Hugo nominees 2012

Another year, more delightful fiction to read! As previously, I attempt to read this year's nominees in the major categories. (I actually got through most of the novels before the nominations were announced; I have no regular source for large volumes of short stories, so I'll have to seek those out later.)

Best Novel:

• Among Others by Jo Walton
• A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin
• Deadline by Mira Grant
• Embassytown by China Miéville
• Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Best Novella:

• Countdown by Mira Grant
• “The Ice Owl” by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• “Kiss Me Twice” by Mary Robinette Kowal
• “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson
• “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” by Ken Liu
• Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente

Best Novelette:

• “The Copenhagen Interpretation” by Paul Cornell
• “Fields of Gold” by Rachel Swirsky
• “Ray of Light” by Brad R. Torgersen
• “Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders
• “What We Found” by Geoff Ryman

Best Short Story:

• “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu
• “The Homecoming” by Mike Resnick
• “Movement” by Nancy Fulda
• “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu
• “Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue” by John Scalzi

[Update: the winners have been posted.]

This post's theme word is laodicean, "lukewarm or indifferent, esp. concerning religion." Science fiction and fantasy are passionate about some topics (space travel, magic, technology, identity, marginalization, social inequality, education) and laodicean about others.

Further uncanny glimpses

Lovecraft found very few things to be canny.

My previous dreams provided amusement; here's another.

E, a former rugby teammate, was dressed as Sherlock Holmes and acting like him, too. She had gone back in time to try to seduce Queen Victoria. Using deductive logic. She sat on an ornate stuffed chair while Queen Victoria sat across from her on an ornate stuffed couch, in an ornate room stuffed with ornate ornamentation.

Of course, stalwart Queen Victoria, dressed in mourning, would have none of it. The dream-seduction-by-logic was unsuccessful in the face of her stubborn refusal to be swayed by deductive logic. Although my dream version of Queen Victoria was not above a detailed logical examination of the frilly black lace on her black dress, an opening sally in the seduction.

Uncanny.


This post's theme word is captious, "having an inclination to find faults, especially of a trivial nature." Her captious questions stalled the deductive argument.