Welcome to the first of my Storytelling Series where I’ll be reviewing short fiction nominees for the 2021 Hugo Awards.
The Hugo Awards are major SF literature awards, voted by participants in the annual World Science Fiction Convention (a.k.a. Worldcon). This year’s Worldcon will be held in mid-December.
On November 19th, 2021 the voting polls for the 2021 Hugo Awards close. Before that date, I will review the nominees in the Best Short Story category on my blog each week.
Have no fear of spoilers! Each review will begin with a short spoiler-free introduction, followed by a more in-depth, spoilery review.
I think it’s important to let readers know my perspective on award nominations:
My goal is not to convince readers to vote for any one story over another. At this level—published, award-nominated fiction—my subjective evaluations about what is “Best”, and all the literary baggage that entails, would be unproductive for a blog. I do plan to vote in the 2021 Hugos, but readers won’t be privy to that information… mostly because I want more people to read short fiction for themselves.
So why am I doing a blog series on this? Well, I’m here to support the authors’ accomplishments and talk about what I enjoy in their work. My reviews will contain positive criticism and exploration of literary themes, SFnal or otherwise. You won’t find any trash talk here or nit-picking here. That vibe is for the garbage can.
Becoming a published SF writer is already a great accomplishment. Regardless of anyone’s opinion or criticism of the inner workings of the Hugo Awards, I do think being nominated is a big deal. It’s in poor taste to neg authors and their work due to their nomination. (That said, I do know about past years’ Sad Puppies / Rabid Puppies fiascos, but that’s not the case this time around).
If you missed the link at the top, you can find the nominated work here. I will start with the Best Short Story category, and follow the order on the Hugo website, which means…
Next week, I’ll begin by reviewing Rae Carson’s “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse” published in Uncanny Magazine’s Jan/Feb 2020 installment.
Chris Airiau | Science Writing & Storytelling 