I've been voting for the Hugos for several years now, and I always put it off until it's too late to finish everything. In my defense, there's a lot of stuff on those ballots. Ballots are usually due around July, but since Worldcon was postponed until December this year, ballots aren't due until November 19. You would think that giving me another few months than usual would help , but since November is a busy time in my academic calendar, this didn't help as much as you'd think. In fact, it probably hurt. I'll be rushing to finish the main fiction categories, and may not get to as many categories as usual. Oh, well.
But I did have the foresight to sit down and read all the short stories and novelettes over a few weekends in September and October. And here's how I'm voting, based on the Three Principles of Hugo Voting that I came up with several years ago. And see here to see the full list of finalists.
Best Short Story
I can say I enjoyed all of the short story finalists this year (even the neo-fairy tales). It was hard to rank them, but rank them I must. That said, my pick for #1 was really strong. A real delight.
1. “Open House on Haunted Hill”, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots – 2020, ed. David Steffen)
What if a haunted house wasn't malevolent, but just wanted a loving family to live in it? A delightful story with a unique twist and a not inconsiderable bit of heartwarming, giving a bit to think about when it comes to family and place. This is the type of story I love more the more I think about it. (From my Goodreads review)
2. “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse”, Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020)
What's scarier than giving birth? How about giving birth while living through a zombie apocalypse? But it might help to have a group of badass moms to help. I got burnt out on zombie stuff a long time ago, but I really enjoyed this one. (From my Goodreads review)
3. "Little Free Library", Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com)
A fun little story about a little free library as a portal to ... somewhere else. (From my Goodreads review)
4. “Metal Like Blood in the Dark”, T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
I wasn't keen at first about yet another science fictional take on fairy tales (is this, like, a big thing these days?). But I enjoyed the idea of protean robots that change their form via nanobots. The story really won me over when it got into one of the characters figuring out the idea of lying and the moral complications that follow. (From my Goodreads review)
5. “The Mermaid Astronaut”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
... I enjoyed this story, nominated for a Hugo in 2021, as a science fictional version of a fairy tale. It's well done and definitely easier to follow than Ninefox Gambit, but I don't know, call me a curmudgeon if you must, but fairy tales and modern riffing on them aren't quite my thing. Still, I appreciate Lee's skill here... (From my Goodreads review)
6. “A Guide for Working Breeds”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris))
I like some of the ideas of this story (two robots exploited for their labor text messaging each other, and somehow dogs are involved), but it just isn't my thing. Maybe because I'm not a dog person. If it had been about cats, on the other hand... (From my Goodreads review)
Best Novelette
While this year's short stories tended toward the somewhat whimsical, there's some really hard hitting emotional stuff in this year's novelettes. I had a difficult time ranking most of these, but my #1 pick was probably the one that stuck with me most.
1. “The Pill”, Meg Elison (from Big Girl, (PM Press))
This is the type of science fiction story that takes a clear premise to its logical (or not-so-logical) conclusions. I found it extremely well-written in the sense that I was reading through the prose rather than being distracted by it (if that makes any sense). What if there was a pill that could make people thin? But what if it had some less than savory side-effects? But what if almost everybody took it, anyway? Would a society be justified in treating people poorly for what is taken to be their own good? What if the US could operationalize its fatphobia, which considering how many of us Americans are fat is fundamentally a type of self-hatred? (See a bit more in my Goodreads review)
2. “Helicopter Story”, Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
A story starting with an ironic reappropriation of a transphobic trope could have been a nice bit of lighthearted sarcasm in the direction of Chuck Tingle, but Fall goes really deep into some challenging philosophical questions about gender: What is gender at a fundamental metaphysical level? How is gender performed by and upon gendered subjects? How can gender be coopted and used for militaristic or other nefarious purposes? And there's probably even more that I as a cis person didn't even catch. I love stories that make me think, and this one does that very well. (From my Goodreads review)
3. "Two Truths and a Lie," Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)
It's always good to see Sarah Pinsker on the Hugo short list, so I was keen to read this one. It's a creepy rumination on memory and identity. The main character goes back to her hometown for a funeral of her friend's brother. While she's helping him clean out the house, we learn that she's a compulsive liar. One of her casual lies is about a kids TV show from their childhood starring Uncle Bob (sort of like a weird Mr. Rogers). She's sure she's making it up, but everyone else suddenly remembers it as if it's real. So, is it real? Or... what's going on? I can't say I entirely understood what was going on, especially toward the end, but that I'm still thinking about it is a sign of a good story. (From my Goodreads review)
4. “Monster”, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
A well-crafted story of a scientist in search of her old friend in a remote part of China, interspersed with flashbacks from their former friendship. Also, some interesting ideas about what it means to be a monster and larger ethical issues with genetic technology (with some links perhaps to Victor Frankenstein and his monster ... or is Victor the monster?). (From my Goodreads review)
5. “The Inaccessibility of Heaven”, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2020)
Angels...? Well, okay. Actually, despite my initial apprehension, I read on because I've enjoyed de Bodard's other work. And it does pay off. It's more than a typical angel story (there are hints of multiple dimensions, for one thing), and the characters and setting are interesting enough. I'm not sure how this will rank compared to the other novelette Hugo finalists, but it might do well just for de Bodard's skill making me enjoy a story about angels (or maybe I've also been influenced by recently watching an even more untraditional take on the topic in the show Midnight Mass). (From my Goodreads review)
6. “Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2020)
A fun twist on superheroes (turns out they need accountants, too). Still, not quite my thing. (See also my Goodreads review)
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