Hugos 2019: Novelettes
Oct. 3rd, 2019 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aseAdditional incomplete Hugo commentary!
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander: Combining two things that are terrible - humans being terrible to other humans in the name of capitalism, humans tormenting non-humans for passing entertainment - in one nightmarish "why?" of fiction. What is the purpose of radium elephants? What storytelling achievement was aimed for here? I do not understand.
"If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho: An imugi fails to become a dragon, lives with a human, figures out this dragon thing. I'm sort of hung up on the imugi failing to pass as human, or a celestial being, or as anyone other than the imugi the human saw before the relationship, and the human in this relationship repeatedly saying, "oh, I knew the whole time, I figured you'd tell me when you were ready." That... it's weird.
"The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections" by Tina Connolly: Interesting conceit. Not 100% sold on the execution, but an interesting idea!
"Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory: Humans will adapt? I guess?
"When We Were Starless" by Simone Heller: I keep trying to say something that isn't, "this reads like someone's postapocalyptic Cybertron AU" and failing. It's not bad, it's... middle of the road genfic.
"The Thing About Ghost Stories" by Naomi Kritzer: Ghost story! Daughter who studies ghost stories gets her mom's ring because ghosts! That's it, that's the story. Nice smooth writing, no pain to read.
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander: Combining two things that are terrible - humans being terrible to other humans in the name of capitalism, humans tormenting non-humans for passing entertainment - in one nightmarish "why?" of fiction. What is the purpose of radium elephants? What storytelling achievement was aimed for here? I do not understand.
"If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho: An imugi fails to become a dragon, lives with a human, figures out this dragon thing. I'm sort of hung up on the imugi failing to pass as human, or a celestial being, or as anyone other than the imugi the human saw before the relationship, and the human in this relationship repeatedly saying, "oh, I knew the whole time, I figured you'd tell me when you were ready." That... it's weird.
"The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections" by Tina Connolly: Interesting conceit. Not 100% sold on the execution, but an interesting idea!
"Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory: Humans will adapt? I guess?
"When We Were Starless" by Simone Heller: I keep trying to say something that isn't, "this reads like someone's postapocalyptic Cybertron AU" and failing. It's not bad, it's... middle of the road genfic.
"The Thing About Ghost Stories" by Naomi Kritzer: Ghost story! Daughter who studies ghost stories gets her mom's ring because ghosts! That's it, that's the story. Nice smooth writing, no pain to read.