Hugo Award voting is open and will continue through the November 19, 2021 (The voting period is extra long this year due to COVID delaying the convention till December). 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 four 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. I have previously reviewed the nominees for Best Short Story in an earlier post. You can find all the parts of this series, going over each category of the Hugo Awards HERE.
In this post, we're going to start covering the nominees in the Short Fiction categories - specifically, the nominees for Best Novelette . These are works of between 7500 and 17500 words, and thus allow for a little more depth and development than the works in the short story category, which makes these length stories appeal to me personally a bit more than the shorter ones, even if you should still be able to read these stories in a single sitting.
Five of the Six Nominees this year are freely available online, and I will link them when I discuss them. The sixth nominee, Helicopter Story, was pulled from online after a....controversy that went horribly wrong, which I'll mention below (and link to a better in depth treatment) but will not go in depth about, since it technically shouldn't affect my ballot.
Again, I've split the stories nominated into various tiers, in addition to ranking them, since I feel ranking (which I unfortunately have to do for my nominations) doesn't really show how close some of these stories are. All six of these stories are pretty good and are deserving of a nod over No Award, so No Award will not be ranked below.
Tier Three:
6. “Monster” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
Kritzer's second nominee (aside from short story) may be last on my ballot, but that's more because of how much I liked the rest of the nominees than this story being bad - it's a fine story of a woman traveling to a foreign region of China to deal with a man from her childhood, once a childhood friend Andrew, who turned out to be the titular monster, with the story jumping back in time repeatedly to the narrator's childhood.
And again, the story is fine and enjoyable, but honestly isn't that special or hard hitting and feels like it was missing some steps in foreshadowing what Andrew would become other than one hint from his childhood (and I had some questions about how Andrew really could pull off what he supposedly did, even if it didn't matter for the story). Just didn't make the impact needed to be ranked higher on my ballot.
Kritzer's second nominee (aside from short story) may be last on my ballot, but that's more because of how much I liked the rest of the nominees than this story being bad - it's a fine story of a woman traveling to a foreign region of China to deal with a man from her childhood, once a childhood friend Andrew, who turned out to be the titular monster, with the story jumping back in time repeatedly to the narrator's childhood.
And again, the story is fine and enjoyable, but honestly isn't that special or hard hitting and feels like it was missing some steps in foreshadowing what Andrew would become other than one hint from his childhood (and I had some questions about how Andrew really could pull off what he supposedly did, even if it didn't matter for the story). Just didn't make the impact needed to be ranked higher on my ballot.
5. “The Inaccessibility of Heaven” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2020)
Aliette de Bodard is one of my favorite active writers and this story also just won the Ignyte Award at FIYAHCon for this same category. And this story was originally written in draft form prior to de Bodard's writing of her fantastic Dominion of the Fallen trilogy, and it very much feels like a combination of elements from that setting (which were first used here) as well as de Bodard's love of Sherlock Holmes stories and Noir (as seen in some of her Xuya work). And so you have a human (witch) friend/lover of a fallen angel Cal investigating the deaths of other fallen, despite Cal's urging of them to drop it.
It's a fine story, and I think the longest one on the ballot this year, but it isn't one that stuck with me after I read it - and this was basically the only one of these stories I read prior to the nominations, because I love de Bodard's work so much. Perhaps I'm docking points here because I've seen de Bodard do this type of work better, but usually I come off from her stories with a feeling of "woah, let me think about that more", whereas here, I just felt like I'd seen that before done better.
Aliette de Bodard is one of my favorite active writers and this story also just won the Ignyte Award at FIYAHCon for this same category. And this story was originally written in draft form prior to de Bodard's writing of her fantastic Dominion of the Fallen trilogy, and it very much feels like a combination of elements from that setting (which were first used here) as well as de Bodard's love of Sherlock Holmes stories and Noir (as seen in some of her Xuya work). And so you have a human (witch) friend/lover of a fallen angel Cal investigating the deaths of other fallen, despite Cal's urging of them to drop it.
It's a fine story, and I think the longest one on the ballot this year, but it isn't one that stuck with me after I read it - and this was basically the only one of these stories I read prior to the nominations, because I love de Bodard's work so much. Perhaps I'm docking points here because I've seen de Bodard do this type of work better, but usually I come off from her stories with a feeling of "woah, let me think about that more", whereas here, I just felt like I'd seen that before done better.
Tier Two:
4. “Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super” by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2020)
The only purely enjoyable story on the ballot, but one that really worked for me and I might put it higher on my final ballot. Basically in a world where people develop uncontrollable superpowers, supers band together to try and show what good they can do so that they're not feared and hated - and poor Sam Wells, who burned down a place when he developed fire powers, is the latest. Sam wants to make something of himself, but he cant really control his flame and he gets stuck doing accounting, and this is the story of him learning to care about who he is, and the friends he develops.
It's a really enjoyable and fun story, taking a world that has been done before, and is kind of crapsack, and making something special out of it. The chapter breaks in the story add to it by showing Sam's mental state, and Sam is an easy character to root for and empathize with.
It's a really enjoyable and fun story, taking a world that has been done before, and is kind of crapsack, and making something special out of it. The chapter breaks in the story add to it by showing Sam's mental state, and Sam is an easy character to root for and empathize with.
3. “Helicopter Story” by Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
Okay so this is the story that unfortunately wound up centered in controversy that I mentioned above. Basically, when this was published under its original title - a title that is usually seen as a transphobic comment about choosing ones own gender identity - written by a then unknown author, people attacked the story and its publication as being transphobic, until the author requested it be taken down....despite the author being a closeted trans person herself. A more in-depth chronicle of it all can be found here. Also please note that I'm a cis person, when I evaluate this below.
The version of the story included in the Hugo Packet includes a disclaimer up top, explaining how the story deals with the "pinkwashing of imperialism" - as the story deals with an imperialist dystopian military using those looking for new gender identities to fuel their ranks, with the titular protag identifying as an attack helicopter and being used to attack a school in a civil war. It's a story that I can very easily understand being misinterpreted as being anti-trans, as it does seem to imagine an ease of choosing a new gender identity that is kind of unbelievable...although it equally shows how difficult it is to grapple with dysphoria in the first place.
It's certainly an interesting story of exploitation of one's most personal of choices, their very identity, and well worth the nomination...but its ambiguity is enough to prevent it from leading my ballot.
Okay so this is the story that unfortunately wound up centered in controversy that I mentioned above. Basically, when this was published under its original title - a title that is usually seen as a transphobic comment about choosing ones own gender identity - written by a then unknown author, people attacked the story and its publication as being transphobic, until the author requested it be taken down....despite the author being a closeted trans person herself. A more in-depth chronicle of it all can be found here. Also please note that I'm a cis person, when I evaluate this below.
The version of the story included in the Hugo Packet includes a disclaimer up top, explaining how the story deals with the "pinkwashing of imperialism" - as the story deals with an imperialist dystopian military using those looking for new gender identities to fuel their ranks, with the titular protag identifying as an attack helicopter and being used to attack a school in a civil war. It's a story that I can very easily understand being misinterpreted as being anti-trans, as it does seem to imagine an ease of choosing a new gender identity that is kind of unbelievable...although it equally shows how difficult it is to grapple with dysphoria in the first place.
It's certainly an interesting story of exploitation of one's most personal of choices, their very identity, and well worth the nomination...but its ambiguity is enough to prevent it from leading my ballot.
2. “Two Truths and a Lie” by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)
One of the favorites to win this award, as the winner of the Nebula (and Pinsker is an award veteran), and I can see why - Pinsker's craft is tremendous, as she tells the story of a young woman who likes to offhandedly invent things...only for everyone around her in her hometown to suddenly remember the thing she is certain she invented, a public access show that is creepy and seemingly impossible. The atmosphere of the story, up through the conclusion, when the protagonist finds herself spiraling and unsure of what is true and what isn't, is really well done.
And yet honestly, it didn't really work for me as much as it did seemingly for everyone else who's read this - I mean its still firmly in my second tier, so I did like it. But it doesn't measure up to my number 1.
Tier One:
“The Pill” by Meg Elison (in Big Girl, PM Press)
Easily my choice for the winner of this category, The Pill is the story of a weight loss pill that literally has people shitting out all their weight until they turn into perfect identical forms....or they die from the 10% mortality rate, a rate that doesn't stop the pill from being approved and changing society - to the dismay of a young woman whose whole family is obese and who all decides to take the pill....with not all successful results, and a world that won't let her simply be who she is.
It's a depressing dark but all too realistic tale - especially during COVID, where we've all learned how mortality rates aren't enough to cause people concerns about what's worth sacrificing, and in a world where weight loss is constantly pressed upon people regardless of their actual health. A brutal tale, but one chillingly real in a way that absolutely will stay with you. The clear top choice for me.
One of the favorites to win this award, as the winner of the Nebula (and Pinsker is an award veteran), and I can see why - Pinsker's craft is tremendous, as she tells the story of a young woman who likes to offhandedly invent things...only for everyone around her in her hometown to suddenly remember the thing she is certain she invented, a public access show that is creepy and seemingly impossible. The atmosphere of the story, up through the conclusion, when the protagonist finds herself spiraling and unsure of what is true and what isn't, is really well done.
And yet honestly, it didn't really work for me as much as it did seemingly for everyone else who's read this - I mean its still firmly in my second tier, so I did like it. But it doesn't measure up to my number 1.
Tier One:
“The Pill” by Meg Elison (in Big Girl, PM Press)
Easily my choice for the winner of this category, The Pill is the story of a weight loss pill that literally has people shitting out all their weight until they turn into perfect identical forms....or they die from the 10% mortality rate, a rate that doesn't stop the pill from being approved and changing society - to the dismay of a young woman whose whole family is obese and who all decides to take the pill....with not all successful results, and a world that won't let her simply be who she is.
It's a depressing dark but all too realistic tale - especially during COVID, where we've all learned how mortality rates aren't enough to cause people concerns about what's worth sacrificing, and in a world where weight loss is constantly pressed upon people regardless of their actual health. A brutal tale, but one chillingly real in a way that absolutely will stay with you. The clear top choice for me.
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