The Afterward

The Afterward, E.K. Johnston, 2019. This was a delight - I suppose authors are unknowable but this reads exactly like Johnston grew up reading Alanna and the Belgariad like I did and then decided to mash it up and make it more women and more gay, which I feel is a pretty solid approach to any genre but definitely welcome in the realm of YA fantasy-adventure. A team of lady knights (and one dude magician) have defeated the dark god with the magic jewel, and now the two youngest members of the team, an apprentice knight and a thief, are trying to sort their lives out afterwards. And also they're in love and it's difficult. Their chemistry was so good, I loved the complexity of their situation and how that complicated their relationship dynamic. The supporting cast, mostly the older knights from the quest, were well-drawn (and some of the details of the worldbuilding were great, like the acknowledgment in passing that many older knights have CTE-like symptoms... that's realism!) Recommended if you like YA fantasy or f/f, and it's going on my list for Lodestar nominees. Johnston is also the author of That Inevitable Victorian Thing, so, clearly an author relevant to my interests.

2019 Hugos!

For anyone wondering why I haven't said anything about the Hugos yet, the answer involves 1458 miles of driving, three National Parks, and most of our various siblings. I would like to highly recommend Crater Lake as one of the most stunning places I've ever seen - really up there with Yosemite in the highest rank of national parks.

But anyways, the Hugos. I was sad to miss the speeches - I don't quite understand why they can't also record the ceremony, if they're going to livestream the ceremony, but I suppose it has to do with the newfangled technological details of how these things work.

Below the cut, a bunch of thoughts about results, how well my favorites did, how well my predictions did, etc. I haven't even read up yet on what happened at the business meeting so expect a separate post about that even more belatedly.

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2019 Worldcon Business Meeting

Following the as always appreciated blogging of Alex Acks.

The Pro Artist/Fan Artist subcommittee didn't produce a report and has been dissolved back into the general Hugo committee, so, no proposals to have opinions about there.

Graphic Story now maybe Graphic Story Or Comic.

Boy, there's a bunch of small-details stuff going on. Not actually sure whether I care about any of this.

Worldcon 2021 in DC, which is interesting as potentially close enough to actually go to, hmmm.

Hugo for Games under further discussion.

We seem to be keeping 5 and 6 for next year, and maybe permanently if ratified in New Zealand. I like 5 and 6, so yay.

Ooh, an arts related amendment! The Internet now officially counts for publicly displayed art? Did it not before? Per the liveblog there seems to be a lot of agreement that the arts categories need *something*.