2018 online short SFF - misc 2

I picked up some of these from Charles Payseur's Quick Sip Reviews and particularly his Sippy Awards, some from the Lady Business blog's Hugo recs, some from the Locus list, some just from... somewhere.

The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change, Virginia M. Mohlere, Luna Station Quarterly. Adorable story dedicated to iguanamouth (this comic, in particular).

More Tomorrow, Premee Mohamed, Automata. A scientist stranded in the Devonian, trying to survive.

The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, Phenderson Djèlí Clark, Fireside. I would call this an awards-season frontrunner; it's on the Nebula ballot and I've heard enough buzz around it that I think we'll probably see it on the Hugos. Some neat magical alternate history. What's up with teeth this year, though, I feel like there have really been an atypical number of stories involving teeth. (I haven't been reccing them all, but I think I've recced a couple.)

Memento Mori, Tiah Marie Beautement, Omenana. A mer-lady with Ehlers-Danlos who's dating Death.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, Zen Cho, the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog. An imugi - a Korean proto-dragon - trying to become a full-fledged dragon. I loved this. Cho is so, so good.

Wild Ones, Vanessa Fogg, Bracken. This is *such* a middle-aged mom story but, lo.

Orange World, Karen Russell, The New Yorker. A new mom makes a bargain, and then has to deal with it. NOVELETTE

2018 short fiction shortlist - novelettes

This year I read through Strange Horizons, Uncanny, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Tordotcom, Apex, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, plus some miscellaneous stuff someone else recced (which included several things at each of Fireside and Shimmer that I didn't feel like reccing myself, but if I wanted to keep reading further I'd probably try to read those magazines, or maybe Giganotosaurus (which I just learned was founded by Ann Leckie, interestingly enough)).

The only novelette I read and was immediately sure I wanted to Hugo-nominate was this one:

What Is Eve?, Will McIntosh, Lightspeed. A seventh grader changes schools. I thought this was a great premise and a really moving payoff.

But I like to use my slots, so here's four more I wouldn't mind seeing on the ballot, roughly in order of my picking them:

Nine Last Days on Planet Earth, Daryl Gregory, Tor.com. Alien invasion and family. I love interesting alien biology and how humans react.

The Privilege of the Happy Ending, Kij Johnson, Clarkesworld. Raptor swarms and meta-narrative. Some of the voice in this was a little annoying but the raptor swarms are such a great concept and it was tense and gripping.

Thirty-Three Percent Joe, Suzanne Palmer, Clarkesworld. A soldier's sentient replacement body parts work to keep him alive. I have a... I almost said "a weakness for humor", but why am I calling that a weakness? A *fondness* for clever humor in sf stories.

The Word of Flesh and Soul, Ruthanna Emrys, Tor.com. I think I first recced this as a grad school story, but there's interesting stuff going on here about language and magic, and I really liked the characters and their relationship.

And a couple more I considered:

The Lighthouse Girl, Bao Shu, transl by Andy Dudak, Clarkesworld. A girl investigates her mysterious past. I like this concept but I didn't find the writing that exciting looking back at it again.

Recoveries, Susan Palwick, Tor.com. Sharply drawn characters and a neat concept; I would consider displacing Thirty-Three Percent Joe for this if I wanted to go serious rather than fun.

Orange World, Karen Russell, The New Yorker. A new mom makes a bargain. I just read this today so I haven't been sitting with it for very long, but I'm a sucker for stories about moms and this feels very real about the post-partum experience and the fourth trimester and stuff like that. Uh, I should probably put some content notes on this one for danger to children/discussion of child death.

And here's every other novelette I've mentioned in my recs this year, which you can in theory also find under the tag #2018SFFNovelettes, posted to my twitter @TheBookLouse, although that doesn't seem to want to show me all of them, so, ugh, maybe that doesn't work as well as I thought. Aren't you glad you're here on dreamwidth instead. UGH, ETA: some unknown number of my other BCS recs are actually novelettes but because they don't tag or publish wordcounts, I failed to catch them and label them appropriately. I don't really want to try to fix that now. Sorry.

The Paladin of Golota, Phenderson Djeli Clark. Classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy.

How to Swallow the Moon, Isabel Yap, Uncanny. A fairy tale set in the Philippines; love between a girl in a tower and her handmaid.

A Study in Oils, Kelly Robson, Clarkesworld. A killer from the moon, hiding out on Earth. Interesting stuff about culture and art and justice.

When We Were Starless, Simone Heller, Clarkesworld. Classic "people of the far future interact with the relics of a technological past" story.

Master Zhao: The Tale of an Ordinary Time Traveler, Zhang Ran, transl Andy Dudak, Clarkesworld. Replay-esque time loop story.

The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births, José Pablo Iriarte, Lightspeed. Reincarnation.

Nitrate Nocturnes, Ruth Joffre, Lightspeed. A timer story in Lightspeed!

Court of Birth, Court of Strength, Aliette de Bodard, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. A sweaterboy and an absolute nightmare search for a missing kid in the House of Shattered Wings universe.

2018 short fiction shortlist - short stories

So many short stories! I recced a lot of things that I thought were good and worth reading and now I'm like "but what's actually memorable, what's important, what do I think has actual ballot traction because I do like to get something I liked on there if I possibly can, ack."

My five:

Octo-Heist in Progress, Rich Larson, Clarkesworld. Pico wins character of the year, for me.

The House on the Moon, William Alexander, Uncanny. There's a lot going on here and I'm honestly not sure I think it all holds together. But I thought about this one after reading it much more than I did almost any other story, and it's earning itself a nom for that.

When the Letter Comes, Sara Fox, Book Smugglers. I often end up with a soft spot for things I read when they were published because people were talking about them, instead of just in my big march through the magazines. Not everything I read that way - some of those I don't even end up reccing - but, I don't know, I think there's sort of a warm communal halo sometimes of knowing that a story meant something to other people.

A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies, Alix E. Harrow, Apex. This is another one with that warm communal halo, and I think some actual ballot potential. I don't know, do I want to spend two slots on feelgood fantasy stories? Maybe I do, I mean, god knows 2018 served up plenty of real-world things to *not* feel good about, why not indulge in not feeling shitty about absolutely everything. Actually, you know what, I'm going to ditch "Jump" down to the also-rans and nominate Zen Cho's imugi story, too, why not, let's just roll around in warm fuzzy feelings and fuck all the sadness and the realism and the struggle with what's coming and the bleak reflection of what already is happening. Fuck you, 2018! I mean, let's also see how I feel about this in a few days, but, rraaaagh!

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, Zen Cho, the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog.

Runners-up:

Jump, Cadwell Turnbull, Lightspeed. One of my favorite things to write fanfiction-wise is "a strange magically-real problem is happening, how does the ensemble react", and this has the same sort of character-driven simplicity.

The Minnesota Diet, Charlie Jane Anders, Slate/Future Tense Fiction. There's something so chilling about this. Like the gaslighting of a whole city. Of all the stories that are grappling with refugees and atrocities and genocides, I think this one really gets to me for how quiet it is.