Review of “An Update On the Prime Directive” by William C. Armstrong and J. W. Armstrong

This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service, William Armstrong normally writes plays and puzzle books, and J.W. works at a laboratory. This story runs 932 words, and this review contains spoilers. 

First contact is an extortion text from the Karg. It’s a licensing agreement for a cyberworm to use Earth’s computing power to mine galactic cryptocurrency. If Earth agrees, the worm will only use part of Earth’s available resources, but if not, the worm will erase all digital information. With little choice, Earth’s governments agree, and the worm builds capability and begins to transmit. Meanwhile, Earth’s scientists work on countermeasures, and searching the galaxy for signals on similar wavelengths, they find that the galactic economy seems to work mostly on this kind of extortion. Also, gossip suggests the Karg economy collapsed decades ago. So, now Earth is in an awkward position. Can they eliminate the worm and successfully carry out a charm offensive to join the galactic culture? Or will they need to save the countermeasures, just in case?

First, the Prime Directive comes from Star Trek. Also known as the non-interference directive, it prohibits members of Starfleet from interfering with the natural development of alien civilizations. I’m not sure how it applies, as there appears to be interference all around here. Maybe that’s the point.

The story is a fairly straightforward narrative without characters, written in present tense. It outlines the contact and both the surface and the covert responses from Earth. The part about the Karg having somehow done themselves in is an entertaining twist, and Earth’s strategists make use of the knowledge for leverage. It looks like they’re in.

On the less positive side, I think this should have been either longer or shorter. With characters and development, this would make a great novel. On the other hand, shorter would have been a quicker and more entertaining read. This is unusually positive, by the way. Given Earth’s politics, I’d expect a lot of wrangling would doom our chances of carrying out a workable strategy.

Three and a half stars.

Review of Machine by Elizabeth Bear

This novel was a finalist in the 2021 Dragon Awards. It was published by Gallery/Saga Press on October 6, 2020, and runs 495 pages. Elizabeth Bear is a past Campbell Award winner and is well established as a novelist. This book apparently follows Ancestral Night, though I don’t see a lot of connection between the plot descriptions. The series is billed as space opera, but I’m thinking it’s a little heavier than that. This review contains spoilers.

Dr. Llyn Jens has left the Judiciary for her dream job as a doctor and rescue specialist for Core General, a massive hospital at the galaxy’s core that serves the numerous species of intelligent life humans have encountered since leaving Terra. Jens and the crew of the ship Sally go out on a rescue call for a distressed generation ship from Terra’s past and find the captain is dead. Before he died, he apparently ordered that all the passengers be cryogenically frozen to protect them. A damaged portion of the shipmind has downloaded into a peripheral named Helen that looks like a sexbot, and something that also might be part of the shipmind is cannibalizing the ship to build computronium to continue its existence. Jens and the Sally crew begin rescue of the frozen inhabitants, along with Helen, and take them back to Core General. There, things are not as they should be. There have been apparent attempts at sabotage. Jens is attracted to Calliope, one of the passengers who has been successfully awakened, but is she what she says she is, or is she a planted saboteur trying to destroy the hospital? Can Jens find out what’s going on and stop it before it destroys Core General?

Okay, now for the heavy part. This society is a projection of  trends people are talking about and supporting now, i.e. the expected results of the recent Revolution and the Great Reset that is supposed to be in work. Bear hasn’t really expressed much of an opinion, but has put the stuff out there for readers to see and evaluate. Let’s get the gender thing out of the way first.

1) There’s a lot of variety. Jens identifies as a woman because this is a shrinking concept space and she means to help keep it open. She’s something of a loner and is estranged from her wife and child.

2) Terra has been rescued and stabilized. The population was successfully rolled back from several billion to just a few million, but there’s no mention of how this was accomplished. Forced sterilization? Biological agents? Genocide? The Four Horsemen (Conquest, War, Famine, Death)? Unknown. Jens is just pleased that Terra was saved, although she has never been there.

3) As part of the rescue of Terra and subsequent need to interact with other species, humans are fitted with a brain implant at about age 25 that makes them rightminded, ethical persons, interested in service rather than authority. This implant automatically regulates and also can be operated by the individual to reduce unwanted thoughts, emotions and behaviors. It is unclear who else has access to these implants, to enter programming or interdictions, for example. One of the big concerns Jens has is in dealing with the atavistic, unregulated humans they are rescuing from the generation ship.

4) Residents of this society do not own anything because hoarding means you are using resources someone else might need. Food and drink at the hospital are provided by a printer that produces nutritious synthetics. Presumably no living plants or animals are harmed in this process, but Jens does consider that if things get really bad at Core General, they might have to load corpses into the recycler to provide nutrients.

5) Spoiler. (You guessed it.) This utopian system has a dark underbelly. The hospital got into financial trouble a few years back and started serving the wealthy elite. (You knew they were out there, right?) There is a private ward that grows whole, perfect clones for the elite to transfer their personalities into and thus extend their lives. This point is not deeply investigated, but it demonstrates how utopian ideals fail when the money runs out. It also reminds us that we’re just the proletariat in this plan, and the wealthy elite are not going to stop hoarding things like money and luxury goods just because they tell us we can’t.

6) So who’s more ethical in this case? The ordinary staff accepting the system and working their tails off at the hospital? The saboteurs who want to draw attention to the dark underbelly and rescue the enslaved clones? The administrator who has been struggling with funding and wants to keep the hospital going? The wealthy elite who fund and support the whole system but expect it to serve them as well? This is a collision of needs and values.

7) You’re a chump for believing all those lies. But everyone still needs to have faith in something.

8) A few other odds and ends: There is a Guarantee for people who don’t want to work. AIs in this culture are indentured to pay for their construction. Jens comes from a disadvantaged background. She is brown and disabled by some unnamed pain syndrome so that she uses an exoskeleton for mobility. The clones she finds in the private ward have perfect, translucent white skin (of course). Helen the sexbot shipmind is a play on Helen of Troy with Calliope as the associated Trojan Horse carrying an embedded virus. Justice for the offenders is restorative. They will have their rightmindedness adjusted and perform community service.

On the less positive side, I really didn’t connect strongly with any of these characters. Jens works hard at solving the puzzle and her friends are entertaining, especially the Kashaqin and their deadly mating rituals. (Humans aren’t the only species in need of rightminding.) Also, as something that has been in work for years and involved huge expenditures of effort and money, the sabotage plan didn’t hold water for me. It’s amateurish, haphazard and sloppy and quickly goes out of control. Who paid for it? I don’t think this little group of saboteurs could hoard the resources to set it up. The plot and action line are messy, with more than one machine and more than one virus, which is confusing. Things happen, but the action line doesn’t build up toward the real threat that needs to be defeated to save the hospital. There’s a choice Jens has to make, but it feels like a no brainer, so it’s not dramatic enough to carry the climax. And what happens to the hospital if its source of funding is declared illegal? We didn’t look at that.

Four and a half stars.

Review of “This is Not the Beginning; That is Not the End” by Wendy Nikel

This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. I’ve reviewed other of Wendy Nikel’s stories. She seems to be well established as a writer, and she still can’t find her tea. The story runs 1017 words, and this review contains spoilers. 

The Pihsecaps speeds through the atmosphere. Merida and her brother Finn have arrived on an abandoned world to steal a magical artifact called the chronolith. They are pursued by drones, but Merida manages to evade them. They land and beat their way through a jungle landscape toward the site they’ve been looking for. The drones catch up with them and attack, but Merida and Finn manage to steal the chronolith. However, now something has gone wrong. Is Merida’s watch running backward?

The description of this story says it will read both forward and backward (which explains the title). What stands out most is this feature, the imagery and the characterization. The scenario invokes Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The two adventurers fight their way in, grab the artifact and shove it into a shoulder bag, and then (as the story reverses) fight their way out again. There are also flashes of imagery in the text that make this more artistic than the average. As far as the characterization goes, Merida and Finn are brother and sister, so they have baggage from their childhood to deal with. Although there’s not much in the way of description of the two, this interaction gives us something to go on.

On the less positive side, I think the story makes more sense when read in the usual direction, and I wouldn’t have read it in the other way without the author’s note. I’m also thinking the watch is something of an anachronism already in 2021. Everybody looks at their phones when they want to know what time it is.

Four stars.

Review of A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

This is the second book in the series, following the Hugo Award-winning A Memory Called Empire. The novel was released March 2, 2021, by Tor Books and runs 496 pages. It’s billed as Space Opera that “reinvents” the genre, and was a Dragon Award finalist this year. Arkady Martine is the pen name of AnnaLinden Weller, a historian and city planner. This review contains spoilers.

The story picks up a short while after A Memory Called Empire leaves off. The old Emperor of the Teixcalaanli Empire has passed away, causing a political upheaval, and leaving a new Emperor in place and an 11 year-old clone heir. The Empire is beset by dangers, as mysterious aliens are lurking at the borders, slaughtering humans and destroying outposts. The Emperor has dispatched Admiral Nine Hibiscus with a fleet to deal with the problem. The encounters are not going well, so Nine Hibiscus tries a different tack, requesting an expert on first contact from the Information Ministry. Three Seagrass volunteers to take the mission and searches out Mahit Dzmare, Lsel Station’s Ambassador to the Empire, for help. Dzmare has returned to the Station, where she faces death threats from Councilors in the government because of her survival of their sabotage attempt on her imago memory line and her performance as Ambassador. Mahit takes Three Seagrass’ offer in order to escape and the two join the Fleet to help analyze sounds recorded by one of the ships. Armed with the results, they manage to establish a contact with the aliens. Is there any way to negotiate a peace treaty?

Like A Memory Called Empire, this story is a leisurely, slow-moving narrative, but it remains gripping because of all the threats. Themes include colonialism, genocide, and collective consciousness. The world-building is already pretty much done, and Martine doesn’t add a whole lot more, putting all the work into intrigues and developing new characters. The situation was fairly desperate at the end of the first installment, so we start off in a pretty dire place. Mahit is looking at an unfortunate “medical error” that would kill her in an investigation of her “defective” imago, which is a technology developed on Lsel Station to record and save memory so skills can be transferred. Three Seagrass is Dzmare’s former liaison from her stint as Ambassador to Palace Earth where the Emperor passed away, and Mahit is sent off with demands from her government that she sabotage the Fleet and its task. Lsel Station is way too close to the alien encroachment; Nine Hibiscus’ assignment looks like it’s planned to be a suicide mission, and Eight Anecdote, the young heir, is treading on dangerous ground. Various people step up to be heroes and everything ends fairly well, with Dzmare looking at opportunities outside Lsel Station.

On the less positive side, the leisurely pace got to feeling like padding about three-quarters of the way through as it really started to slow down the action. The investigation of experience, background, thought-processes and feelings is helpful to develop characters, but eventually it got out of hand, especially in the insecurities department. This would have been a much more entertaining read if it were about 25-50 pages shorter and cut some of that out. Next, I ended up uncertain who the main protagonist is in this installment of the story. Dzmare was clearly it in the first book, but the profusion of characters here and the shifting viewpoints confuses the issue, leaving this more of an ensemble performance–I’m actually tempted to say Eight Anecdote should be the main character. I was led astray by the introduction of kittens living in the ships’ air ducts; I was sure these were baby aliens, and maybe they will eventually turn out that way. Still, it’s a loose end. And last, the Emperor’s heir seems to have gotten away totally scot free on what is certainly major lesé-majesty, or maybe treason. Assigned by the Emperor to be her spy, he eventually makes decisions counter to hers, sabotages her communications with the Fleet and substitutes his own orders instead. This seems a little much for an 11 year-old, and it should set up a succession battle, imprisonment, execution, exile, but…nothing happens. This is another of those misleading, permissive fantasies where there are no consequences to behavior, no matter how transgressive, as long as it’s done for the “right” reasons.

Four stars.

Fugitive Telemetry: Do popular writers hire ghostwriters?

I posted reviews on Amazon and Goodreads for Fugitive Telemetry, and went on to read some of the comments other readers had left. This is always interesting reading. Skip past all the glowing, emotive 5 star ratings that sound like kids hyperventilating and you’ll find some comments by people who were looking for something they didn’t get. There were some complaints about this installment not having the “heart” that the other novellas did, some confusion about the timeline, a couple of comments about missing the adventure factor, and one comment that Wells had lost interest and this book reads like a ghostwriter has written it. Hm.

So, the first two are interesting comments that suggest why this is such a profitable series. It’s been appealing to adventure fiction readers, suggesting a broad readership. Murderbot has had some bad experiences so is shy of humans, but it’s clearly attracted, especially to people who need protecting. In past installments of the story, it bonds with a person or group of people that it’s hired to protect, and really goes the extra mile because it likes them. This is the “heart” the reviewer was referring to, and I agree that it’s not very present in Fugitive Telemetry. We know it likes Mensah, but it didn’t really bond with the security people here or the refugees, either one. Instead, a lot of the space in the story is taken up with background, as we started with the dead human and had to be filled in on things that had happened before that since MB got to Preservation Station.

The adventure fiction readers put their finger right on the missing factor for them, which is that we normally get to ride along with MB as it navigates through dangerous environments and fights off wild fauna, evil humans and crazy bots, making tight escapes and eluding capture by pretending to be a human. I’m an adventure fan, so I missed this, too. MB is fairly safe at Preservation, but there are still threats and challenges, and these were definitely soft pedaled in favor of a somewhat forced plot. Interestingly, none of these adventure readers complained about the somewhat “woke” politics that Wells has been offering, which suggests nobody cares as long as the readers’ other requirements are met.

There’s not much to be said about the timeline confusion. This novella takes place before the novel Network Effect, and as a reader, I was careful to look for when it took place, but apparently some people didn’t and expected this to pick up where Network Effect left off. Since there were loose ends here, I expect that Wells plans to write more about MB on Preservation before the events of Network Effect and avoid having to deal with where she left things with the novel.

So I was sort of surprised by the comment about a ghost writer. Sudden quality drop-offs in a series aren’t unusual in my experience, as writers get distracted, lose touch with their characters over time, or get caught in deadlines so they can’t develop the story like they need to. Actually, this novella sounded like Wells’ style to me, but I actually wondered something like this about Network Effect because it was such a huge departure from her technique in the novellas. I thought the difference was most likely due to having a different editor, but I checked, and the Tor.com editor for both All Systems Red and Network Effect is the same, so that’s not a workable theory. What else could make a difference? The resource persons she calls on to help with advice and the beta readers? She does credit some of those for Network Effect.

But finally, I wondered if there is such a thing as hiring ghost writers to continue a popular series. It’s clear that the Star Wars series uses different authors, as they’re credited. However, I read a young adult novel for the Dragons last year that pretty clearly used uncredited writers, likely as work-for-hire. So I checked. Surprise, surprise, here’s a source that says up to 50% of bestseller books use the services of a ghostwriter. Who would have thought?

Wrap-up of the 2020 Dragon Award Reviews

Since I’ve finally gotten the reviews up, I’ll do the usual and look at the character of the nominations. The Dragon Awards are somewhat unique as SFF literary awards go, as they seem to be actual popular awards, i.e. what different categories of fans are actually reading. That means it’s an interesting comparison against literary awards that are partially or totally juried, where a committee chooses the winners they think are most deserving. It’s also an interesting contrast to the Goodreads Awards, which demographics suggest is dominated by women readers. Many of these novels look to be bestsellers, and I expect one “author” is actually a franchise that cranks out YA content rather than just a single author. Since it’s been a while since the awards, you can see the list of finalists here.

First, the diversity count. Here’s what I get, and as usual, I’m sorry if I miss anybody. This is pretty much based on self-disclosure online. Some authors fall into more than one category, and by “international” I mean non-US based.

Best SF Novel: 3 men (37.5%), 5 women (62.5%), 1 black (12.5%), 7 white (87.5%), 2 LGBTQ (25%), 3 international (37.5%)

Best Fantasy Novel: 2 men (33%), 4 women (67%), 1 Jewish (17%), 1 Asian (17%), 2 Hispanic (33%), 3 white (50%), 3 international (50%)

Best YA Novel: 2 men (33%), 4 women (67%), 2 Jewish (33%), 1 Asian (17%), 1 Hispanic (17%), 4 white (67%), 2 international (33%)

Best Military SFF: 7 men (100%), 0 women, 1 Jewish (14%), 7 white (100%), 1 international (14%)

Best Alternate History: 6 men (100%), 0 women, 1 Jewish (17%), 6 white (100%)

Best Horror: 2 men (40%), 3 women (60%), 1 Jewish (20%), 5 white (100%), 1 international (20%)

Totals: 22 men (58%), 16 women (42%), 1 black (3%), 6 Jewish (16%), 2 Asian (5%), 3 Hispanic (8%), 32 white (84%), 2 LGBTQ (5%), 8 international (21%)

As I understand it, the Dragons is basically a survey of reader favorites collected through the firm Survey Monkey, and (regardless of accusations) there seems to be no visible attempt by the administration to balance or distort the results. That said, there are some interesting things that stand out in this lineup. First is the difference a diversity of categories makes. While most major SFF literary awards are dominated by women these days, the Dragons has almost 60% male winners, and in two categories women are totally shut out.

Another important issue is lack of black and Hispanic popular finalists. This is hard to see in other major awards, and one could get the idea that racial barriers have suddenly been erased, but the issue shows up here. Possible problem may be a lack of participation of black and Hispanic fans in the voting, and/or failure of these writers to match the popular tastes. Although black writers, for example, have done well with angry message fiction in the major awards, this does not seem to match the popular SFF taste. On the other hand, Jewish, Asian and LGBTQ writers rated at or above their US demographic in these results. One other thought here, the timeline between announcement of the ballot and deadline for voting on the Dragons is too short to read all the finalists. This means fans may be voting for their favorite author(s) rather than for the particular works. The same problem may also affect other awards systems.

Having a look at the publishers, 5/37 (14%) were from Tor, 4/37 (11%) were from Orbit, 2/37 (5%) were from Del Rey and 2/37 (5%) were from Titan. The rest scattered out over a diverse array of publishers, including several that appear to have been established by the authors to market their own content. This shows another departure from the major awards, where the winners are typically promoted heavily through reading lists and chosen at a convention where members gather and publishers can more easily influence results.

Next, a look at characters in the novels: I only read the winning novels in six Dragon categories for this set of reviews, so I don’t have a full knowledge of the category content. Keeping that in mind, 3/6 (50%) of the winners had female main protagonists and all had prominent female characters, 3/6 (50%) had LGBTQ characters and a couple had transhuman main characters. I don’t recall that any of the winners mentioned race, which is supposed to mean the characters are white. I’d be interested in input on this one from readers. Some writers limit description of their characters under the theory that more people can identify. Is that right? Or do black readers assume that any character not specifically described as black is actually white?

As far as content goes, this varied by the category. The style and content of the finalists looks to be varied. Although I didn’t read any but the winners for these reviews, I have reviewed a few of the finalists for other awards. Again, as you would expect from the survey method of voting, this looks like popular content and suggests what fans in the different categories want to read. Best SF Novel was very traditional space opera, salty and strongly plotted. Best Fantasy Novel was surrealistic and made little sense. Best YA Novel was full of teen angst, adventures and world saving. Best Military SFF was full of angst, action and heroism. Best Alternate History was a tossed salad of US history with plot built on mystical elements and intrigue. Best Horror was a creepy but warmhearted and nonviolent tale of narrow escape. There you go. What fans really want to read.

Review of The Savage Wars by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

This novel is the winner of the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction. It’s Book 1 of 3, also titled Galaxy’s Edge: Savage Wars #1, and was released February 25, 2020, from Galaxy’s Edge Press. It runs 506 pages. Anspach and Cole are a writing duo that appears to go back to 2017, and they’ve clearly been successful since then, releasing about 30 books. This review contains spoilers.

The Savages are the early migrants who left a ruined Earth in massive lighthugger colony ships. Over the centuries, they’ve evolved into something that’s no longer human. Now they threaten the human-inhabited worlds created by those who left on faster-than-light ships and created a grand civilization among the stars. This installment of the story details the battle for New Vega, where a coalition of planetary governments sends a force of marines to defend the planet against an attack by the Savages. Soon it becomes clear that the cannibalistic Savages have found one another in the darks of interstellar space and created an alliance to conquer and enslave all of humanity.

Military SF isn’t really my thing, but I notice this is really well done. It’s very readable. The story has a lot of hooks, and the characters are highly engaging. The setup is creative; the narrative is full of strategy, action, tragedy and archetypes, and the imagery is very cinematic. A lot of Savages get blown away, but the battle goes wrong in a number of ways, which means a team of heroes has to step up to handle the problem. They stop now and then to discuss their values, loves, losses and aspirations. This is a tried and true method of writing a good book.

On the less positive side, this is pretty violent. There aren’t many women here, and only one is a main character. That suggests women are not the primary audience for this series of books. However, the one gal is highly competent and a true hero the same as everybody else. Highly recommended.

Five stars.

Review of The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

Back in the summer I promised to review the Dragon Awards. It’s taken me a while to get through the fiction winners, but finally(!) Here they are. This novel won the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It is third in the Interdependency series, preceded by #1 The Collapsing Empire and #2 The Consuming Fire. All three novels have been issued by Tor. This one was released in April 2020 and runs 250 pages. This review contains spoilers.

This installment of the story picks up about where The Consuming Fire leaves off. The flow streams that connect the Interdependency habitats are collapsing and the planet End is the only place in the network where the planet is actually habitable. The noble families of the Interdependency are maneuvering for control of the planet and a way to save their houses and their business empires. Ghreni Nohamapetan has seized control of the planet End, imprisoned Count Claremont, and taken over as acting Duke, planning to hold it for his house. Cardenia Wu-Patrick, the Emperox Grayland II is researching plans with Claremont’s nephew Marce to save as many of the residents of the habitats as possible before the final stream collapse. Nadashe Nohamapetan, Ghreni’s sister, is planning a coup with the House of Wu to unseat Grayland II and take over rule of the Interdependency. Lady Kiva Lagos, currently steward of the Nohamapetan business empire, has noticed the money trail left by the plot, and notifies the Emperox. Subsequently an attempt is made on Lagos’ life and she wakes on a freighter on the way out of the system. Is there any way to stop the plot and save the people of the Interdependency?

This is a quick, entertaining read, fast paced and featuring a lot of diverse characters and down-to-earth, salty language. It’s basically an intrigue, and the best points are the strength of the characters and the convoluted plotting (a vanishing skill these days). Don’t get really attached to anybody here, because plots, uprisings and assassinations abound and a lot of people don’t survive to the end. The story moves along smartly and ends in a twist that’s fairly unexpected. Besides this, we get a couple of love affairs that play on your heartstrings, and some heroes willing to give up their lives to save their people.

On the less positive side, this doesn’t seem to have much of a theme or to make any kind of a statement. As with the other installments, the technology is fairly traditional and mostly rooted in 20^th century SF. There are a couple of bright AIs who appear as projections, but this seems to be a technology owned only by royalty. The Emperoxes have their personalities digitally recorded and stored, but again this seems to be a benefit reserved for royalty. Otherwise, there seems to be an internet that works about the same way it does now, accessed through tablets, and no one seems really connected. For example. when Nadashe wants to talk directly to Kiva, she has to have someone deliver an earpiece phone so they ca commuicate. And last, the ending was a bit bittersweet. Scalzi suggests that these people will work out their problems, but we’re left with lose ends and no real surety.

Four stars.

Review of “The Allegiant” by Carl Gable

This is another flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. Carl Gable is an illustrator who lives in Atlanta and seems to specialize in flash fiction and prize-winning cartoon captions. The story is on the longer side at 998 words. This review contains spoilers.

Kurtis Hollis has been having hallucinations. They happen at work, at home in the bathroom, at the ballgame. He’s getting concerned and makes an appointment with his doctor. She asks if anyone in his family has experienced schizophrenia, takes copious notes as he tells her about his experience. It’s always the same. He’s lying on a flat surface, looking up at a round light fixture, and an artificial voice is saying, “Code red, Captain Hollis. Code red. Assistance needed on the bridge.” But when Hollis tries to get up, he can’t move. Is there anything he can do to stop the hallucinations? Any way to fix the problem?

This is fairly transparent, but it’s fun anyhow. Kurtis has a mundane life that’s pretty well represented, a wife, a job, and sports on the week end. There are details of characterization that make his personality seem real in both realities, and enough description that the reader can visualize time and place during his narrative. The story has a nice, warm ending as Hollis figures out how to deal with his problem.

On the less positive side, this mentions schizophrenia as a possible explanation for Hollis’ experiences, but the suggestion isn’t strong enough to give the story extra dimension. Also, the narrative mainly features one reality, and we’re left without information on what’s going on in the other. Clearly there’s an awful emergency somewhere, but we’re never informed about what’s going on. It would have been much more exciting to know.

Three and a half stars.

Congrats to the 2020 Hugo Finalists!

As usual, there’s a pretty high correspondence between this list and the Nebulas. I’ve linked to the reviews I’ve already done, and I’ll review and link to the others in the fiction categories as soon as I can get organized. Okay really, pretty soon.

Best Novel
The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK)
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Novella
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)
In an Absent Dream, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)

Best Novelette
“For He Can Creep”, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
“Omphalos”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
“Away with the Wolves”, Sarah Gailey (Uncanny 9-10/19)
“Emergency Skin”, N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)
“The Archronology of Love”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19)

Best Short Story
“Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/31/19)
“As the Last I May Know”, S.L. Huang (Tor.com 10/23/19)
“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing” Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9/9/19)
“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19)
“Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, Rivers Solomon (Tor.com 7/24/19)
“A Catalog of Storms”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)

Best Series
Winternight, Katherine Arden (Del Rey; Del Rey UK)
The Expanse, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Luna, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
InCryptid, Seanan McGuire (DAW)
Planetfall, Emma Newman (Ace; Gollancz)
The Wormwood Trilogy, Tade Thompson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Best Related Work
Joanna Russ, Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press)
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein, Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)
“2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech”, Jeannette Ng (Dublin 2019 — An Irish Worldcon)
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square)
Becoming Superman: My Journey From Poverty to Hollywood, J. Michael Straczynski (Harper Voyager US)
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

Best Graphic Story or Comic
Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Stephanie Hans (Image)
The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: Okay, Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Jamie McKelvie & Matt Wilson (Image Comics)
Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
LaGuardia, Nnedi Okorafor, illustrated by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin (Berger Books/Dark Horse)
Paper Girls, Volume 6, Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang & Matt Wilson (Image)
Mooncakes, Wendy Xu & Suzanne Walker (Oni Press; Lion Forge)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Good Omens
Russian Doll, Season One
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Us

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Doctor Who: “Resolution”
The Expanse: “Cibola Burn”
The Good Place: “The Answer”
The Mandalorian: “Redemption”
Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar”
Watchmen: “This Extraordinary Being”

Best Editor, Short Form
Neil Clarke
Ellen Datlow
C.C. Finlay
Jonathan Strahan
Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form
Sheila Gilbert
Brit Hvide
Diana M. Pho
Devi Pillai
Miriam Weinberg
Navah Wolfe

Best Professional Artist
Tommy Arnold
Rovina Cai
Galen Dara
John Picacio
Yuko Shimizu
Alyssa Winans

Best Semiprozine
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Escape Pod
Fireside
FIYAH
Strange Horizons
Uncanny

Best Fanzine
The Book Smugglers
Galactic Journey
Journey Planet
nerds of a feather, flock together
Quick Sip Reviews
The Rec Center

Best Fancast
Be the Serpent
The Coode Street Podcast
Galactic Suburbia
Our Opinions Are Correct
Claire Rousseau’s YouTube channel
The Skiffy and Fanty Show

Best Fan Writer
Cora Buhlert
James Davis Nicoll
Alasdair Stuart
Bogi Takács
Paul Weimer
Adam Whitehead

Best Fan Artist
Iain Clark
Sara Felix
Grace P. Fong
Meg Frank
Ariela Housman
Elise Matthesen

Lodestar for Best Young Adult Book (Not a Hugo)
The Wicked King, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
Deeplight, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan)
Minor Mage, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen)
Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney/Hyperion)
Riverland, Fran Wilde (Amulet)

Astounding Award for Best New Writer (Not a Hugo)
Sam Hawke
R.F. Kuang
Jenn Lyons
Nibedita Sen
Tasha Suri
Emily Tesh