Heidi's Hugo Foolishness - The Short Stories

Zombies, a haunted house, a fairytale retelling, two different types of robot (one in space) and a transdimensional portal (possibly) in a neighbourhood box of books.

This sums up the short story finalists in a simplified nutshell.

Honestly, there wasn't a dud one in the lot. There were elements of a few of the stories that had me skimming past things (I have a low tolerance for certain forms of violence and harm which means I end up skimming things just in case said violence shows up) but in each case I pushed past my qualms and was glad I did. This is something I can do in a short story that I can't necessarily in a longer piece, which is one of the good things about short stories.

Three of the authors were completely new to me (Carson, Prasad and Wiswell); the other three I'd heard of before, have read some of their work, or have wanted to read their work (Kingfisher, Kritzer and Lee).

I wasn't sure whether to repeat my mini-reviews here, but perhaps I should.

Heidi's Hugo Foolishness 2021 - An Introduction

 A few days ago - possibly on April 13th? I'm not entirely certain - the Hugo ballot for 2021 was announced. I've been voting and nominating for the Hugos since either 2015 or 2016, and if last year hadn't been one ginormous global trashfire, I would have been at my first ever WorldCon last year in Wellington, NZ. (Oh well, I'm not bitter, she says, grumpily.) I kind of hadn't been planning on getting a supporting membership for this year's Worldcon, DisConIII, which is what provides the right to vote - but then the ballot came out, and (in my opinion) it's a good ballot. With the exception of a few items that I have no plan to read (for reasons I may get to later - or may not), a lot of the fiction finalists are books/stories that I had already planned to read someday, some of which I already own, others of which I'm just waiting to get from the library when I have the reading time. Also this year, WorldCon is in December rather than its usual July/August timing, which means that there's a lot more reading time than there usually is. 

And then I discovered that the vast majority of the short stories and novelettes are available online, and all of the novellas and novels and Lodestar (YA, Not a Hugo) nominees are available via my local library, and a grand piece of foolishness was born.

I'm going to try to actually do all my Hugo reading this year. 

There are five main fiction categories that I'm looking at: Short Story, Novelette, Novella, Novel and Lodestar*. There is also the series category, but that involves way more reading than I have time for, as I have other reading goals for the year that do not revolve around SFF! As a supporting member I will eventually have access to the Hugo Packet, which may include full versions of the various stories and books, or may include excerpts, as determined by individual publishers, but as I said, I actually already have access to a surprising amount of the material. (Seriously - I was stunned to find every novella, novel and Lodestar* nominee was available. Someone in the Libraries Victoria consortium knows their stuff!)

Each of those five categories has six nominees, so we're talking 30 items, total. Of course, said 30 items are not all of similar lengths! I've finished the short story nominees already (more whereof in the next post) but of course each of the Big Four categories get progressively longer, and then the Lodestars* are not all short books, either.

That said, I'm not going to be reading all 30 items. Looking at my spreadsheet (yes, I have one) I currently have two items marked as "Will not read", and three as "Not sure", although one of those is about to get shifted back to neutral which is, essentially, "at least give it a go". I have a tracking category for "Abandoned" as there will be some, I'm sure, that are simply not to my taste, and while you can persevere with a short story (and I did so in at least one case), life's too short to do that with a novel you know you don't want to read.

However even with exceptions that's still at least 25 items, of varying lengths, to be read between now and the closing date for voting, which is 19 November, US time. Thankfully, I've already finished six.

I'm also scrapbooking this project, and posting mini-reviews to my Instagram account, should you be interested. I'm very bad at writing reviews, so mini ones are basically the best I'm ever going to manage. I'm also counting everything - including the short stories - as "books" for the purpose of my yearly reading goal, which I think I'm going to have to increase as a result of this project.

So, wish me luck, should anyone actually be reading this screed. My intention is to post wrapups of each category when complete, and you can expect my wrapup of the short stories fairly soon.

Discovering the second book first - When We Wake/While We Run, by Karen Healey

I rather startled my colleagues today.

I came into the returns room, saw a book on the shelving trolley, pounced on it and began to bounce with excitement.

The book was "When We Wake" by Karen Healey.

The reason I was so excited was that while I was working on Saturday, I'd picked up "While We Run", and began to read it.  I got 30 or 40 pages in, well into the actual plot, when I looked on the back cover and realised that it was the second book of two.  I really wanted to keep reading that story.  It had grabbed me really hard, in a way that was noticeable because "The Dreams of the Chosen", a Brian Caswell that I'd been very excited about, just hadn't grabbed me.  But I also wanted to read the first story first.

So I went off to the library catalogue, and promptly misread it as saying there was a copy of the first book, "When We Wake", on the shelf at the library (it was at a different branch), put it on hold, and was very disappointed on Monday morning when I discovered that it wasn't on shelf at all.

But today it arrived.  And I am so excited.

I have already begun reading "When We Wake" in spare moments.  It's future/dystopia set in Australia (not unlike "The Dreams of the Chosen" and, in fact, the two Ambellin Kwaymullina books that I really want to read soon if not next.)  There's politics and action and science and I cannot wait to get into these two books properly.

I became a member of the World Science Fiction Society

So, I signed up for membership of WorldCon 75.

I did so the day that the shortlist of Hugo Nominees was released for WorldCon74 (2016), because that shortlist was so hideously stacked by the nominees of the Rabid Puppies slate.

I won't get to vote for the Hugo winners for 2016, because even the supporting membership for WorldCon74 is prohibitively expensive at the current exchange rate.  Besides which, the two categories I was most interested in - Best Fancast and Best Related Work - are complete puppy takeovers, which greatly disappoints me.

(I really, really, really wanted Letters to Tiptree to get on the shortlist, but of course I couldn't vote for them because, not a member.  Next year, I will be nominating!  And Galactic Suburbia will be top of my list for fancast.)

Juneblog #2 - Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left

My good friend Subversive Reader wrote a post yesterday about being a Speculative Fiction fan, and in doing so she jolted me into the realization that I had left a very important book off my list of Top Ten SFF books: Robin Klein's Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left.  I quite possibly read that one before I'd even read Beatie Bow, and certainly before the gut-punch of Galaxarena and A Cage of Butterflies.

<--  This is the real cover of HAtGaTL.  It would not convince any current teenager to read it, but most of the modern covers... wouldn't convince me to read it, and that's the important thing, right?

I've just gone and looked on my shelves and although I have two other Robin Klein books there (other favourites, non SFF), I don't have Halfway!  I am shocked!  There was also a sequel, which I'm not sure was released until the TV series was made (which I never watched, so it didn't really exist).  I didn't like the sequel as much, although I can't imagine that I would ever have thrown it - let alone Halfway out.

I probably first read this book when I was younger than X - she was never really "Charlotte" to me.  And now I badly want to re-read it, and will have to see if it's either on a shelf or in a box at my parents' house.  

Speaking of re-reads:  I've (just) decided to do one new read and one re-read of Australian YA Spec Fic this month, and I'd love for you to join me.

My new read is going to be The Disappearance of Ember Crow, second in Ambelin Kwaymullina's awesome Tribe trilogy.  If you haven't read the first, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, you really must!  Because it's amazing.  (I don't yet know whether you need to have read it before Ember in order to make sense. 

My re-read is going to be Galaxarena, by Gillian Rubenstein.  It's currently $5 on Kindle, so you can all join in, even if you're living on the other side of the world.  I'm really hoping it lives up to my memories of it.  If it doesn't I'll be devastated - but I will also have killed a bogeyman in the process.

The SF/F books of my heart

There's a bit of a debate going on in literary sci-fi fandom at the moment.  I'm not actually planning to get into that here - this is supposed to be a mostly historical fiction blog, afater all!

But on a recent thread at Mike Glyer's File770, people started listing their favourite sci-fi/fantasy, and I started thinking, yet again, about my formative reading in that genre - and how it includes few to none of the books being listed at File770.

Not much of this is on my Goodreads, as it's pre-Goodreads reading.  But if I had to list my ten favourites - as others have been doing - here's an attempt at doing so, in rough order of when I first read them:

Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park (timeslip.  It counts.)
Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce (so does this.  I *love* timeslip.)
Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden (the first three were fantastic, and yes, it skates the line as SF/F.)
A Cage of Butterflies - Brian Caswell
On Fortune's Wheel - Cynthia Voigt
Deucalion - Brian Caswell
Imzadi - Peter David
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Vulture's Gate - Kirsty Murray


I realise that the sort of books on my list get me kicked out of "real fandom" by a lot of people (YA! Media tie-ins! Authors who don't admit they write SF OMG!), but I don't care.

Australian YA in the 90s was an awesome place for SF/F.

Gillian Rubenstein's Galaxarena is not on my list only because it disturbed me so much that I don't own a copy because I can never again read it.  Ever.  There's an image from that book that is still in my head today and OMG.  Caswell gets two spots because he is just that formative.

I love spaceships and space travel and new worlds.  I love the Honor Harrington books by David Weber even though they're not well written and the politics drives me nuts and there's way too much infodump.  I still love the Darkover books even though I'm not sure I can read them again because just mentioning MZB's name makes me cringe - but it was a Free Amazon story that showed me that lesbians could exist in SF/F.  I love Scalzi's "Old Man's War" and "Redshirts" and "Lock-In" almost made this list even though I only finished it a week ago.

But that list up there is where I got started.  Those are the books of my SF/F-nal heart.

Review: Redshirts, by John Scalzi

I read Redshirts in a combination of audiobook - narrated by Wil Wheaton - and paperback, purchased and signed by John Scalzi at last month's Supanova in Melbourne.

As Scalzi himself noted in the Coode Street Podcast, he's improved his use of dialogue tags (he said, she said) in response to his awareness of how these things sound in audiobooks.  Which, yay - because the tags were driving me mad when I was listening to the audiobook.  I did vaguely notice the difference in Lock-In, although I wasn't listening to that one.

As to the story.  Redshirts won the Hugo Award in its year, and a lot of people dislike that fact.  I can't compare the book to the other nominees that year, and I can totally imagine than there were better books - I'm certainly not saying that Redshirts is flawless.  But it operates on so many levels of  surface, cynicism, and deep love of the genre.  It's good.  It's inventive and fascinating and really thoughtful.  And it knows it, which, you know.

But yes, I totally recommend it, especially for snarky Trek fans.

Wednesday Reads

What I've finished reading

I finished Kaleidoscope, which I loved to death, and which I'll review properly soon, I promise.

Lock-In, by John Scalzi, which I really loved.

Redshirts, also by John Scalzi (whose autograph I got at SupaNova back in early April.)  Really enjoyed this one, although I agree with what he said on the Coode St Podcast recently about adjusting his writing style for audiooboks.  I listened to a good proportion of Redshirts in Audiobook, and the dialogue tags were driving me nuts.

Ms Marvel, vol 1.  Love, love, love it.  Volume 2 is now out, and I have to balance having it NOW vs getting the hard copy version when I'm in Sydney next.

What I'm currently reading

Cranky Ladies of History - I'm trying to read one story a night, but last night M vetoed the Elizabeth Bathory story on the basis of potential triggers, and the one after that was too long and complex to get through.

Cicely's King Richard - I'm not entirely sure I'll get through the whole thing.  The author is so VERY Richardian, and on top of that, anti-Woodville in an unavoidable way, and it's driving me nuts.

The Bees, by Laline Paul.  It was on the Locus longlist for 2014, which speaks to its potential.  It's still reminding me very much.  I'll get back to it soon.

What I'll be reading next

Dick Winters: The Band of Brothers' Major has just arrived for me through the library holds system.

A Trifle Dead by Livia Day, first in the Cafe La Femme series, is also waiting for me, on my Kindle app.

Sunday reads - 21st September

So this week, I finished The Jewel, read Ally Condie's Matched in less than 24 hours, and began Kaleidoscope.

Matched, by Ally Condie, is the first of a dystopian trilogy. On the back cover, one of the blurbs (from Family Circle) is something along the lines of "For those of you who like romance with your totalitarian government". Which is ... interesting.

I'll probably pick the next one up when it comes through returns at work, but I don't know that I'll seek it out.

As a result of reading this book, I did begin to formulate a theory of reality TV and YA dystopias: I posted  my initial thoughts here earlier this week.

A question I've been pondering this week: why are there no queer couples in these YA dystopias?  Does no one ever Match with another girl or another boy?  And how would you write something like that without it basically happening in one of those pre-existing universes and being fic.  Part of me hopes that question will be answered in the other book I've just started reading...

Kaleidoscope, from Twelfth Planet Press and edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein, is an anthology of YA sci-fi and fantasy with diverse lead characters.  So far I've only read Tansy Rayner Roberts' "Cookie Cutter Superhero", the first story in the collection.  It was so brilliant I had to put down the book and walk away to let it sink in.  Even though the very next story is by Ken Liu, and I've heard amazing things about his work, I couldn't just go straight on to his story after reading Tansy's.  I think this is going to be the book of the year for me.

(Also, "Cookie Cutter Superhero" puts an awesome turn on my abovementioned reality TV theory of dystopias.)

Sunday Reads - 14 September

I know I used to do Wednesday Reads, but this is a bit of a change-up to accommodate the change in direction of the blog, and a bit of a pun, as well.  And with this I'm thinking of Sunday Reed, owner of "Heide", a house (and now gallery) in the Melbourne suburbs with a grand historical art connection.

So: non historicals that I've been reading include:

• The Jewel, by Amy Ewing.  Part of my current attraction to craptacular dystopias seemingly based on contemporary reality TV.  Like Kiera Cass' "The Selection" series, this is part of the "based on The Bachelor" subgenere of dystopia - although this one has definite links to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as well.  Which just makes me think I need to write posts about my first reading of Handmaid's Tale as well as her historical Alias Grace as well.

• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.  This year's Hugo winner for best novel.  The Galactic Suburbia girls were so pleased that this book was nominated, and so was John Scalzi, that I put it on hold the day the Hugo win was announced.  I will definitely be reviewing this on Goodreads once I finish it, and linking it to a Sunday Reads post.

Another tracking post - Honor Harrington series

You'll remember my "Skating School" tracking post from some time back.

Having returned to reading David Weber's Honor Harrington books (now at 13 (or 14 depending how you count it) main books, six anthologies, and eight (or seven) spin-offs in three series for a total of 27 titles - I think), I realised  at the beginning of At All Costs (book 11 in the regular series) that events were being referenced that I hadn't read about and clearly was expected to know more about.  Making my way to the ever-helpful Honorverse Wiki, I found a table of the current books and short stories in reading order, which I have, in part, reproduced below the fold.  This helped me work out that I should have branched off to the two spin-off series' before attempting At All Costs.  I've been looking forward to reaching those two series, so it's not like it's a hardship.

(Book titles are in italics, short stories are in plain type with the title of the anthology in the next column.)

I'm now thinking there may need to be some more posts on Honor and the odd way in which I love the books but can totally see the problems in them as well.