This was book groups November pick. It is a selection of the 2009 novella, novelette and short story Hugo nominees and winners, the idea being the novel gets all the attention, but because the shorts are often in smaller, not as widely read or distributed magazines they don't have a chance to shine. This is very similar to the Nebula Awards that we like to read each year.
2010 Hugo Awards Showcase Includes:
Novella
•“The Erdmann Nexus” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)•“The Tear” by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
Novelette
•“Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF Jan 2008)
•“The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s Feb 2008)
•“Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)
Short Story
•“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Jul 2008)
•“Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
Short stories are hard to review because one's taste is so subjective. I'm actually not that wild about shorts, they don't contain enough substance for me. With that being said, there were a couple in here that really stood out. I particularly liked Kij Johnson's and James Alan Gardner's piece and I'm always a fan of Ian McDonald's work. You will probably laugh at the contradiction, but McDonald's work was about the right length. If you've read his stuff you'll understand.
I had already read Pride and Prometheus in the Nebula Award selection and didn't care for it then. The remainder were just sort of eh.
2 comments:
I really liked the Kij Johnson story, and really disliked the Kowal story. I was kind of eh on Pride and Prometheus.
Interesting. Book group felt the same way. Except they all seemed to like the Erdmann Nexus and I didn't.
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