Short Business: Reading the Hugo Finalist Novellas

[owlmoose]

Although I never manage to read everything on the Hugo ballot -- especially now that Best Series is a thing -- I try to do my best to read everything in the shorter fiction categories. The past two years, I got a head start on this project by having read all of the novella finalists before they were announced, but this year there were two I hadn't yet read: The Black God's Drums and Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach. Happily, I have now rectified this situation, so I wanted to share my thoughts on these six stories.

In alphabetical order by title:

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells: Hooray, Murderbot! We were blessed with three Murderbot novellas in 2018, and deciding among them was one of the most difficult choices I faced when filling out my Hugo nomination ballot. But ultimately I gave this one the edge, because I loved everything about Murderbot's first attempt to navigate the wider world on its own, the relationship it developed with its charges, and most especially ART, who is a wonderful character both on its own and in its relationship with Murderbot. I enjoyed the entire series, of course, but if I could pick only one, this would be it. So I'm glad it got the finalist nod, and I expect to rank it first or second when I get to voting.

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire: I read this book almost a year and a half ago, immediately after it came out; I didn't review it at the time (although I gave it four stars), and I remember enjoying it, but not much else about it. In looking over other people's reviews to remind myself of what happened, I now recall that the main thing I appreciated about the story was its lightness in tone as compared to the other Wayward Children books -- although Every Heart a Doorway remains my favorite volume in the series so far (I haven't read the latest one yet), it was nice to get a new viewpoint character. Still, I'll say good, but not memorable.

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor: Unfortunately, this series did not stick the landing for me at all. I loved, loved the first book, but it gradually fell apart for me as the story came back to Earth. I did continue to enjoy Binti as a character, and her relationship with Okwu, and the revelations about her family and her future. But it just didn't hang together for me at all. Probably my experience was not helped by the long break I took between reading Home and The Night Masquerade, because TNM picks up right where Home left off, and I had trouble remembering exactly what the situation had been before. I wonder if these last two novellas would have been better told as a single novel.

The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark: I heard a ton of buzz about this story, and I am pleased to report that it is entirely deserved. The world is sort of a steampunk-plus-magic alternate history in which the Civil War was fought to a draw and New Orleans now exists as a free city on the edges of the Confederacy. The protagonist is Creeper, a street urchin who watches the airships come in, listens for valuable information, and carries a piece of a god with her. When one tidbit of information is too valuable to pass up, she inserts herself into a plot to keep doomsday technology from falling into the wrong hands. A rollicking adventure story set in an amazing alternative world, and I would read a dozen more stories about Creeper and her New Orleans. My other potential choice for the top slot.

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, by Kelly Robson: I loved many things about this story, set in a far future where humans -- who aren't exactly like the humans we know today -- try their best to live in a world changed beyond recognition by climate change. Just some of the things I liked: The possibilities opened up by time travel and body modification technology. The tension between different generations, which was realistic without being belabored. The too-real depiction of what it's like to compete for grant money (it could only have felt more like my life if they'd spend the final hours before the due date fixing a formatting error). The parallel story telling was fascinating -- snippets from the ancient past open each chapter, and at first they seem unconnected to the main story being told in the far future, but it slowly becomes clear that we're seeing how the time travelers are affecting the events of the past. So I should have liked this book a lot better, but the ending completely falls apart. It's rushed, abrupt, and resolves nothing. Deeply disappointing.

The Tea Master and the Detective, by Aliette de Bodard: A fascinating take on Sherlock Holmes, set in space, wherein Holmes is a noblewoman who has left her role in society to be a consulting detective, and Watson is a spaceship who specializes in creating tea blends for specific purposes. For a story branded as a Holmes retelling, it wasn't much of a mystery, but as a character story and a relationship development story, it worked very well. Enjoyable, and I would love a sequel. It's set in de Bodard's Xuya universe, which is itself nominated for Best Series this year; I've read a few other Xuya stories, but never enough of them close enough together to get a strong sense for what this world is like. Probably I should rectify that.

So while I didn't love all of these, I found something to appreciate in every one, and that's pretty great. And I did love two and really liked two others, so that's not a bad hit rate. In recent years, I've come to a great appreciation of the novella form. Short stories often feel rushed or underdeveloped to me, but often picking up a long novel seems like a daunting task. Novellas hit the sweet spot for me: long enough to tell a complete story, short enough to read in a day or two. I'm glad to see the format having something of a resurgence, and I hope it continues into the future.

So which of these novellas have you read? Did you enjoy them? What would you have seen on the ballot instead? Let me know, and we'll chat long-form short fiction. :)

Comments

[heavenscalyx]

I am an unrepentant and enthusiastic Murderbot fangirl, so I'm right there with you on the Murderbot novella.

The only other one I've read was the Bodard, and while I enjoyed it in general, I don't think it was as interestingly written as Murderbot (or in fact any of the other recent explorations of AI interfacing with wetware). As a sort of answer to McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang, I think it was far and away superior to both McCaffrey and other similar stories I read in the 80s and 90s.

[voidampersand]

Last year I read the Murderbot novellas as they came out, and they were the best ever. I read a few other new novellas but they didn't knock my socks off. Somehow I missed most of the Hugo finalists, so I caught up and read them when the ballot came out.

The one novella where I had a different reading experience than yours was Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach. I think the ending fell apart in a really interesting and good way.

[zahraa]

MURDERBOT! MURDERBOT! MURDERBOT!