2007 Hugo Nominees for short fiction reviewed

Hi All,

For the first time ever, I've been able to read all of the short-fiction nominees for the Hugo Awards in advance of the ceremony. This was only made possible by the generosity of the Internet where free versions of each are readily available and the fact that I now have a portable device on which I can comfortably read such electronic books. Let me tell you, getting through all of those stories is a lot of reading. While novellas and novelettes are short, if you read five of each then it starts to add up and tack on another batch of short stories and you've got a lot of reading. I'd be amazed if in any given year the majority of the people casting their votes have actually managed to read all of the nominees.

 Here are my thumbnail descriptions of the stories and my choices of who I would vote for. Let's start off with the novellas.

The Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko is a fantastic time-travel story about a young lad who can hop time-lines to alernate universes. He stumbles across one that contains a naive version of himself and he plots to rid this timeline of his doppleganger in order to take his place.

A Billion Eyes by Robert Reed  is about a society where people can create rip through the fabric of the universe to other planets, taking settlers with them to start new societies which will be forever cut off from their homeworlds. The main society is a tightly-controlled, paternalistic, religious one and it's not unknown for men to grab women against their will and disappear into the ether with them.

Inclination by William Shunn is another religion tinged story about a young lad who must leave his cloistered, low-caste community on a space station so that he can work. He is exposed to new ideas and questions his own beliefs.

Lord Weary's Empire by Michael Swanwick is about a runaway who discovers a fringe society that lives in the sewers beneath a metropolis. He defeats their champion and becomes the right-hand man of the society's leader, a mysterious, magical figure. Our hero starts to doubt the reality of this underground world.

Julian: A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson is about two friends, one an ordinary lad, the other a nobleman. They live in what seems to be a societey that has sprung up from the ruins of our own, centuries from today. War has come and the two youngsters are to be drafted, but they run away.

Each one of these stories was fantastic and any one of them is worthy of the award, but my pick would probably be Melko's story. I'm a sucker for time-travel stories.

Next up, the novelettes.

Yellow Card Man by Paolo Bacigalupi is about a Chinese immigrant in a future Thailand who was once a shipping magnate, but is now a down-on-his-luck, homeless person who barely ekes out a living and must avoid racist nationalists who are eager to bash his brains in.

Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth by Michael Flynn is set in our time. A mysterious incident has caused a ferry to disappear in the Puget Sound near Seattle. The sudden disappearance has affected hundreds of people who lost friends and family. A plucky group of geeks try to figure out what happened.

The Djinn's Wife by Ian McDonald is set in the future India of his novel The River of Gods. It's about a dancer who falls in love and marries a disembodied Artificial Intelligence.

All the Things you Are by Mike Resnick is about survivors of some distant space battle who live long lives and are able to withstand grievous wounds. They all speak of an angel who protects them. A witness to this mystery decides to visit the planet to figure out what's going on.

Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter by Geoff Ryman imagines what the Cambodian dictator's daughter would be like if he ever had one. She's a wealthy bimbo who falls in love with an ordinary boy. She lies about who her father is and she starts to be haunted by the ghosts of his victims. She has to figure out a way to get rid of them.

Again, I'd be hard-pressed to pick a winner. I enjoyed every single one of these stories immensely. I'd like to see McDonald win, just because he's one of my favourite writers, but for sheer quality, I'd go with Ryman's story.

Finally, the short stories.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman is about some British teenagers who go to a party to pick up chicks. The smoother of the two quickly scores and disappears. The other is stuck chatting with a girl who wasn't quite normal. She was from somewhere else. Somewhere very far away, perhaps light years away.

Kin by Bruce McAllister tells the story of a boy who's parents are being forced to have an abortion. The boy hires an alien hit-man to co-erce a government bureaucrat to let his mother have the baby.

Impossible Dreams by Time Pratt is a fun story about a movie lover who stumbles across a video store in his neighbourhood that he's never noticed. When he enters, he discovers movies that were considered lost or never existed. He realizes that the video store comes from an alternate universe and only appears at certain times of the day. He starts to fall in love with the girl behind the desk and eventually has to make a decision whether he should stay here or go with her.

Eight Episodes by Robert Reed is about an unusual TV show that seems to be the work of aliens.

The House Beyond your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum is about people who live in simulated universes, not realizing that they are simulations and not real.

To be honest, the only story that I enjoyed of these nominees was Impossible Dreams so it's my pick, but I'm willing to wager that Gaiman will win on name recognition alone since the Hugos are something of a popularity contest.

One year I'll even read the nominees for best novel before the awards are announced, but I'll have to start my reading early to wade through them all. I have two of the books and will try to read them before the Labour Day weekend. Wish me luck!

Capt. Xerox