Short stories were the first category I finished, as all of them were freely available and I didn’t have to wait for the release of the Hugo package. The central theme in many of them is revenge and making things right, usually with a lot of violence. All, except “A Catalog of Storms”, could be classified in that category, at some level at least. All stories were at least fairly good, and only two had more of an experimental writing and style than storytelling, even though almost none of them was ordinary - except, perhaps, “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, which with swapped genders wouldn’t really have been a worthwhile story at all, and I don’t believe that an old story with different genders is enough.
Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
The story happens in a military world where women are warriors and may take both male and female spouses. The main protagonist is the wife of a warrior; she is a medicine woman and a midwife and has already helped her wife to give birth to several babies. The babies are mainly expected to become warriors, at least the female ones. This is a story about the futility of war and warlike mentality. There was nothing really new except the gender swap. Swap the genders back and you have a run of the mill and very forgettable story.
“A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019)
The town is threatened by severe weather. Luckily some of the townspeople are able to affect the weather, but some of them might metamorphose to weather phenomena. It doesn’t make much sense to me. The story is scant on plot and heavy on style and metaphor.
“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)
Short paragraphs “quoted” from several sources which together tell a story of children brought to Britain from Ratnabar Island after the British massacred most of the inhabitants. But the brightest of the girls serves a “special” meal… Structurally an interesting story, but too short and disjointed.
“As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019)
Long after a devastating war, a country allows nuclear weapons, called for some reason “seres”, to be used only if the president personally kills a young girl. War is going on and it is not going very well. Is the president up to the task? A pretty good story, but it could not be more unsubtle in its message.
“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019)
An old Indian woman makes wonderful dolls. The governess of the region wants one, but the old wife declines as she protests the unfair rule of the British. For war related reasons the Brits later cause a more or less artificial famine. The old woman is extorted to make a doll, but she has revenge in her mind. A pretty simple revenge fantasy where the magic happens for no explained reason. The writing somehow wasn’t on the same par as the other nominees.
“Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
A slave girl kills all the females in her ”family” after the ”lord” of the house dies at war. After that deed, she gets instantly pregnant and gives birth to a child who grows up to be a redheaded teenage girl in seconds. The recently born girl - who has been dead for some time - takes charge, cleans the house, and causes the former slave to give birth to more people who all transform to adults instantly after their birth. Eventually, the all-new people form a kind of family. Another story heavy on revenge full of fantastic events happening for no reason whatsoever. The writing was pretty good.
The best story was pretty obvious. Also, the last two were not hard to find. My voting order will be:
1. “As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019)
2. “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019)
3. “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019)
4. “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019)
5. “A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019)
6. “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)
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