Hugo Novellas
Jul. 25th, 2012 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylNow that I'm on to the Campbell nominees, here are a few quick thoughts about the Hugo-shorlisted novellas:
Countdown by Mira Grant. A doctor comes up with a cure for cancer based on the Marburg virus. Another doctor is perfecting a viral cure for the common cold when his lab is vandalised by a bunch a rather lame political group. Together the two viruses cause people to start rising from the dead. A couple of doctors from the CDC try to track the outbreak. A professor at UC Berkeley and his wife and son get caught up in the outbreak. It's good, but it only works if you've already read at least part of Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy.
The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman. A teenage girl living in a strange iron city finds herself a new tutor who teaches her about art and history and regrets and secrets. Inspired by her leasons, the girl learns more about a horrible
Kiss Me Twice by Mary Robinette Kowal. A cop investigates a murder assisted by his partner Meta, a police AI with a thing for Mae West. Midway through the forensics work, Meta is kidnapped and her replacement becomes unreliable. Features a nice relationship between the two principal characters, poses some interesting questions about memory, but I'm not sure the final resolution isn't slightly to easy.
The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson. An engineer travels to a small village to build a long suspension bridge over a strange river of corrosive mist that divides the empire in two. He makes friends with the family whose job it is to row back and forth across the mist, and spends a lot of time worrying about the unseen Big Ones. Again, it features two good principals who like each other despite their very different philosophies of life. The setting is strong and writing is very good and Johnson resists the temptation to explain the mystery out of the mist.
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary. A physicist discovers a particle that allows humans to directly observe historical events. Her husband uses the principle to allow relatives to observe the horrors of the Japanese Unit 731 bioweapons research program during WWII. The story unfolds through a series of interviews, exploring the culpability of states for their past history, the problems associated with the creation of historical narratives, and the destructive and subjective nature of the time travel technique. A powerful retelling of a horrible bit of history that is more than aware of the sorts of charges that get levelled at writers who try to turn historical events into fiction. Not for nothing is the story dedicated to the memory of Iris Chang.
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente. An artificial intelligence, once a house and now something completely different, explains its history. The story unfolds through a series of re-interpreted myths and fairy tales, and a set of dream-like interactions with the only surviving member of the dynasty that created it. Much of the story concerns what it means to be conscious and whether the Turing test can be considered meaningful in any way to something that is not human — intriguingly, the story also imagines what might happen to humanity should it fail to pass a similar test created by technological singularity.
It's a good, mixed field and I'd be happy to see any of them win albeit for different reasons. I think I know the order of my votes, but I'm going to have one more think about it before the deadline...
Countdown by Mira Grant. A doctor comes up with a cure for cancer based on the Marburg virus. Another doctor is perfecting a viral cure for the common cold when his lab is vandalised by a bunch a rather lame political group. Together the two viruses cause people to start rising from the dead. A couple of doctors from the CDC try to track the outbreak. A professor at UC Berkeley and his wife and son get caught up in the outbreak. It's good, but it only works if you've already read at least part of Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy.
The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman. A teenage girl living in a strange iron city finds herself a new tutor who teaches her about art and history and regrets and secrets. Inspired by her leasons, the girl learns more about a horrible
Kiss Me Twice by Mary Robinette Kowal. A cop investigates a murder assisted by his partner Meta, a police AI with a thing for Mae West. Midway through the forensics work, Meta is kidnapped and her replacement becomes unreliable. Features a nice relationship between the two principal characters, poses some interesting questions about memory, but I'm not sure the final resolution isn't slightly to easy.
The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson. An engineer travels to a small village to build a long suspension bridge over a strange river of corrosive mist that divides the empire in two. He makes friends with the family whose job it is to row back and forth across the mist, and spends a lot of time worrying about the unseen Big Ones. Again, it features two good principals who like each other despite their very different philosophies of life. The setting is strong and writing is very good and Johnson resists the temptation to explain the mystery out of the mist.
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary. A physicist discovers a particle that allows humans to directly observe historical events. Her husband uses the principle to allow relatives to observe the horrors of the Japanese Unit 731 bioweapons research program during WWII. The story unfolds through a series of interviews, exploring the culpability of states for their past history, the problems associated with the creation of historical narratives, and the destructive and subjective nature of the time travel technique. A powerful retelling of a horrible bit of history that is more than aware of the sorts of charges that get levelled at writers who try to turn historical events into fiction. Not for nothing is the story dedicated to the memory of Iris Chang.
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente. An artificial intelligence, once a house and now something completely different, explains its history. The story unfolds through a series of re-interpreted myths and fairy tales, and a set of dream-like interactions with the only surviving member of the dynasty that created it. Much of the story concerns what it means to be conscious and whether the Turing test can be considered meaningful in any way to something that is not human — intriguingly, the story also imagines what might happen to humanity should it fail to pass a similar test created by technological singularity.
It's a good, mixed field and I'd be happy to see any of them win albeit for different reasons. I think I know the order of my votes, but I'm going to have one more think about it before the deadline...
