2014 Hugo picks: novelettes
Jul. 13th, 2014 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormsewerThis is the category where the SF culture war partisans seem to be out in most force. Alright, let's wade in, then.
5. "The Exchange Officers" by Brad Torgersen
Remote-control soldiers fight the Red Menace in space.
I've liked some of the other stuff I've read by this author ("Outbound" for instance), but this is just... Here's some actual dialogue, near the beginning:
"How many Marines does it take to fight off a Communist horde?"
"Just one, and I'm it."
Hold up, though, liberals! There's totally gender equality in this story, because the Marine in question is a woman, see? Her name's "Chesty." (No, seriously.) I mean, even from a story perspective, the fact that our heroes are never in any physical danger while they fight for Truth, Justice, and Government Property makes it hard to feel much concern for their predicament. Especially once it's made clear that the Chinese soldiers they're fighting in space are physically present and ARE actually being killed there. I guess the USA-GOOD-COMMIE-BAD sentiment is supposed see us through all that. So yeah. That happened.
4. "Opera Vita Aeterna" by Vox Day
A group of human monks are surprised to find a high elf at their door.
I've never read any fiction by this author before, but his reputation has preceded him. That may have biased my reading of this, but... If I was teaching a high school class on creative writing, and one of the students turned this in, I'd be very impressed. As a candidate for arguably the highest award in the spec fic field... Not so much. (And apparently his Latin needs some work.)
3. "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal
A retired female astronaut on Mars has to choose between staying with her dying husband and getting a last chance to go to space.
Hrm. A bit of a nostalgia play. Sentimental. Yet simultaneously it didn't flinch from portraying how horrible a slow death in old age can be.
2. "The Waiting Stars" by Aliette de Bodard
Future space-faring Vietnamese infiltrate an enemy ship graveyard to rescue one of their own.
It was good, though I feel like I know the drill of a de Bodard story by now (I've read seven of them, I believe). I don't think I've ever read one her stories that featured a male protagonist, or gave more than passing attention to male perspectives. It gives me a bit of an appreciation for how women must have felt reading SF back in the day when all the protagonists were male.
1. "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" by Ted Chiang
A journalist meditates on the implications of new technology that makes all a person's memories instantly recallable, while also presenting a story of the effect of the introduction of writing on a culture that previously relied on oral histories.
I've become a huge fan of Chiang over the last few months, and this is the only nominee I can unreservedly recommend for the award. Most his fiction makes my mind feel larger than it was before I read it, which is a quality unique to great science fiction, and this piece is no exception.
5. "The Exchange Officers" by Brad Torgersen
Remote-control soldiers fight the Red Menace in space.
I've liked some of the other stuff I've read by this author ("Outbound" for instance), but this is just... Here's some actual dialogue, near the beginning:
"How many Marines does it take to fight off a Communist horde?"
"Just one, and I'm it."
Hold up, though, liberals! There's totally gender equality in this story, because the Marine in question is a woman, see? Her name's "Chesty." (No, seriously.) I mean, even from a story perspective, the fact that our heroes are never in any physical danger while they fight for Truth, Justice, and Government Property makes it hard to feel much concern for their predicament. Especially once it's made clear that the Chinese soldiers they're fighting in space are physically present and ARE actually being killed there. I guess the USA-GOOD-COMMIE-BAD sentiment is supposed see us through all that. So yeah. That happened.
4. "Opera Vita Aeterna" by Vox Day
A group of human monks are surprised to find a high elf at their door.
I've never read any fiction by this author before, but his reputation has preceded him. That may have biased my reading of this, but... If I was teaching a high school class on creative writing, and one of the students turned this in, I'd be very impressed. As a candidate for arguably the highest award in the spec fic field... Not so much. (And apparently his Latin needs some work.)
3. "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal
A retired female astronaut on Mars has to choose between staying with her dying husband and getting a last chance to go to space.
Hrm. A bit of a nostalgia play. Sentimental. Yet simultaneously it didn't flinch from portraying how horrible a slow death in old age can be.
2. "The Waiting Stars" by Aliette de Bodard
Future space-faring Vietnamese infiltrate an enemy ship graveyard to rescue one of their own.
It was good, though I feel like I know the drill of a de Bodard story by now (I've read seven of them, I believe). I don't think I've ever read one her stories that featured a male protagonist, or gave more than passing attention to male perspectives. It gives me a bit of an appreciation for how women must have felt reading SF back in the day when all the protagonists were male.
1. "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" by Ted Chiang
A journalist meditates on the implications of new technology that makes all a person's memories instantly recallable, while also presenting a story of the effect of the introduction of writing on a culture that previously relied on oral histories.
I've become a huge fan of Chiang over the last few months, and this is the only nominee I can unreservedly recommend for the award. Most his fiction makes my mind feel larger than it was before I read it, which is a quality unique to great science fiction, and this piece is no exception.
