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nonelvis · 7 years

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2017 Hugo nominees: Best Short Story

As with the novelettes, many of these are available for free online, so I've provided links where I can.

"Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies," Brooke Bolander Another one I've read (more than once) because I'm an Uncanny subscriber, and the reason I've read it multiple times is because people seem to fall all over themselves loving this story and I ... do not, and keep hoping I'll see what others see in it. It's fine, I guess, but the writing feels overwrought to me. Clearly, mileage varies, so maybe you'll like it.

"Seasons of Glass and Iron," Amal El-Mohtar Yet another one I found via Uncanny, though it appeared there as a reprint; it's part of a collection of modern fairy tales, and it feels it, especially with references to seven-league boots and "shoes to dance to death in," along with all the other sorts of difficult shoes women have been made to wear in fairy tales. But this story isn't about shoes so much as how women cursed with fairy-tale fates might help each other, and become friends and more. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, and it's just a lovely story; go read it.

"The City Born Great," NK Jemisin If a story makes me exclaim out loud in glee at its writing, it's fair to say I liked it a lot, and in fact, "The City Born Great," which I'd never seen before today, is my #1 pick for this award. Some cities are large enough to take on a literal life of their own, but they have to be midwifed like any other child, and here the role falls to a homeless black youth abused by New York City's cops and white folk, but who's spent enough time roaming the city's streets to understand it like almost no one else.

"That Game We Played During the War," Carrie Vaughn An intriguing look at how two former prisoners of war, each on opposite sides, developed a friendship through chess – a difficult game to play when one of the players is a telepath. While the chess-as-war metaphor feels a little obvious, I still enjoyed this one a great deal.

"A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers," Alyssa Wong This is the third Wong piece I've read for this year's Hugos, and it may simply be time for me to classify her as a brilliant writer with a vivid, imaginative style who nevertheless just isn't quite my thing. The language and imagery here, as with the other work of hers I read, is stunning, but the nonlinear narrative, while completely understandable given that both main characters can see and explore multiple future possibilities, is confusing to follow. (I enjoy nonlinear narrative! This, though, just didn't work for me.)

"An Unimaginable Light," John C. Wright Ah, now we come to the Puppy entry, from noted homophobe and author John C. Wright. Having read excerpts of Wright's deathless prose before, I kept my expectations low, although now that I've read a complete story of his for myself, the highest praise I can muster here is "better than his buddy VD's entry a few years ago." This story is 17 pages of a "robopsychologist" mansplaining pseudo-philosophy to a young woman (naked, of course) whom he's ostensibly trying for crimes against ... oh, honestly, I didn't care, because this was simultaneously boring and hilariously unaware of its own kinks, and that's before you get to the obvious twist ending. It will give me great satisfaction to No Award this one, not because Wright is a terrible human being, but because he's a terrible writer.

The final ranking:

"The City Born Great"

"Seasons of Glass and Iron"

"That Game We Played During the War"

"A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers"

"Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies"

No Award

#hugo awards #hugo girl

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