I swear I’m not doing this on purpose, but the next three Hugo-nominated novelettes also have a theme, and this one is loneliness. It can be a lifelong estrangement between siblings, or a solitary magic-user having to deal with a disability without anyone finding out about it (or else), or something that’s actually called the Loneliness Universe in a story that I’m still having trouble wrapping my brain around.
“Signs of Life” by Sarah Pinsker
Had we only been a hundred miles from each other this entire time? If she was willing to see me, maybe this trek was part of my penance. It gave me time to think, anyway, about the things that had come between us, and what it might be like to have my sister back in my life.
Sarah Pinsker’s story starts about as far as you can get from a fantasy: a woman in a flashy car and inappropriate shoes driving to meet the sister she hasn’t seen in decades. Their estrangement has a lot of elements from a really good Reddit AITA post. You’ve got formerly inseparable siblings, an impulsive act that tends to happen when someone is young and mmmaybe not really good at picking trustworthy partners, and then shame and hurt feelings preventing either of them from making the first step at reconciliation. The two sisters end up separated by forty years of mutual silence, missed weddings, multiple divorces, and widowhood. The upcoming end of a successful career convinces Veronica to finally make a long-delayed trip, to a property tucked away at the end of a disused mountain road, in order to reacquaint herself with a woman she betrayed, who has every reason to resent her.
And it ends up being…fine? More than fine, actually. Veronica’s sister Violet has made a good life for herself, and the intervening years have given her the time and distance she needed to forgive her sister and offer her own apologies. She welcomes Veronica into her home, with her cozy mismatched furniture, her folk art, the twenty-something young man living in one of the bedrooms, the dresser drawers filled with river rocks, the strange dreams Veronica has been having with memories that are just a little off…
And boom! The fantasy element kicks in. And not a minor one either. The secret of the two sisters is a world-changing, utterly impossible event…
And it’s also fine. Like some of Pinsker’s other stories, the fantasy or supernatural element is never fully explained, and it takes a backseat to more mundane concerns, like family, or memory, or identity. In this case it’s a very pleasing mix of all three, plus the everyday magic of forgiveness, and artwork, finding a new purpose, moving on past grief (or at least getting to the point where grief doesn’t take up quite so much room), and realizing that loneliness can also be the spark we need to make a connection with someone. One way or another.
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars” by Premee Mohamed
It was a Bouldus year. She was sure of it.
By comparison, Premee Mohamed’s story is purest fantasy, with all the fantastical elements of dragons and wizards and a terrified apprentice who doesn’t realize that he’s going to be doing a lot more in an upcoming battle than just observing or even helping.
The great wizard Firion has a comfortable life as the protector of the seaside town of Weystone. She’s been living on her own for most of it – the occasional friendship with grateful townsfolk aside – and the very last thing she wants is an apprentice. But not because of the disruption to her solitary life. It’s because part of Firion’s magical talent – pretty much the basis for all of her talent – is just…gone. Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s something else, but shame and embarrassment have kept her from letting anyone know. She’s been ducking the requests from the university for months, but with no real excuse for not taking on an apprentice, the university decides to just send her one anyway. So now she has a terrified young man in her home, cringing and apologizing from his own trauma, who fully expects her to teach him how to use the magic that she no longer has access to.
And if that wasn’t enough, a periodic peril is set to show up on Weystone’s doorstep, and it’s going to take a lot more than enchanted knives and herbal teas to deal with it.
It’s really one of the more cozy coming-of-age stories I’ve seen. Firion is prickly, with an endless list of rules (“Rule seventeen. Don’t contradict your instructor. And rule twenty-eight: don’t dare hide anything from me.”) But she’s also empathic, trying to teach her new apprentice what he needs in order to save himself from his past, but also the minor task of saving everyone else. The main antagonist of the story is just one part of a very entertaining bit of world-building, where even magical creatures have their own biological needs.
“Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou
…despite what the scientists may say, I believe I broke the universe by coming to find you. I broke it and I don’t know how to put it back the way it was.
And this would be the most challenging entry of all the novelettes.
Nefeli has never been good at connecting with other people. There’s always something else she has to do, finish schooling, get her business started, put everything in order so her life is where she wants it to be and then she can work on her social life.
When nostalgia and regret finally get to the point where she can’t ignore it anymore, Nefeli decides to reach out to her oldest friend Cara, the person she lost contact with the earliest. And it starts out really well, since Cara would love to catch up. They arrange to meet at a nearby bus stop, and that’s when Cara obviously decides to mess with her since she’s nowhere to be found. Except that she’s telling Nefeli via text that she made it on time. And sends her a selfie that proves she’s at the right place but…she’s still nowhere to be found.
And then the same thing happens with Nefeli’s brother, vanishes between playing a video game and making a grocery store run. Except his text messages say he’s still there, and he wants to know when she grabbed the chips he bought since he never saw her in the living room.
And it keeps. On. Happening. Nefeli gradually finds herself in a universe of one, only able to speak directly with strangers, all communication with politely disbelieving family and friends taking place via text or email. The feeling of doom keeps growing, more people are noticing that something is happening, there’s an increasing sense of panic, and Nefeli is convinced that all of started when she made the decision to reach out to someone, even though we don’t get any confirmation of this. And we never will.
It’s a very strange, gentle apocalypse, one that’s temporarily helped by bonding over a cozy multi-player video game. But knowing that people are growing further apart and there’s nothing that can be done to fix it feels just as horrifying to me as looking up to see the asteroid has almost reached the planet. I don’t know if Triantafyllou is working through her own feelings of isolation, or commenting on the growing fragmentation of society, or the futility of trying to make connections, or wanting to impart how much we can just treasure those fragile moments when we do make a connection, either in person, or through an app, or with the person who makes our coffee order every morning. This is one of those stories where I think the discussion about what it all means is every bit as important as the story itself.