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stormsewerFrom least to most favorite:
7. Countdown by Mira Grant (was apparently originally available for free on the author's blog, but I can't find it there now)
The story of how the zombie outbreak started, as a result of human-engineered viruses breaking out of the lab.
Yes, how original. It reads like the screenplay for a subpar Hollywood blockbuster, and makes about as much as sense as one.
6. [No Award]
5. "The Man Who Bridged the Mist" by Kij Johnson
The story of a man charged with overseeing construction of a bridge over a river of a dangerous and mysterious substance called "mist" that divides the empire in half.
It was good. Solid. A nice character piece, interesting setting. I spent two years on an island that was in the process of having a bridge built to it, so in some ways I sympathize with the situation. But it just feels rather mundane compared to some her more spectacular works, like "Ponies," "Spar," "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park after the Change," "26 Monkeys, and the Abyss," etc. It's pretty slow moving, and what tensions arise tend to get resolved pretty quickly.
4. "The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (not freely available)
A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl navigating a domed city-state ruled by a rather fundamentalist religious sect.
I tend to enjoy coming-of-age tales, and this was no exception. There were some nice elements to this, but I can't say it particularly wowed me.
3. "Kiss Me Twice" by Mary Robinette Kowal
A detective and an AI try to solve a murder, which gets complicated when the AI is kidnapped.
I wasn't favorably inclined to this story at first, since the premise is well-trod territory (even the conclusion to the whodunit at the end is pretty standard for the robot detective genre), and I'm not much of a fan of detective stories, generally, at this point in my life, but the relationship between the detective and the AI was nicely done, even heartwarming, so I guess in the end I liked it.
2. The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" by Ken Liu
A physicist and a historian invent a technology that allows individuals to view the past once and only once, and use it to investigate the activities of Unit 731 in Manchukuo.
This was actually pretty spectacular. And pretty brutal, but I'd guess it would have to be to do justice to its subject. There's some good ruminations on the relationship between the past as it was and the past as it is exploited now, and some lovely imagery concerning relativity and time. Some flaws might be that (A) billing it as a recounting of a documentary sort of seems like a trick to infodump and get away with it, (B) I do find it hard to believe a graduate student in Japanese history wouldn't have heard of Unit 731, and (C) it has a bit of didactic feel to it. Still, pretty spectacular, all around. This could easily be expanded into a novel. I guess I like this guy. (This won the Nebula, incidentally.) Unfortunately, I'll have to relegate him to the number two spot once again, because I really must give my top vote to...
1. Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne Valente
The story of an AI that is passed down generations of a family and successively trained in human responses.
This one had a big enough effect on me that I actually gave it its own post after reading it. It's one of my my most favorite stories ever written, by an author who has rocketed to the top of my list over the past year.
Thoughts on the short story noms
Thoughts on the novelette noms
Thoughts on the novel noms
Thoughts on the other noms
7. Countdown by Mira Grant (was apparently originally available for free on the author's blog, but I can't find it there now)
The story of how the zombie outbreak started, as a result of human-engineered viruses breaking out of the lab.
Yes, how original. It reads like the screenplay for a subpar Hollywood blockbuster, and makes about as much as sense as one.
6. [No Award]
5. "The Man Who Bridged the Mist" by Kij Johnson
The story of a man charged with overseeing construction of a bridge over a river of a dangerous and mysterious substance called "mist" that divides the empire in half.
It was good. Solid. A nice character piece, interesting setting. I spent two years on an island that was in the process of having a bridge built to it, so in some ways I sympathize with the situation. But it just feels rather mundane compared to some her more spectacular works, like "Ponies," "Spar," "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park after the Change," "26 Monkeys, and the Abyss," etc. It's pretty slow moving, and what tensions arise tend to get resolved pretty quickly.
4. "The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (not freely available)
A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl navigating a domed city-state ruled by a rather fundamentalist religious sect.
I tend to enjoy coming-of-age tales, and this was no exception. There were some nice elements to this, but I can't say it particularly wowed me.
3. "Kiss Me Twice" by Mary Robinette Kowal
A detective and an AI try to solve a murder, which gets complicated when the AI is kidnapped.
I wasn't favorably inclined to this story at first, since the premise is well-trod territory (even the conclusion to the whodunit at the end is pretty standard for the robot detective genre), and I'm not much of a fan of detective stories, generally, at this point in my life, but the relationship between the detective and the AI was nicely done, even heartwarming, so I guess in the end I liked it.
2. The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" by Ken Liu
A physicist and a historian invent a technology that allows individuals to view the past once and only once, and use it to investigate the activities of Unit 731 in Manchukuo.
This was actually pretty spectacular. And pretty brutal, but I'd guess it would have to be to do justice to its subject. There's some good ruminations on the relationship between the past as it was and the past as it is exploited now, and some lovely imagery concerning relativity and time. Some flaws might be that (A) billing it as a recounting of a documentary sort of seems like a trick to infodump and get away with it, (B) I do find it hard to believe a graduate student in Japanese history wouldn't have heard of Unit 731, and (C) it has a bit of didactic feel to it. Still, pretty spectacular, all around. This could easily be expanded into a novel. I guess I like this guy. (This won the Nebula, incidentally.) Unfortunately, I'll have to relegate him to the number two spot once again, because I really must give my top vote to...
1. Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne Valente
The story of an AI that is passed down generations of a family and successively trained in human responses.
This one had a big enough effect on me that I actually gave it its own post after reading it. It's one of my my most favorite stories ever written, by an author who has rocketed to the top of my list over the past year.
Thoughts on the short story noms
Thoughts on the novelette noms
Thoughts on the novel noms
Thoughts on the other noms
no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 10:26 am (UTC)I may reread the Valente story - I might just have been in a bad mood when I read it first.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-03 06:44 am (UTC)