Hugo Awards 2010 - novelettes: Nominees & my rankings

Official announcement at AussieCon4. Covers fiction originally published anywhere in English during 2009.

I haven't read Watts' story because of inconvenient online format. Among the rest, nothing truly outstanding, but only one dud in my book; first four are generally readable stories.

I'll put Griffith's & Stross' stories at par, arbitrarily ordered below. But see caveats with the former below.

Nominees (6 stories, best first, unread last)

If I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. For read stories, my rating is in brackets. Links on author, editor, or publisher fetch more fiction from source. Download links are included where I'm aware of an online copy.

1. Paul Cornell's "One of Our Bastards is Missing" (B); download; George Mann (ed)'s "The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three": Prussians don't want British princess to marry Swedish prince.
2. Rachel Swirsky's "Eros, Philia, Agape" (B); download; tor.com, March 2009: This android must find its own identity...
3. Nicola Griffith's "It Takes Two" (B); download; Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "Eclipse Three": Use of mind control drugs to make two woman, complete strangers, fall immediately in mad lesbian love.
   
   Caution: About a third of the story is probably best classified as soft porn.
   
   Caution: Downloaded PDF doesn't allow text copy for reformatting in a more convenient form.
4. Charles Stross' "Overtime" (B); download; tor.com, 23 December 2009; satire: Life in a British givernment office.
5. Eugie Foster's "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" (C); download text/audio; Interzone, #220 (February 2009): I once tried reading it - gave up part way through. Beginning looked like something inspired by Jack Vance's funny "The Moon Moth" - a society where it's impolite to meet someone without wearing a mask. But it's nothing like Vance's classic, & I got quickly bored.
6. Peter Watts' "The Island"; read online (no download); Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "The New Space Opera 2": Not read.

Related.

1. Other fiction categories in this year's Hugo awards: short stories, [novellas], novels.
2. Last year's Hugo awards: short stories, novelettes, novellas, novels.
   
3. Competing awards that recognize "best" fiction originally published in 2009: Nebula (US) - short stories, novelettes, novellas; Aurialis (Australian authors); BSFA (fiction published in UK); Prix/Aurora (Canada); Million Writers (global, online short fiction).
   
   Note the scope of Nebulas is 1.5 years - later half of 2008 & all of 2009. All other awards only care about 2009.
4. Anthologies that collect "best fiction originally published during 2009": Dozois', Hartwell/Cramer's, Horton's, Strahan's.
5. My "best fiction originally published during 2009, 2010" lists (also link others' best of relevant year lists at bottom).
6. "Best of" lists.
7. Fiction originally published in 2009, during 2000-2009.
   

Note: I normally update list posts like this when I read a story, find new links, etc. This post was last updated 25 April 2010.