I saved the short stories for last this year, hoping for a little light summer reading to wrap up the Hugo Award reviews. Things didn’t quite work out as planned, because there’s a surprising amount of death in this year’s finalists. Also transformation, and working through grief, and an in-depth study of a folk song,
On its surface, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Hugo-nominated novella Elder Race sounds like a standard coming-of-age fantasy-adventure. Lynesse Fourth Daughter is the only person in her mother’s court who still believes in the old stories, and the only one who doesn’t want to just wait out the strange demon infestation in the Ordwood and hope it goes
“…nothing.” That is what the fortune teller says when the girl gets up the courage to ask “Will you tell me my fate?” Her favored older brother Zhu Chongba is destined for greatness; the only surviving daughter of the Zhu family is destined to starve to death along with most of her village. But then
“What do you need, and how might I help?” This polite question is the core theme of a series of novellas by Becky Chambers. And yes I know I just did a review of another Becky Chambers Hugo-nominated story, but with *gestures around wildly* everything that’s going on lately I figured we could all use
At last, the boring little rock that spun around the drab little sun was given a use: that of an anchor between the places people actually wanted to visit. The planet Gora is lifeless, airless, and widely considered to be completely useless…except that it happens to be right between five populated systems, conveniently located next
Next up for the Hugo Award finalists is Aliette de Bodard’s story of political intrigue, familial conflict, and reckless romance in a fantasy version of pre-colonial Vietnam. Imperial Princess Thanh was sent to the country of Ephteria when she was still a child. Being a royal hostage was one of the only things she was
Romantic girls like Beauty and the Beast; vanilla girls like Cinderella; goth girls like Snow White. Only dying girls like Sleeping Beauty. Alix E. Harrow is up for two Hugo awards this year, adding to a long list of nominations for her novels and short stories. In her Hugo-nominated novella this year, young Zinnia Grey
“We are but fevered stars. Here a little while, bright with promise, before we burn away.” – Obregi Book of Flowers Rebecca Roanhorse returns us to Meridian, the fantasy version of Pre-Columbian Americas in the second book of her “Between Earth and Sky” series. Book 1 ended with the slaughter of the entire ruling body
Souls are cheap. The trick is finding the right soul. Katrina Nguyen, a transgender teenager from a very unaccepting family, decides that her latest beating is one beating too many. She climbs out of her family’s apartment and boards a bus to Los Angeles, bringing along not much more than her laptop and her treasured