“In answer to your question, I’m the Vice Secretary of Expatriation.” “And they are expats from…?” “History.” “Sorry?” Adela shrugged. “We have time-travel,” she said, like someone describing the coffee machine. “Welcome to the Ministry.” Kaliane Bradley’s Hugo-nominated novel jumps right into it with our narrator – an industrious government employee with a British father
Naomi Novik’s latest collection came out last September without me noticing, which is a shame because I loved her Scholomance series and I’ve been meaning to read a lot more of her work. I really enjoyed the collection, even the stories I didn’t 100% understand. Below are some (much too short) summaries: you can’t really
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
And that’s it. We’re down. I look up into an alien sky. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s stories have made multiple appearances at Pixelated Geek, and this year he has two books nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel (Jeez, Adrian, save some for the rest of the class.) For this book we return to a favorite
I’ve reviewed and enjoyed a couple of John Wiswell’s Hugo-nominated stories, but this is his debut novel. And wow, what a debut. In this fairy-tale-but-not-really, a monster who’s been terrorizing a small town meets a kindhearted traveler who’s entire family is monstrous, and somehow each of them are exactly what the other one needs. …her
“Your book and the hole it keeps cutting through time has started to break the world.” Mark Lawrence’s trilogy of the eternal Library wraps up in Book three, with a conflict that has spiraled out of the Library and into all of history, everywhere. The star-crossed lovers Livira Page and Evar Evantari are still searching
If I had to pick a common theme for the first three Hugo-nominated novelettes this year, it would be discovery. There’s something for each character to find in these, whether it’s a new identity, a fading memory, or a self that was left behind years ago for what turns out to be very bad reasons.
It’s a bit of a space-travel review this week as I read two more Hugo-nominated novellas: Sofia Samatar’s story set in a caste-system aboard a generation ship, and Aliette de Bodard’s planetary-hopping monster hunt. The Practice, The Horizon, and The Chain – Sofia Samatar He spoke of the Wilderness and the River of Life. He
I’ve got about eighteen weeks to post reviews of twenty-four Hugo Award nominees in the main fiction categories (well, twenty-one, since I’ve already reviewed one novel and two novellas), so I’m gonna start with a two-fer. This week’s review is for Ray Nayler’s haunting novella of memory and war, and another adventure featuring Nghi Vo’s