Jul 10

Jul 10 Reviewing the 2023 Hugo Award Finalists: Best Novelettes

THE 2023 HUGO AWARD FINALISTS: NOVELETTES

RATED 90% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 4.2 OUT OF 5

**5 STORIES*: 2 GREAT / 2 GOOD / 1 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF**

In Science Fiction short fiction, the most prestigious awards are the Hugo Awards. Voted on by the fans who buy a voting membership and are given out at The World Science Fiction Convention. The 2023 WorldCon will be taking place in Chengdu, China on October 18-23, 2023. The list of finalists just dropped.

This is the third year that I am trying to review and rank all of the short fiction finalists.

Novella. Stories of between 17,500 and 40,000 words. (Reviewed: 2022)
Novelettes. Stories of between 7,500 and 17,500 words (Reviewed: 2022 & 2021)
Short Stories. Stories of less than 7,500 words. (Reviewed: 2022 & 2021)

Once again, all*** of the finalists are available to read online freely (and importantly legally!). I will share links to where to read each story is a review it. Of course, there will be no spoilers.

Best Novelette

“Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness”, by S.L. Huang (Clarkesworld, December 2022)
Great. A sobering and terrifying look at the realistic near future of A.I. (or Large-Language Models, like ChatGPT). The ‘story’ (a woman is accused of making an A.I. that bullies some people to commit suicide) is written in the form of article that combines real-life situations (with hyperlinks) and intense near future thought experiments. This is an important story that is likely to outpaced by real-world events … or be terrifyingly prescient. Probably the rawest version of my “Science Fiction as Though Experiment” theory of Science Fiction.
“The Difference Between Love and Time”, by Catherynne M. Valente (Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance, Solaris) [free to read]
Great. The romance between a woman and the embodiment of space/time itself is told through an explosion of baroque creativity. Poignant. Hilarious. Unpredictable. Insanely detailed. Immense in scope. Intimate in detail. The SF equivalent of sprinting through a candy store and grabbing handfuls of everything that strikes your eye.
“A Dream of Electric Mothers”, by Wole Talabi (Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Tordotcom) [free to read]
Good. An African leader decides to take the counsel of a ‘national computational consciousness’ made of the uploaded minds of all their deceased citizens. Ostensibly, it is to help make a decision about preemptive war against a troublesome neighbor, she has a more personal reason for wanting to make this connection. Warm and full of humanity, while retaining the science fiction element.
“We Built This City”, by Marie Vibbert (Clarkesworld, June 2022)
Good. A woman cleans and repairs the dome that protects the floating city on Venus. A dome that her mother built. When management drastically cuts staff to save money, she has to make a choice to keep working or lead a workers’ strike.
“If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You”, by John Chu (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2022)
Average. A body builder starts a relationship at the gym with a Gay Asian ‘Superman,’ known as The Great Wall. Pleasant enough superhero romance, but not Hugo material.

****. “The Space-Time Painter”, by Hai Ya (Galaxy’s Edge, April 2022)

**** At the present moment (July 10, 2023), this story is only available in a Chinese language. Unfortunately, that means that I cannot read it. I hope that a translation will be made available, at which time I’ll read, review, and rank this finalist.