fred_mouse

I'm clearing out a folder of abandoned drafts; I've found one with a few notes on the 2022 Hugo awards.

Previous posts: novel, novella, series.

Notes from short story are below; for all other categories I have the nominees, in short list order, with no ranking or notes, so I'm going to abandon hope of writing those up.

( short story commentary; incomplete )

This year, I voted in 15 of the 20 categories. At the start of the reading / voting process I split the categories by priority (1: definitely; 2: I'd like to, but; 3: unlikely). At the end, I voted in 8/8 priority one, 5 / 7 priority two, and 2 / 5 priority three.

Categories voted (with links to the details): best novel, novella, novelette, short story, graphic story / comic, series, fancast, professional artist, fan artist, fan writer , fanzine, game / interactive work, and dramatic presentation - long. Plus the two Not A Hugo categories, astounding new writer and lodestar (YA)

Originally I wasn't going to vote in either of the dramatic presentation categories, because of the difficulty in accessing the materials. I sourced opinions from the Offspring, which worked for long form, but there wasn't anything from them on short form. I also wasn't intending to vote for either of the editor categories, because they make no sense to me. I'm sure that for others, these categories are incredibly valued, but eh.

I had hoped to vote for related work and semiprozine; more so the former because I often have quite strong opinions on the nominees (although sometimes that opinion is 'NO'). On this occasion, I just didn't have the bandwidth to engage and finish some of the other categories.

Voted

1. “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, May-June 2023)
2. “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare Magazine, October 2023)
3. “Answerless Journey”, Han Song / 没有答案的航程, 韩松, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)
4. “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023)

not voted

• 美食三品 (“Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times”), 宝树 / Baoshu (银河边缘013：黑域密室 / Galaxy’s Edge Vol. 13: Secret Room in the Black Domain)
• “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023)

( assorted notes )

Voted

1. The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen Books, Gollancz and Allen & Unwin)
2. Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark (Starscape)

( Assorted Notes )

Voting

1. Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
2. The Universe of Xuya by Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JABberwocky Literary Agency; Subterranean Press; Uncanny Magazine; et al.)
3. The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)

I chose just to vote for the ones I've read enough of, and intend to keep reading; no reviews on individual books (although I had thought of doing so)

Of the others (in approximate reading order)

• October Daye by Seanan McGuire (DAW) - I don't mind it, but I don't find it as appealing as McGuire's other writing, and I haven't bothered to read all that many of the books.
• The Laundry Files by Charles Stross (Tordotcom, Orbit UK) - I've bounced off this one hard the one time I attempted to read it; I don't know if that is a me vs the series, or it wasn't the right time. I have intentions of having another look at some point.
• The Last Binding by Freya Marske (Tordotcom, Tor UK) - book one is a bit meh on the fantasy and heavy on the romance and erotica; book two had better characterisation and writing, but was pretty much full on farce which I loathe. Book 3 I didn't finish because my ebook loan ran out, but also because I didn't make the effort.

Voting

1. Worldbuilding for Masochists, presented by Marshall Ryan Maresca, Rowenna Miller, Cass Morris and Natania Barron
2. 科幻Fans布玛 (Science Fiction Fans Buma), production team 布玛（Buma)，刘路（Liu Lu)，刘倡（Liu Chang)
3. Publishing Rodeo, presented by Sunyi Dean and Scott Drakeford
4. Octothorpe, by John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty
5. The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
6. Hugos There, presented by Seth Heasley

( Assorted notes )

Rating

1. Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
2. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
3. Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor, Tor UK)
4. Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

and not voting - because I couldn't bring myself to finish either of them, and chose to start other books instead (all of the others were easy to finish):

• Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, Harper Voyager UK)

( assorted notes )

We started off bright and early, because relatively high heat and humidity meant that we wanted to get the walking part of the day done early. This didn't quite pan out, for reasons that have to do with 'where does this path go' and 'sure we can go a bit further'. Fortunately, we both started with full water bottles, found at least one place to fill up, had applied sunscreen, and had hats. Plus, I had my good (wrap around, cancer council) sunnies.

So, the goals for the day were to have a bit of a walk in Marjan Park, and to go to the Mestrovic Gallery. The tourist map doesn't quite show what we need, because part of the legend covers where we were planning to go, but we figured we could walk through a bit of the town side edge of the park, down to the road where the gallery is. Instead, we got to the park, and decided to head out along the promontory, and then just kept making decisions that took us further. I'm not entirely sure how far we walked, but one section that wasn't quite half had a sign that it was 1.2km (and possibly 120 m up? Not sure if that was 'from sea level' or 'from here', and we were still a ways up).

( much about the park and gallery )

Voting

1. James Davis Nicoll
2. Örjan Westin
3. Alasdair Stuart
4. Jason Sanford
5. Paul Weimer

( assorted notes )

Rating

1. Rose/House by Arkady Martine (Subterranean)
2. Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
3. “Seeds of Mercury”, Wang Jinkang / 水星播种, 王晋康, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)
4. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor, Titan UK)
5. The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (Tordotcom)
6. “Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet”, He Xi / 人生不相见, 何夕, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)

( assorted notes )