Short Business: Hugo Novelettes, 2019

[owlmoose]

Last month I finished up my Hugo novella reading, so it was time to move on to the novelettes. Like last year, everything on the ballot in this category was new to me, but this time I know why: I essentially punted on reading anything shorter than novellas for the nomination phase this year. Why I have grown increasingly resistant to reading short fiction is an interesting question that I'm not quite able to answer, and it's outside the scope of this post anyway. Perhaps another post for another day. Anyway, on to the stories: three I really enjoyed, one I liked a lot, and two which were not for me.

Alphabetical by title:

• "If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again,” by Zen Cho: I read this one first, fell totally in love with it, and nothing quite surpassed it as a favorite (although the next one comes close). Before this story, I hadn't been familiar with the Korean concept of dragons as benevolent creatures who live in the clouds, or with imugi, a giant serpent who lives in a lake and, by some variations of the legends, aspire to become full-fledged dragons someday. This particular story begins as the tale of an imugi who keeps trying and failing to ascend. Then it takes an unexpected and wonderful turn into a love story. Very recommended if you are looking for a bittersweet and heroic life story.
• “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections,” by Tina Connolly: I can't think of another story I've read quite like this one. A baker discovers the secret to triggering specific memories from eating pastries, and uses this skill to bring down a brutal tyrant. The story is narrated by the baker's wife, imprisoned by the evil king to be his food taster. The writing is simple and beautiful, the weaving of past and present narrative evocative, the wife's slow realization of her husband's plan perfectly realized. This might be my favorite example of what a novelette can do -- the concept here would never carry an entire novella, much less a novel, but a short story couldn't have developed at the right pace. I've never read anything else by Connolly, but now I want to seek out more of her work. If you have recommendations, let me know!
• “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth,” by Daryl Gregory: The story of a slow-moving apocalypse as told via snapshots from a life, spread over many decades. This is as much the tale of one man’s life as it is the aftermath of what might have been a tragic accident — or an alien invasion. I’d particularly recommend this one to anybody interested in invasive species or the complex interrelations of ecosystems.
• The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander (not available online): I will be upfront and tell you that Bolander's work is not typically for me; her themes are dark and her writing is visceral in a way that isn't typically to my taste. In fact, this may be the first story of hers that I've ever finished. But I did read all of this one, mostly because I was curious to see where she took her two main concepts: the "Radium Girls" who worked in watch factories in the early 20th century and got radiation poisoning from the glow-in-the-dark paint, and the thorny problem of how to mark a radioactive waste site that will remain deadly for millions of years as language and cultures and traditions evolve. The conceit Bolander comes up with to link the two themes, and make additional points about memory and history and storytelling, never quite comes together for me, but I understand why it would work for others (and why it won a Nebula).
• “The Thing About Ghost Stories,” by Naomi Kritzer: Naomi Kritzer wrote what may be my favorite short story of all time, the Hugo-winning “Cat Pictures Please”. So I was pleased to see her back on a Hugo ballot this year, and I enjoyed this story very much. A sweet story about an folklorist who collects ghost stories finds herself haunted by some ghosts of her own, both figurative and literal.
• “When We Were Starless,” by Simone Heller: I never quite settled in to this one. It's a post-apocalyptic world with a bunch of twists, some of which seemed a little too obvious, and others that remained opaque to me even after I got the feeling they were supposed to be clear. Another one that's not for me, although as with the Bolander I can see what people enjoyed about it.

Have you read these stories? Let me know what you think! And look for my short story reviews in a couple of weeks.

Comments

[zahraa]

Thanks for your thoughts. I didn't read a lot of the stuff this year, because a lot of it fell into the realm of genres I don't really like. But you make The Last Days on Planet Earth sound worthwhile, so thank you for the link, I will check it out. The only one I had previously read was When We Were Starless, and I didn't really settle into it, either.

[owlmoose]

I think you will most likely enjoy Nine Last Days on Planet Earth. Let me know what you think!

[zahraa]

I did like it a lot. I had to keep referring back up to see how much time had passed since the last day, but it was very good.