Other Worlds

Category: Talking about fiction

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novella (3rd contender)

    Next under consideration is Mira Grant’s “Countdown.” It is available as an ebook, published by Orbit. This is a standard zombie story. You know the plot.  Zombies arise, zombies attack, more zombies arise. I am not trying to insult the writer; I suppose it’s as well written as a zombie story can be. But a…

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novella (2nd contender)

    Next is Carolyn Ives Gilman’s “The Ice Owl” from F&SF. It has not been made available online. Adolescent Thorn lives in a domed city that is located in the twilight region of a planet where one side perpetually faces the sun, and the other is in eternal darkness. She lives with her mother in the…

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novella (1st contender)

    First in the novella category is Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Kiss Me Twice,” a futuristic police procedural, from Asimov’s. Read it here. Detective Scott Huang is investigating the murder of Neil Patterson, a developer, found dead on the roof of one of his buildings, his body lying near a table set for tea. Huang is assisted by…

  • “We just like to talk about stories”

    The alternate titles that I considered for this post were “The Purpose of ‘Other Worlds’” and “I just like to talk about stories.” The first was boring and the second, while true, misses the crucial point of talking about stories with other people who read and appreciate fiction. I went with “we” in the title…

  • My choice for Best Novelette

    Five choices: and, this time, it’s hard to choose. “The Copenhagen Interpretation,” “Fields of Gold,” “Six Months, Three Days,” “What We Found,” or “Ray of Light”? One possible test is: Is there any chance I’ll want to re-read any of these stories? (I have actually read each story twice already, because I think it’s the second…

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novelette (5th contender)

    Last of the novelettes up for a Hugo is Brad Torgersen’s “Ray of Light,” from Analog. Only a partial extract is free online, but you can buy it for a song (or almost) on Barnes and Noble here, or on Amazon here. On the ocean floor, a few thousand people, perhaps the last remnants of…

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novelette (4th contender)

    We come to Geoff Ryman’s “What We Found” from F&SF (Sept-Oct 2011). It has not been posted online. The story is set in Nigeria, in something like present day. Patrick is the narrator, and he is sleepless at 3:30 AM on the day he is to be married. He is dreading marriage. He is writing…

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novelette (3rd contender)

    Next is Charlie Jane Anders’s “Six Months, Three Days,” from Tor.com. It’s here. The title refers to the length of time from when two clairvoyants meet and fall in love (they have, of course, foreseen this) until they break up (yep, foreseen this, too). Doug can see the future; Judy sees many possible futures. Judy…

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novelette (2nd contender)

    Next in the novelette category is “Fields of Gold” by Rachel Swirsky, published in Eclipse Four (Night Shade Books). Read it here. Imagining an afterlife as a story device has a long — very long — history. What do the dead do, what should they do, what can they do? Simply exist as sad shades? Endure…

  • Hugo Awards: Best Novelette (1st contender)

    Turning to the Novelette category, we come to Paul Cornell’s “The Copenhagen Interpretation,” published in Asimov’s. How do you do, Mr. Bond–er, Mr. Hamilton, isn’t it? There is a cold war on, and secret agents work covertly on behalf of their respective countries, with the aim of maintaining the balance between the great powers.