Hugo Awards 2013 - novelettes: nominees, my ranking, & winner

Five nominees, of which 3 are online. I finished 2 - ok reads, but I get a feeling there are better ways of spending my time. I left another one unfinished, & didn't bother to look up the remaining 2.

Caution: Both stories I finished involve homosexual love. Was that the flavor of the season?

List below is in order of my preference, best first, unread last. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

1. Thomas Olde Heuvelt's "The Boy Who Cast No Shadow" (B); download: This is actually a several years old Dutch story, probably translated to English last year - hence eligible.
   
   Two teenage boys, bullied by their peers because they're "different", try coming to terms with their differences...
2. Seanan McGuire's "In Sea-Salt Tears" (B); download; fantasy: One of the many clans of Faeries living (among humans?) on US west coast is living a life of punishment for past hunting sins. This is a coming of age story of a girl from this clan.
3. Catherynne M Valente's "Fade To White": download text/audio; Clarkesworld, August 2012: It comprises of many vignette sized & independent sections. I gave up after may be 3 or 4 of them; just could not get into the story. Apparently describing a media-driven society.
4. Seanan McGuire's "Rat-Catcher"; Yanni Kuznia (ed)'s "A Fantasy Medley 2": Not read.
5. [winner] Pat Cadigan's "The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi"; Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "Edge of Infinity": Not read.

Related.

1. Official announcement of 2013 nominees @The Hugo Awards.
2. My reading of Hugo awards 2013 nominees: short stories.
3. Other Hugo nominees & winners.
4. "best of" lists.

Catherynne M Valente's "A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica" (short story, free): Life stories of 2 of the early explorers of Antarctica

Good story, but even better is its unusual structure.

Story summary.

Story is really descriptions of a bunch of auction lots - of museum or collector interest items. Mostly original Antarctica maps from early twentieth century of two rival cartographers & explorers from Argentina - Nahuel Acuña & Villalba Maldonado. We get textual description of the maps being sold - what they depict, decorations, damage, etc, plus the story behind the maps & some legends.

Collected in.

1. Rich Horton (Ed)'s "Unplugged: The Best of Online Fiction".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Clarkesworld, May 2008.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Added to my best of the year 2008 list.