Reviewing the 2022 Hugo Nominees: The Hugo Award for Best Short Story

 

Hugo Award voting is open and will continue through the August 11, 2022.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did the last five (wow, 5!) years, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.

This is the second part of this series.  You can find all the parts of this series, going over each category of the Hugo Awards HERE.

Today I'm going over the nominees for Best Short Story, which covers works of fewer than 7500 words long.  This year, as is frequent, the nominees are all available for free online, so I'll try to link them below as I discuss them.  It's a really strong ballot, which makes this one incredibly hard to order, especially as we have a mix of types of stories - one enjoyable tie-in story (to Magic the Gathering), one creepy horror story, a couple of bittersweet stories, and well, others that aren't so easily categorizable: we even have one story that was actually a twitter thread at first.  

But after the jump I'll try.  

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

 

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu: https://t.co/qt7bPYBSQe

Short Review: 9 out of 10 - First in a new Wuxia/Epic Fantasy trilogy featuring a grizzled martial arts master who takes it up on herself to train the prophesied hero...except....
1/3

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 29, 2022

Short Review (cont): ...the prophecy is wrong, and soon the teen hero and the master find themselves on the run for their lives. Really great - filled with themes of Empire/Conquering, struggles of identity/leadership and destiny, & well martial arts fun. Definite recommend
2/3

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 29, 2022

Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 9, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.     


The Art of Prophecy is the first in a new epic fantasy/wuxia trilogy from author Wesley Chu, whose previous work (The Lives of Tao trilogy, The Fall of Io series) has been really entertaining.  Wuxia* works kind of fit in an odd place for me as a reader - I've come to not particularly love action scenes in most books, since my eyes tend to skim over some words and struggle to focus upon intricate sequences (and I have issues visualizing)....and yet Wuxia works tend to be so over the top with their action scenes and martial arts moves that it becomes entertaining again to read...hence why I was able to enjoy all four volumes of Legend of the Condor Heroes.

* Wuxia, for those who don't know, is a genre of Chinese Martial Arts stories, in which such Martial Arts often have ridiculous names and often go along incredible magical seeming powers.  Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for example.*

And I really did enjoy The Art of Prophecy, which starts off with a major prophecy twist - the ultimate bad guy that the prophesied hero was supposed to grow up and kill is dead and his forces are defeated years before the hero has trained out of boyhood - and uses that to start up an enjoyable, fun and action packed story following a number of main characters struggling to figure out what to do next in a world upended.  The characters are terrifically fun, reminding me of Chu's Tao/Io series, and the stories contain lots of interesting themes/questions - questions about destiny, about conflicts between peoples, about fighting for freedom as opposed to collaborating, and more.  There's even some science fiction-y or steampunky things going on with one group of people as well.  The result is highly enjoyable, and this is a series I'll definitely be coming back to for its sequels....

Reviewing the 2022 Hugo Nominees: The Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult SciFi/Fantasy Novel

 

Hugo Award voting is open and will continue through the August 11, 2022.  For those of you new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre, the Hugo Award is one of the most prominent awards for works in the genre, with the Award being given based upon voting by those who have paid for at least a Supporting Membership in this year's WorldCon.  As I did the last five (wow, 5!) years, I'm going to be posting reviews/my-picks for the award in the various categories I feel qualified in, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments.

This is the first part of this series.  You can find all the parts of this series, going over each category of the Hugo Awards HERE. 

To start this series, we're looking at the Lodestar Award, which is "technically" not a Hugo Award, but is awarded with them anyway, so it counts for this series.  The Lodestar Award is for the best Young Adult SciFi and Fantasy novels of the previous year - the Hugo equivalent of the Norton Award (which is the Nebula version of the same award).  As a huge fan of YA works, I love going through the nominees of this award every year, and unsurprisingly I had read all of the nominees of this one prior to the shortlist being announced.  None of the nominees were on y nomination ballot....and yet there's a number of works here on this list that I really liked, and a few very deserving winners.

So without any more preamble, let's go through the ballot and reveal my rankings:

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Primeval Fire by C.T. Rwizi

 

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Primeval Fire by C.T. Rwizi: https://t.co/2rkUC6harH

Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 - Conclusion to this dark epic fantasy series which began with Scarlet Odyssey finds its heroes scattered and all seemingly lost, with new powers emerging...
1/3

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 26, 2022

Short Review (cont): ...and a dark force on the horizon, requiring them to find a way to restore what was lost to stop the resurrection of a great evil as the land is besieged by outside powers. A solid ending, although one that doesn't fulfill all its potential.
2/3

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 26, 2022

Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 26, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.     


Primeval Fire is the third and final book in C.T. Rwizi's Dark Epic Fantasy Trilogy which began with Scarlet Odyssey and continued with Requiem Moon.  The series features a setting heavily inspired by - and seemingly taking place in an alternate version of - Africa, where various tribes and peoples exist with different magics (which often seem very code-based and Clarke-ian in how it often seems like technology) and traditions (as well as prejudices) and where peoples from outside this continent keep a tenuous eye on the happenings within.  It's also a dark series, with horrifying backstories (including at least one involving rape), and atrocities that happen in the modern day as the series' main characters attempt to do the right thing in a world where there are no right answers....and the only path may be to act according to the whims of some who are evil.  It's a series that has had a LOT of balls juggling in the air through two books, with plotters and powers on multiple levels, so I was kind of surprised to find out that this third book would be the conclusion - I expected this to be a longer series.  

And well, Primeval Fire is an enjoyable and very readable concluding volume, but it suffers quite a bit from being the third and final volume of this series, resulting in the book not really having time to deal with the ramifications of many of its parts.  With the story's two most prominent protagonist characters at least temporarily out of the picture, the story is told from the perspectives of a bunch of new and old secondary characters, as they each try to find a way to survive in a world that has changed massively - often for the worst - and to prevent it from further being devastated by dark powers.  These plotlines are all compelling, and the conclusion is very enjoyable, but there's enough potential obviously not realized here that it still feels like a disappointment to some extent.  

NOTE: Spoilers for Books 1-2 are unavoidable below.  If you intend to read the first two books, avoid the rest of this review. 

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Stars Between Us by Cristin Terrill

 

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Stars Between Us by Cristin Terrill: https://t.co/tC97oFywrL

Short Review: 6 out of 10 A SciFi Young Adult Romance featuring a girl who lives on a poor planet and works herself to the bone for her family who gets a chance through a rich...
1/3

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 26, 2022

Short Review (cont): eccentric's will to experience life in a high society rich planet is a story whose bare essentials are told well, but which really does just the bare bones in establishing its romance, themes and world.
2/3

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 26, 2022

Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 2, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.     


The Stars Between Us is a romantic young adult science fiction novel by author Cristin Terrill.  The book takes a pretty classic romantic premises - girl from a lower class background, scrambling to survive who is surprisingly given the chance to thrive in an upper class city with wealth and fortune - and marries it to one twist (the rich boy she's supposed to marry dies immediately) and to a science fiction setting (with the upper and lower classes on separate planets.  Add in an underground resistance movement and well there's certainly plenty that could be done here with the setup of The Stars Between Us.

Unfortunately, The Stars Between Us doesn't really take this setup in any particular interesting direction, with its characters and plotline going in pretty standard directions.  The characters are fine, as the book splits its narrative after the first act into a two protagonist SF romance, but the romance never really did too much for me, and the mystery the book presents to keep throwing difficulties in its protagonists' paths is laughably obvious.  And well the book's dealings with class, revolt, and the powers and dangers of money are paper thin and rarely delved into as deeply as one would hope.  The result is a book that's inoffensive, but not really that interesting at its core.  

Fantasy Novella Review: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

 



Across the Green Grass Fields is the sixth novella in Seanan McGuire's critically acclaimed and enormously popular "Wayward Children" series (which began with Every Heart a Doorway).  For those unfamiliar with the series, the overlying premise is that there are a multitude of portal fantasy worlds out there that kids with troubles stumble into....and find themselves lost when they stumble back out of such worlds, leading to such children often being sent to a special school run by Eleanor West to help those kids move forward.  Each odd numbered book in the series features the kids post-portal fantasy life dealing with their issues on a new adventure at the school and beyond, whereas Even numbered books - like this are the individual stories of a single kid in their fantasy world - how they got there, what it was to them, and what caused them to return to our world.  

As I've said previously on this blog, I'm a huge McGuire fan, but have found this series kind of hit or miss....some installments have been really great, and others I've found hard to care about the contents and characters within.  

Fortunately, this sixth installment is another winner for me, dealing with new character Regan - an intersex girl with a love of horses, who flees bullying into a world where every creature is a magical kind of horse - centaurs, unicorns, kelpies, etc. - and grows into someone more comfortable with herself, with friendship and family, and into the hero that this world deserves.  Some really great stuff here, and well worth its Hugo nomination.  

Some more specifics after the jump:  

Horror Book Review: Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow

 

Horror Book Review: Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow: https://t.co/KQVnC4raE6

Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 - Chilling non SF/F Psychological Horror as sociopathic black teen Farrah becomes determined to become a part of her black friend Cherish's adopted white family....
1/3

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 21, 2022

Cherish Farrah is a psychological/social horror novel written by author Bethany C. Morrow, most well known for her YA duology, A Song Below Water and A Chorus Rises, but also her short novel Mem.  I've really enjoyed all three of those works, with her YA works using a more magical version of our world to deal with race, prejudice, teen pressure, social media culture and hatred, and the usage of minorities by others against other minorities, and Mem featuring some really interesting ideas about memory and one's self/personhood.  So I was interested to see what she'd do with this novel, advertised as a psychological thriller/horror, even if it didn't appear to be science fiction or fantasy, my usual interest.  

And well, Cherish Farrah is a gripping psychological horror, featuring a kind of sociopathic protagonist in 17 year old Black girl Farrah Turner, raised by black parents among a rich white country club community, who reacts to her family's finances falling apart by trying to manipulate herself into her black friend Cherish's White family instead of her own.....only to find things aren't quite like she expects.  It's a story dealing obviously with race, with class, with privilege, and how both Whites and Blacks perceive that privilege and prejudice - and most significantly a story about how much control a person without privilege truly has over their own narrative.  It largely works pretty well, leading to an incredibly chilling ending, although I think it takes a few too many shortcuts in its final act for that ending to truly work perfectly.  

Some more specifics after the jump, with some spoilers in ROT13.