I’ve actually finished all the Hugo reading I’m going to do! Now I just have to . . . write it up. And vote, of course. Okay, here we go, today’s the day for all these (scheduled) posts.<\/p>\n
So, I read 3\/5 of the Novelette ballot. I’m going to discuss it, and the rest of the ballots, in alphabetical order by author’s last name.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling\u201d by Ted Chiang<\/strong> (Subterranean<\/cite><\/a>). As far as I’m concerned, this juuuuust barely<\/em> escapes being a blog post or a Slate<\/cite> article about how technological advances change the way we approach memory, as opposed to being, you know, a story. And I would respect people who thought it didn’t escape it. (I also liked it better when I thought the third-person thread was not part of the first-person narrator’s presentation, but that’s a minor point.) <\/p>\n \u201cThe Waiting Stars\u201d by Aliette de Bodard<\/strong> (at the author’s site<\/a>). This was really good: emotionally engaging, genuinely science fictional worldbuilding, a lot of tension, resonant with current-day concerns while avoiding being didactic. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Lady Astronaut of Mars\u201d by Mary Robinette Kowal<\/strong> (Tor.com<\/a>). Nothing about the emotional weight of this story surprised me in the least, and that’s not even getting the weirdness of the worldbuilding that secritcrush on LJ notes<\/a>. <\/p>\n Not read: \u201cOpera Vita Aeterna\u201d by Vox Day or \u201cThe Exchange Officers\u201d by Brad Torgersen, for the reasons discussed here<\/a>. <\/p>\n My ballot: 1) “The Waiting Stars”; (2) \u201cThe Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling\u201d; (3) “The Lady Astronaut of Mars”; (4) No Award; (5) \u201cThe Exchange Officers\u201d; (6) \u201cOpera Vita Aeterna\u201d (on ranking items below No Award<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve actually finished all the Hugo reading I’m going to do! Now I just have to . . . write it up. And vote, of course. Okay, here we go, today’s the day for all these (scheduled) posts. So, I read 3\/5 of the Novelette ballot. I’m going to discuss it, and the rest of the ballots, in … <\/p>\n