Hugos 2019: best novella

[cahn]

Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells (Tor.com publishing) - Can I talk about all the Murderbot novellas here? WHICH I LOVE. I have observed that people's reactions to these have fallen mostly into two categories: (1) These novellas and Murderbot are okay, but nothing special to write home about. (2) LET MURDERBOT JUST WATCH ITS SERIAL DRAMAS, OKAY?! (their? not sure of murderbot's pronouns)

I am firmly in the second camp. I love these all very much. Also, they've gotten more and more obvious to me as they go along about Murderbot being a standin for an Aspergers/ASD character, where by "more obvious" I mean "the number of times I was like 'gosh, Murderbot, I really get you,'" which increased as the novellas went on. But obvious without being in-your-face about it, which I appreciated.

Beneath the Sugar Sky, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com publishing) - Astonishingly I liked this one, after bouncing hard off the second one and having mixed feelings about the first. The Arch Narrator was toned waaaaay down, and we see Nancy again but the really disturbing subtext of the first novella (older powerful man isolating teenage girl) was toned down a lot too. And no one commented on poor parenting choices. All good writing choices there! A bit plot-coupon-y, and then there was this bit 2/3rds through where the villain is defeated and they... just... leave her there???? There's a certain amount of compassion and mercy I expect from YA books -- and even though this isn't sold as YA it totally codes to me as YA, especially the progressivist "it's not good to make fun of people for being fat or Mexican" bits -- the compassion-and-mercy part got sort of trampled on here, and I'm not sure that it was an intentional message ("but you can totally make fun of people who think thoughts you don't agree with"). And as well the whole concept of this series kind of bothers me because I feel that YA should have a certain amount of "figure out how to live in the world you're in" that the whole premise sort of undermines. Possibly I just have really strong feelings about YA.

Binti: The Night Masquerade, by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com publishing) - DNF, though not for my usual reason of not being able to deal with the "math." I think it just looked like it was going to be super depressing.

The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com publishing) - Liked this one a lot! Well written. The ending was not particularly surprising, but it was very satisfying.

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, by Kelly Robson (Tor.com publishing) - My beta sprocket is always asking me to consider whether I might chop off some large part of text off a fic. (Sometimes the answer is "no," but I then have to think about why I don't want to chop it off.) I couldn't help but think that Robson needed my beta, because I claim the entire first half could have been chopped and it would have been a much stronger story for it. The worldbuilding also seemed sort of weirdly not interested in what I wanted to know, like, at one point the protagonist (I guess) says something like, the banks weren't interested in time traveling ecologists because they just wanted to make money! Which begs the question of, how were the banks using time travel?? I mean, isn't that the obvious interesting question?? (It is dropped and never comes up again.)

Also, this was a very very depressing and irritating story. As far as I am concerned the synopsis is "obnoxious people doing a time-travel jaunt do a lot of really stupid and obnoxious things and suffer the consequences" and at some point I was mostly reading to see everyone get their comeuppance.

The Tea Master and the Detective, by Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean Press / JABberwocky Literary Agency) - I liked this one! I find de Bodard a little hard to read -- I have to be in the right mood -- but I like her writing and this one was a nice Holmesian homage.

Voting: Artificial > Detective ~ Drums > Peach > Sugar > Binti > No Award.

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

Interesting. I had the same problems as you with Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, but found Beneath the Sugar Sky way more irritating. McGuire's writing just really doesn't work for me, and I found this story, like everything I've read by her, to be super twee, and, as you say, unsubtle.

Artficial Condition was my first encounter with both Wells and her Murderbot books, and I really enjoyed it, but probably not enough to put it above the de Bodard and Clark stories, which I had read prior to the Hugos and nominated in this category.

[cahn]

Yeah, I know there are people who are very much turned off by McGuire's writing and find it very twee -- I happen not to mind it myself, as long as I'm not paying close attention. When I'm paying close attention I can see a lot of careless bits poking through, but after reading (and bouncing hard off) the first two I now know this and so I try not to pay attention -- except when the subtext is so strong I really can't help it. (But you will note that I am voting it under Peaches as well :) )

*nods* I have a lot of strong feelings about Murderbot. But I really liked de Bodard and Clark as well!

[lokifan]

there was this bit 2/3rds through where the villain is defeated and they... just... leave her there????

UGH. This would kill it for me whether the books were YA(ish) or not. Compassion, please, or else deliberately nasty protagonists.

[cahn]

YEAH. I mean, I am also okay with the protagonist showing compassion, being totally rebuffed, and then ending up having to destroy the villain in the end; or a protagonist having to make tough ethical decisions to destroy villains -- but what makes me super annoyed is when the we-are-supposed-to-sympathize-with-them protagonists don't even think twice about being unnecessarily vicious to the villain, because hey, that doesn't really "count" as being mean.

[luzula]

Which begs the question of, how were the banks using time travel??

...they check what happens with the stock prices in the future and then they go back to buy/sell those stocks?

[cahn]

Maybe? Or save priceless mint copies of X (or find where someone else has done so) away in a drawer somewhere? (I think someone wrote that story, anyway.) Or...? I don't know, I just feel like it's probably interesting and I would like to know both what they did and why they eventually decided eh, they'll do ecology after all even though there's not actually money in it. Are they feeling like they need to rehabilitate their image? Are they worried there won't be a world for them to spend their money in?? ...yeah, I'm clearly interested in very different questions than the author.

[ambyr]

Interesting--I loved Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach and am in the "it's okay I guess" camp for Murderbot, but other than that our reactions are fairly similar I think.

and then there was this bit 2/3rds through where the villain is defeated and they... just... leave her there????

Not just leave her there--leave her there with the bracelet that allows transportation to other worlds! If she doesn't turn up as a Big Bad later in the series, I am going to have so many questions about why that gun was left cocked on the mantle.

And as well the whole concept of this series kind of bothers me because I feel that YA should have a certain amount of "figure out how to live in the world you're in" that the whole premise sort of undermines.

YES THIS. I have SO MANY thoughts about the ickiness of the privilege inherent in "to be happy, I need to find a world that is tailor-made for me and my desires."

I think it just looked like it was going to be super depressing.

Heh. Uh, so I did not like The Night Masquerade, but despite indications early in the book, I would actually describe it as "super fluffy" more than "super depressing." Spoilers: no one who you think is dead is dead.

[cahn]

Ha, that's so interesting that we agreed on half and disagreed on the other half :)

Not just leave her there--leave her there with the bracelet that allows transportation to other worlds!

Ah, of course, I missed that! Heh.

I have SO MANY thoughts about the ickiness of the privilege inherent in "to be happy, I need to find a world that is tailor-made for me and my desires."

YES! I mean, okay, but the rest of us have got to live here :P

Uh, so I did not like The Night Masquerade, but despite indications early in the book, I would actually describe it as "super fluffy" more than "super depressing." Spoilers: no one who you think is dead is dead.

Ha. I... would like this even less. I'm so tired of stories where people Aren't Dead After All; I know it's a thing for a reason but I think I've just read enough books now that I'm tired of it

[ambyr]

YES! I mean, okay, but the rest of us have got to live here :P

I actually had similar feelings about "A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies," but I don't know if you've read that yet and I don't want to spoil you if you haven't.

[landingtree]

These are much more interesting and coherent criticisms of Beneath the Sugar Sky than I managed! It never engaged me enough to irritate me. (I got it out of the library, not having heard of the series, because I read the first chapter and really liked the premise. And then I read through the book thinking, 'Shame I don't actually like any of the details.')

I liked the premise when I read it as, "Here are some people who fell through the cracks in a complex multiverse," but it seems to end up being, "The whole multiverse is structured around these people and the cracks they fall through.

[cahn]

Yes! It's sort of weirdly... protagonist-centric? I mean, if there's a reason for the multiverse to warp itself around those certain people, I am all ears, but it doesn't look like this is an examined assumption.

And then I read through the book thinking, 'Shame I don't actually like any of the details.'

Ha. Yeah. You and me both.

[cahn]

I did read it and I can totally see where you are coming from. I guess I chose to read it as a metaphor of books saving us, even in this world... Which is not necessarily what the author meant to convey, but which I think is a possible interpretation of a necessarily-compressed short story. Once you expand it to a novella, it's a little harder to interpret it that way :)

[ambyr]

I think it would have bothered me less if the kid in "A Witch's Guide to Escape" had found the books on his own, achieving escape entirely through his own agency, but there was something in the premise of White Protagonist Lady Librarian Helps Black Kid Achieve Escape From Our Terrible Racist World Into Another World that really bugged me, as a white librarian-adjacent lady--because as a white lady who works in a library, I think I have a responsibility to use my privilege to make this world better for those with less privilege, and just showing them a way out seems like dodging my responsibility for tikkun olam.

...basically I wanted the story where the protagonist used her privilege to fight back against her library's "twenty-five cents a day" late fee (rejecting late fees as a form of regressive taxation is a big social justice push in libraries today), thus making the books in the library more accessible to all underprivileged kids. Which I admit would have been a really boring story for 99% of readers.

(Also I'm salty about "There have only ever been two kinds of librarians in the history of the world: the prudish, bitter ones with lipstick running into the cracks around their lips who believe the books are their personal property and patrons are dangerous delinquents come to steal them; and witches" okay.)

[cahn]

*nods* No, I totally get that! I have the luxury of not being a librarian, too -- I definitely react more strongly to the subtext in stories about scientists or engineers, say.

Okay, I bet we could make that into an interesting fantasy story :P Well, actually, "Witch's Guide" could have gone that way! where instead of the librarian pushing the book into the kid's hand, she gets rid of the late fee and suddenly the books are more accessible and lots of underprivileged kids are able to check out books to learn magic, or escape through a portal, or talk to cats, or... darn it, now I want that story too :P

There have only ever been two kinds of librarians in the history of the world: the prudish, bitter ones with lipstick running into the cracks around their lips who believe the books are their personal property and patrons are dangerous delinquents come to steal them; and witches"

I KNOW. Even not being a librarian I was all "...really? Really?"

[ambyr]

The more I think about it, the more I think I would have been fine with the story if there had just been three sentences about how, while doing all the magic stuff with this one individual kid, she was also pursuing systemic change to their overdue policies. (If there hadn't been constant in-story mentions of overdue fines, it wouldn't have twinged me the same way--but there were, and so the issue was hard for me to forget about.) Which is perhaps idiosyncratic of me, I'll admit.

[cahn]

Yeah, I feel a little like it is related to that terrible sentence about how librarians are either terrible people or witches -- sort of this weird inability to believe that there's this middle ground where, you know, you could do a lot of good that isn't dependent on magic!