2019 Hugo picks: Novellas
Jun. 17th, 2019 12:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormsewerI didn't like these quite so much, unfortunately.
6. Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
Things go from bad to worse in Binti's hometown during her visit back.
This one really left me scratching my head. It had some powerful moments, but they never seemed to go anywhere or have much impact on anything. It felt less like a plot and more like just a series of events, if that makes sense. Things would happen, and I would wonder why, and never really get any answers. The author has a PhD in English literature and teaches creative writing at the university level, so I guess she knows what she's doing, but I feel like I don't. Maybe there will be yet another installment in the series that makes some kind of sense of all this?
5. The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
In an alternate late 19th century New Orleans, a street urchin gets drawn into a city-threatening conflict.
Fun setting, fun ideas, but it didn't quite hold together for me. Like, I find it hard to imagine the Civil War would have ended in stalemate (which basically equals victory for the South) if Haiti had become a regional power after independence. I was expecting some more important reveal around the primary antagonist, who is built up to be quite scary, but nope, apparently there's nothing really to know. The ending felt a little forced, and in general, despite the novel elements, I just had the feeling that I've read something very like this many times.
4. Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
In a post-post-apocalyptic world, an environmental engineering team gets the chance to travel back in time to assess and learn from the ecology of ancient Mesopotamia.
I had high expectations for this, because I was wowed by this author's Nebula winning novelette last year. This didn't quite do it for me. Painfully so, in that I could see in it the makings of a story I might have really enjoyed. I wanted to know so much more about the world than I was told; I wanted KSR-style infodumps about every location visited. I also just couldn't ever quite like any of the characters. The main character in particular— I just never quite understood why she went around being a jerk to everyone all the time, which made it hard to empathize with her. And most of the bad situations they got into seemed to be the characters' own damn fault. And there are some implications of the way the time travel apparently works that don't make any sense. Maybe what I'm saying is that this could potentially have been better as a novel, with more time to explore the setting, the motivations of the characters, and the implications of the tech?
3. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan Mcguire
The future daughter of a dead student arrives at the School for Wayward Children, and they have to figure out how to fix things.
I have affection for this series, despite what I see as its flaws. I like the characters, and I think it all comes from a place of sincerity. I liked this one, too, but there were some things about it that bugged me- in particular the fact that the previous books in the series are premised on the fact that there are certain hard boundaries that are very difficult to cross, this difficulty being the foundation of the emotional weight they have, while this book just prances along ignoring most of that. The frequent shifts in POV could also be disorienting, keeping me from feeling I was really getting into anyone's head, which is too bad, because that experience is one of the things I enjoy most about reading fiction.
2. The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
A tea master who makes blends to help people survive the psychological stresses of deep space begins work with a detective who wants to do forensic research there.
Solid work. I particularly like the world building, and the two main characters are interesting, too. It didn't quite manage to grab me emotionally, though, but obviously it did for others, since this won the Nebula.
1. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
In this sequel to All Systems Red, which won the Hugo and Nebula last year, Murderbot sets out to find out the truth about its past.
I actually liked this one a lot better than its predecessor. I dunno, I guess I find "Murderbot must learn to pass for human and make friends" a more interesting storyline than "Murderbot does Murderbot's job." I found this one hit just the right balance between sentimentality and stoicism for me. Though I admit to being a bit disappointed that this was the best novella on offer this year [1].
[1] The books prominently feature an Ann Leckie blurb, which I see is important in that this series could easily be seen as borrowing a lot from The Imperial Radch trilogy. Just, y'know, Breq is one of the best characters to ever come out of science fiction, so that's a tough act to follow.
See also:
Novelettes
Short stories
6. Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
Things go from bad to worse in Binti's hometown during her visit back.
This one really left me scratching my head. It had some powerful moments, but they never seemed to go anywhere or have much impact on anything. It felt less like a plot and more like just a series of events, if that makes sense. Things would happen, and I would wonder why, and never really get any answers. The author has a PhD in English literature and teaches creative writing at the university level, so I guess she knows what she's doing, but I feel like I don't. Maybe there will be yet another installment in the series that makes some kind of sense of all this?
5. The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
In an alternate late 19th century New Orleans, a street urchin gets drawn into a city-threatening conflict.
Fun setting, fun ideas, but it didn't quite hold together for me. Like, I find it hard to imagine the Civil War would have ended in stalemate (which basically equals victory for the South) if Haiti had become a regional power after independence. I was expecting some more important reveal around the primary antagonist, who is built up to be quite scary, but nope, apparently there's nothing really to know. The ending felt a little forced, and in general, despite the novel elements, I just had the feeling that I've read something very like this many times.
4. Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
In a post-post-apocalyptic world, an environmental engineering team gets the chance to travel back in time to assess and learn from the ecology of ancient Mesopotamia.
I had high expectations for this, because I was wowed by this author's Nebula winning novelette last year. This didn't quite do it for me. Painfully so, in that I could see in it the makings of a story I might have really enjoyed. I wanted to know so much more about the world than I was told; I wanted KSR-style infodumps about every location visited. I also just couldn't ever quite like any of the characters. The main character in particular— I just never quite understood why she went around being a jerk to everyone all the time, which made it hard to empathize with her. And most of the bad situations they got into seemed to be the characters' own damn fault. And there are some implications of the way the time travel apparently works that don't make any sense. Maybe what I'm saying is that this could potentially have been better as a novel, with more time to explore the setting, the motivations of the characters, and the implications of the tech?
3. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan Mcguire
The future daughter of a dead student arrives at the School for Wayward Children, and they have to figure out how to fix things.
I have affection for this series, despite what I see as its flaws. I like the characters, and I think it all comes from a place of sincerity. I liked this one, too, but there were some things about it that bugged me- in particular the fact that the previous books in the series are premised on the fact that there are certain hard boundaries that are very difficult to cross, this difficulty being the foundation of the emotional weight they have, while this book just prances along ignoring most of that. The frequent shifts in POV could also be disorienting, keeping me from feeling I was really getting into anyone's head, which is too bad, because that experience is one of the things I enjoy most about reading fiction.
2. The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
A tea master who makes blends to help people survive the psychological stresses of deep space begins work with a detective who wants to do forensic research there.
Solid work. I particularly like the world building, and the two main characters are interesting, too. It didn't quite manage to grab me emotionally, though, but obviously it did for others, since this won the Nebula.
1. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
In this sequel to All Systems Red, which won the Hugo and Nebula last year, Murderbot sets out to find out the truth about its past.
I actually liked this one a lot better than its predecessor. I dunno, I guess I find "Murderbot must learn to pass for human and make friends" a more interesting storyline than "Murderbot does Murderbot's job." I found this one hit just the right balance between sentimentality and stoicism for me. Though I admit to being a bit disappointed that this was the best novella on offer this year [1].
[1] The books prominently feature an Ann Leckie blurb, which I see is important in that this series could easily be seen as borrowing a lot from The Imperial Radch trilogy. Just, y'know, Breq is one of the best characters to ever come out of science fiction, so that's a tough act to follow.
See also:
Novelettes
Short stories
