Tony Ballantyne's "Rondo code" (flash fiction, computer programming, free): A technique to write correct code

The story itself is minor; I'm making a separate post for it only because I'm a programmer.

Story summary.

Ms Ada Byron is explaining to Mr Leibniz, a journalist, the origins of her invention - the "Rondo code", a technique to write computer programs whose correctness can be verified intuitively. She noticed the kids in her programming class had problems understanding looping & branching, so she wondered why programs could not be written as music. So she figured out a way to transform Western classical musical pieces to a precise form the machine can understand. So presumably her pupils can now intuitively recognize if a
program is correct by listening to it rather than painfully debugging the text in conventional code.

Notes.

1. I had a feeling inspiration for this story might have come from Doughlas Hofstadter's famous non-fiction book, "Godel, Eicher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid".

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 6 June 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Tony Ballantyne.

Linda Nagata's "Out in the Dark" (short story, reincarnation): When presumed dead for 30 years returns...

In a world where brain dump is normal & human body can be easily manufactured in lab, travel to other planets of Sol is by leaving your body in cold storage here, sending your brain dump electronically there, & setting it up in a custom made body "husk" at destination.

But law requires that only one body of an individual can be animated at a time; if two are found, the one animated later must be destroyed.

This is the story of complications: Someone is presumed dead in accident, though body is never recovered. She's legally reanimated in a new body with an earlier brain dump at her parents request, & has been living a normal life. Now, 30 years later, the presumed dead has returned...

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, June 2013.
Rating: B.

Thomas Olde Heuvelt's "The Boy Who Cast No Shadow" (novelette, free)

The best I've seen so far among this year's Hugo nominees, though still far short of being great. An easy read, but may be a bit too long.

Caution: There are a couple of episodes late in the story of homosexual encounters.

Story summary.

Two male teenagers with peculiar bodies - one who neither casts a shadow nor gets a reflection in the mirror, irrespective of lighting conditions; other made of glass! And they get bullied & teased by their peers because of their differences. This is the story of their coming to terms with their differences.

Fact sheet.

First published: ? (as "De jongen die geen schaduw wierp" in Dutch)
Online mobi copy of the story contains this note: "Winner of the €750 Paul Harland Award ’09 for best Dutch story of the Fantastic". So originally published no later than 2009.
Download full text of English translation by Laura Vroomen from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2013 in novelette category (perhaps the English translation was first published last year?)

"Analog Science Fiction and Fact", January/February 2013 (ed Stanley Schmidt) (magazine): Annotated table of contents & review

This post covers only fiction in this issue. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there. Link on an author fetches more fiction by author. My rating is in brackets.

Table of contents (best first).

1. [ss] John G Hemry's "The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter 18: The Sergeant-Major" (A); satire, fanfic: An episode from "The War of the Worlds" (download) that Mr H G Wells failed to write.
2. [novella] Rajnar Vajra's "The Woman Who Cried Corpse" (B): Corpse of a woman has vanished from hospital, victim's daughter is accused of her murder by police, & a gang of badmen are after the daughter. What's cooking?
3. [novelette] Kyle Kirkland's "True to Form" (B): In a world of humans & androids that are easy to recognize as such, someone has figured out a way to creates androids that can pass as humans & is breeding them at will, outside of society's controls.
4. [ss] Jerry Oltion's "In the Moment" (B): Romance in the backdrop of a celestial event.
5. [ss] H G Stratmann's "Neighborhood Watch" (B): Keeping nosy humans out is a pain!
6. [novelette] Amy Thompson's "Buddha Nature" (B): Yet another "robot wants to be accepted by a temple as a worshiper" story. In this case, robot wants to be accepted as an acolyte by a Buddhist monastery.
   
   I've read may be a half dozen stories of the kind, so there was no novelty value. But it's an ok read.
7. [novelette] Brad R Torgersen's "The Exchange Officers" (B): An episode in a US/China war.
8. [novelette] Robert Scherrer's "Descartes's Stepchildren" (B): What if some people are biologically incapable of conscientious behavior?
9. [novella] Edward M Lerner's "Time Out" (B): A reclusive mad scientist is building a time machine. Story is told through the eyes of his assistant. By the end of the story, we'll be told why time travel is undesirable.
   
   This might have been an ok read at may be flash fiction length. At novella length, it was just plain boring. A rehash of many themes in time travel that have each been already done to death.

Related: Fiction from Astounding/Analog; whole issues only.

Thomas Pierce's "Shirley Temple Three" (short story, mammoths, free)

Tommy runs a TV show on prehistoric beasts. His team somehow brings to life a prehistoric beast, & he does the show with that.

A mess at the show, & he's left with a "Bread Island Dwarf Mammoth", a cousin of wooly mammoth, to hide. And he hides it at the home of his "Mawmaw". Title is the name Tommy & his mawmaw have given to the mammoth.

Story is mostly troubles & emotions of mawmaw keeping the animal out of its time happy, & of her relationship with her difficult son.

Fact sheet.

First published: The New Yorker, 24 December 2012.
Download full text from publisher's site. [via QuasarDragon]
Author elaborates on the story background in this talk with Cressida Leyshon.
Rating: B. 

Stories from "Nature" magazine, August 2012 issues

5 stories of flash fiction length, all online. I didn't find anything really noteworthy here, though I liked the first two (Meikle's & Morris') better then the rest.

1. 30 August: William Meikle's "Growth" (B); download: When the sun dimmed suddenly, food rather than global warming was the problem. A man experimenting with a fast growing fungus that liked cold dark places suddenly was in high demand. Will he be a savior of the the world?
2. 23 August: Freya Morris' "The write rules" (B); download: Thought police in a world of universal connectivity via implants, where all thoughts are online, & are monitored & censored by government. And writing on paper - thoughts that cannot be monitored - is sedition.
3. 16 August: Sue Lange's "Tige is the man" (B); download: A party in a smart house of future. Where mind reading & mind-networking is the norm. Crowd at the party is playing a dare game where each person downs his "shield" so everybody can see what he really thinks of them.
4. 9 August: Luc Reid's "Ways to enjoy Nutrient Blend 14" (C); download: Description of a world where everyone uses augmented reality gadgets. I don't really understand how people go about safely in a world where there senses don't tell them about the environment - a small room looks bigger, so how come you don't bump into a wall? 
5. 2 August: Polenth Blake's "Dead meat" (C); download: Look it up only if you have a taste in gory stuff. A woman has been building art gallries out of meat, animal & human - animate & with real blood that keeps oozing out!

Related: Stories from Nature magazine.

Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling's "Loco" (short story, weird physics, free)

Look this up only if you're into the really weird - with a lot of jargon. The only redeeming part I saw here, & the reason I'm writing this post, is a kind of robot I've not seen in fiction before - "folded" out of special flexible sheet material, & capable of shape shifting (automatic re-folding) based on application.

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, 20 June 2012.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: C.
Related: Stories of Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling.

Ken Liu's "The Five Elements of the Heart Mind" (short story, free): What's better - technology assisted living or natural one?

Most of it is very good read. Bits of later parts somewhat spoiled it for me, though - evil colonists introduced into a great fantasy.

Story summary.

A spaceshipwreck survivor somehow manages to land on an unexplored world. And discovers it's not exactly unexplored...

Fact sheet.

First published: Lightspeed, January 2012.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Ken Liu.

Cory Doctorow's "I, Robot" (novelette, free): When North America was a police state

This is may be the most readable short fiction I've seen from author so far. Suspension of belief becomes much harder towards later parts of the story, but first two thirds is great.

Story summary.

This is the story of Arturo, a policeman in North America ("UNATS"), & his difficult relationship with his teenager daughter Ada. As a consequence of their conflict, we get to see the police state of "UNATS" (North America).

Fact sheet.

First published: The Infinite Matrix, 15 February 2005.
Download full text from publisher's site, Feedbooks. [via John@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: A.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2006 in novelette category.
Nominated for BSFA Award 2005 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Cory Doctorow.

Alastair Reynolds' "Scales" (short story, war, free): On mindlessness of war

Actually, it's mostly quite readable nonsense, provided you're comfortable with phrases like "N-dimensional tangle of interconnected wormhole pathways", "an artificial construct actually embedded in the tangle, floating on a semi-stable node like a dark thrombosis", "reality stack", ...

See also.

1. Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War": Conceptually the same idea - futility of war, since after a while, no one remembers what the war was about. But Haldeman's is a far more interesting story.

Fact sheet.

First published: guardian.co.uk, July 2009, as a podcast.
Download full text from Lightspeed. [via Best Science Fiction Stories]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Alastair Reynolds.

"Clarkesworld", #60 (September 2011) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Whole issue is online. This post is about fiction in the issue. Two stories, both minor - though Mellor's is at least readable if you have some experience reading science fiction.

Table of contents (only fiction, best first).

1. Greg Mellor's "Signals in the Deep" (B); download: Main thread is about a mother & her teenager son - their estrangement & then coming together. In the background of mysterious alien signal stations in outer Sol & a lot of techno-babble (designer babies, cyborgs, solar sail, ...).
2. Robert Reed's "Pack" (C); download text/audio: Cannot make out the head or tail of it. A pack of dogs seems to conning (hunting?) a man with the help of a woman (witch?).

Related: Fiction from Clarkesworld.

Jung Heeja's "To the Children of Earth" (novelette, colonialism, free)

I find this story interesting, in spite of 2 major flaws:

1. Either the translation is bad, or it's penned in English by someone starting out in the language. It's not explicitly mentioned if it is a translation (original Korean), but it feels like one.
2. Story telling feels rather mundane. Or that too could be translator's fault.

Reasons I found it interesting:

1. While there are many genre stories in English that deal with colonialism, majority seems penned by Westerners. Also, the treatment here felt ... somehow ... modern.
2. It's the first story I've read by a Korean author.

Story is about a hopeless galaxy-wide dissidence movement against Merwin colonization of earth. (Merwins are an alien race).

Fact sheet.

First published: Crossroads, October 2007.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Robert Silverberg's "The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn" (novelette, free): Bringing history to life

I haven't read a lot of Silverberg, but what I've read so far has been grim. This, by contrast, is a very light read - latest in author's "Majipoor" series. Appears to move slowly, but actually is moving pretty fast.

Story summary.

On a world called Majipoor, colonized thousands of years ago by humans when it already had its "aboriginals", & over the years supplanted by other space faring alien colonists, two young university teachers get a job of a life time: Simmilgord, the historian, to authenticate that a mythical hero of antiquity actually lived in a certain town, & his friend Lutiel Vengifrons, an archaeologist, to excavate the artifacts allegedly associated with this hero.

We get to see the contrasting characters of the two, plus some other realistic characters.

Fact sheet.

First published: Subterranean Online, Winter 2011.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2011" list.
Related: Stories of Robert Silverberg.

Ramnath R Iyer's "The Forgotten Future" (short story, virtual reality, free)

This one is only for those with a taste for stories where all characters are entities inside a computer simulation.

I keep getting puzzled why some Indian authors are shy of using characters with Indian names. John & Sue in this story could as well have been Kumar & Sarita!

Story summery.

Couple of hundred years down the line, humanity has generally shut itself in a VR world by directly hooking the brains into the networked simulation & shutting down much of the body processes.

Usual dystopia results. Until someone figures it's the way to extinction - since everyone will eventually die out, & no one is having children in real world. So we have a hero & heroine now charged with getting the humanity back to real world.

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, sometime in 2006.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

TonyCarol Trimble's "The Reason Why" (short story, humor, free): "WHO cares"!

A group of aliens have arrived at an office of World Health Organization with a complaint against humanity...

Fact sheet.

First published: Medgadget, 6 December 2006.
Download full text from publisher's site (click "Read More..." at the bottom of page & scroll down to see this)
Rating: B.

Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations & Other Stories" (ed Eric Flint) (collection, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Entire collection is online at Baen CD. One story in this online version, "The Gulf Between", has been extensively edited by Eric Flint because it "was very dated". I personally prefer originals, even if dated; download link for this story below, therefore, goes to an unedited copy elsewhere.

Table of contents (9 stories, best first, unread last).

If I have a separate post on a story, link on title goes there. Links on publisher or year fetch more matching fiction. My rating is in brackets.

1. [novelette] "The Cold Equations" (A); download; Astounding, August 1954: An innocent girl is to be executed due to apathy of administration (according to author, due to nature's laws, but that's now how it comes across in the story). Intensely emotional.
2. [novel] "The Survivors" aka "Space Prison" (A); download; 1958; survival: Never give up hope.
3. [novelette] "--And Devious the Line of Duty" (A); download; Analog, December 1962; diplomacy: A young man gets his heart broken as part of his work!
4. [novelette] "No Species Alone" (A); download; Universe Science Fiction, November 1954: Snakes are afraid of cats!
5. [novelette] "Empathy" (A); download; Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, October 1959: Actions speak louder than words.
6. [novella] "Mother of Invention" (B); download; Astounding, December 1953; problem solving: Marooned space explorers find a way to end their predicament.
7. [ss] "Brain Teaser" (B); download; If, October 1956: Solving an impossible physics problem!
8. [novella] "The Gulf Between" (B); download; Astounding, October 1953: Man & machine (AI) will forever think differently.
9. [ss] "The Harvest" (C); download; Venture Science Fiction, July 1957: Something I cannot make out head or tail of.
   
   Biblical(?) "angels" are carnivorous energy beings living outside earth's atmosphere, & they feed of "fralings" - (probably) souls of people who've died on surface? Something.

Fact sheet.

First published: 2003.
Related: Stories of Tom Godwin.

Kevin Hosey's "IT!" (flash fiction, first contact, free)

A humorous variation of one of the stories from A E van Vogt's Ezwal series: a human spaceship "had recently passed through a dense cloud of meteorite fragments", & seems to have somehow picked up a massive alien monster who's now terrorizing the crew. Only it's not really terrorizing, as the captain will discover to his amusement...

Fact sheet.

First published: 365tomorrows, 3 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Peter Watts' "The Island" (novelette, space opera, free): Life cannot be peaceful

I liked the punchline - about the motives of the alien. But most of it is a dark, though readable, cocktail of familiar tropes.

Caution:  Most Watts' fiction, including this story, liberally use swear words.

Story summary.

Life of an alien, in the shape of an enormous thin membrane fully enclosing its star, is threatened because a human ship going to lay a wormhole close to it. It will persuade the humans to lay it a little away, at safe coordinates it specifies, instead. Humans will learn its motives too late...

Much of the conflict in the story is, however, between the unnamed woman narrator aboard the ship, & the AI running the ship. AI has become mad, somewhat in the sense of HAL, from Arthur Clarke's "2001 A Space Odyssey".

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection" (2010, anthology).
2. David G Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Eds)' "Year's Best SF 15" (2010, anthology).
3. Rich Horton (ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Edition" (anthology).
4. Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year", Volume 4 (2010, anthology).

Fact sheet.

First published: Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (eds)' "The New Space Opera 2" (2009).
Download full text from author's site.
Read online at publisher's site.
Listen to audio as par of a longer podcast at StarShipSofa.
Rating: B.
Winner of Hugo award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Peter Watts.

Hugo awards 2010: winners announced

Nothing yet on official page, but here is the twitter stream.

Links on category go to all category nominees. Links on author or publisher find matching stories.

1. [ss] Will McIntosh's "Bridesicle" (B); download text/audio; Asimov's, January 2009.
2. [novelette] Peter Watts' "The Island"; download; Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "The New Space Opera 2".
3. [novella] Charles Stross' "Palimpsest" (B); download (available for the duration of Hugo voting in 2010); Wireless (collection?).
4. [novel] Tie between Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl" (download) & China Miéville's "The City & The City".

Related: Past Hugo winners & nominees.

Bruce W Ferguson's "Goliath" (flash fiction, humor, free)

Don't expect humanity to unite, even when faced with an extinction threat...

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, #460 (9 July 2009).
Download full text from The Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation. [link via SF Signal]
Rating: A.

Paul on Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Ghosts"

At Marooned.

A story written apparently long ago as part of "The Martian Chronicles", but published for the first time only last year.

Related: Stories of Ray Bradbury.

Paolo Bacigalupi's "Small Offerings" (short story, population dystopia, free)

This might have been ok at flash fiction length - I found all but last couple of paras a drag.

A hospital nurse has taken extreme measures to ensure the kids of not-so-well-off will have a chance in an overpopulated world...

Fact sheet.

First published: Lou Anders (ed)'s "Fast Forward 1" (anthology, 2007).
Download full text from tor.com.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Paolo Bacigalupi.

Ray Bradbury's "The Disease"

Marooned has a post on this flash fiction piece, written long back as part of "The Martian Chronicles", but published for the first time only in 2009.

It's the story of characters that first appear in "Ylla" (download as part of a larger package).

Related: Stories of Ray Bradbury.

Locus Awards 2010: Winners announced

Announcement at Locus site.

For fiction originally published (in US? not sure) during 2009.

Note there was a major scandal couple of years back of this award's organizers manipulating votes to favor favorites.

Related.

1. My "best of 2009" list (includes others' at bottom).
2. Fiction originally published during 2009.
3. "best of" lists.

Million Writers Award 2010: Winners

Link.

For online short fiction first published during 2009.

Related: "best of" lists; my "best of 2009" list.

Maria's "A Different Person" (short story, dementia, free)

Recall "Jurassic Park" episode where missing fragments of dinosaur DNA are patched with DNA fragments from some African frogs - resulting in their unexpected breeding in the wild? This story is a variation of this idea.

Story summary.

Narrator is a neurosurgeon who's just operated upon her own dad who had an advanced case of dementia. Procedure involved introducing extra brain material into his head. Lacking time to grow it in a lab culture from patient's own brain tissue, she kills another man to get mature neurons for surgery. With results you can already guess...

Fact sheet.

First published: Medgadget, 6 December 2006.
Download full text from publisher's site (need to click "Read More..." at bottom of page & scroll down to see this)
Rating: B.

(Canadian) Prix/Aurora Awards 2010: Winners announced

Nothing yet on official site, but SF Scope has the list. For works originally published during 2009.

"Short-Form Work in English" winner: Eileen Bell's "Pawns Dreaming of Roses". All nominees.

Related: "best of" lists; my "best of 2009" list.

Nebula Awards 2009: Winners announced

Official announcement & complete list.

1. [novel] Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl"; download.
2. [novella] Kage Baker's "The Women of Nell Gwynne’s"; all nominees.
3. [novelette] Eugie Foster's "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast"; download text/audio; all nominees.
4. [ss] Kij Johnson's "Spar"; download text/audio; all nominees.

Asimov's & Analog Readers' Poll winners for fiction originally published during 2009

SF Signal has the list, plus links to older winners at Locus: Asimov's, Analog.

Related: Fiction from Asimov's, Analog/Astounding, 2009, my "best of 2009" list.

Sruthi Thekkiam's "Friday Afternoons on Bus 51" (short story, non-genre free): A very Indian love story!

I'm not sure how much sense it will make outside of South Asia - it's a very Indian story. Kept me smiling most of the way.

It's a funny love- & life- story of a sari-salesman in Bangalore.

Fact sheet.

First published: Blackbird, Fall 2007.
Download full text from publisher's site. [via Jason Sanford]
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2007" list.

"Million Writers Award top ten stories of 2009"

Link.

Related: "best of" lists; fiction first published in 2009; my "best of 2009" list (includes others' lists at bottom).

Hugo Awards 2010 - novellas: Nominees & my rankings

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

I've read only one story so far - a very ordinary one.

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. Charles Stross' "Palimpsest" (B); download (available for the duration of Hugo voting in 2010); Wireless (collection?): There are "ideas" here for at least 2 dozen stories, & I don't mean that as compliment. I found it a confused jumble of ideas rather than a coherent story; finished it only because I was determined to finish at least one story from this list. Also, there are things here designed to shock the reader - for the sake of shocking rather than to further any goal of the story.
   
   There is some sort of society of time travelers that keeps reengineering things to the end of the universe - prolonging life of sun, making solar system go traveling through intergalactic void, reintroducing humans on earth every time they keep getting extinct (which they're very good at doing). Sometimes restarting life on earth at microbe level & let it evolve; I could not figure out how it always evolved to humans as smart species! Plus conflict within this society of time travelers - incumbents vs rebels, with a small thread on how organizations tend to become an end in themselves & lose sight of what they were created for.
2. Nancy Kress' "Act One"; download; Asimov's, March 2009: Not read.
3. John Scalzi's "The God Engines"; as an independent book by Subterranean: Not read.
4. James Morrow's "Shambling Towards Hiroshima; as an independent book by Tachyon: Not read.
5. Ian McDonald's "Vishnu at the Cat Circus"; Cyberabad Days (coll): Not read.
6. Kage Baker's "The Women of Nell Gwynne's"; as an independent book by Subterranean: Not read.

Related.

1. Other fiction categories in this year's Hugo awards: short stories, novelettes, 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 1 May 2010.

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.

Hugo Awards 2010 - short stories: Nominees & my rankings

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

Nothing particularly noteworthy in this list, though first 3 are ok reads. I don't really have a preference between Resnick's & McIntosh's - first rewrites a classic, later is original.

Schoen's story defies logic. There is no reason I should have liked it - it's utter nonsense. And yet, somehow, very readable!

Nominees (5 stories, best first)

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. Mike Resnick's "The Bride of Frankenstein" (B); download; Asimov's, December 2009; fanfic: A funny & more-positive-than-original retelling of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein".
2. Will McIntosh's "Bridesicle" (B); download text/audio; Asimov's, January 2009; zombie: A woman is given a choice - die, or entice a rich man enough to make him agree to marry you! How do you expect her to behave?
3. Lawrence M Schoen's "The Moment" (B); download; Jay Lake & Eric T Reynolds (eds)' "Footprints" (anthology?), Hadley Rille Books: Very readable nonsense!
   
   Over eons, long after humanity is gone, all sorts of alien beings have been paying homage to a location on moon that has a human footprint on the surface. Each is trying to discover the significance of the place or imprint! Until we're eventually enlightened by "the tutor" of "proto-godlings": "When one takes a step, it is possible to step back. In fact, it is a common occurrence. That's not what happened here." "This is where they jumped off."
4. N K Jemisin's "Non-Zero Probabilities" (C); download text/audio; Clarkesworld, September 2009; non-genre: A girl in New York city is worried over improbable accidents that happen in the city with regularity, like a train coach derailing or she being hit by debris accidentally sent flying in a park, ...
5. Kij Johnson's "Spar" (C); download text/audio; Clarkesworld, October 2009: A woman is stuck with an alien aboard an alien lifeboat - after their ships collided head on, an event that killed her male partner! Now she's constantly having sex with the alien, & nightmares.

Related.

1. Other fiction categories in this year's Hugo awards: [novelettes], [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 24 April 2010.

Locus Awards 2010: nominees

Official announcement at Locus site. [via Ellen Datlow]

I personally have a bias against this award, ever since they rigged the ballots a couple of years ago to favor official favorites. But it does receive some coverage in genre media.

Awards are in multiple categories, presumably for works originally published during [2009].

Related.

1. My "best of 2009" list (includes others' lists too at bottom).
2. "best of" lists.

Paul Cornell's "One of our Bastards is Missing" (novelette, detective, free): Prussians don't want British princess to marry Swedish prince

Fast paced action story, but with magic - space-time "folds" used as caves & nooks. While the magic doesn't really come in the way of the story, it made me feel the mechanics of mystery was gamed.

Story summary.

A wedding in London - British princess marrying Swede prince. Amid all the merriment, there is a curious incident: a man vanishes into thin air in front of the whole crowd!

Major Hamilton will unravel the mystery, & major international intrigue...

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection" (2010).
2. David G Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Eds)' "Year's Best SF 15" (2010).
   

Fact sheet.

First published: George Mann's "The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 3" (2009).
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.

Rachel Swirsky's "Eros, Philia, Agape" (novelette, love story, free): This android must find its own identity

Good enough read, but it has been done before. Probably the closest read I can off-hand recollect is the third (I think) story in Adam Link series of Eando Binder: girl falls in love with robot, but robot must break her heart & go out to be alone to figure out his own identity & how he can fit in among the humans.

Background & environment of the story will likely resonate better in some cultures than with others. This is not a story for global audiences.

Story summary.

Adriana is a lonely woman. To fight loneliness, she's purchased a custom-made android, Lucian, as companion. They fall in love. She helps him gain human (& property?) rights.

He figures his true status is that of a slave. Since he's free, he exercises his right to go away to meditate & discover his own identity - with no assurance that he will ever return.

So we have Adriana lonely again, & with a broken heart. Their adopted 4 year old daughter, Rose, & a pet bird provide additional opportunity for sentimental scenes.

Notes.

1. Torque Control has a very long discussion of this story.
2. I'm not clear what the title means.
   
   "Eros" probably has something to do with love.
   
   "Philia" with sex? But there is no overt sex here.
   
   "Agape" - wonderment? Again I don't see how it relates to the story.
   
   Update 18 April 2010: Micah clarifies the title in comments below. Thanks Micah.
   

Collected in.

1. Rich Horton (ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Edition".
2. Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 4" (2010).
   

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 3 March 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Rachel Swirsky.

Helen Coster's "A Former Investment Banker Analyst Falls Back On Plan B" (flash fiction, non-genre, humor)

An investment banker made jobless by financial markets' upheaval of last couple of years is doing what the title says...

Fact sheet.

First published: McSweeney's, sometime in December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site. [via Jason Sanford]
Rating: A.

Charles Stross' "Overtime" (novelette, satire, free): Life in a British government office

Probably the most readable story I've seen from Stross so far - at least the jargon doesn't come in the way, is much less than his normal, & appears late in the story.

There is a separate underlying nonsense plot of Santa Claus' visit to office on Christmas eve. Only this Santa Claus is evil! And hero must throw him out before any damage is done.

I've a feeling its appeal is likely to be uneven across locales.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 23 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Charles Stross.

Mike Resnick's "The Bride of Frankenstein" (short story, fanfic, free): Retelling Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" from an alternate perspective

What if Victor Frankenstein created his "creature"

1. only a few decades back (at a time when "Gone With the Wind ... is making so much money in the bookstores" - would that be early- or, may be, mid-twentieth century?),
   
2. after returning from his college,
   
3. after getting married,

& if Victor himself wasn't totally irresponsible, as in the original?

A funny retelling from the perspective of Victor's wife. And the creature here is about to actually get a mate.

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in short story category.
Related: Stories of Mike Resnick, Mary Shelley.

Hugo Awards 2010 - novels: Nominees

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

I haven't read any entry on the list yet, but at least 3 appear to be longer versions of original short stories; see notes with individual entries below.

Going by Sam Jordison's notes on the list at Guardian Books, I think I'll pick up only Miéville's novel. And may be look up the original short story version of Bacigalupi's book.

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 (ABC: A = worth the time, C = don't bother) is in brackets. Links on author fetch more fiction from source. Download links are included where I'm aware of an online copy.

1. Cherie Priest's "Boneshaker; Tor; steampunk: Not read.
2. China Miéville's "The City & The City"; Del Rey, & Macmillan UK: Not read.
   
   This one sounds interesting, going by others descriptions, but I have an impression Miéville is into "punks", mostly steampunk - subgenre that has rarely worked for me. So not sure.
3. Robert Charles Wilson's "Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America"; Tor; steampunk: Not read.
   
   It appears to be an expanded version of author's short story "Julian: A Christmas Story" (download).
4. Catherynne M Valente's "Palimpsest"; Bantam Spectra: Not read.
5. Robert J Sawyer's "WWW:Wake"; Ace, Penguin, Gollancz, & Analog (serialized?): Not read.
   
   It's part of a trilogy of novels that appear to expand on Arthur Clarke's oft-cited short story "Dial F for Frankenstein".
6. Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl"; download; Night Shade: Not read.
   
   I have an impression it's an expansion of author's earlier short story of the same name, but am not sure.
   
   There are good reviews around of novel version, but with a warning that it includes graphic violence.

Related.

1. Other fiction categories in this year's Hugo awards: [short stories], [novelettes], [novellas].
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 list 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 10 April 2010.

Zeashan Zaidi's "Murde Ki Awaaz" (tr "Voice of the Corpse") (short story, Hindi, treasure hunt, free)

Dr Chandra, the proverbial mad scientist, has made a discovery: that human memories not only live in our head, but also in our cells! And that some cells in our bones can survive decades after death. And he's made a machine to read the memories from the cells!

Abdul Majid's greatgrandfather had once seen a great treasure somewhere in Sundarbans (on India/Bangladesh border?), but died before he could tell anyone its location.

So now Abdul & Dr Chandra are working together to locate this treasure & split it fifty-fifty; Abdul's responsibility includes digging up his greatgrandfather's grave to get a bone.

All goes well till treasure is located, only both men are greedier than is good for them...

Fact sheet.

First published: Science Times News & Views, sometime in January 2001.
Download full text of original Hindi from Kalkion Hindi. Or automatic translation to English by Google.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Zeashan Zaidi; Hindi fiction.

Hugo awards 2010: Nominees announced

Official announcement at AussieCon4.

Its fiction nominees cover works originally published anywhere in English during 2009.

Two quick observations:

1. Most fiction categories have 6 nominees this year rather than the usual 5. Either norms have changed, or there were too many ties.
2. Several novel nominees are actually novelizations of original short stories. More on this later.
   

Related: Hugo awards fiction.

BSFA Awards 2009: Winners announced

Nothing on the official BSFA site yet, but Twitter has some links.

Short fiction winner is Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's novelette "The Beloved Time of Their Lives" (download). Happened to be first on my ranking too.

Nebula Awards 2009 - novellas: Nominees

Official announcement & opening remarks.

I'd written this post sometime back, hoping to actually read some of the stories - so I can fill in their descriptions before posting. But going by my experience reading this year's novelette & short story nominees, I'm not feeling inclined. Posting this anyway for download links, in case someone wants to give them a try.

PS: I'd actually began reading Kress' story quite sometime back. Have read only a few initial pages - something about terrorism.

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 (ABC: A = worth the time, C = don't bother) is in brackets. Links on author or publisher fetch more fiction from source.

1. Carolyn Ives Gilman's "Arkfall" (A); download or read online; F&SF, September 2008: Adventure in an exotic waterworld.
   
   Added to my "best of the year 2008" list.
   
   Note the official SFWA list wrongly labels it as first published in September 2009; it's 2008.
2. [winner] Kage Baker's "The Women of Nell Gwynne's"; Subterranean Press, June 2009: Not read.
3. Nancy Kress' "Act One"; download; Asimov's, March 2009: Not read.
4. James Morrow's "Shambling Towards Hiroshima"; Tachyon, February 2009: Not read.
5. Jason Sanford's "Sublimation Angels"; download; Interzone, October 2009: Not read.
   
   Interzone? Is any work published by an SFWA member anywhere in the world eligible? I used to think Nebulas were for work published in the US.
6. John Scalzi's "The God Engines"; Subterranean Press, December 2009: Not read.

Related.

1. Other short fiction categories in this year's Nebula awards: short stories, novelettes.
   
2. Last year's Nebula awards: short stories, novelettes, novellas.
3. Competing awards that recognize "best" fiction originally published in 2009: Aurialis (Australian authors), BSFA (fiction published in UK), 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 list others' best of relevant year lists at bottom).
6. "Best of" lists.
7. Fiction originally published in 2008/2009, during 2000s.
   

Note: I normally update list posts like this when I read a story, find new links, etc. This post was last updated 2 April 2010.