North Continent Ribbon

[psocoptera]

North Continent Ribbon, Ursula Whitcher, 2024 novella/collection. I made the classic blunder of being so excited about this book that I wanted to actually own it as a book, which ironically made me less likely to actually read it, since it's much more of a hassle for me to read on paper. However I have finally done so and am pleased to report that it is awesome. I had read most of the stories before - possibly I had read at least pieces of all of them before - but I don't have a very good memory any more, and can't put together pieces of things I'm reading spread out over time, and so it was very different reading all six at once put together in an order with years added to form a whole chronology. Like, there is a lot going on here both in terms of world-building and in terms of a big-picture world narrative that I had not picked up on at all. Really well-built and nicely done. I'm not sure for awards purposes how fixups count exactly (fixup sounds pejorative but I don't know a better term for when parts of something have had prior publication) but I feel like it *should* count as a 2024 novella because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?

Comments

[ursula]

Yay, I am so glad that you had fun seeing the pieces fit together.

Awards-wise, it's technically a very short novel by word count, but the final story is eligible as a novelette.

[psocoptera]

Huh, really? Like even with the 20% wiggle room? I mean, obviously you would know better than I would, but it's fewer pages than Yoke of Stars, which I also happen to have on paper right now from the library, with what I would have thought was similar layout, and that's a novella. (Although, okay, I actually counted and NCR is more lines per page, which I guess adds up.) Also I guess there's no guarantee the admins would choose to wiggle if it was in the wiggle room, but I feel like we've had other technically-short-novels in the novellas recentlyish. Hm.

[ursula]

Huh, it's 46k and I didn't know about the wiggle rule. Do you know where I would find that?

[ursula]

Ah, I found it in the WSFS Constitution:

"3.2.10: The Worldcon Committee may relocate a story into a more appropriate category if it feels that it is necessary, provided that the length of the story is within twenty percent (20%) of the new category limits."

[psocoptera]

Haha, I didn't see this before my reply. Sorry for duplicate info. :)

[psocoptera]

Ok, so, I think it's WSFS Constitution 3.2.10: "The Worldcon Committee may relocate a story into a more appropriate category if it feels that it is necessary, provided that the length of the story is within twenty percent (20%) of the new category limits." Quick searching for word count estimates for some recent winners put Thornhedge in the low 40s and This is How You Lose The Time War up in the "almost 50k" range. I don't have a good sense of how they decide whether to do it, like if they're more willing to for a runaway fan favorite or a well-known and beloved author; if your editor/publisher don't think it's likely I'm sure they have way more insight than I would. But out here as a random nominator it feels consistent to me with how the category seems to be operating (to consider NCR as a novella).

[ursula]

I mean, anything not TorDotCom is a longshot, but at least I can stop stressing about people calling it a novella now. Thank you!