Nebula Awards 2010: Short stories - nominees & my rankings

Official nominees announcement is at SFWA.

7 stories, all first published during 2010. If you like a shocker, "Arvies" might work. Two others are at least readable - "Conditional Love" & "How Interesting: A Tiny Man". One I've not read. Rest aren't worth noting.

If I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. Link on author or publisher fetches more matching fiction. All stories are online, & download links are included. My rating is in brackets.

List below is in order of my preference, best first, unread last.

1. Adam-Troy Castro's "Arvies" (B); download; Lightspeed, August 2010: An extreme form of slavery.
   
   Caution: This is a very dark story, intended primarily to shock, with extreme cruelty.
2. Harlan Ellison's "How Interesting: A Tiny Man" (B); download; Realms of Fantasy, February 2010; fanfic: Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" retold, with a twist.
3. Felicity Shoulders' "Conditional Love" (B); download; Asimov's, January 2010: Caring for deformed & abandoned children. Deformities introduced by parents because of their quest for genetically tweaked "perfect" babies, a process that sometimes has horrific side effects.
   Related: Judith Merril's "That Only a Mother" far more effectively addresses the same general theme.
4. Vylar Kaftan's "I'm Alive, I Love You, I'll See You in Reno" (B); download; Lightspeed, June 2010: A love story that's a bit too science fictional for my taste.
   A man & a woman. Next door neighbors. Forever in love, never really meeting. A lot of cosmic & relativity adjectives thrown in in the descriptions. In some ways, it's just a review of many popular sf tropes.
5. Amal El-Mohtar's "The Green Book" (C); download; Apex Magazine, 1 November 2010: Cannot make out the head or tail of it.
   There is a magical impossible-to-destroy notebook ("The Green Book") that can be used to chat with some dead - you write something, they write back! And some sort of sinister organization called "Sisters" that apparantly killed the dead you chat via the notebook & ominous implication they'll get to you too for having read their secret.
6. Kij Johnson's "Ponies" (C); download; Tor.com, 17 November 2010: Little (or is it teenage?) girls competing for status & belonging. It's for fans of unicorns, & of unnecessary gory violence.
7. Jennifer Pelland's "Ghosts of New York; download; Dark Faith: Not read. Going by some comments I've read about it, it has something to do with 9/11 terrorist attack in New York.

Related.

1. Other short fiction categories of Nebula Awards 2010: [novelette], [novella].
2. Previous Nebula Awards for short stories: 2009, 2008, 2007.
3. All Nebula Award winners & nominees.
4. Competing awards for "best" short stories of 2010: BSFA, [Hugo].
5. Anthologies collecting "best" short fiction of 2010: [Dozois'], Horton's, Strahan's, Hartwell/Cramer's.
6. Fiction originally published during 2010 (search "Rating: A" for my selections of "good" stories).
7. My "best of 2010" list.
8. "Best of" lists. 

Adam-Troy Castro's "Arvies" (short story, horror, free): An extreme form of slavery

Caution: This is a very dark story, intended primarily to shock, with extreme cruelty - in line with Piers Anthony's "In the Barn" (download) & Arthur Clarke's "The Parasite" (Clarke's is a much milder variant but in the same spirit).

From the two or three other stories I've read of the author so far, I've been carrying the impression that his stories are too targeted to US readers, & will likely have a very different effect on readers from elsewhere - sometimes leaving them indifferent. This one doesn't use anything obviously US-specific, but from comments on the story elsewhere, I get a feeling it satirizes the subject matter of some current debate there.

Story summary.

Humanity is divided into two groups - masters will forever physically live as fetuses (who wants to go through the trauma of being born!), slaves are the hosts implanted with master fetuses! And we see extreme abuse of slaves.

Fact sheet.

First published: Lightspeed, #3 (August 2010).
Download full text from publisher's site.
[via Rich Horton]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Adam-Troy Castro.

* Adam-Troy Castro's "Night of the Living POTUS" (short story, fantasy, humor)

If you are from US, you might see the humor & enjoy it a bit - it has some jokes related to recent & past US Presidents. Didn't work for me.

Fact sheet.

First published: Helix magazine, #7 (Winter 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

Helix magazine, #7 (Winter 2008): Annotated partial table of contents & review

I picked this up seeing the word "SF" in url, & was in for a pleasant surprise. It's by far the most interesting online genre magazine I've seen to date. Almost all stories are science fiction; fantasy & non-genre content is very limited. While stories are nowhere near Analog in class, they generally aren't bad either.

If you are someone primarily interested in science fiction, & get bugged even by Asimov's because of its mostly fantasy leanings, this one probably won't disappoint. Assuming this is a typical issue, I will very likely be looking out for more issues.

They don't seem to provide a permalink for current issue (it's available only for back issues)! It's currently at their home page; I suppose there will be links to it there even when new content replaces it on their home page.

List below is of all stories, plus a non-fiction article I found interesting - ranked by quality (best first). My rating is in brackets (A = time well spent; C = don't bother).

1. [non fiction] Bud Webster's "Past Masters" (A); download: An introduction to works of H Beam Piper. I've only read his "Omnilingual"; so cannot comment on content. But I found it very readable.
2. [ss] Laura J Underwood's "Drooling Wizards" (B); download; fantasy, humor: Position of an Idiot has fallen vacant in a village, & applications are welcome! Clod Hopper is interested in the job. Amid some magic spells between a warring wizard & witch, village will end up getting two Idiots.
3. [ss] David W Goldman's "The Last Man's First Year on Earth" (B); download: Somewhat dark story. A future earth of very long lived humans who cannot physically develop beyond puberty because that is the only time you can get longevity treatment; & that effectively freezes physical development, but not mental maturity. We get a glimpse of the society through the eyes of a single physical adult who happens to have been thrown here by an accident.
4. [ss] Maya Bohnhoff's "Seraphim" (B); download: Fast moving & very readable story of investigative journalism, government conspiracy, & invention of a machine that will give US military advantage over its enemies. But this story is may be a century too late; it would have been far more interesting if it were published during Rudyard Kipling era.
5. [ss] Selina Rosen's "Salvager's Gold" (B); download: Colorful but mundane story of a human Salvager - kind of street sweeper - aboard a space habitat called "Gamma Station" that also is home to aliens, & in whose dock spaceships from all over are seen. But the dream of every Salvager is to locate "The Big Trash" - an abandoned alien habitat at an unknown location in space awaiting looting of its valuable booty. After a murder, chase, & escape, our hero is on his way to claim the loot.
6. [ss] Vaughan Stanger's "Family Tree" (B); download: A retired school teacher finds a new career in teaching - by founding the first school in the budding colony on moon. Story contains much distraction in the form of a very complicated device called "memory garden" - something that looks like a pot of indoor plants; you rub a leaf & inhale the resulting aroma to trigger specific old memories; but you need to teach this machine your memories first.
7. [ss] Charlie Anders' "Suicide Drive" (C); download: Some people believe that environmental problems threaten humanity, & they must find a new home among the stars. A European ends up becoming the effective dictator of the world, & forces funding the development of a star drive, diverting funds from other programs. Star ship is gone with some crew, dictator became so unpopular that he will likely be lynched, ... Now his son is hiding in a bunker somewhere on earth, fearing mobs because rest of earth is in a mess & also because he is son of this dictator. Story is told via interactions of this son with a journalist.
8. [ss] Adam-Troy Castro's "Night of the Living POTUS" (C); download; fantasy, humor: If you are from US, you might see the humor & enjoy it more - it has some jokes related to recent & past US Presidents. Didn't work for me.
   

Legend: ss = short story.

Update, 17 January 2007.

1. Looks like my conclusions about the Helix's inclinations towards science fiction are wrong - the mix in this issue is just one off. Editor, William Sanders, clarifies it here. There is more in his post regarding my remarks, & even more in the entire thread linked from there.
2. A note for Mr Adam-Troy Castro (he initiated the thread containing Mr Sanders' remarks): I suppose it was thoughtless of me using strong language against your story; I've dropped the opening remark (my readers should still get the sentiment right). If it might repair some of the anguish I might have caused, I actually did like your earlier "Sunday Night Yams at Minnie & Earl's" (except for ending - sorry, I am a bit tough to please customer). And there is a brighter side - how many bloggers put your stories in the same list that also includes Henry Kuttner, Eric Frank Russell, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, H Beam Piper, Jules Verne, ...? Sunday Night currently ranks among the top 40% in my all time list (& would have been in top 20% but for ending). It's admittedly not a huge list still, but growing everyday.
   
3. A clarification in case someone is brooding conspiracy theories regarding this post & another recent one that seems to have caused some consternation: I am just a reader of fiction. I am not a writer, agent, script writer, publisher, retailer, or in anyway associated with the act of entertaining.
   

Adam-Troy Castro's "Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl's": Description of an enigma

This story starts off very well, but that is just the background. Main story develops the suspense well, but ends with a dull anti-climax.

Full text of this story can be downloaded here.

Story summary.
Story is narrated by Max Fischer, & keeps switching between the time he was 20 & when he is 90. At 20, he spent 3 years on moon when it was beginning to be colonized. At 90, he is there as a visitor when moon is quite well developed for humans.

Story begins with the description of the kind of life these early technicians lead there. That is when we are introduced to the enigma. One fine day, colleagues drag Max a little early from work.

Destination turns out to be something that cannot exist! A very small-town American house on the lunar surface, not covered by any kind of dome or artificial structure, & inhabited by old couple Minne & Earl, & their dog Miles! House occupies an apparently rectangular surface area of several acres, & is bounded by an ordinary looking fence. Outside the fence, you have a harsh airless moon. Inside the fence, you have a very terrestrial environment - lawn, breathable air, birds, ...! If there is a barrier separating this inside from outside, it's completely invisible & imperceptible!

Later in the story, we will learn that the old couple like to entertain human workers on moon, & "have been here since at least Apollo; those photos of them with Armstrong and Aldrin are genuine". They are very friendly, but any questions about their magical habitats or their identity always draws a blank.

Governments on earth have known about them. Visitors to the home have come back with samples of many things, including food & hair samples of hosts; tests back home never find anything out of what would be ordinarily human! Also, their estate is invisible to telescopes on earth! "They haven’t noticeably aged, not even the dog." Also, "they do understand every language we’ve sprung on them, but they give all their answers in Midwestern-American English."

At a stage, a colleague summarizes the various theories about what the visitors might be. Among them,

1. "This is a first-contact situation. Minnie and Earl, and possibly Miles here, are aliens in disguise, or simulations constructed by aliens." They are believed to be not hostile, because "Anybody capable of pulling this off must have resources that could mash us flat in the time it takes to sneeze."
2. May be they are humans from future with better technology. Or "from an alternate universe".
3. May be they actually live in small-town US but through a miraculous parallel universe opening, also appear on moon!

Many other theories are advanced. All are rejected. Until eventually the most enlightening is presented: question of who they are or where they come from "doesn’t matter"! I kind of felt cheated with this conclusion.

Second intermingled thread when Max is 90 is of his quest to locate Minnie & Earl. He had lost touch in intervening years, & now no one on moon remembers them - except a few old timers who have also been out of touch. Eventually, a rather lame theory is presented: they have left because humans are now developing moon, & it no longer is pristine. And that they didn't say good bye because they felt neglected!

See also.

1. Tim Pratt's "Impossible Dreams": A shop from a parallel universe keeps periodically appearing at a certain location in US!
2. Arthur Clarke's "What Goes Up": An invisible force field barrier is accidentally created enclosing a spherical space in Australia. The space inside is very different from this story, though.

Fact sheet.
Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl's, short story, review
First published: Analog Science Fiction & Fact, June 2001
Rating: B