THE 2024 HUGO AWARD FINALISTS: NOVELETTES

RATED 92% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 4.2 OUT OF 5

6 STORIES: 2 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 1 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF

The Hugo Award Novelettes Finalist tell two interesting stories about the genre in 2024. The impact of the large Chinese voting block - a remnant of the push to bring WorldCon to Chengdu in 2023 - seems to be felt in the Chinese flavor to my favorite stories. Ai Jiang and Gu Shi present stories with strong science fiction elements. Stories from the more traditional Anglo-American voting block seemed to favor cozier stories about community.

This is the first slate of stories that I’ve read from the 2024 Hugos and I will be intrigued to see if this continues in the Short Story and Novella categories as well

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 Glasgow, Scotland - August 8-12, 2024 . The list of finalists just dropped.

This is the fourth 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: 2023 & 2022)
Novelettes. Stories of between 7,500 and 17,500 words (Reviewed: 2023, 2022 & 2021)
Short Stories. Stories of less than 7,500 words. (Reviewed: 2022 & 2021)

Best Novelette

I AM AI by Ai Jiang (Shortwave)
Great. Superb and poignant story of a future dystopia where on companies monopoly runs everything but a few people live on the margins. That sounds trite, but this story is elevated by a wonderfully written viewpoint character who is stuck pretending to be an A.I. chatbot and is replacing more and more of her body in the search of more robotic performance. There is real terror is watching her battery life wide down knowing that she will die if it hits zero.
“Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition”, Gu Shi /〈2181序曲〉再版导言, 顾适 translated by Emily Jin (Clarkesworld, February 2023)
Great. A superb thought experiment about the ways in which cryosleep would affect society, science, and family dynamics. Told as a review and summary of the fictional book of the title.
“The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023) (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023)
Good. A charming and practical story about people coming together to help each other in the face of disaster. When the unnamed disaster strikes, the sun is blotted out, and electricity becomes very inconsistent, one neighborhood becomes a community. Very cozy with no real conflict.
“Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C.L. Polk (Tor.com 8 December 2023)
Good. Pleasant cozy fantasy about a witch who has a lot on her plate. Her “Mama” has just died. She has a whole small town under her wing. A young girl with magical powers has been dumped on her doorstep. Now a powerful evil power is trying to take over the town.
“On the Fox Roads” by Nghi Vo (Tor.com 31 October 2023)
Good. Bonny and Clyde style story is a just-askew fantasy world with special ‘fox roads’ that can be driven on only when you are on the run. Made slightly different by the inclusion of black and asian main characters into a ‘old-timey’ story.
“One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023)
Average. I loved the concept but the story just didn’t deliver for me. The idea are trash collectors on ‘bulk collection day,’ except they are collecting magical trash which can be dangerous to them.