2024 Novelettes
Mar. 5th, 2025 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraHere's all the novelettes I recced this year!
Clarkesworld:
The Best Version of Yourself, Grant Collier, Clarkesworld. A particularly unsettling Rapture-of-the-Nerds, and a woman's relationship with her mother. Novelette.
The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video, Thomas Ha, Clarkesworld. This is very reference-rich and I'm probably only catching part of that but I think it's also a strong story entirely on its own without all that? Memory and filters and the work of wrapping up the loose ends of a parent's life. Novelette.
A Brief Oral History of the El Zopilote Dock, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Clarkesworld. Thoughts on what the next Underground Railroad might look like. Novelette.
Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being, A.W. Prihandita, Clarkesworld. Medicine and licensing and helping and listening. Novelette.
Himalia, Carrie Vaughn, Clarkesworld. Growing up on a remote space outpost, and coming home again. Novelette.
Lightspeed:
The Heist for the Soul of Humanity, Filip Hadjar Drnovšek Zorko, Lightspeed. Yet another heist story, this is apparently what I'm in the mood for at this time? Novelette.
Strange Horizons:
By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars, Premee Mohamed, Strange Horizons. An aging wizard, an apprentice, and a problem. Novelette.
Exit Interview, K.W. Onley, Strange Horizons. Portals, but only for Black women. Novelette.
Uncanny:
Signs of Life, Sarah Pinsker, Uncanny. An aging news anchor visits her long-estranged sister. Covers some similar ground as Haunt Sweet Home, like Pinsker was doing variations on a theme. Novelette.
Other:
What Any Dead Thing Wants, Aimee Ogden, Psychopomp. Magical terraforming. Novelette.
I'm Not Disappointed Just Mad AKA The Heaviest Couch in the Known Universe, Daryl Gregory, Reactor. I thought this had big Men In Black energy. Novelette.
"Lake of Souls", Ann Leckie, Lake of Souls collection.
"A Fisher of Stars", Ursula Whitcher, North Continent Ribbon novella/collection.
**
Of the five I've marked here, the Collier and Vaughn stories are on the Locus list; the Ha, Prihandita, and Leckie stories are not. My picks seem to be very Clarkesworld-heavy this year, but I'm pleased that they didn't end up just being all authors I already liked. Relatedly, Grant Collier and A.W. Prihandita are eligible for the Astounding, as is K.W. Onley. I don't think any of them are an Isabel J. Kim-level prolific breakout new talent but I would always like to see more short-fiction Astounding nominees.
Clarkesworld:
The Best Version of Yourself, Grant Collier, Clarkesworld. A particularly unsettling Rapture-of-the-Nerds, and a woman's relationship with her mother. Novelette.
The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video, Thomas Ha, Clarkesworld. This is very reference-rich and I'm probably only catching part of that but I think it's also a strong story entirely on its own without all that? Memory and filters and the work of wrapping up the loose ends of a parent's life. Novelette.
A Brief Oral History of the El Zopilote Dock, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Clarkesworld. Thoughts on what the next Underground Railroad might look like. Novelette.
Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being, A.W. Prihandita, Clarkesworld. Medicine and licensing and helping and listening. Novelette.
Himalia, Carrie Vaughn, Clarkesworld. Growing up on a remote space outpost, and coming home again. Novelette.
Lightspeed:
The Heist for the Soul of Humanity, Filip Hadjar Drnovšek Zorko, Lightspeed. Yet another heist story, this is apparently what I'm in the mood for at this time? Novelette.
Strange Horizons:
By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars, Premee Mohamed, Strange Horizons. An aging wizard, an apprentice, and a problem. Novelette.
Exit Interview, K.W. Onley, Strange Horizons. Portals, but only for Black women. Novelette.
Uncanny:
Signs of Life, Sarah Pinsker, Uncanny. An aging news anchor visits her long-estranged sister. Covers some similar ground as Haunt Sweet Home, like Pinsker was doing variations on a theme. Novelette.
Other:
What Any Dead Thing Wants, Aimee Ogden, Psychopomp. Magical terraforming. Novelette.
I'm Not Disappointed Just Mad AKA The Heaviest Couch in the Known Universe, Daryl Gregory, Reactor. I thought this had big Men In Black energy. Novelette.
"Lake of Souls", Ann Leckie, Lake of Souls collection.
"A Fisher of Stars", Ursula Whitcher, North Continent Ribbon novella/collection.
**
Of the five I've marked here, the Collier and Vaughn stories are on the Locus list; the Ha, Prihandita, and Leckie stories are not. My picks seem to be very Clarkesworld-heavy this year, but I'm pleased that they didn't end up just being all authors I already liked. Relatedly, Grant Collier and A.W. Prihandita are eligible for the Astounding, as is K.W. Onley. I don't think any of them are an Isabel J. Kim-level prolific breakout new talent but I would always like to see more short-fiction Astounding nominees.
