My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Short Story can be found HERE:
My Reviews/Rankings of the Nominees for Best Novellette can be found HERE:
The Best Novella category has become far more competitive over the past few years, as the format has flourished due to the existence of publishers like the Tor.com imprint, which again dominates this category (5 of the 6 nominees are Tor.com works). It's also a category where I've managed to read all of the nominees prior to the release of the nominee list, though only one of the nominees was on my own list. Still, only three of the nominees in my mind are actually worthy of the award, with one of them the clear favorite both for me and for winning the award in general.
#7 on My Ballot:
"And Then There Were (N-One)" by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April 2017)
Quick Plot Summary: Sarah Pinkser, insurance investigator gets a strange invitation one day - to come to SarahCon, a convention of well, many many other alternate versions of Sarah Pinkser who exist in alternate universes, each formed by different choices they made at different points in their own lives. Curious, she goes to the convention and meets herself a good number of times....and then a Sarah is found murdered. As the only Sarah close enough to a detective, it falls to her to investigate the murder, but how can she tell which Sarah was actually murdered, never mind which Sarah is the actual perpetrator?
Review/Ranking: And Then There Were N-One is one of four Hugo Nominees that was also nominated for the Nebula Award this year. I.....can't quite figure out why. The story is cute, don't get me wrong, and maybe a little thought provoking, but it lacks the meat of the other stories in this category (not coincidentally, it's easily the shortest of the nominees, and the only one freely published online). I suspect that the fact that it's a somewhat self-referential story involving an actual SF/F author herself in the story made it find favor with both the Hugo and Nebula voter-bases, but well, I read it on the train after the Nebula nod and immediately forgot about it until it got nominated again for the Hugo. So it falls last place on my ballot here.
#6 On My Ballot:
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
Plot Summary: The Second "Wayward Children" Novella dives into the backstory of Jack and Jill prior to the original Novella as they entered their doorway into a fantasy world where Jack wound up apprenticed to a Mad Scientist and Jill found herself the favorite child of a vampire and the tragedy that resulted in them having to leave their world.
Review/Ranking: I reviewed this story HERE on the blog, but to add a little in the Hugo context: I'm a big Seanan McGuire fan for the most part (InCryptid and October Daye for example are some of my favorites), but this series hasn't done it for me. In this particular case, my problem was that readers of "Every Heart a Doorway" already knew the rough sketches of this story and how it would end up. As a result, this story becomes a more detailed filling out of events we already knew in general, and in my opinion, it doesn't add enough to that rough sketch - often jumping around years at a time for some reason - to really make it a satisfying story. It might actually be a better story if you hadn't read Every Heart a Doorway, and thus could be surprised by the events that occurred. As a result, I don't think it worthy of the Hugo Nod, alas.
#5 on my Ballot:
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
Plot Summary: In an alternate United States where the U.S. followed through on a plan to import Hippos for transport in the marshlands of the Mississippi, Hippo Wrangler Winslow Houndstooth gathers a gang to pull a crazy job: to drive rabid feral Hippos out of the Mississippi and into the Ocean....and of course to get screw over the powerful man who previously destroyed Winslow's dreams as a Hippo Rancher.
Review/Ranking: I reviewed this story HERE on the blog earlier this year, but again to add a little more context to this ranking: This novella is really close to being Hugo Worthy, as it's definitely fun and enjoyable - unlike the above two stories, I didn't feel annoyed at having read it. Everything, not just the setting or character names, is exaggerated in this Hippo Western, to the point of getting really really silly. On the other hand, I had little interest in continuing the story with the sequel novella which came out this year. I enjoy silly fun stories somewhat, but the exaggeration is so over-the-top that it kind of became self-parody for me, so for now I'm ranking it below No Award, though I reserve the right to change my mind.
#4 on my Ballot: No Award
#3 on my Ballot:
Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
Plot Summary: Binti:Home features Binti returning to her home with her Meduse friend Okwu, as she attempts to figure out why she is occasionally overcome with strange feelings of anger. But the journey will teach Binti things about who she is that she could never expect and the Khoush majority, not to mention her own people, may not be as understanding about the existence of her Meduse friend on Earth....
Review/Ranking: I reviewed Binti:Home HERE last year on the blog: The first Binti Novella ("Binti"), was last year's Hugo Winner and a deserving winner for the award. The final Binti Novella, The Night Masquerade, came out this year and definitely deserves a nomination for next year's awards. Binti: Home however doesn't live up to its fellows, feeling very much like the second work in a trilogy and suffering from some of the faults of same. The core of the story is again Binti's journey of self-discovery (really the core of this whole trilogy, honestly), but the story here was both a little less surprising and also featured an annoying cliffhanger - there's a secondary plot involving Okwu the Meduse being threatened by other human peoples which is brought up as a major issue, ignored for a while, and then returns as the cliffhanger. The end result is Hugo Worthy but not nearly as satisfying as it could be, and thus comes in for me at #3.
#2 on my Ballot:
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
Plot Summary: Twins Akeha and Mokoya were the children of the Tyrant ruler of the Protectorate, a Brutal dictatorship that rules the land. While Mokoya manifests the gift of prophecy and chooses as expected to be a woman, Akeha decides instead to be confirmed as Male and to find his own destiny. In the process, Mokoya finds himself joining a group of Rebels against his mother, and struggles to find a way to seemingly defeat the prophecies his mother acts upon....and to defeat his mother himself,
Review/Ranking: I reviewed this Novella, as well as its sister Novella, HERE on the blog last year. The Black Tides of Heaven is the first of the Tensorate Novellas, with it and its sister novella, The Red Threads of Fortune being published together on the same date last year (a third and fourth Novella are scheduled for publishing this year). Oddly, The Black Tides wound up earning all of the nominations (it also got a Nebula), while The Red Threads was my pick for the stronger story and made my nomination list instead of this story. The world is incredibly well done and original, and I did like Akeha's struggles to find a purpose in life (without losing his sister's love in the process), but I felt that the story was heavily predictable, to a bit of fault. It's a worthy Hugo Nominee for sure, but not up to the level of my pick for the winner.
#1 on my Ballot:
All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
Plot Summary: "Murderbot" is a SecUnit - a grown cyborg leased out by its creator company as security for a group of scientists/explorers. It's not supposed to have a name of its own, but it thinks of itself as "Murderbot" privately because it once malfunctioned and killed its charges in the past. But really, all Murderbot wants to do is watch trashy TV serials and to be on its own...and it has hacked its own controls to allow itself free will. But when its survey crew finds itself under attack from unknown intruders, who seem to be hacking SecUnits to do their dirty work, Murderbot finds itself forced to reveal its autonomy in order to prevent the death once again of those it was meant to protect.
Review/Ranking: Again, I reviewed this story HERE on the blog, and both the above plot summary and the one I tried to give above make this story sound a lot more dry than it is. I loved All Systems Red (obviously, since it's my pick for the Hugo) - Wells' writing is fantastic as usual, and Murderbot is such a great character - an introvert who wants simply wants to watch TV and is reluctant to interfere otherwise...and again I'm being really bad at expressing what makes it so damn special as a character, since what I just described isn't quite that unique. The story does an excellent job surprising at times and putting Murderbot in situations to challenge its wants, and it all comes together really nicely. I've actually got the sequel novella out from the library right now and will be finishing it soon, but for now, I've got to put my vote here for this novella for the award. All Systems Red also won the Nebula, and I expect it to win the Hugo as well. Well Deserved such a win would be.
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