This is the audio-only version of the awesome panel I recently hosted, discussing the 2021 nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story. The video is posted on http://patreon.com/hugospodcast, and I may post it for the public in the near future.
I’m joined by Cora Buhlert, Ivor Watkins, Alan Bailey, Lise Andreasen, Sarah Elkins, JW Wartick, Lori Anderson, Haley Zapal, and Amy Salley to discuss the 2021 nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Time codes and links to stories:
6:12 – “Open House on Haunted Hill” by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots, 2020)
16:37 – “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse” by Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020)
34:23 – “A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (in Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
45:35 – “Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
1:03:57 – “The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
1:20:38 – “Little Free Library” by Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com)
This was a great podcast with everyone contributing. I confess when I first played it I wasn’t sure that I was ready for Carla’s accent (to me), but I found her commentary to be the most interesting of all. Anyways my rankings:
1. Little Free Library- I loved this. My late brother used to build these so I related to the story and found it really intriguing. It hadn’t occurred to me that the main character could have been helping the wrong side. Most reviews I’ve read have complained that the story ended abruptly, I didn’t mind, wondering what could possibly be in the egg is more provocative than actually reading it.
2. Open House on haunted hill- I go back and forth about what should be #1, I loved this, it reminded me of another benevolent haunted house short short from a few years ago called Light on the Water.
3. Blood Like Metal this is a solid #3 for me. I like the discovery of lying part the best. It reminded me a bit of the Rickey Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying. And I also thought about Raised by Wolves. I wanted more backstory about the robots and the drone and I found the eating sequences gross and repetitive. Other than that really solid sci-fi.
4.The Mermaid Astronaut- I really liked the juxtaposition of the mermaid’s life in the water and in space and the end of the story. I didn’t find her adventures on the spaceship that interesting though. I would think she would have learned about relativity a lot sooner.
5. Bad-ass Moms in the zombie apocalypse- This was really vivid and could have been an episode of The Walking Dead. I agree with the commentary that the people showing up to save her was really convenient. Not mentioned was what a bad idea it is for a couple to deliberately have a baby when there his a really good chance it will be eaten by zombies. Still really good.
6. Fandom for Robots- I thought the author should have won for Fandom for Robots but this wasn’t on that level. I liked it but I didn’t understand what was going on with murders or the racoons.
By the way I don’t think you should be allowed to vote no award. Even if you don’t like any of the stories you should still rank them least worst to worst. All the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture in 1963 sucked, but Tom Jones probably sucked the least and deserved its victory.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and yes Cora was a great guest.
I enjoyed reading your comments on the 2021 short story and novelette finalists! Just discovered them now when I went back to check for comments (I was one of the panelists).
I meant 6th place for A Guide for Working Breeds.
Yes. I’m Sorry I wrote Carla. I have been reading Cora’s blog.
For what its worth I also read the non-overlapping Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominees (its hard to find the Stokers). The Eight-thousanders would have been my choice as the Nebula winner and I would have voted for it for the Hugo. Advanced Problems in the Portal Math was pretty good. My country as a Ghost, nominated for the Nebula and WFA was disappointing. The WFA winner was Glass Bottle Dancer which I didn’t like at all either. Nominees The women who Sing for Skill and the Nine Scents of Sorrow were both good. I would have voted for Open House on Haunted Hill for the WFA.