Some SF novelettes + short story

ahhhh it's Hugo nomination time and I haven't read anything that was published last year!

Well, okay, I binged a couple of days ago when I panicked, so here's what I've got. Thanks to forestofglory and isis who linked to pscoptera -- all the stories below come from those sources.

Recoveries, Susan Palwick, novelette. Hmm. It's about a female friendship that keeps going over several different kinds of dysfunction. I like Susan Palwick, and I'm always here for female friendship, although to be fair this one is a bit more dysfunctional than I usually like reading about. But I think I'm nominating this one.

If at first you don't succeed, try try again, Zen Cho, novelette, a very cute story about a dragon. Is "cute" good enough for nominating for the Hugo? I'm on the fence about this one.

What Is Eve?, Will McIntosh, novelette. I felt like this had interesting things to say about, well, middle school through a SF-nal lens. I felt the ending was a bit abrupt, but almost certainly nominating.

Thirty-Three Percent Joe, Suzanne Palmer, novelette. Sentient (and competent!) parts of a cybernetic soldier work together to try to keep him alive. Okay, this was obviously written with all of my likes in mind, so there was no way I wasn't going to like this one. I see this is the same author as "The Secret Life of Bots" last year, which also was written directly to my id. If you liked that one you'll like this one, and if you didn't like that one you probably won't think much of this one either. Nominating.

The Thing in the Wall Wants Your Small Change, Virgnia M Mohlere, short story, okay, this one was both super cute and appealed to my interests. I'm probably nominating this one.

On my list to read: the Murderbot novellas (I've read the first one) and Spinning Silver, although I sort of feel like they're bound to get on the ballot anyway, so I feel less pressure to read them. Also there is The Monster Baru Cormorant, which I guess I ought to read, and which I will probably enjoy and find devastating.

Looks like I have five days, more or less. What do I need to read (can I read) in the next five days?

Stories that didn't click for me (but might for you)

These are stories that I thought were really good and very well-written, possibly better-written than the stories that are actually going on my ballot; they had interesting premises and sometimes very cool execution. But they didn't quite... click for me. But they might for you. These are all from pscoptera.

The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington
by Phenderson Djèlí Clark. This is one apparently a lot of people liked (it's on the Nebula ballot) but I mean. It's about teeth. Well, it's about a lot of other things, but also... about teeth. Which is turns out is not really my thing.

Orange World, Karen Russell. Actually I thought this was a really good story, with the fantastic elements clearly in dialogue with the fears and magical thinking of being a postpartum mother. (Being a postpartum mother, specifically, in this decade in the US. Are you breastfeeding? If not, are you DOOMING YOUR CHILD TO low IQ and a terrible immune system and [insert study here]?? (Life spoiler: your baby will be fine whether you breastfeed or not.) Are you giving your baby enough skin-to-skin massages?? Etc. Oh God, I remember those days and I'm so glad they're over with, and this story really evoked that.) If anything I think my issues with it are that it starts bringing in all these really interesting questions and then it sort of backs away from really engaging with them in a meaty way. I don't know. It might end up on my ballot after all.

The Word of Flesh and Soul, Ruthanna Emrys. Grad school distorts your life in more tangible ways than in this universe! I'm not sure why this didn't grab me. I think part of it was the autism of one of the main characters and how the language they are studying refers to autistic people as "monsters," which was obviously supposed to be Making a Point, but instead it made me think about grad school in the sciences and how more than half of us weren't exactly what you'd call totally neuro-social-typical in every way and how that was generally regarded as pretty standard, and what would that look like in a story where what you were studying was literally magic, and okay I had started daydreaming a story in my head that looked very different from this one. Which is not this story's fault!

STET, Sarah Gailey. Okay, so, here's the thing. I really liked the unconventional format and sort of darkening way of telling the story. I did not like how the editor-character came across as so clueless as to be effectively completely unbelievable. I feel like there's a good story in here that I just couldn't buy the way it was.