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stormsewer) wrote2010-06-30 03:14 am
stormsewer) wrote2010-06-30 03:14 am
Hugo noms 2010
Several years ago I went and read and commented on all the nominees for the short fiction Hugo Award. This year I felt like doing it again. So here we go.
Short Stories (7500 words or less)
"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick
Cute, glorified fan-fiction, not particularly memorable.
"Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh
Creepy. Somehow seems like a likely outcome if cryopreservation technology was ever perfected, though.
"The Moment" by Lawrence M. Schoen
Imaginative, but a little hard to follow. Corny ending ruined it for me.
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin
Cute, but the premise doesn't really jive with me.
"Spar" by Kij Johnson
I don't even know what to say about that. Won the 2009 Nebula award, apparently.
Pick- "Bridesicle" (though I can't say I'm extremely impressed with any of them)
Novelettes (7500 to 17,500 words)
"Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky
I don't think the idea is particularly original (the movie AI and the story "Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down" by Ryan Hardy come to mind off the top of my head, and those were hardly unprecedented, either), but it was well executed and rather touching.
"The Island" by Peter Watts
A little too dense and hard to understand in places, but I like the ideas and the characters. I have mixed feelings about stories like this. It can be pretty hard to figure out what's going on, and somehow I suspect a good story shouldn't be hard to parse, but on the other hand it can be fun to try and figure it out (this kind of "I dare you to figure out what the hell I'm talking about" crap seems to be par for "hard" SF).
"It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith
While I suppose you can't complain about all the lesbian sex, I didn't care much for any of the characters, and I find the premise rather flimsy.
"One of Our Bastards is Missing" by Paul Cornell
I don't have much patience for this affected mannerpunk crap.
"Overtime" by Charles Stross
Maybe the best Christmas story ever. I like this guy a lot. However, given that this is basically glorified Lovecraft fan-fiction and that a similar story in this universe and about this character ("The Concrete Jungle") won the Hugo award for best novella in 2005, I don't think this really deserves to win. Also, the copyeditor really dropped the ball.
"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster
It's a standard dystopian plot, and the prose is a little flowery at times (though let's be honest, my own writing is probably at least as bad in that respect). But I love the setting and premise, and though it's rather disturbing, it's twisted into a compelling form.
Pick- "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" (this story apparently won the Nebula award for 2009)
Novellas (17,500 to 40,000 words) (only two of them are freely available, apparently)
"Act One" by Nancy Kress
Very well put together. Loved the main character. The premise falls under my area of scientific expertise, and the general topic of human genetic enhancement is one I've thought a lot about. I have some issues with the presentation of the science (and the probability of some guy developing gene therapy like that on his own and without funding for so long), but compared to, say, Oryx and Crake, it was pretty good in that respect. The villains' plot is very foolhardy, on the one hand- intelligent design on that scale couldn't be expected to yield positive results; you can't just ignore the millions and billions of years of evolution that made us what we are and expect things to turn out well- but, on the other hand, it does seem plausible that some pack of zealots could hatch a similar scheme one day. But my thoughts on the plausibility of designing human genomes and the future of human genetic enhancement would fill up a lot more space than I want to take here. Anyway, I liked this story.
"Palimpsest" by Charles Stross
Wow. I don't think I've had my mind blown like that in a long time, if ever. I am very impressed. I've very much enjoyed everything I've read by this guy, but this is definitely the best so far. (You can also find a fascinating window into how this story came into being here.) My one scientific beef is that it would be very difficult to keep humanity from evolving into something very different if they were going to try to keep the species going that long. Unfortunately I'm not qualified to comment on the practicality of the astrophysics.
Pick- "Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (I very much doubt any of the other contenders are this good, and anyway they must not want to win if they aren't making their stories publicly available…)
As for the rest... I took a look at the graphic story noms that were available online, and I can't say I was real impressed. Of the three, I'd probably pick Girl Genius, though I guess that won last year.
Of the novels, The Windup Girl is the only one I've even heard of. Apparently it won the Nebula. I've been meaning to pick it up, because it sounds cool.
Avatar is the only of the long-form dramatic presentations I've seen, though I sure hope it doesn't win. Oh wait, I saw Moon, too. Ridiculous premise- I don't think so. I've heard good things about District 9, though. That might be a good choice.
Hmm. I'm toying with the idea of actually voting this year...
Short Stories (7500 words or less)
"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick
Cute, glorified fan-fiction, not particularly memorable.
"Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh
Creepy. Somehow seems like a likely outcome if cryopreservation technology was ever perfected, though.
"The Moment" by Lawrence M. Schoen
Imaginative, but a little hard to follow. Corny ending ruined it for me.
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin
Cute, but the premise doesn't really jive with me.
"Spar" by Kij Johnson
I don't even know what to say about that. Won the 2009 Nebula award, apparently.
Pick- "Bridesicle" (though I can't say I'm extremely impressed with any of them)
Novelettes (7500 to 17,500 words)
"Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky
I don't think the idea is particularly original (the movie AI and the story "Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down" by Ryan Hardy come to mind off the top of my head, and those were hardly unprecedented, either), but it was well executed and rather touching.
"The Island" by Peter Watts
A little too dense and hard to understand in places, but I like the ideas and the characters. I have mixed feelings about stories like this. It can be pretty hard to figure out what's going on, and somehow I suspect a good story shouldn't be hard to parse, but on the other hand it can be fun to try and figure it out (this kind of "I dare you to figure out what the hell I'm talking about" crap seems to be par for "hard" SF).
"It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith
While I suppose you can't complain about all the lesbian sex, I didn't care much for any of the characters, and I find the premise rather flimsy.
"One of Our Bastards is Missing" by Paul Cornell
I don't have much patience for this affected mannerpunk crap.
"Overtime" by Charles Stross
Maybe the best Christmas story ever. I like this guy a lot. However, given that this is basically glorified Lovecraft fan-fiction and that a similar story in this universe and about this character ("The Concrete Jungle") won the Hugo award for best novella in 2005, I don't think this really deserves to win. Also, the copyeditor really dropped the ball.
"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster
It's a standard dystopian plot, and the prose is a little flowery at times (though let's be honest, my own writing is probably at least as bad in that respect). But I love the setting and premise, and though it's rather disturbing, it's twisted into a compelling form.
Pick- "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" (this story apparently won the Nebula award for 2009)
Novellas (17,500 to 40,000 words) (only two of them are freely available, apparently)
"Act One" by Nancy Kress
Very well put together. Loved the main character. The premise falls under my area of scientific expertise, and the general topic of human genetic enhancement is one I've thought a lot about. I have some issues with the presentation of the science (and the probability of some guy developing gene therapy like that on his own and without funding for so long), but compared to, say, Oryx and Crake, it was pretty good in that respect. The villains' plot is very foolhardy, on the one hand- intelligent design on that scale couldn't be expected to yield positive results; you can't just ignore the millions and billions of years of evolution that made us what we are and expect things to turn out well- but, on the other hand, it does seem plausible that some pack of zealots could hatch a similar scheme one day. But my thoughts on the plausibility of designing human genomes and the future of human genetic enhancement would fill up a lot more space than I want to take here. Anyway, I liked this story.
"Palimpsest" by Charles Stross
Wow. I don't think I've had my mind blown like that in a long time, if ever. I am very impressed. I've very much enjoyed everything I've read by this guy, but this is definitely the best so far. (You can also find a fascinating window into how this story came into being here.) My one scientific beef is that it would be very difficult to keep humanity from evolving into something very different if they were going to try to keep the species going that long. Unfortunately I'm not qualified to comment on the practicality of the astrophysics.
Pick- "Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (I very much doubt any of the other contenders are this good, and anyway they must not want to win if they aren't making their stories publicly available…)
As for the rest... I took a look at the graphic story noms that were available online, and I can't say I was real impressed. Of the three, I'd probably pick Girl Genius, though I guess that won last year.
Of the novels, The Windup Girl is the only one I've even heard of. Apparently it won the Nebula. I've been meaning to pick it up, because it sounds cool.
Avatar is the only of the long-form dramatic presentations I've seen, though I sure hope it doesn't win. Oh wait, I saw Moon, too. Ridiculous premise- I don't think so. I've heard good things about District 9, though. That might be a good choice.
Hmm. I'm toying with the idea of actually voting this year...
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