A Mouthful of Dust
Dec. 12th, 2025 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraA Mouthful of Dust, Nghi Vo, 2025 fantasy novella, the sixth in the Singing Hills series. I like this series and I thought this was a good installment. Spoilers: the uncomfortable parallel between the famine demon's hunger for novelty and the Singing Hills' desire for new and different stories - the way Chih has gone to this place of suffering to, in some sense, consume that suffering - gave this one a good weight and sharpness.
Also, because we're now up to six of these novellas, the series as a whole might now be within 10% of the 240,000 word minimum to be considered for Hugo Best Series. My personal guess is that it might still be a little short, but that seems like a job for the committee to figure out and not me, so it will be on my nominating ballot. If it doesn't make it, there's another one coming out next May (2026) and we can try again then.
Also, because we're now up to six of these novellas, the series as a whole might now be within 10% of the 240,000 word minimum to be considered for Hugo Best Series. My personal guess is that it might still be a little short, but that seems like a job for the committee to figure out and not me, so it will be on my nominating ballot. If it doesn't make it, there's another one coming out next May (2026) and we can try again then.
