maharetr

Posting not on Wednesday because I finished way sooner than I thought I would, so!

“Children of Thorns, Children of Water“, by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny, Jul-Aug 2017) This was…not great. The writing was frankly not Hugo-worthy, and it felt like there were three potentially meaty, interesting ideas, any one of which would have made for an interesting novelette or novella, all wodged into one story that just didn’t have the proper space for that many. Then I hit the end of the story and it kinda sounds like an excerpt of an actual novel *makes face*. Or at least something produced as a preview of a novel. I wish they wouldn’t do that, or at least that someone would nix the piece before it made the nomination cut – it does a disservice to the actual novel work. …Apparently I have Opinions about this. I’m not sure I’d go as harsh as to actively ‘no award’ this, but I suspect I’ll be politely leaving it off my ballot.

“Extracurricular Activities“, by Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com, February 15, 2017) This was great. It’s a story set in the same world as Ninefox gambit (same author), which I didn’t twig to until about a third of the way in while I was trying to remember why Kel Company sounded so familiar... This story leaves aside the (for me) incomprehensible military strategies of this world and goes for a more straight forward “infiltrate the opposing side’s building to extract an operative” narrative. It works as a standalone, it’s tightly written, and it’s funny. It also does great things with sexuality and gender that even makes me hesitate to call it queer because it sounds like this world never bothered to name homo and hetero sexualities. There’s a non-binary character who just is, and gets referred to as them the whole story with nary a blink. Did I mention it’s funny, and the voice was great? Really liked this one, will be ranking it highly.

“The Secret Life of Bots“, by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, Sep 2017) A relatively charming story of a cleaner bot under orders to hunt out an infestation while the ship and its crew all have a Very Bad Day. The writing could be tighter, and I was left feeling vaguely like I’d read it somewhere before (possibly in the form of Wall-E for all I can remember). Wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t standout, either. *shrug*

“A Series of Steaks“, by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld, Jan 2017) Hah! A tight, original, well-done (…fine, pun intended) look at what organ and flesh printing might be like. I loved both main characters, and their predicament, and it had excellent pacing and structure and voice. Loving the bit where we have so many nbd queer characters this year. That all sounds very dry, but I’m not kidding when I say it’s battling it out for first place, I just read two more pieces before I got to sit down and write this up.

“Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time“, by K.M. Szpara (Uncanny, May-Jun 2017) A trans guy gets turned in a future where the existence of vampires and the transmission of vampirism are both known and regulated. This was really solid and pleasing, and had some heart-squeezing moments of reality of being a vampire – by the time he’ll be able to digest his family’s favourite meals again, they’ll all be centuries dead, for example. Also a great touch on what transitioning to being a vampire does to a body that has already transitioned gender.

“Wind Will Rove“, by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s, Sep-Oct 2017) So this was glorious? I was dubious about the manuscript layout, because I’m a judgey shit like that, and then I read the first page very late last night, and I just kind of inhaled with pleasure, and proceeded to read all 66 pages in one go, waaay after my lights out. This is the story of a generation ship, and what it’s like to just plain live on the ship, generation after generation of people, and what they try and remember (the touch about Titanic having both of them survive was a great detail), and what each generation does and feels differently and what it might be like to be one of the generations who will live and die on the ship, and if there’s any point to living that existence, and I fucking loved it, the end. (Also another little flag wave for nbd non-straight characters, seriously, this year has been amazing.)

Ballot. Gah, so hard, again.

1. Wind will rove

2. A series of steaks

3. Extracurricular activities

4. Small changes over a long period of time

5. The secret life of bots

Rest of ballot blank

Up next: jumping over the novellas because those are currently just samples and are often free in the voters packet come mid-May. Heading straight for the novel samples from Amazon or wherever (which I read as a way of winnowing down the to-read list into a manageable size).