Tag: best novella

Today I’m looking back at the Best Novella finalists for the 2020 Hugos.  Two of my five nominations made the ballot, and I only had one novella left to read after the finalists were announced.  My other three nominees were from paid magazines:  “New Atlantis” by Lavie Tidhar (Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/Jun 2019), “Waterlines” by Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s, Jul/Aug 2019), and “The Work of Wolves” by Tegan Moore (Asimov’s, Jul/Aug 2019).  The two from Asimov’s were available online, and all three were on the Locus Recommended Reading List.  I’ll be curious to see if any of them appear on the Hugo longlist.

“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” appeared in Ted Chiang’s Exhalation collection and is one of eleven total Hugo nominations including three wins that Chiang has received for his short fiction.  It was also a finalist for the Nebula and Locus awards.  He is a previous winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (formerly known as the John W. Campbell Award) and is on the ballot this year in the Best Novelette category as well.

This was the only novella finalist that I had yet to read, and I think I’ve only read one other story from Chiang prior to the two on the ballot this year.  In a world otherwise like our own, there are devices which allow one to temporarily communicate with an alternate reality in which a different choice led to a different life.  The premise is well-written and thoroughly explored, but it just didn’t hold much interest for me.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon has already won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror.  It was also a finalist for the Nebula and Locus awards and on the honor list for the Otherwise Award (formerly known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award).  Solomon is on the ballot this year in the Best Short Story category as well, and they were a two-time past finalist for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer.

This came very close to making my nomination ballot.  If I had one more spot, this would have been my pick.  I really enjoyed the world-building which further develops the same premise which the group Clipping (Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes) had in their Hugo-nominated song of the same name.  Solomon presents us with an elaborate culture based on the idea of the pregnant slaves thrown overboard during the Middle Passage giving birth to mermaids.  But I ended up feeling like I wanted to like the story itself more than I actually did.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark was also a finalist for the Nebula and the Locus awards.  Clark was on the Hugo ballot last year in both the Best Novella and Best Short Story categories.

I thought this story was good but didn’t stand out enough to make my own nomination ballot.  It gives us a glimpse of a fascinating alternate twentieth century Cairo with djinn and automatons, but this particular story of the investigation into the titular tram car didn’t really grab me.  I would love to see more in this setting though.

In an Absent Dream is Seanan McGuire’s fifth Best Novella nomination out of twenty total Hugo nominations between her own name and her Mira Grant pseudonym.  This is the fourth book in the Wayward Children series, and all four have received Best Novella nominations with a win for the first.  (I expect an appearance in Best Series once the required word count is met in a few more installments.)  McGuire is also on the ballot this year for Best Novel and Best Series.  She is a past winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer and a two-time Hugo winner for Best Fancast as well.

This was on my own nomination ballot.  These stories of children who discover portals to other worlds continue to delight me.  I found the Goblin Market where everything is negotiated for fair value, the ability to go back and forth between the Market and one’s own world until turning eighteen, and the fact that our protagonist’s father has traveled to the Market before her provided some fascinating new twists on the overall setting.  I was also pleased to finally learn the backstory on one of the minor characters from the first book.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone has already won the Nebula, the Locus, and the British Science Fiction Association awards.  It was also nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Kitschies Red Tentacle, the Aurora Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.  El-Mohtar is a past Hugo winner for Best Short Story, and Gladstone is a previous Hugo finalist for Best Series.

I imagine the authors had a ton of fun writing this, passing the story back and forth like their protagonists traded letters, and challenging each other to create evermore elaborate situations.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much fun reading it.  I had to push myself to make it though, and I just wasn’t sold on the enemies-to-lovers romance between these two agents on opposite sides of a conflict which I never really understood.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers was also a finalist for the Nebula and the British Science Fiction Association awards.  Chambers is a past winner of the Hugo for Best Series and two of the books in that series were finalists for Best Novel as well.

The other one of my nominees which appeared on the ballot, I went into this with high expectations from Chambers’ Hugo winning Wayfarers series, and I was not disappointed.  It does an excellent job of portraying this small family-like group of scientists as they study four very different planets.  Their love of scientific discovery and their care for one another comes through clearly and was incredibly moving.

My first two spots went to my own nominees which were really tough to choose between.  Surprisingly I went with the science fiction story where I often favor fantasy.  It could have easily gone the other way, and I’ll be just as happy with either winning.  Next we have the two stories I liked for their world-building, but not enough from them to make it onto my own ballot.  Finally, two stories that were well-written but didn’t really work for me.  Here’s what I ended up with:

1. To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
2. In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
3. The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
4. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
5. “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador))
6. This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books)

Not gonna lie, I rather This Is How You Lose the Time War didn’t take home another win.  Maybe In an Absent Dream, the one story it hasn’t come up against yet, will triumph instead.  What do you think?

The Best Novella ballot looks somewhat familiar as four out of six finalists are sequels to  finalists from previous years.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells has already won the Locus Award and was a finalist for the Nebula.  It’s a sequel to last year’s winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards and Philip K. Dick Award finalist, All Systems Red.  The two subsequent novellas from the Murderbot Diaries series were also award finalists: Rogue Protocol for the Locus Award and Exit Strategy for the BSFA Award.  Last year Wells was a Hugo finalist in Best Series for The Books of the Raksura as well.  Her previous nominations for the Nebula and Locus awards were back in the 1990’s.

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire is also a finalist for the World Fantasy Award.  It’s a sequel to 2017’s winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, Every Heart a Doorway, and last year’s finalist for the Hugo and Locus awards, Down Among the Sticks and Bones.  McGuire’s October Daye series, which was a Hugo finalist for Best Series in 2017, makes a return appearance this year.  Her InCryptid series was one of the finalists last year.  She also has two Hugo nominations for Best Novelette and one for Best Related Work.  Under her Mira Grant pseudonym, she has four Hugo nominations for Best Novel and two more for Best Novella.  She’s won two Hugos for Best Fancast as a co-host of SF Squeecast and received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2010.

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor is also a finalist for the British Fantasy Award.  It’s a sequel to 2016’s winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, Binti, and last year’s finalist for the Hugo and Locus awards, Binti: Home.  As a writer for the graphic novel Black Panther: Long Live the King, Okorafor is a finalist in Best Graphic Story this year as well.  Last year the second novel in her Akata Witch series, Akata Warrior, was the winner of both the Locus and WSFS (now Lodestar) awards for Best Young Adult Book.  She has also won the World Fantasy Award, and her other nominations include the Andre Norton, Clarke, British Fantasy, BSFA, Tiptree, Campbell Memorial, and Sturgeon awards.

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark is also a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and was a finalist for the Nebula and Locus awards.  His short story, “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” is a Hugo finalist, has already won the Nebula and Locus awards, and was a finalist for the Sturgeon Award.

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson was also a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon awards.  Robson was previously nominated for the World Fantasy Award and was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2017.

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard is also currently a finalist for the World Fantasy and British Fantasy awards, has already won the Nebula Award, and was a finalist for the Locus Award.  It is part of the Universe of Xuya series which is a Hugo finalist for Best Series as well.  She has one additional Hugo nomination for Best Novella, three for Best Novelette, and one for Best Short Story.  She has received one other Nebula Award, four BSFA Awards, and a Locus Award.  Her other nominations include the Tiptree and Sturgeon awards.  She was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2009.

Three of the finalists were my own nominees.  Beneath the Sugar Skies was another delightful entry in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, and Cora might be my favorite wayward child yet.  Kelly Robson’s Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach enthralled me enough with its world building and characterization that I forgave its abrupt ending.  Aliette de Bodard did an excellent job combining Holmesian mystery with the space opera of her Xuya Universe in The Tea Master and the Detective.

I had already read two of the remaining three finalists before nominations closed.  Since Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti: The Night Masquerade picks up mid-story where Binti: Home left off, I didn’t feel that it stood on its own well enough to consider as a separate novella.  The Black God’s Drums very nearly made my ballot, and I hope we see more of the alternate history setting P. Djèlí Clark gave us a glimpse of here.  If I had managed to get to Artificial Condition before the deadline, it definitely would have been on my ballot.  But I’m not surprised that at least one of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries made it without needing any help from me.

Here’s how I decided to rank them on my final ballot:

1. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
2. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
3. Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
4. The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
5. The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
6. Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Will Binti, Murderbot, or the Wayward Children take home another Hugo?  Will the Xuya Universe add a rocket to its award collection?  Or will one of the first-time Hugo finalists win instead?  What would you like to see?

Today I’m looking at the Best Novella finalists.  All six of them were also nominees for the Locus Award, and three of them were Nebula Award finalists.

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey was one of the Nebula Award nominees.  Gailey is a Best Fan Writer finalist this year as well.  Last year they were a finalist for Best Related Work and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire is the prequel to the 2017 Best Novella, Every Heart a Doorway.  McGuire’s InCryptid series is also a finalist this year.  She has a previous nomination for Best Series, two for Best Novelette, and one in Best Related Work.  She’s won two Best Fancast Hugos and was the 2010 winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.  Under her Mira Grant pseudonym, she has four nominations for Best Novel and two more for Best Novella.

Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor is the sequel to the 2016 Best Novella, Binti.  Okorafor’s Akata Warrior is a finalist for the WSFS Award for Best Young Adult Book.

“And Then There Were (N-One)” by Sarah Pinsker was also a nominee for the Nebula and the Sturgeon Award.  Pinsker’s “Wind Will Rove” is a finalist for Best Novelette.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells was the winner of the Locus and Nebula awards and a nominee for the Philip K. Dick Award.  Wells’ The Books of the Raskura series is a Hugo finalist this year too.

The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang was a finalist for the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award. It also made the James Tiptree, Jr. Award Honor List.

I nominated the novellas from McGuire, Pinsker, and Wells myself.  I read Binti: Home as well, but it didn’t feel complete enough on its own to nominate.  I enjoyed Down Among the Sticks and Bones even more than its Hugo-winning predecessor.  “And Then There Were (N-One)” was clever and fun.  All Systems Red had excellent characterization and a very exciting plot.

The novellas from Gailey and Yang were both on my TBR list.  River of Teeth had a fun concept but didn’t live up to my expectations.  Yet The Black Tides of Heaven surprised me by exceeded them.

We have two past Best Novella winners, three first-time finalists, and one new to this category.  Here’s how I ranked them on my final ballot:

1. Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
2. The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang
3. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
4. “And Then There Were (N-One)” by Sarah Pinsker
5. River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
6. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor

How many of these have you read?  How would you rank them?

The second category on the Hugo ballot is Best Novella:

A science fiction or fantasy story between 17,500 and 40,000 words that appeared for the first time in 2017.

If the committee formed at last year’s WSFS Business Meeting proposes any changes to this category, I imagine it might be to raise the upper word count limit to correspond with any suggested changes to the Best Novel category.

So far I have two choices penciled into my ballot:

• “And Then There Were (N-One)” by Sarah Pinsker
• “The Dragon of Dread Peak” by Jeremiah Tolbert (part 1, part 2)

And here are some others I’d like to get to before nominations close on March 16:

• The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
• In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle [added to my ballot 2/22/18]
• Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus
• The Twilight Pariah by Jeffrey Ford
• River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
• The Ghost Line by Andrew Neil Gray and J. S. Herbison
• Acadie by Dave Hutchinson
• Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
• Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
• The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
• Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire [added to my ballot 2/19/18]
• Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire
• Brother’s Ruin by Emma Newman
• Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor [read 2/21/18]
• Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson
• The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
• All Systems Red by Martha Wells [added to my ballot 2/18/18]
• Killing Gravity by Corey J. White
• The Black Tides of Heaven by J. Y. Yang
• Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska

Any of those I should make sure to read?  Anything else I should look for?

In addition to the general recommendation sites I mentioned at the bottom of yesterday’s post, there’s JJ’s 2017 Novellapalooza post over at File 770.