{"id":283,"date":"2004-07-30T22:21:58","date_gmt":"2004-07-31T02:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=283"},"modified":"2004-07-30T22:21:58","modified_gmt":"2004-07-31T02:21:58","slug":"2004_hugo_award_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2004\/07\/2004_hugo_award_2\/","title":{"rendered":"2004 Hugo Award Nominees: Novelette"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n

There are six nominees for the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Novelette<\/strong> because of a tie. This is a fairly difficult category for me to rank. There’s one story I liked quite a lot, one story I didn’t like at all, and the rest are kind of ehhh.<\/p>\n

The story I didn’t like at all is “Hexagons,” by Robert Reed<\/strong> (online at Asimov’s<\/cite><\/a>). My notes to myself on it read, “Oh look. Alternate history with Hitler. Ooooh.” and I really don’t think I can add to that.<\/p>\n

The story I liked quite a lot is Jeffrey Ford’s “The Empire of Ice Cream”<\/strong> (online at scifi.com<\/a>). My notes on this read “texture and depth,” which probably shows that I was influenced by the nature of the story in making the notes—the narrator has synesthesia, and grew up experiencing “the whisper of vinyl, the stench of purple, the spinning blue gyres of the church bell.” When he’s a teenager, though, he tastes coffee ice cream and sees a young woman, which provides the plot of the story. I believe I saw one reviewer comment that it was predictable, and it may have been, but it was an interesting, distinctive, and enjoyable read.<\/p>\n

And then there are the four stories in the middle. I may just draw lots to rank them, honestly.<\/p>\n