Links to Hugo-eligible short fiction

[cahn]

Have some links to short Hugo-eligible fiction!

Nebula nominees available free (hat tip: umadoshi)

Abigail Nussbaum’s nominees - AN’s taste in fiction isn’t congruent to mine (and sometimes we just flat-out disagree), but I do find her words about it to always be thought-provoking. Also plan to nominate her as best fanwriter. (Also plan to nominate skygiants as best fanwriter, if that’s OK.)

Set of nominees from forestofglory.

Another link from ladybusiness, with recs for all categories.

The novelettes on these lists that I liked enough to put them on my ballot: “The Art of Space Travel,” “The Venus Effect” (though I must say I didn't like it nearly as much as Abigail Nussbaum did) and “The Dancer on the Stairs” (probably my favorite).

Also, honorable mention to "The Tomato Thief," which I am not sure is going to be on my ballot, but it made me go back and reread the extremely good Jackalope Wives (to which it is a sequel), which deserved its Nebula and deserved the Hugo too, ugh.

The short stories on these lists that I liked enough to put on my ballot: “The Destroyer” (probably my favorite), “Sabbath Wine” (would be interested to know what the Jews on my f-list think about this one - ETA, probably going to take off my nom list), “A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers," and "The Most Important Thing."

I haven’t read the vast majority of novellas on these lists. I’ll try to get around to Penric and Taste of Honey in the next week, I think. And yes, probably also The Jewel And Her Lapidary because of the title.

Comments

[rymenhild]

I'm reading "Sabbath Wine" now and having a lot of trouble imagining a girl named Malka Hirsch in Brownsville using the dialect the author gives her. "Ain't" is not in Brooklyn Jewish dialects. Nor does cousin Shlomo talk to girls in short skirts in public unless he wants to be ostracized.

[rymenhild]

Reading further: oh, it's in the past and she's secular. That changes things. But why is her name Malka then?

[cahn]

I got the impression her mother was dead but was somewhat less secular than her father, and presumably she was influential in Malka's name?

Got nothing about cousin Shlomo, though. Which is why I wanted someone who knew about these things to read it :)

[rymenhild]

It's a cute story, and the end reveal justifies some of the material in the beginning, but it's... off in some weird uncomfortable ways.

[cahn]

*nod* Right -- I know just enough that I got pings of things that could have been off, but I don't know enough that I was sure. Thanks for reading and letting me know about that -- I think I'll take it off my ballot.