The quality of the novellas was pretty average – in spite of that this was one of the better categories this year when most of the nominees were fairly mediocre. Three stories could be labeled as derivative works, going from Poe to noirish detective stories and fairy tales, another three (partly overlapping) were parts of a series. None of the stories were really bad, but there were just two novellas that were really tempting to read and were hard to put down. From those two I put A Mirror Mended in first place despite it being part of a series – although apparently, the series will be just these two stories, not more, as the ending had a satisfying conclusion. It was an intriguing story. The Ogres was not far behind but it was a bit more of an “ordinary” tale. After them, third place was also pretty clear even though that story belongs to a long series and is “only” the middle part of it. The last three stories were harder to put in order as they were pretty much on the same level. After some consideration, it was easy to put “Into the Riverlands” into last place. And from the last two I preferred the Chandler pastiche more than the Poe pastiche.
What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher (Tor Nightfire)
A retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher by Poe. A female (or rather someone belonging to the “Military gender”) comes to the mansion of her (or whatever the stupid made-up pronoun was - there was a long chapter of the different pronouns used in the made-up language she spoke - which had NOTHING AT ALL to do with the actual plot) friends - a brother and a sister. The sister had written a letter where she told being very ill, and it turns out she is pale and has episodes, where she is unresponsive for a long time and behaves erratically. The brother is clearly ill but he is in better condition than his sister. The building is a decaying and moldy place - there are hardly any servants anymore and it seems clear they have run out of money. They both absolutely refuse to leave the house (for ill-defined reasons). The lake near the mansion seems to be extremely dark - except at night when there seem to be strange lights beneath its surface. The animals, especially the hares nearby behave strangely, have a strange walk, and have no fear of people. The story’s plot follows very closely - too closely - to the original, except the cause of the ruin isn’t supernatural but a fungal infection (for what there was an allusion on the first pages of the story). The writing was pretty good and the story as such was nice, but it was a bit too close to the original.
Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
A supernatural “noir style” story happening in an alternate -30/40s setting where a detective, Helen, works for someone called “Marlow”. This Marlow isn’t the same as her namesake from Raymond Chandler’s works. Marlow wants to find out who is behind the strange murders that have happened. Helen has supernatural powers and is able to contact the souls of dead people after their passing. At the very bloody scene of the crime, she can’t do that - there doesn’t seem to be a soul anywhere. It turns out that the victim had sold her own soul to a demon, and the murderer is chasing people like her. And Helen is also one of them. And her soul’s “collection time” is coming in just a few days. Why should she even bother with any investigations as she will be in hell in a few days anyway? But Marlow makes an offer too good to refuse: if Helen finds who is behind the murders she will get her soul back. A story that is filled with surprising turns. The writing was very good, but in places, it felt like a Supernatural TV-series fan fiction; the world was very similar with demons, not-so-good angels, deals with demons, and even Enochian language. I wouldn't have been surprised if the Winchester brothers had turned up via a time loop or something.
Into the Riverlands, by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
A story about a cleric and his intelligent bird who travel to an alternate ancient China. It is a bit unclear why and where they are going, but they encounter a few people and journey with them, among them is a pair of women who are able to “ninja fight” and beat practically anyone. During their journey, they tell stories. Some are just short references to stories most of the company knows, and some are left more or less unfinished. They encounter some bandits and survive the encounter - and that is about everything in the story. I was a bit baffled at what was the point of this fairly fragmentary “story”. There was one strange anachronism: the characters were joking about mammoths in ancient China. Really? The fantasy content was practically non-existent if you didn’t include the sentient bird.
Ogres, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)
A young boy lives in a countryside farming village. He is a bit of a rogue and tends to do some mischief and spends a lot of time in the forest with a mixed bunch of “outlaws” who live there. One day the “ogres” who are in power arrive at the village for their yearly tribute. They will take their share, and leave the rest - if there is something left - for villagers. They hunt animals, kill egg-laying hens, and behave like they own the place - which they do. The villagers can not eat meat, as they seem to be severely allergic to it, it causes skin to blister and makes them throw up even from the slightest bite. He returns to the village. During the visit, he hits the son of the ogre who owns the village after some disagreement. He runs away to find later that his father is killed and eaten as a feast. This time he kills the son and runs away. Eventually, he is caught and sent to a female ogre for experimentation to find out why he is able to behave so violently. It turns out that the “ogres” are not the alien invaders they at first seemed to be. Eventually, the boy is now a man who leads a rebellion against the ogres. A well-written very good story where the situation was slightly (not much) different than it first seemed. There were some problems with internal logic, though. At least the village from where the main protagonist was from was “taxed” only once a year, that apparently was the standard. Where did the ogres - and humans who lived in towns or were in the ogre’s armies, get their food? And what did the people in the sweatshop factories in towns produce? For whom? There apparently was no middle class anywhere: only humans who were practically slaves and a small number of “ogres”. How did the economy work?
Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
Another installment in the “Wayward Children” -series. The series has had many recurring characters. I had to use Google to find out who was who and what was each character’s tragic “backstory”, especially who “Cora”, the main character, was and why she felt so miserable at her school. The school, Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, helps children who have slipped into their Narnia-like fantasy worlds and have returned to Earth, mostly to their chagrin. That school helps them to cope with their memories and accept what happened to them. But there is another school, one which aims to return the children to society and their homes, to make them forget what happened to them, to disbelieve everything they have experienced, and to never, ever go back. Cora wants to change schools, which is possible, at least in one direction. When she actually is at the Whitethorn institution, she finds out that it is more like a prison with a conversion therapy-like approach to weed out any fantastic feelings - like thoughts about being a mermaid - at ANY cost. But there is a friend, who has come to get Cora out of the school - at any cost - but does she even want to escape? A well-written, interesting story like the other parts of the series. The downside is that they feel pretty similar with a wide variety of characters and it is always slightly hard to remember what is the backstory of each of them. The writing was good and the story was enjoyable, but wouldn't it be time to nominate something else?
A Mirror Mended, by Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom)
The novella continues last year’s nominee A Spindle Splintered, which was a postmodern take on the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty”. The main protagonist was able to cross boundaries between universes to different tellings of that fairy tale to rescue the princess from her fate. Usually, from getting married to an unknown prince without consent. She has already rescued a fair share of them, but she is suddenly yanked to a new world, by someone who very very much looks like the evil stepmother from Snow White. How has she skipped tales? And how will she survive the threats of the evil queen who has taken her as a prisoner and demands to get away from her tale as her story is approaching the end which isn’t so happy from her point of view. They end up going through several different scenarios of the Snow White fairy tale, which sometimes seem to have intrusions from other fables. The end on an unusual retelling of the story where the “bad guy” isn’t the queen but the Snow White herself. And it seems that there will be no escaping from that version of the tale… A very good story, well written, and it is exciting and surprising while offering some redemption for one of the most famous and evil antagonists in fairy tales. No one is a bad guy in their own mind, there is usually some sensible motivation for actions - which aren’t necessarily as bad as they at first seem to be. And I liked this story even more than the first part.
My voting orders:
1. A Mirror Mended, by Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom)
2. Ogres, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)
3. Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
4. Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
5. What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher (Tor Nightfire)
6. Into the Riverlands, by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
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