/
RSS Feed
I’m joined by Cora Buhlert, Ivor Watkins, Sarah Elkins, Olav Rokne, and Juan Sanmiguel to discuss the 2021 nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
For a video version of this podcast, go to my Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/58074634
“Helicopter Story” article and podcast:
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22543858/isabel-fall-attack-helicopter
https://podbay.fm/p/cancel-me-daddy/e/1625727600
Olav’s Hugo-nominated blog:
Cora’s Hugo Nominated Writing:
Correction to my remark during the “Monster” discussion: “Windsong” was in *The Downstairs Room and Other Speculative Fiction*, Kate Wilhelm (1968), not her Abyss collection. Thanks to Joachim Boaz: https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2013/12/23/book-review-the-downstairs-room-and-other-speculative-fiction-kate-wilhelm-1968/
Really enjoyed the discussion. Couldn’t wait to listen to it even though I hadn’t read the stories, but now that I have:
1. Two Truths and a lie- this was a great horror story, it rivals Steven King’s best, it is very similar to the Channel.Zero: Candle Cove miniseries of a few years ago, I don’t know if the author was aware of it, but I loved this and a lot of Pinsker’s work.
2. The Pill- this was great, really ended up surprised where it went, it clearly could only be written by someone of that size, especially in the description of the sex act at the end. I got the author’s book on hoopla, she had an interesting discussion of Gone with the wind
3. Monster- this was excellent too, I enjoyed the Chinese setting and the way the author slowly revealed what was going on. Only quibble: the way in which the scientist dispatched the killer was too eas, Kritzer didn’t even say when she poisoned his tea. But any of these top.3 would be a worthy winner.
4. Inaccessibility of Heaven- it started out well, didn’t quite fulfill its premise, still good.
5. Helicopter Story very stylized and interesting the way Fall interjected the gender terms and war aspects, but I couldn’t really visualize what the characters looked like. Some of the throwaway bits like the AIs planting pear trees everywhere was funny and I would have liked more of the back story.
6. Burn or the life of Sam Wells a super- I thought it was going to be about a building superintendent. Anyways I found Sam to be a bit of a drip which I don’t think was the author’s intention, given the story’s title. I didn’t buy the normals being openly hostile to the supers given that they could intentionally or unintentionally destroy them, for example the grocery clerk. Anyways the story didn’t go anywhere for me. Congrats to the Hugos foe nominating Monster and Inaccessibility of Heaven, while the Nebulae went with the good but flawed Step sister and especially the disappointing Where You Linger. I hope you continue these discussions. I am on to the Novellas!
Heh I didn’t imagine anyone would check this out prior to reading the stories, but I’m glad you enjoyed it and that it inspired you to read the stories.