Monday, April 23, 2012

Hugo awards 2012 - short stories: Nominees & my rankings

Official announcement.

Covers short stories originally published during 2011.

One of the stories is a novel excerpt rather than an independent story. I didn't read it. I was not even aware novel excerpts are eligible.
5 May 2012: OK - I now understand it's mean to an April Fool's joke - the prologue to an imaginary novel series.

Three of the stories were also on Nebula list this year.

List below is in order of my preference - best first, unread last. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on title goes there. All stories are online, & I've included the links. Links on author or publisher fetch more matching fiction.
  1. Mike Resnick's "The Homecoming" (B); download; Asimov's, April/May: Son is visiting parents after being away for over a decade, & he's a very changed man. Dad is very angry, mom is now amnesic. How will the reunion go?

    Decent read, if you are in the right mood. It's an emotional story.
  2. Nancy Fulda's "Movement" (B); download text & audio; Asimov's, March: Life of a girl inflicted with "temporal autism".

    Nominated for Nebula award 2011 in short story category.
  3. E Lily Yu's "The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees" (B); download text/audio; Clarkesworld, April: Wasps colonize bees territory. Imaginative but with lousy ending.

    Colorful, but I was very disappointed with the ending.

    Nominated for Nebula award 2011 in short story category. Collected in Rich Horton (ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2012".
  4. Ken Liu's "The Paper Menagerie" (B); download; F&SF, March/April: Emotional & sad story of a Chinese peasant girl - losing her parents, being sold as a slave to a Hong Kong household, being sold as a "wife" to an American man, & finally being rejected by her American son who disliked his Chinese origins.

    Nominated for Nebula award 2011 in short story category.
  5. John Scalzi's "Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue"; download; Tor.com: Not read.

Related.

  1. All Hugo award winners & nominees.
  2. Other awards for short fiction originally published during 2011: Nebula, BSFA.
  3. Fiction originally published during 2011.
  4. My "best of 2011".
  5. "Best of" lists

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