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The court magician by Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed, January 2018, 3160 words) Oh my GOD. This is horrifying and compulsive, and a hell of a way to start off the short story reading list. Good god. It’s somewhat disingenuous maybe to start off the list saying ‘highly ranked!’ but…I’m anticipating putting it high.
The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine 25, November-December 2018) Oh my god, I say in an entirely different tone. This was hilarious and charming and I’m still snickering despite myself. I keep telling myself that I’ll judge Vernon’s work harsher because I’ve already voted for her lots, and she’s won lots. And I do critique her sentences, and then she goes and does that, and I’m so charmed.
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djèlí Clark (Fireside Magazine, February 2018) This story is written with that utter assuredness that makes writing look effortless, and speaks with the assuredness that between one breath (or sentence) and the next, it made me inhale in that electric: 'yes, of course it happened like that.' And looking back over the list of finalists, all of them are *good* this year, but it's this story that takes a known thing (that George Washington had dentures of teeth taken from the mouths of the people he owned), and gives it that little (again, it feels little, effortless, an of course) push, that twist to make it into something actually Hugo-worthy above the rest: speculative and unique. It's going to the top of my ballot for that.
STET by Sarah Gailey (Fireside Magazine, October 2018) This feels like both an inspired use of format (academic article, and the discussion between author and editor in footnotes) and one that could be…tighter? More of a reveal? Looking beyond the fantastic use of format, I feel like any questions I might have had were mostly answered in the opening lines of comment text box, and not much more was revealed in the closing lines. Actually, leaving that final comment box with a flashing cursor, so we don't know the article author's response would have tipped it into being sublime. As it is, I'm left sad at the lost potential.
The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat by Brooke Bolander (Uncanny Magazine 23, July-August 2018) The title* reads like a Tingle puppy pick, and yet, the writing, man. It's ludicrious, and yet somewhere in there it slid under my skin and into suspension of disbelief and into a cacklingly-good read. I freaking love Bolander, and I'm looking forward to buying her finalist novelette.
A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow (Apex Magazine, February 2018) A white 30s-something librarian witch white-saviours a black at-risk teenager. Did acknowledging its problematic-ness in the text remove the the problem? No. Was it well written? Yes, for the most part. Is it Hugo-worthy? Not really. Did I love it with a heart-squeezing passion, and would I read a trilogy of it? *hides face* Yes.
Current ballot for Short Stories
1. The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington
2. The court magician
3. The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat
4. The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society
5. STET
6. A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies
The court magician by Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed, January 2018, 3160 words) Oh my GOD. This is horrifying and compulsive, and a hell of a way to start off the short story reading list. Good god. It’s somewhat disingenuous maybe to start off the list saying ‘highly ranked!’ but…I’m anticipating putting it high.
The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine 25, November-December 2018) Oh my god, I say in an entirely different tone. This was hilarious and charming and I’m still snickering despite myself. I keep telling myself that I’ll judge Vernon’s work harsher because I’ve already voted for her lots, and she’s won lots. And I do critique her sentences, and then she goes and does that, and I’m so charmed.
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djèlí Clark (Fireside Magazine, February 2018) This story is written with that utter assuredness that makes writing look effortless, and speaks with the assuredness that between one breath (or sentence) and the next, it made me inhale in that electric: 'yes, of course it happened like that.' And looking back over the list of finalists, all of them are *good* this year, but it's this story that takes a known thing (that George Washington had dentures of teeth taken from the mouths of the people he owned), and gives it that little (again, it feels little, effortless, an of course) push, that twist to make it into something actually Hugo-worthy above the rest: speculative and unique. It's going to the top of my ballot for that.
STET by Sarah Gailey (Fireside Magazine, October 2018) This feels like both an inspired use of format (academic article, and the discussion between author and editor in footnotes) and one that could be…tighter? More of a reveal? Looking beyond the fantastic use of format, I feel like any questions I might have had were mostly answered in the opening lines of comment text box, and not much more was revealed in the closing lines. Actually, leaving that final comment box with a flashing cursor, so we don't know the article author's response would have tipped it into being sublime. As it is, I'm left sad at the lost potential.
The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat by Brooke Bolander (Uncanny Magazine 23, July-August 2018) The title* reads like a Tingle puppy pick, and yet, the writing, man. It's ludicrious, and yet somewhere in there it slid under my skin and into suspension of disbelief and into a cacklingly-good read. I freaking love Bolander, and I'm looking forward to buying her finalist novelette.
A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow (Apex Magazine, February 2018) A white 30s-something librarian witch white-saviours a black at-risk teenager. Did acknowledging its problematic-ness in the text remove the the problem? No. Was it well written? Yes, for the most part. Is it Hugo-worthy? Not really. Did I love it with a heart-squeezing passion, and would I read a trilogy of it? *hides face* Yes.
Current ballot for Short Stories
1. The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington
2. The court magician
3. The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat
4. The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society
5. STET
6. A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies
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