2014 Hugo Nominees: Short Stories
Jun. 11th, 2014 12:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraA fine ballot. I don't love them all equally, but they all seem like very plausible nominees, there's nothing here that baffles me as to what the Hugo votership was thinking, and, really, I'll be pretty happy with any outcome of the vote. (The only thing I dislike about this ballot is that it only has four things on it, because the story with the fifth-most nominations wasn't on 5% of short-story-nominating ballots, which I think is a stupid rule; there being so many different good short stories nominated, dividing the vote, shouldn't mean we get even *fewer* of them on the final ballot. But anyways.)
“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”, Rachel Swirsky. I can't remember now whether I read this before I did my own nominations - I *think* I read it in the time between nominations closing and the ballot coming out. It's cute and sad and has some good lines and I like the structural gimmick but, I don't know, "incoherent" is too strong, but the sfnal elements being explicitly someone's fantasy within the story made them feel a little haphazard or superficial to me.
“The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt. I read this when it came out and didn't put it on my long list, but when I saw it on the ballot I immediately said "oh yeah, that story", and re-reading it, I'm surprised I hadn't long-listed it, there's some powerful and neat stuff in here. Although it's also a little weird, and inconsistent in tone. Warning for child death.
“Selkie Stories Are for Losers”, Sofia Samatar. This one I nominated, although rereading it just now, it didn't strike me as being as good as I remembered thinking it was the first time I read it. In some ways, this whole Hugos thing was simpler back when I wasn't actually participating, and was usually reading the five nominees for the first time when the ballot came out (and then snarking about them). Now I'm not sure how much weight to give to my recalled first impressions, vs my re-consideration at the time of my nominations, vs my re-reading or in some cases re-re-reading right now. I mean, I feel like "impact on first read" is a very important quality of a story, and "holds up to rereading" is very different, and the books and stories I reread over and over aren't necessarily the ones I would say are "the best" but are ones I love for how they feel. Also complicating things a little, I nominated this in part because it won the SH readers' poll and I wanted to get something I liked actually onto the ballot and you need 5%, as mentioned, and so I backed this because I thought it might actually have a chance, and, hey, it worked. But now it feels a little weird to consider voting for something else ahead of it that I considered nominating but didn't, because of whatever psychological fallacy that is that makes you stand by your past preferences even if you expressed them for strategic reasons. Anyways, this is probably my #1.
“The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere”, John Chu. This was on my long list and I still think it's a really vivid and lovely story. Probably my #2.
“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”, Rachel Swirsky. I can't remember now whether I read this before I did my own nominations - I *think* I read it in the time between nominations closing and the ballot coming out. It's cute and sad and has some good lines and I like the structural gimmick but, I don't know, "incoherent" is too strong, but the sfnal elements being explicitly someone's fantasy within the story made them feel a little haphazard or superficial to me.
“The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt. I read this when it came out and didn't put it on my long list, but when I saw it on the ballot I immediately said "oh yeah, that story", and re-reading it, I'm surprised I hadn't long-listed it, there's some powerful and neat stuff in here. Although it's also a little weird, and inconsistent in tone. Warning for child death.
“Selkie Stories Are for Losers”, Sofia Samatar. This one I nominated, although rereading it just now, it didn't strike me as being as good as I remembered thinking it was the first time I read it. In some ways, this whole Hugos thing was simpler back when I wasn't actually participating, and was usually reading the five nominees for the first time when the ballot came out (and then snarking about them). Now I'm not sure how much weight to give to my recalled first impressions, vs my re-consideration at the time of my nominations, vs my re-reading or in some cases re-re-reading right now. I mean, I feel like "impact on first read" is a very important quality of a story, and "holds up to rereading" is very different, and the books and stories I reread over and over aren't necessarily the ones I would say are "the best" but are ones I love for how they feel. Also complicating things a little, I nominated this in part because it won the SH readers' poll and I wanted to get something I liked actually onto the ballot and you need 5%, as mentioned, and so I backed this because I thought it might actually have a chance, and, hey, it worked. But now it feels a little weird to consider voting for something else ahead of it that I considered nominating but didn't, because of whatever psychological fallacy that is that makes you stand by your past preferences even if you expressed them for strategic reasons. Anyways, this is probably my #1.
“The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere”, John Chu. This was on my long list and I still think it's a really vivid and lovely story. Probably my #2.
