Sunday, August 28, 2022

My Hugo award votes 2022. Part - Novellas

 The novellas were a fairly good category this year. The stories were mostly pretty entertaining, and there were only two novellas that felt a bit like a chore to read – and those two went to the last two places in my voting order. The four other stories were more evenly matched, and it took some thought to put them in the “right” order. Their order could almost have been any – in fact, when I checked how I did vote, I had some second thoughts on the order and I might have put at least third and fourth place the other way around.


Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)

A planet has been settled several hundreds, if not thousands, of years before by humans. It had been largely forgotten, but a group of anthropologists landed decades (or centuries) ago as there was a crisis on Earth. Most humans returned - save for one who was left “to keep up the fort”. They did not return. The anthropologist had once taken an active role to stop malfunctioning remnants of old technology from harming the inhabitants. That occurred decades ago. Now a princess approaches the base, and the anthropologist is woken from his suspended animation. There are rumors of a demon who destroys the countryside far from the central city that should be stopped. Could The Old One help? Possibly - but there is a rule of noninterference. But he had broken that rule once already. And it seems very likely that no one will ever return from Earth, so who would care? A pretty good story of how different cultures interpret reality and how languages can express only those things that are familiar. Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, but there may be things all technology cannot explain completely. A well-told story with interesting characters.  


The Past Is Red, by Catherynne M. Valente (Tordotcom)

The sea levels have risen so far that there is no land anywhere anymore. People are living on Garbagetown, a huge raft that consists of all the waste the previous generation, the Fuckwits left behind. Tetley is a girl who everyone hates and loves to torture for some poorly defined (for most of the story) reasons who lives mostly alone in a small boat floating along Garbagetown. She discusses things with other people and examines some relics the Fuckwits left behind but doesn’t really understand them. She also finds a semi-AI teaching toy that tries to connect to the internet with mostly poor success. The writing was very nice with poetic tang, and the story as such was ok, but only after I started to treat it as a surreal fantasy and not as science fiction. Science fictionally the story didn’t make any sense whatsoever. All continents would not be submerged even if every piece of ice would melt. The rubbish was conveniently sorted by type so that there were mountains of crayons or medicine bottles lying around, and there were piles of banana peels just waiting to compost (after apparently several decades). And there is a connection to Mars with no light-speed delay? Those stupidities were so irritating that this certainly will not be among my top choices.


A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)

The story happens on a moon after pollution and the robot's “uprising”. The robot had achieved sentience and decided to leave humans and stay in the woods. Apparently, at about the same time, humans decided to return to a sustainable lifestyle, and about half of the world is kept in the wild: going there isn’t strictly illegal, but is very much discouraged.

 Dex is a tea monk. They (that is the pronoun used even if it is confusing) serves tea and listens to people's troubles and acts as a kind of counselor. For some reason, they isn’t entirely satisfied with their life and can’t really sleep at night. They decides to make a pilgrimage to an abandoned sanctuary that is outside of human habitation. The roads are in bad shape, and nature is wild. Then they encounters a robot, the first any human has seen in decades or centuries. The robot’s mission is to observe humans and find out what they needs. The pair decides to travel together to the sanctuary. Eventually, through discussions, a friendship seems to form and the counselor gets some counsel of their own. A very good and well-written story, but the downside is that it is more of an introduction than a proper story. It mainly sets up the world and characters; the actual plot seems to be very much secondary to that.


Fireheart Tiger, by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)

The story happens in some sort of eastern kingdom-derived world, where two princesses have spent time together and fallen in love. They have been separated for some time. When one comes for the diplomatic mission, they meet again – with a lot of diplomatic intrigues, including a wedding proposal, while a fire elemental in the form of a beautiful young woman complicates things. Not my cup of tea: the writing was good as such, but the Jane-Austen-style (I have not read any of her books, but somehow this gives me connotations to her writing) relationship plot was pretty boring and felt silly. Not among my favorites.


A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom)

A young woman, Zinnia, suffers from a genetic disease where toxins slowly cumulate and will kill her at a young age. It is supposed to be caused by a toxic spill, and several other people have the same disease. (It is strange that a toxin has caused the exact same mutation for several people, an embryogenic toxic effect would have been so much more likely than a genetic effect, but apparently the author had no people with medical knowledge as pre-readers…).

Zinnia has always been fascinated by Sleeping Beauty and even has a degree in folktales. Her friend arranges a Sleeping-Beauty-themed 21st birthday party for her. There is even a spindle to be pricked … When she pricks her finger, she is transported to a fantasy land, where an actual picture-perfect beautiful princess is just about to prick her finger and fall asleep due to a spell cast by an evil witch. Together, the girls try to find the witch to prevent the spell, but should it be prevented? And did it have an evil intent? A fun postmodern take on a Sleeping Beauty story with active female participants. A well-written twist on the old tale.


Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)

A story that happens in the same universe as several nominated and award-winning novellas by the same author. This time, the story is not directly linked to the other stories. The main character, Regan, is a young girl who desperately wants to have friends. She follows a selfish and snotty girl almost like an over-enthusiastic puppy. She tolerates her even if she isn’t a “perfect” girl as she seems to be loyal to the extreme. Regan’s puberty seems to be delayed while the other girls start to grow breasts. She feels anxious about that and talks to her parents. It turns out that she has a condition called "androgen insensitivity," and “she” is genetically male even if her body is female. She is not supposed to go into puberty without hormone treatment (actually, in reality, those with that syndrome will go into puberty, at least they will grow breasts but will not have menses, and the vagina might be pretty underdeveloped). As she is distressed about that, she makes a mistake and tells about her condition to her “friend”. That doesn’t go well, and she is instantly bullied and abandoned. As she runs away, she finds a door. After she goes through the door, she finds a world filled with magical creatures, including, among others, centaurs who herd unicorns. The centaurs know that a human who appears in their world means there is some danger that needs defeating. And the human must be taken to the queen – but it is not defined WHEN. So Regan lives years with the centaurs and forms a deep friendship, a real friendship, with a young centaur. But there eventually comes a time when she must face her destiny … A well-written and good story that benefitted from not being an integral part of the series. There was no need to try to remember which character was which and what their storyline and background were. A sad (or is it?) ending, though.  



Best Novella

1. A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom)

2. Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)

3. A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)

4. Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)

5. The Past Is Red, by Catherynne M. Valente (Tordotcom)

6. Fireheart Tiger, by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)


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