Michael Z. Williamson
Year’s Best Military SF & Space Opera
“Soft Casualty” by Michael Z. Williamson has been voted the accolade “Year’s Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Story” by readers of Baen’s The Year’s Best Military SF & Space Opera edited by David Afsharirad.
The announcement was made at the Baen Travelling Road Show (with Prizes) at Dragon Con. Williamson received an inscribed plaque and five hundred dollars.
[Thanks to Toni Weisskopf for the story.]
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@JJ
If the only people who are able to understand the story in its proper context are those who’ve read MZW’s books, then he has failed as the author of this particular short story.
Yeah. That went totally over my head. Seems more like a sick joke than a story now.
@TechGirl1972
if you haven’t read any of his novels of Freehold, you probably wouldn’t recognize the hook at the end, and why the label on the cargo container means the narrator won’t be eating a damn thing on the entire trip home.
I did get that bit, if only because he mentions being in the city labeled on the cargo container during the course of the story.
If you read carefully enough to pick up on that, then you will realize why the narrator will be getting all his nutrition through an IV on the trip home.
But I agree with Mark Hopper about the sick joke. MZW is more, ah, subtle about making fun of the UN attitudes in this story than he is in his novels, but without the background of the Freehold universe, the story itself does come off like just a sick joke, rather than anything else. Not sure what the point is, except to torture the poor narrator.
And let us consider: if the story were based on the Iraq invasion, the narrator is a stand-in for the US forces, and the meat vendor is a local, an Iraqi. And the vendor is really the HERO of the story. WTF? I thought the pup types were all manly patriotic men. This story seems to put the ‘good guys’ (US forces) in a really bad light, and makes the locals geniuses of 4GW.
@TechGirl1972
If you read carefully enough to pick up on that, then you will realize why the narrator will be getting all his nutrition through an IV on the trip home.
Yeah, though I didn’t think that was enough of an ending on my first read-through I so I went back over it a couple of times to see if I’d missed something.
On second read through I thought maybe he was hinting at a “To Serve Man” kind of ending, with the soldiers on the transport being the meat for the rest.
After considering that, and seeing there wasn’t enough context for that interpretation in the text, I went back to the first interpretation which is a bit underwhelming as a stinger. If you’re going to stick it to a character, *really* do it, man. Get all EC Comics on that sucker.
TechGrrl1972: if the story were based on the Iraq invasion, the narrator is a stand-in for the US forces, and the meat vendor is a local, an Iraqi. And the vendor is really the HERO of the story. WTF? I thought the pup types were all manly patriotic men. This story seems to put the ‘good guys’ (US forces) in a really bad light, and makes the locals geniuses of 4GW.
Again, this is where MZW has failed as the author of this particular story. Without knowing the background of his novels’ universe, that is exactly how this story reads to an intelligent, thinking person: the narrator is an idiot, and the reader can absolutely understand why the locals resist being conquered.
To a gung-ho, not-terribly-bright pro-US-colonialism person, this story reads as a straight horror story, just as it is written. That is also why the author fails.
Yeah, so if you’re MZW and friends, the narrator is an evil SJW who is an idiot being played by the freedom-loving locals who are manly libertarians who are genius 4GW types. Ha, ha, look at the idiot pansy weakling SJW, they laugh.
Unless you read it as a parable against the Iraq War, in which case you ARE an SJW laughing at the conquering right-wing heroes being played by the clever indigenous people fighting to throw off the yoke of their oppressors. Wait, what?
MZW is clearly a genius, as he has written a story that can be cheered by both the SJW’s and the manly man libertarian types. Wow, MZW, just wow!
@JJ
that is exactly how this story reads to an intelligent, thinking person: the narrator is an idiot, and the reader can absolutely understand why the locals resist being conquered.
To a gung-ho, not-terribly-bright pro-US-colonialism person, this story reads as a straight horror story, just as it is written.
Eh, what? No need to be a dick.
Mark Hopper: Eh, what? No need to be a dick.
I apologize. My point is that surely anyone who is not pro-colonialism will recognize why the locals would prefer their own poverty and deprivation to the “benefits” provided by a conquering overlord.
@JJ
I apologize. My point is that surely anyone who is not pro-colonialism will recognize why the locals would prefer their own poverty and deprivation to the “benefits” provided by a conquering overlord.
Yes, but I’m not sure why you would start inputting intelligence judgments into a difference of opinion like that. Surely a character being forced to cannibalize their own species against their will is objectively a horrific idea, regardless of the personal beliefs of the character.
If anything MWZ *doesn’t* seem to think it’s that horrific, but some sort of ‘just desserts’ for people who he sees as opponents. Hence the ‘sick joke’ aspect of the story.
And while pro-colonialism beliefs might be distasteful if not outright offensive to you or I, it doesn’t mean that everyone that holds those beliefs is not intelligent. Lacking empathy, definitely. History is rife with people who are very smart and very effective and completely lacking in empathy.
Mark Hopper: And while pro-colonialism beliefs might be distasteful if not outright offensive to you or I, it doesn’t mean that everyone that holds those beliefs is not intelligent. Lacking empathy, definitely. History is rife with people who are very smart and very effective and completely lacking in empathy.
You are right, and I apologize for equating intelligence with empathy.
Thank you for calling me out on this, and making me think and examine my views.
@JJ
For what it’s worth, you’re definitely not a dick. 😉
I read and enjoyed the Nagata. I’ve got one of her novels on the TBRKOD already, and on the strength of that I’m looking forward to it.
Mark Hopper: For what it’s worth, you’re definitely not a dick.
Thanks — and this is more true than you realize. 😉
is there going to be a voters packet for this award in future? Give out free copies of the entire anthology to likely voters…
@Meredith,
Thanks for providing the link to the story.
I clicked on it, but then couldn’t bring myself to read it (not even for free). Not after what I have learnt about MZW this last few months. I guess it’s a flaw of mine that I cannot separate the writer from the writing.
@Soon Lee
Honestly, after the illuminating discussion above about what the short story means in terms of the author’s wider universe, I’m feeling an awful lot less positive about the story. I hope it was an attempt to genuinely show The Other Side, but if it was a nasty joke, I’m pretty unhappy about that. Knowledge of the wider universe should never be necessary but should always improve, and this story just failed that massively.
A few other stories have been linked in the thread that are far more worth your time.
I haven’t read his novels, but I thought that bit was pretty obvious. If anything, it’s a plot hole that the narrator was blindsided by seeing that cargo container. Of course the ship will take on supplies for the return journey.
Maybe the downside of being allergic to message fiction is that one fails to recognize the message in ones own fiction …
Anyway, I read the story primarily as a warning about getting involved in assymetric warfare. The local rebels does little “real” harm to the occupiers, but their choice of targets causes significant problems for morale and efficiency. This is shown with more than the meat thing – the rebels disrupts convoys by targetting truck drivers, they kill whoever is in one particular MP duty spot, and it’s hinted that they abducted some general, stripped him naked, and made him walk back. Never mind whether the vendor is the hero or not: The story points out that it’s bloody difficult to fight an enemy that will do anything to win, in particular if you yourself are bound by modern sensibilities.
Well slightly surprising its wasn’t in my Top 5 stories in the Anthology. I guess I was missing some context because I missed what was previously mentioned in this thread. I thought the tone of the story was a bit off now I know why.
I voted for Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind) by Holly Black. I also thought both Linda Nagata stories, the Charlie Jane, Matthew Johnson, Mike Barretta and Derek Kunsken stories were excellent.
Never read the Freehold books, but I had no trouble picking up on the wimpy UN vs the libertarian resistance. Caught a whiff of a parallel between the UN and the Radchaai, though I doubt MZW would have known about that. I thought it odd to be giving that tactic to people he would presumably sympathetic to. He’s never struck me as the sort to do a “warts and all” look at what that sort of warfare does to both sides.
I was reminded most strongly of the dead half-Cetagandan babies mentioned in A Civil Campaign. The differences in the use of the idea between the two authors, well.
Meredith:
Another fine example of someone who needs to find the Best Related Work category.
Why would Best Related be more appropriate?
@Andrew M
The suggestion was a single blog post, hence Related Work.
Hm. I think it is quite legitimate to nominate someone for Fan Writer, citing a single blog post in support (though strictly, of course, it is not that post which is being nominated); whereas I am doubtful that single blog posts are really the right sort of thing for Best Related.
@Andrew M
It’s a non-fiction work, so it can technically go in Best Related. Obviously it’ll be up against more substantial pieces and not have a chance, but that’s technically where a work has to go, because Fan Writer has to be a human being.
*Checks WSFS Rules*
Ok, doesn’t have to be a human being. But a person, at any rate.
Anyway, you’re right that Fan Writer is the best route for nominating a blogger, and I suspect that if the Admins found a nomination for a Work in Fan Writer, they’d either shift it to best related or count it as a nom for the author in Fan Writer.
I read Freehold a decade ago. It convinced me I had no desire to read anything else by the author. Moderately entertaining popcorn SF is fine, but when the author’s politics overwhelm the story, as I recall it did, that’s less fine. Loses extra points for incredibly clumsy handling of rape, which stood out to me even then, when I was much, much less aware of that sort of thing.
1) WTF did I just read? And dear God, are these idiots going to try and Hugo it?
2) After reading the first book of the Owner series, I’d say UKIP fits Neal Asher to a T.
It’s possible for a story to work on two levels at the same time, providing one experience to a reader with no prior knowledge of that author’s work and another to readers who are familiar enough to recognize sly references. There doesn’t have to be one proper context.
I nominated that for a Hugo.
Then the Puppies came along, of course.
Curse you, autocorrect!
I seem to recall he has been a UKIP supporter for some time, at least a decade.
Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind) by Holly Black: I just read this; it was great fun. There was work like that out there, apparently perfectly suitable for a Baen MilSF audience, and it doesn’t even make their slate?
Mark:
It’s a non-fiction work, so it can technically go in Best Related. Obviously it’ll be up against more substantial pieces and not have a chance.
Certainly it’s allowed; and in fact, as the result from 2014 shows, it does have a chance. I was getting a bit worried after that, because people kept mentioning single essays as possible candidates for BRW, and I was afraid they might crowd the significant reference works out. But the actual nomination data suggest that isn’t happening.
I do feel, though, that nominating single blog posts for BRW is not in the spirit of the rules. The category used to be Best Related Book, and was changed to Work as part of a Making the Web Eligible initiative; the point was to allow other formats rather than shorter works. And while this doesn’t technically break the ‘not eligible in any other category’ provision, since BRW is for the work and BFW for the writer, it does mean that the same work can be the basis of someone’s nomination in more than one category, which I find dodgy.
@Mark
Year’s Best Military Science Fiction and Space Opera contains work that isn’t puppy approved. Its well worth reading. I don’t understand why the Williamson won. It was competent but not mind blowing. At least the worst story in the book did not win so there is that.
There was work like that out there, apparently perfectly suitable for a Baen MilSF audience, and it doesn’t even make their slate?
Black isn’t one of Torgersen’s cronies.
I read the MZW piece before reading this thread and enjoyed it a bit. Although I was really confused, I know that these guys tend to hate the UN, so why are the substituting the UN for the US in a story about an occupying/liberating power? The “grey zone” seemed to be an obvious parallel to Iraq. The protagonist didn’t strike me as an idiot, just provincial and unaware of the culture he was in. Kind of like how the US Military treated the ruins of Babylon during the invasion.
When I clicked the link to 10 Rules, my reaction was “this one! I love this one!” Which shows that whoever linked it has excellent taste.
Although, this actually makes me wonder- are there any books, MilSF or not, where the occupying power is the good guys? I know there would be criticism for neo (and paleo) colonialism, but I think that would be an interesting story. Or did that sort of thing go out with John Wayne? (Really thinking of The Green Berets movie here). I guess Weber did this somewhat with Masada in the Harrington books, but I have yet to read a story set on Masada during the occupation (if there is one, please let me know).
Steve Erickson’s Mazalan series esp Deadhouse Gates. The occupying army is trying to protect the civilians the freedom fighters want to massacre.
My feeling is that Best Fan Writer ought to be for a body of work, not a single item, and the phrasing of the suggestion in question did not suggest to me that there was other work. Best Related Work is the most appropriate place for a single item to be nominated.
I would’ve liked the Mixon Report to have been in Related Work rather than Fan Writer, too.
Alain on September 8, 2015 at 9:47 am said:
For the rest of their careers, that question is going to hang over EVERY Puppy: “How did they game THIS competition to actually win an award”?
They’ve all permanently tainted their reputations.
Wait, forget ‘best of the year’, they think *that* was the best story in the book? Did they not read the Linda Nagata story?
@Meredith: Mostly agreed (especially for Mixon’s report). I thought the puppy was recommending…uh, whoever-it-was (already forgotten)…for the person’s blog – not just one particular post (and I presumed the blog had more than one post, hence, a body of work for a Fan Writer nod). If the blogger has only one post (or one post and no other fan writing, I should say), then yeah, best Fan Writer makes no sense to me, either.
On the other paw, I’ve never liked “Best Related Work” as a category. 😉
@Kendall
The recommendation in question is this one:
That seems quite specific about it being for a particular article, to me. I went and had a quick look at Williamson’s blog to see if it’s more generally fannish, but then I hit his attempts to come up with a confederate flag that Amazon would sell and decided I didn’t want to read his blog anymore. Ever. (But it seemed more political than fannish.)
@Meredith: Thanks, and sorry (blush) I should’ve tracked that down again myself. With “His blog.” as a separate sentence, I read it more as a general recommendation (I nom him for this post. and his blog.). His “Writing” category (which that post is in) has other SF-related and Hugo-related posts, at least one of which seems not really writing related, just Hugo-related. So I figure he puts SF-related content there (since he’s a writer).
Anyway, that was my thinking (such as it was!) when I first read the rec. But now I’m thinking I over-interpreted the fractured rec.