Free Online 2012 Hugo (and Nebula) Nominees

[J-Sun]

I linked to an announcement of the Hugo nominees in the SFF News thread and was going to link to the stories as soon as a link list became available but I've gotten tired of waiting. I was only able to find two new stories that weren't already online Nebula noms but what the heck - that's all but five. If anybody finds those, add 'em here and feel free to discuss the nominees (for short fiction or not).

"N" indicates it was also a Nebula nominee. "H" means Hugo-exclusive.

Novella

H Countdown - Mira Grant (Orbit)
N The Ice Owl - Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction November/December 2011)
N Kiss Me Twice - Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s June 2011)
N The Man Who Bridged the Mist - Kij Johnson (Asimov’s September/October 2011)
N The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary - Ken Liu (Panverse 3)
N Silently and Very Fast - Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA)

The only differences in the Nebula and Hugo novella nominees are the Grant addition and "With Unclean Hands" by Adam-Troy Castro (not available online) being left off the Hugos.

Novelette

H The Copenhagen Interpretation - Paul Cornell (Asimov’s July 2011)
N Fields of Gold - Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse Four)
N Ray of Light - Brad R. Torgersen (Analog December 2011)
N Six Months, Three Days - Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)
N What We Found - Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction March/April 2011)

The differences here are that the Cornell story got added while Ferrett Steinmetz' "Sauerkraut Station", Katherine Sparrow's "The Migratory Pattern of Dancers" and Jake Kerr's "The Old Equations" got left off. I've read all three and I'm okay with that. Between the two dual noms I have read, I give it to Swirsky.

Short Story

N The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees - E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld April 2011)
H The Homecoming - Mike Resnick (Asimov’s April/May 2011)
N Movement - Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s March 2011)
N The Paper Menagerie - Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction March/April 2011)
H Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue - John Scalzi (Tor.com)

The differences here are that the Scalzi and Resnick are added and

"Her Husband's Hands" - Adam-Troy Castro
"Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son" - Tom Crosshill
"Shipbirth" - Aliette de Bodard
"The Axiom of Choice" - David W. Goldman

were all dropped. I actually sort of liked Goldman's but, otherwise, I'm good with that and, of the dual nominees, I'd give it to Fulda.

But I still have the two new stories to read.

 

[Grunkins]

Cool, thanks!

 

[J-Sun]

Welcome!

 

[J-Sun]

UPDATE: Thanks to John Scalzi's item pointing out that Mike Resnick's The Homecoming is available.

That leaves Grant and Torgerson, who are selling their stories on Evil Readers (so I don't expect those to show up freely available - but at least you can get 'em that way if you have an Evil Reader and want them), and Gilman and Ryman, who I suspect are screwed by being on a slack F&SF (though Liu got around it). So that's likely it unless F&SF decides to start promoting itself and its nominees.

 

[J-Sun]

I said "two" but it's four with the Resnick and the fact that I realized I hadn't read Johnson's "The Man Who Bridged the Mist" because it wasn't available in its entirety at the time the Nebula noms were announced. Anyway...

Scalzi's "Shadow War..." is funny and is a decent mock prologue for its purpose but, even so, it's not a short story at all and isn't quite ultra-genius funny enough to seem truly award-worthy to me as best short story.

Resnick's "Homecoming" is this close to superb but felt like a hasty and not entirely convincing transition to the ending. You know it has to happen and several pieces are there to make it plausible but it just felt like it should have been harder earned. Absolutely worth a read, either way.

Cornell's "The Copenhagen Interpretation" drives me up a wall. In many cases, I like in media res exposition in which you have to find your footing as you run but this was just too elliptical for too long. I spent much of the story wondering what this was - time travel, timewars, althist, or what (and I don't generally like that sort of thing anyway) - before finally deciding it was althist and almost a head-to-head with "The Old Equations". It turned out to be pretty clever and well written overall so I have to admit that, aside from the exposition not suiting me, it was technically pretty good but I didn't particularly enjoy it.

Johnson's "The Man Who Bridged the Mist" was infuriating in a way. I was ready to quit after five pages due to boredom but became interested after ten, and more so after twenty, and so on. But it never did overcome a very leaden pace. It was always deliberate and controlled, so skilled, but much too slow for me. Similarly, the initial "tell me about your childhood" scene cut off from the main narrative felt like obligatory "gotta do this to be taken as 'literature'" characterization but, the more she did it, the better it seemed. And, almost lastly, the milieu made no real sense. Are we on an alien world? Have we been there about 1,000 years? Why is our technology at this level? Why are we ethnically distinct? Etc., etc. But if you just accept that, well, this is the way it is, then it was an interesting milieu. And I got into the story - I liked the characters, there were several nice touches of an intriguing mind of a writer conveying interesting worldviews and details (for example, I particularly liked the minor Liu Breaker of Hoic and stuff around her intro), and I found the central focus compelling. And then, IMO, after overcoming several problems and creating a really remarkable story, she blew it in the last two lines. Can't spoil it, but it seemed thematically completely contradictory.

(On the other hand, contrary to the unexpected (for me) ending, a major plot point late in the story is clearly coming from very early.)

Anyway - all of these are worth reading and maybe the Resnick, Cornell, and Johnson fall in the vicinity of my previous "favorites" (Fulda, Swirsky, Kowal?) - they're certainly superior to all but one of the Nebula nominees that got dropped - but nothing loudly proclaims, "I am a Hugo winner!"

 

[Connavar]

The shorter stories sound interesting, i wonder will they be collected in some award anthology ?

 

[J-Sun]

The shorter stories sound interesting, i wonder will they be collected in some award anthology ?

Short answer: probably not.

Long answer: Isaac Asimov introduced five volumes of The Hugo Winners released by Doubleday at irregular times and containing irregular numbers of winners. Volume V had three years of winners and this model was used when the Hugos switched publishers (ending up in Baen paperbacks) and became The New Hugo Winners but Isaac was only able to introduce two of them before his death, with Willis and Benford doing the next two, but then Baen dropped them. AFAIK, the Hugos from 1994-2007 have never been collected but Mary Robinette Kowal brought out a very poorly selected and named The Hugo Award Showcase: 2010 Volume under Prime Books which partially covered the 2008 (!) Hugos in a manner analogous to the Nebula anthologies (covering only a single year but including some nominees and other items in addition to winners). Again, AFAIK, there was no "2011" (or "2009") volume so I doubt there will be anything collecting these Hugos but you never know.

The next closest thing would be the Nebula anthologies, which have a lot of overlap this year, and those usually come out a year or three or so later. And the various "Year's Best" annuals will likely include several of them. But all of them together might not include all of them and certainly no single volume of those will.

 

[Galacticdefender]

My vote would go to Leviathan Wakes. I'm thrilled that it was nominated. That was an AWESOME read.