By JJ: We spent a lot of time over the last several months reading and discussing the 2014 Hugo Best Short Story finalists. This thread has been created to give us the opportunity to discuss the rest of the entries on the longlist.
Since some of us intend to use the long weekend to catch up on reading but others have plans for time spent with family and friends, I thought we could post this now with links for those who wish to start reading, but hold discussion until next week. So… please GodStalk this thread, if you wish to participate, and I’ll post a reminder at the beginning of next week.
- “Goodnight Stars” by Annie Bellet
- “Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon
- “The Breath of War” by Aliette de Bodard
- “The Truth About Owls” by Amal El-Mohtar
- “When It Ends, He Catches Her” by Eugie Foster
- “A Kiss With Teeth” by Max Gladstone
- “Covenant” by Elizabeth Bear
- “Toad Words” by Ursula Vernon
- “Makeisha in Time” by Rachael K. Jones
- “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” by Usman T. Malik
- “This Chance Planet” by Elizabeth Bear
Please employ your best judgment, and use rot13 to encrypt anything especially spoilery, in consideration of those who may not have gotten to read all of the entries yet.
To make a JavaScript bookmarklet for your browser that handles rot13 – so that all you have to do is highlight some text and click the bookmark to encrypt/decrypt it — go here, click on the “file suppressed” message, copy the one line of code to your clipboard, and save it as the target/URL of a Bookmark/Favorite. (Thanks to Rev. Bob for the neat trick.)
[ Fifth Fourth in a series. See also — Hugo Best Novel Longlist Discussion Thread, Hugo Best Novella Longlist Discussion Thread, and Hugo Best Novelette Longlist Discussion Thread. ]
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The God ShallBe Stalked.
*gvpxl obk* 😀 I’m looking forward to this one.
I’m not sure how much I’ll actually get to – I feel like I’m on a roll with reading novels right now – but I love these threads, so . . .
. . . God Stalk/GodStalk/god-stalk! (Also, bookmark this where I’ll remember to revisit & click links over the next few days.)
“When It Ends, He Catches Her”.
End of discussion.
(Second place: Jackalope Wives)
Godstalk
OK ::godstalk::
ETA: I really was grabbed by Bear’s “Covenant”. That story raised so many issues about bioethics, crime & punishment, sociopathy…It still has me thinking.
The idiot didn’t ticky the godstalk since I didn’t get my subscribe note.
Non-specific deity sneak.
*Really* liked
“A Kiss With Teeth” (aka “Elsa Bloodstone in the Suburbs”)
“Jackalope Wives” (which seems like something to be read to the kiddo in a year or two)
“This Chance Planet” (Doggie!)
Liked
“When It Ends, He Catches Her”
“Covenant”
“Makeisha in Time”
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”
The last 3 started well but the ending wasn’t really there for me.
Yet to read the Bellet and Toad Words. The rest were various degrees of meh.
absolutely ‘Covenant’, yes. Magnificent work, that.
And ‘When It Ends’ was pretty damn good, too. The timing of the publication makes it even more bittersweet (although I’d gladly sacrifice that nifty little coincidence to have her back, of course).
Okay! Thanksgiving is over, so feel free to start the discussion!
My in-box is going to regret this, but :ticky:
Toad Words tickled me so much. It was just this little perfect package of a story.
I’ve actually read Toad Words out loud to people.
Whether they wanted me to or notThey seemed to enjoy it….The five I would have picked for the Hugo ballot that almost was:
Covenant
Jackalope Wives
Toad Words
Makeisha in Time
This Chance Planet
The last two might lose out to When She Falls… or A Kiss With Teeth with a slight mood change, however. All the others were well-done, but didn’t give me the Hugo tingle.