Reading the Hugos: Novelette

Welcome to another edition of Reading the Hugos! Today we're going to take a look at the Novelettes, a category which none of the stories I nominated made the final ballot. Of course, this is as good of a time as any to note that I only nominated one story (Matt Wallace's "Small Wars") and the odds were not in my favor.

I'll get a bit more into this when I talk about the specific story in question, but Novelette is the only category this year which includes a finalist from the Rabid Puppy Slate (see here for the slate and the impact) put there with the sole purpose of the slaters being dicks and attempting to embarrass Worldcon and people who care about the Hugo Awards. I almost described this as a "troll job", but the Rabid Puppies, but I didn't want to gild the lily. They're being dicks, and deliberately so. Most of the Rabid Puppy nominations were self serving: Castalia House works, authors, editors, blogs, and friends of the movement. Then, there are some works that could have (and perhaps would have) made the ballot without any help: China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, Deadpool. Finally, there is Alien Stripper Boned From Behind by the T-Rex, by Stix Hiscock - because the Rabid Puppies just can't have enough dinosaur porn when they decide to urinate in someone else's pool because they just can't let some things go.

Anyway, on to the stories!


Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex, by Stix Hiscock (self-published)
“The Art of Space Travel”, by Nina Allan (Tor.com, July 2016)
The Jewel and Her Lapidary, by Fran Wilde (Tor.com, May 2016)
“The Tomato Thief”, by Ursula Vernon (Apex Magazine, January 2016)
“Touring with the Alien”, by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2016)
“You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay”, by Alyssa Wong (Uncanny Magazine, May 2016)


Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex: It isn't quite fair to talk about Alien Stripper Bone From Behind by the T-Rex as to how it relates to a story on the Hugo ballot last year, but in this case I think it is pertinent. Last year the Rabid Puppies were were responsible for getting Chuck Tingle's Space Raptor Butt Invasion on the ballot in the Short Story category for no better reason than they wanted to embarrass the folks who care about the Hugo Awards by nominating science fiction dinosaur porn. It mostly backfired due to Chuck Tingle's delightful response and continued trolling of the Rabid Puppies (though the story remaining on the ballot will be a stain on the history of the Hugo Awards). So - they tried again this year with more science fiction dinosaur porn and once again managed to get it on the ballot. This isn't award worthy science fiction by anyone's definition. I could make an argument that in the other categories the Rabid Puppies managed to place a finalist, they do honestly think the work is strong and worthy, but given that they've repeatedly stated they don't care about the Hugo Awards, I know that's not necessarily the case. But this, this is another stain on the Hugo Awards because in twenty years when people who have no idea who the Rabid Puppies were or why they possibly mattered for a blip of time look at the past finalists to see what people thought were some of the best stories of 2016, "Alien Stripped Boned From Behind By The T-Rex" will be there. I don't know that it is bad story for the erotica it is intended to be. I'm not the audience for it, so I can't judge it on its own merits in its intended sphere. But as a science fiction story and a finalist for the Hugo Award? Sigh.

No Award: As a general rule, I use No Award in a very surgical manner. I understand that not every work is to my personal taste and that simply because I do not like something does not mean that it is inherently bad or unworthy of a Hugo Award. I may prefer that something else would win and that a particular work was not on the ballot, but again, that does make the work bad. Unfortunately, there are also instances where my subjective view is that the work is so bad that it is also objectively bad and unworthy of receiving (or being considered for) an award. There may also be examples of a work being so bad it comes out the other side and is somehow entertaining.  In both of these instances No Award will be used.

The Jewel and Her Lapidary: I had previously read The Jewel and Her Lapidary as part of my reading of all everything put out by Tor.com Publishing and, as short as this is, I put the book down after only a few pages. Nothing about the tone and the writing connected and it felt like a complete waste. Had I left it there, this would have been listed behind No Award. Given a second chance, I appreciated the story a whole lot more. I think my failed first attempt was a situation of picking up the book at the wrong time. This time was better, though not nearly on the level of any of the other legitimate finalists on this ballot. I don't quite understand the adulation for The Jewel and Her Lapidary.

Touring with the Alien: Want to take an alien on a road trip? How about an alien that is intelligent, but not conscious? How about with the alien's translator, who is human but is also almost a separate species? There's a lot of cool stuff in this story and it was a near thing whether I was going to place "Touring with the Alien" just above "The Tomato Thief" or just after. What I most appreciated about "Touring with the Alien" is how the alien was treated as something completely "alien", as something completely other an incomprehensible. It also helps that because of this, we are always left wondering if perhaps the aliens really is conscious and making more nefarious plans and is using humanity.

The Tomato Thief: The world needs far more Grandma Harken in it (she was also in "Jackalope Wives". "The Tomato Thief" lives on the voice and the character of Grandma Harken, a woman who has seen and done it all and she's had enough of whoever is stealing her tomatoes - except discovering the culprit opens up an entirely different adventure where Grandma Harken tries to improve someone else's situation. It's a journey through a fascinating mythology. Vernon's writing is so smooth and her command of Harken's voice is so strong that every moment spent with Harken is an absolute delight. I could have happily spent a full novella with Harken.

The Art of Space Travel: This is a story of family and history and one woman finally understanding who her father is. Some thirty years after a failed manned mission to Mars, a second mission is about to launch. Two of the astronauts are staying at the hotel Emily works at. The Mars mission is more of a framing device for the story, but it forms the a push for Emily to think more deeply about her family's past. Her mother was an investigator for the tragedy of the first mission and she wonders if her father might have been one of the astronauts who died. But, perhaps that is just the wish for one's father to be more important and to have had a better reason to have stayed away. "The Art of Space Travel" may be light on speculative elements, but it is a simply excellent story.

You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay: With only nine published stories to her name I do not hesitate to say that Alyssa Wong is one of the best short story writers working today. "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay" puts a stamp on that burgeoning legacy. This is a story of the West, of the desert, of a deep friendship, of identity, of family, and of an intense magic that draws visitors from out of town with questionable intentions. With Wong's note perfect prose and storytelling, the reader is drawn in deep to this raw and tense story. This is the best story in an overall strong category.


My Ballot
1. You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay
2. The Art of Space Travel
3. The Tomato Thief
4. Touring with the Alien
5. The Jewel and Her Lapidary
6. No Award


Our previous coverage:
Novella 
Short Story
Graphic Story


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Cover Art by Julia Lloyd

Allan, Nina. The Race [Titan, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

A child is kidnapped with consequences that extend across worlds… A writer reaches into the past to discover the truth about a possible murder… Far away a young woman prepares for her mysterious future…

In a future scarred by fracking and ecological collapse, Jenna Hoolman lives in the coastal town of Sapphire. Her world is dominated by the illegal sport of smartdog racing: greyhounds genetically modified with human DNA. When her young niece goes missing that world implodes... Christy’s life is dominated by fear of her brother, a man she knows capable of monstrous acts and suspects of hiding even darker ones. Desperate to learn the truth she contacts Alex, a stranger she knows only by name, and who has his own demons to fight… And Maree, a young woman undertaking a journey that will change her world forever.

The Race weaves together story threads and realities to take us on a gripping and spellbinding journey…

Why We Want It: Originally published by the smaller Newcon Press in 2014, The Race received a significant amount of buzz for how good it was. Now it is receiving a larger publication push from Titan, so we'll all get the chance to read it.

Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Don Sipley, Design by Lauren Panepinto

Carriger, Gail. Imprudence [Orbit, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Rue and the crew of the Spotted Custard return from India with revelations that shake the foundations of England's scientific community. Queen Victoria is not amused, the vampires are tetchy, and something is wrong with the local werewolf pack. To top it all off, Rue's best friend Primrose keeps getting engaged to the most unacceptable military types.

Rue has family problems as well. Her vampire father is angry, her werewolf father is crazy, and her obstreperous mother is both. Worst of all, Rue's beginning to suspect what they really are... is frightened.

Why We Want It: I may be a touch behind on my Gail Carriger reading, having only read the first two books of The Parasol Protectorate and Imprudence is the second volume of the sequel series The Custard Protocol. But Carriger's novels of Victorian era manners, steampunk, and urban fantasy are simply not to be missed and the publication of Imprudence serves to remind me that I simply need to get cracking.

Cover Artist Unknown

Higgins, C.A. Supernova [Del Rey, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

C. A. Higgins’s acclaimed novel Lightless fused suspenseful storytelling, high-caliber scientific speculation, and richly developed characters into a stunning science fiction epic. Now the dazzling Supernova heightens the thrills and deepens the haunting exploration of technology and humanity—and the consequences that await when the two intersect.

Once Ananke was an experimental military spacecraft. But a rogue computer virus transformed it—her—into something much more: a fully sentient artificial intelligence, with all the power of a god—and all the unstable emotions of a teenager.

Althea, the ship’s engineer and the last living human aboard, nearly gave her life to save Ananke from dangerous saboteurs, forging a bond as powerful as that between mother and daughter. Now she devotes herself completely to Ananke’s care. But teaching a thinking, feeling machine—perhaps the most dangerous force in the galaxy—to be human proves a monumental challenge. When Ananke decides to seek out Matthew Gale, the terrorist she regards as her father, Althea learns that some bonds are stronger than mortal minds can understand—or control.

Drawn back toward Earth by the quest, Althea and Ananke will find themselves in the thick of a violent revolution led by Matthew’s sister, the charismatic leader Constance, who will stop at nothing to bring down a tyrannical surveillance state. As the currents of past decisions and present desires come into stark collision, a new and fiery future is about to be born.

Why We Want It: I reviewed Lightless back in March and found it a delightfully good science fiction novel. Though Lightless worked as a complete story on its own, I am very much into seeing what else Higgins does with this setting.

Cover Artist Unkown

Rowling, J.K., Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two [Scholastic, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London's West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Why We Want It: While there is a "Definitive Edition" coming early next year, I don't know if I'll be able to hold off reading the "Special Rehearsal Script Edition" because, come on! It's a new and official Harry Potter story! Reading the script is as close as I'm going to come to seeing the play for any number of years. New Harry Potter!

Cover Art by Les Edwards

Strahan, Jonathan (editor). Drowned Worlds [Solaris, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

We live in a time of change. The Anthropecene Age - the time when human-induced climate change radically reshapes the world - is upon us.  Sea water is flooding the streets of Florida, island nations are rapidly disappearing beneath the waves, the polar icecaps are a fraction of what they once were, and distant, exotic places like Australia are slowly baking in the sun.

Drowned Worlds asks over a dozen of the top science fiction and fantasy writers working today to look to the future, to ask how will we survive? Do we face a period of dramatic transition and then a new technology-influenced golden age, or a long, slow decline?  Swim the drowned streets of Boston, see Venice disappear beneath the waves, meet a woman who's turned herself into a reef, traverse the floating garbage cities of the Pacific, search for the elf stones of Antarctica, and spend time in the new, dark Dust Bowl of the American mid-west.  See the future for what it is: challenging, exciting, filled with adventure, and more than a little disturbing.

Whether here on Earth or elsewhere in our universe, Drowned Worlds give us a glimpse of a new future, one filled with romance and adventure, all while the oceans rise...

Why We Want It: I'm a sucker for any number of things, but included in that epically long list are anthologies from Jonathan Strahan, the literary destruction of our world, and giant floods. Drowned Worlds is just what I'm looking for, isn't it?

Cover Artist Unknown

VanderMeer, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (editors). The Big Book of Science Fiction [Vintage, 2016]
Publisher's Blurb

Quite possibly the greatest science fiction collection of all time—past, present, and future!

What if life was neverending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the pope were a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-have anthology showcases classic contributions from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia E. Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut, alongside a century of the eccentrics, rebels, and visionaries who have inspired generations of readers. Within its pages, you’ll find beloved worlds of space opera, hard SF, cyberpunk, the New Wave, and more. Learn about the secret history of science fiction, from titans of literature who also wrote SF to less well-known authors from more than twenty-five countries, some never before translated into English. In The Big Book of Science Fiction, literary power couple Ann and Jeff VanderMeer transport readers from Mars to Mechanopolis, planet Earth to parts unknown. Immerse yourself in the genre that predicted electric cars, space tourism, and smartphones. Sit back, buckle up, and dial in the coordinates, as this stellar anthology has got worlds within worlds.

Including:
· Legendary tales from Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin
· An unearthed sci-fi story from W. E. B. Du Bois
· The first publication of the work of cybernetic visionary David R. Bunch in twenty years
· A rare and brilliant novella by Chinese international sensation Cixin Liu

Plus:
· Aliens!
· Space battles!
· Robots!
· Technology gone wrong!
· Technology gone right!

Why We Want It: Some 750,000 words and 1200 pages of science fiction goodness curated by the VanderMeers. One hundred years of science fiction, with fiction from some of the legends of SF as well as works being translated into English for the first time. This is a must read.


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004. Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan.