psocoptera

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.