Reading the Hugos (and Nebulas) 2022 - Novelettes

 

Novelette Nominees

Reviews

“Bots of the Lost Ark” by Suzanne Palmer

Hugo Nominee (Clarkesworld, Jun 2021)

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very enjoyable SF story about a ship and its bots with Murderbot-like characters and humor and Terry Pratchett-like use of English... (yes, those are big compliments) (I get the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" reference, but I don't remember enough of the movie to appreciate it) 

Quotes: 

• "...we will all be relieved of the burden of worrying about any and all of our functions thereafter"  
• "Though the trouble the bots had gotten up to over the last sixty-eight years could objectively be said to have undone much of the appreciation they’d once been owed."

Tags: ai, humor

“Colors of the Immortal Palette”, by Caroline M. Yoachim

Hugo & Nebula Nominee (Uncanny Magazine, Mar/Apr 2021)

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Well written, artsy, complicated, philosophical historical fiction. No, don't think Twilight. This one is about art, time, grief, being a minority/an outsider-an immigrant, a woman, a vampire. I enjoyed the many references to well-known painters - Manet, Monet, Morisot, Cassat, Chiura Obata etc. and the short story's structure-the pigment named sections.  

Quotes:

• "It’s too complicated, muddled—like mixing too many colors, overworking the paint."
• "I want to be the artist, not the art."
• (the probably unoriginal but forever relevant) "nothing is so precious as time" 
• "An art collector is hoarding time. Time spent by the artist applying paint to the canvas, yes. But there is more to it than that. Each successive painting contains something of the time that went into all the previous canvases, not to mention the time spent studying, practicing. And the art holds other time as well—the model that sits for the painting, holding a pose for hours on end. Time that she has devoted, perhaps, to keeping a certain figure, or creating an appealing hairstyle."

Tags: vampire, historical

“L’Esprit de L’Escalier” by Catherynne M. Valente 

Hugo Nominee (Tordotcom)

⭐⭐ Before beginning to read the story I was already inclined to like it. I was intrigued by the title (I initially thought replacing "d'escalier" with "de L'Escalier" was intentional and it would be explained... I didn't get the explanation in case there was one...), the short description advertised a Greek myth retelling "In this provocative and rich retelling of the Greek myth, Orpheus... successfully rescues his wife Eurydice..." exploring an alternate history. I probably should have been wary of the words "provocative" and "rich". The story is a modern-day setting (after 1984) of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in horror key. Interestingly written (mostly) (I dislike phrases like "Sunlight from the kitchen windows creeps in and sits guiltily at her feet like a neglected cat." and occasional overuse of adjectives), insightful, but raw, disturbing, and very sad.

Quotes:

• “Why didn’t you turn around?” Eurydice whispers. Orpheus tells the truth. “I knew you were there, baby. I never doubted it for a minute.” “You didn’t know. You assumed I was there. Behind you. Like I’d always been there. Behind you. You couldn’t even imagine that I might not do as I was told, that I might not be where you wanted me to be, the moment you wanted it.
• "Orpheus saw himself as he knew he could be reflected back at him in that heated, shimmering stare. He wanted it. He wanted that ease forever. He wanted himself as she saw him."

Tags: greek-myth-retelling, alternate history, zombie

“O2 Arena”, by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki 

Hugo & Nebula Nominee (Galaxy’s Edge, Nov 2021)

⭐ This is, in my opinion, the typical politically correct nominee. It's written by a disabled Nigerian author and it's a dystopia that deals with global warming, (I quote) "...disability and various health maladies in a broken system with poor or no healthcare. A system that’s failed thoroughly and forced people into a death match in the hopeless arena of life, leaving them to struggle viciously and alone, for the very air in their lungs." where the "hopeless arena of life" and the "death match" are not metaphors. I'm all for work of arts lobbying for certain values but I'd prefer said works to be also entertaining - not just transparent/moralistic social commentaries.

Quotes:

• "What was our daily reality? You had to pay to breathe. Since the global warming crisis..."

Tags: dystopia

“That Story Isn’t the Story”, by John Wiswell 

Hugo & Nebula Nominee (Uncanny Magazine, Nov/Dec 2021)

⭐⭐ This is a story about overcoming trauma, trauma caused, in this case, by a forever-off-the-screen-vampire... The fact that the abuser is a vampire (instead of a pedophile or pimp) is not, in my opinion, relevant... but it is the cause of many disgusting descriptions of bleeding vampire bites. 

Tags: vampire, lgbtq+

“Unseelie Brothers, Ltd.”, by Fran Wilde 

Hugo & Nebula Nominee (Uncanny Magazine, May/Jun 2021)

⭐⭐ Enjoyable fantasy based on the "The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday" trope - in this interpretation, a magical ball-gowns shop. Beautiful descriptions of the dresses. I wonder what the "unseelie" in the title stands for... is it from "unseal?"

Tags: the-little-shop-that-wasn't-there-yesterday

“Just Enough Rain”, by PH Lee 

Nebula Nominee (Giganotosaurus 5/21)

⭐⭐⭐⭐ My favorite of the novelette nominees for both the Hugo & the Nebula awards... The genre is, I believe, humorous fantasy (think Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, or Neil Gaiman's Chivalry in Christian key) (and I mean it-God is an actively (and physically) present character). It's neither monumental nor life-changing but oh-so-well-written (mostly dialogue, with true-to-life characters... including the supernatural ones - God and the unnamed Angle) and entertaining. I'm officially a PH Lee fan - even before checking their other work. 

Tags: gods, jewish, butterfly, humor

“(emet)”, by Lauren Ring

Nebula Nominee (F&SF 7–8/21)

⭐⭐ A Jewish software engineer with the capacity to create golems, finally decides to act against the unethical company (Millbank aka "Evil, Inc" (see trope)) that hires her. I like the employee-golem ("not even a cog in a machine, she’s just a drop of oil that helps the cog turn" vs "A golem will do exactly what you tell it to do. Nothing more, nothing less.") parallel and the section titles "detection",  "alignment", "extraction", "comparison" and "recognition" - they are (or, fittingly sound like) stages in an image recognition algorithm). Also, the idea of golems controlled through apps is original, but something felt off about the story - I'm not sure what - may be the style, or small nonsensical details (why create new golems every day and destroy them at dusk... does she really throw a piece of satin in the river for every destroyed golem? "watching the satin flutter away in the current").

Tags: golem, evil-inc, jewish