2018 Hugo Nominees

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Starting the short story nominees. As mentioned above, I've already read "The Martian Obelisk" and liked it a lot.

"Carnival Nine" by Caroline M. Yoachim.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim

Takes place in a world where all the characters are living windup toys. Despite the seemingly whimsical premise, it's a serious story about life and death and love and parenting. The narrator relates her life from childhood to when her mainspring is about to break. The most important part of the story concerns her son (built by his parents from spare parts) who, through some whim of fate, can only be wound up a very small number of turns. This would appear to be an allegory for caring for a child with special needs. All in all, a quietly moving tale.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand" by Fran Wilde

Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand - Uncanny Magazine

It's hard to say what this surrealistic horror story is really about. Basically, the narrator leads "you" through what seems to be a macabre medical museum, and "you" undergo unpleasant transformations. It would seem to be the revenge of the "freaks" against the "normal." Really, it's almost all mood (often effectively creepy) and fancy writing (often overdone) and little else.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Fandom for Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad.

Fandom for Robots - Uncanny Magazine

In a world where a sentient robot was created in the 1950's, it becomes a fan of an anime television series. This is really just a love letter to fandom. Besides all the stuff about fan fiction and such, there are lots of allusions to SF writers. The names Simak, Ellison, Bloch, and Williamson are mentioned. Too silly and fandom-oriented for my taste.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Sun, Moon, Dust" by Ursula Vernon

Sun, Moon, Dust - Uncanny Magazine

A farmer inherits a magic sword from his grandmother. It contains the spirits of three mighty warriors, but he just wants to tend to his fields. This was enjoyable, if very light. It was nice to see that not everyone needs to be a sword-and-sorcery hero.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse

Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™

Virtual reality is used to allow tourists to have a "vision quest" experience conducted by Native American employees. This premise is used to depict the ways in which non-Indians stereotype and distort Indian cultures. Beyond that, it also depicts one man taking over another man's life. I thought this was quite good.

So, of the short story nominees, I'd go with "The Martian Obelisk."

Other short stories I recommended for Tangent:

"X and Y" by Lynn Kilmore (Compelling SF)

"Second Born" by Ashley Mullins (On Spec)

"The Woman with the Long Black Hair" by Zach Shepard (F&SF)

"Integration" by John Eckelkamp (Compelling SF)

"Field Studies" by Sheila Finch (Asimov's)

"Perspective" by Kyle Kirkland (Analog)

"Clarity of Signal" by Holly Schofield (Analog)

"Words of Wisdom" by Andrew Knighton (On Spec)

"Dust to Dust" by Annie Reed (Fiction River)

"These Constellations Will Be Yours" by Elaine Cuyegkeng (Strange Horizons)

"No One Prays to the Goddess" by Ashok K. Banker (Nightmare)

"The Shuttered Child" by Tim Lees (Black Static)

"Oshun, Inc." by Jordan Ifueko (Strange Horizons)

"Legs" by Stephen Mohan, Jr. (Fiction River)

"The Future of Hunger in the Age of Programmable Matter" by Sam J. Miller (Tor.com)

"Dragon in Amber" by Patrice Sarath (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Nebula winners have been announced. In all the fiction categories except novelette, the winner is also nominated for a Hugo, so I suspect there will be some double winners. (It's a bit ironic that the Nebula winning novelette came from Tor.com, which was far more dominant in the Hugo nominations than the Nebula nominations.)