic measures are required to survive. Half of the story nothing exciting happens, it’s all preparation for the big bang. After that it gets only slightly better – not enough for me. I highly recommend the author’s old story Think like a Dinosaur instead!
• (C) “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” by Eric James Stone
  In three words, it’s about religion, space and aliens. An absolute awful main character spoiled the story for me and the plot wasn’t something I was interested in. Not for me.

BEST SHORT STORY

• (A) “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn
  Lovely story about a girl who is an outsider in her society and who finally decides to fight for her right. The interesting background with a well drawn society made this an enjoyable read. The story is nothing special, by no means, but I had a good time with it.
• Winner (-) ”For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal
  Awful begin, couldn’t get into the story. I hesitate to give it a C, maybe I will try again.
• (-) “Ponies” by Kij Johnson
  Haven’t read it.
• (C) “The Things” by Peter Watts
  It’s a retelling of the events in the movie “The Thing”, which I haven’t seen. Maybe it would make more sense to see it first because the story was quite a mess. The ingredients were good and the alien fantastic, however, the plot didn’t do much for me and I never got into it.

My reviews 2010

BEST NOVELLA

• (-) “Act One” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
• (B) The God Engines by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
  Very original story. Gods are literally used to move space ships. I liked it a lot but the end was unsatisfying and almost made the story falling apart. Nevertheless it’s worth checking out, you are in for an interesting ride.
• (C) “Palimpsest” by Charles Stross (Wireless)
  I have read roughly one third of it and put it aside. I couldn’t care less about the protagonist in this time travel story and didn’t like the plot.
  
• (-) “Shambling Towards Hiroshima” by James Morrow (Tachyon)
• (-) “Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days)
• (-) “The Women of Nell Gwynne’s” by Kage Baker (Subterranean)

BEST NOVELETTE

• (A) “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09, also in audio)
  A fine story about a robot who is allowed to decide his own future. A little bit whimsy but well worth your time.
• (A) “The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2) [Also at the author's site]]
  Fascinating hard SF story, highly recommended
  
• (-) “It Takes Two” by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three]
• (-) “One of Our Bastards is Missing” by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three)
  
• (-) “Overtime” by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09, also in audio)
• (A) “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09, aslo in audio)
  An absolutely wild and colorful story, the end comes too sudden for my taste and interrupts the rhythm but anyway a must-read story.

BEST SHORT STORY

• (-) “The Bride of Frankenstein” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 12/09)
• (-) “Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09, also in audio)
• (-) “The Moment” by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints, Hadley Rille Books)
• (-) “Non-Zero Probabilities” by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09m also in audio)
• (C) “Spar” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09, also in audio)
  An utter disappointment, not because of the strong language that is used but because it’s just flat. Maybe I haven’t put enough effort into it to find the hidden message, to me even after considering different interpretations it still means nothing.

My reviews 2009

The Novellas

• (A) “Truth” by Robert Reed
  A prisoner has knowledge that seems to imply that he comes from the future. He is a terrorist who doesn’t believe in the goals anymore and offers his help to save the USA, but the price is very high…
  This is a very interesting story with well described characters. It mainly consists of two parts. First we have the disturbing idea of time-travelling terrorists and their impact on our society. I was a little bit reminded of The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson, which explored a similar change in detail. In the light of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 this gives the story a special touch. The overshadowing questions are how far would you go and how paranoid are you?
  The other aspect in the story is the interrogation of the prisoner, involving manipulation and psychological games. He looked very much like Ben from the series Lost who had the same capability of getting things the way he wanted. The duel is made interesting by adding details that could come from a How to read a person handbook and by the past of the interrogator.
  I liked the story and would recommend it but it’s a pity that the final touch is missing to make it great. It would have been better to focus on the exploration of the idea of time-travelling terrorists only and to better flesh out the events that have occured or to focus more on the duel between interrogator and prisoner.
• (C) “True Names” by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow
  I stopped reading after 20 pages. The story is about AIs in different flavors, resembling the inner works of computer programs with “filters” or “algorithms”. I am sure that some people will like it but it’s not my cup of tea. Other authors manage to make AIs relevant, unique and give them real personality. I have found nothing of this in True Names.
• (C) “The Tear” by Ian McDonald
  SF Signal does a good job in describing what the story is about. I gave up after roughly 20 pages. The setting looks very exotic and interesting but without any kind of help from the author I was completely lost. There were paragraphs full of strange names describing events that I couldn’t put into context.
• Winner C) “The Erdmann Nexus” by Nancy Kress
  Inhabitants of a nursing home start to have strange experiences… I couldn’t finish the story and gave up after 20 pages. Imagine a juggler who starts throwing one ball after the other to you – this is how I felt. I don’t mind if the author puts some work on the shoulders of the reader and I am sure, from the reviews I have read, that Nancy Kress is able to put everything together but she has to do it without me.
• (A) “The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay
  A revolution breaks out and the political officer Max is kept as prisoner because of treason. He ends up in a labour camp, struggling to survive and betting on his former boss to get him out. Beside normal humans there are also aliens that are hated by everyone and who have to do the hardest work.
  This is a strong story and one of my favourite in the novella ballot. The labour camps are similar to the Gulag system of the former Soviet Union, the prisoners even have russian names. I was impressed by the experiences of the protagonist Max and Charles Finlay even managed to get believable aliens into the story. Highly recommended!

The Novelettes

• Winner (B) “Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear
  Shoggoths are beings from H.P. Lovecraft’s imagination. The story takes place shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Professor Harding wants to analyze the Shoggoths to discover the secret of their immortality. It’s a well written story in which the author manages to include racism and the slaughter of the Jews in Nazi Germany. However, I couldn’t connect to it. At the end it’s just a fantasy story and easily forgotten.
• (A) “The Gambler” by Paolo Bacigalupi
  A disturbing view on the media landscape of the new future – or today??? Men like Ong have to write stories for a big news company to generate clicks and money. A good formula is SSS: sex, stupidity and schadenfreude. Ong comes from Laos and he is different. He wants to write about serious topics like global warming or the extinction of rare species. However, this is not what most people want to hear about so his boss gives him an ultimatum: he has to raise his clicks or  he gets fired, looses his visa and must return to Laos. A colleague is trying to help and arranges an interview with a celebrity from his home country… This is a wonderful story that makes you think. It starts with a little too much infodumping but then it really kicks off and cleverly integrates Ong’s past into the plot. The characters are very well done and the clash of cultures was interesting to follow. Highly recommended!
• (B) “Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel
  This is “Pride and Prejudice” meets “Frankenstein”. Knowing neither the first nor the second story (although I of course know the basic plot of Frankenstein) I wasn’t impressed by the story. Phantastic elements are mostly missing and the plot was not what I wanted to read. Nevertheless it’s well written and might be interesting for readers who like “Pride and Prejudice”.
• (A) “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner
  As a young boy Jack finds a ray-gun – a real one, dropped from a alien spaceship. This ray-gun will change his life, it gives him a new focus (which changes over time) and competes with his relation to women… Let me start with what I didn’t like. The ray-gun as hook for further events didn’t work for me. Come on, why does it have to be a ray-gun? SF is the genre for creative, inventive people! Apart from that, I really enjoyed the story. It’s well written and I found it interesting to see how Jack’s judgement of the value of the ray-gun changes over time. Recommended!
• (B) “Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders” by Mike Resnick
  Another story by Mike Resnick but much better than his nominated Article of Faith (see below). Two old men, Silver and Gold, have shared much in their life. One last time they want to visit the famous shop of Alistair Baffle who sells magic tricks. He should have been long dead so the whole trip is kind of stupid, but nevertheless the men start looking…
  This story didn’t impress me much, it’s well written but at the end it’s just about wish fulfillment. Nothing new and nothing to get excited about.

The Short Stories

• (B) “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson
  This story is about 26 monkeys who can disappear. With this act the owner travels from fair to fair, making a fortune and trying to find out the secret behind it… A well written story with a nice ending but it couldn’t grab me, mainly because I couldn’t identify with the protagonist.
• (C) “Article of Faith” by Mike Resnick
  I’ve never read anything from Mike Resnick before, something was always blocking me. Well, this time it’s different and I regret that I didn’t listen to my innver voice. The story is about a robot who starts to think about god and wonders whether it has a soul and wants to join the church. This idea upsets the normal people and causes some serious trouble. The idea itself is not bad but the robot is described in such an old-fashioned way that made me wonder why such stories are still written today. If the robot is a machine, the whole story doesn’t make sense because it’s easy to deny him a soul. If he is indeed smart enough then the way how he is treated as a slave is very upsetting and sooo out-dated. I don’t know which point Mike Resnick wanted to make here and I was seriously annoyed by the story.
• Winner (A) “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang
  I am a big fan of Ted and in this story he proves why he is an outstanding writer. This is very Hard idea SF. In a world unlike ours something strange happens: the time suddenly seems to run  faster. A “man” does some self-experiments and what he finds not only solves the mystery but also reveals of what the world is made off – and the beings living on it. As usual the story is well written with some mind-blowing ideas. It’s not among Ted’s very best because some “flesh” is missing to make the world-building easier to experience. Anyway, a good story and a must for fans of Hard SF.
• (A) “Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal
  This is a wonderful short story about a smart chimp. It’s very touching and manages to tell so much in so few words – highly recommended and easily my favourite in this category.
• (B) “From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled” by Michael Swanwick
  Babel is destroyed and almost everyone is killed. A human is saved by his special suit, which is controlled by an AI who represents an emulation of the woman he has loved (and got killed). He flees together with one of the aliens. On their voyage they talk about the fascinating differences between their cultures. The suit acts as translator and provides different layers of comprehension, which makes the story very interesting to read. On the other hand, the whole setting itself could have benefited from better world-building. I wasn’t able to imagine how the “people” actually live there and I couldn’t connect to the protagonist of the story.