The Novelette and Novella are the ugly step children of the Hugos, novelette being a long short story, and a novella being a short novel.\u00a0 Nonetheless, they are often have the most diversity in offerings of the categories.\u00a0 This slate of novellas is particularly strong, with five of the six stories being excellent and deserving of award.<\/p>\n
Again, beware spoilers in main reviews.<\/p>\n
How well do the children who come back from fairyland cope, and what do they do with the rest of their lives?<\/em><\/p>\n This novella looks at a special school for those children who are desperate to go back to their<\/em> fairyland(separate from the school for those so traumatised they never want to go back).\u00a0 Each child went to a different place, but for each it was perfect.\u00a0 What is most impressive about McGuire’s storytelling is that this novella does double duty as both a high concept story about afters, and an emotionally grounded tale about belonging and being yourself even when you don’t fell like you fit in.\u00a0 On top of this, the characters are great, each one is an archetype;\u00a0 Nancy wants to be a statue, Sami is an actual manic pixie girl, and so on, but each is fleshed out into a real person.\u00a0 \u00a0 Prima inter pares is Jack , an aspiring mad scientist who gets almost all the most quotable lines.<\/p>\n There are only two minor blemishes on this otherwise great effort.\u00a0 The first is that the actual plot feels superfluous: I think I would have liked the story better without the addition of a murder mystery.\u00a0 The other is that after the main story there are a couple of prequel chapters giving the origin story of two of the main characters.\u00a0 While not bad, they feel out of tune with the main story, and are not of the same excellent quality.<\/p>\n Combines a great high concept with a strong emotional core to make an excellent story about children who survived fairyland.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Divine provenance pushes a temple sorcerer to assist a lost shaman. Set in the 5 Gods World (Curse of Chalion).<\/em><\/p>\n Lois McMaster Bujold always does something a little off expectations.\u00a0 We start here with an investigator chasing a murderous shaman requesting help from a temple sorcerer, and I would normally expect some sort of long chase culminating in some sort of epic duel.\u00a0 Instead we get a tale of mistakes, redemption and forgiveness.<\/p>\n With a typically great Bujold protagonist (though no Miles Vorkosigan), and a setting of powerful but rigidly constrained magics combined with present but subtle gods this is a smart and pleasant read.<\/p>\n Smart fantasy that goes in unexpected directions but still feels like comfort food.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n A soldier on a diplomatic mission meets a minor noble and starts a forbidden relationship.<\/em><\/p>\n A couple of pages in, and I thought I knew where this was going: a gay love story between a European knight on a diplomatic mission with a minor noble in fantastic Africa, told non-sequentially over their brief relationship to make it more interesting.\u00a0 As I read further however, the scope of time expanded broadening the story, and the world got deeper, weirder and most importantly unique.\u00a0 By halfway through I was lost on a ride, and willing to follow the increasingly idiosyncratic tale wherever it wanted to take me.<\/p>\n Unfortunately the ending is so generic, and thwarts so many of the interesting plot threads, that it pulls the story down to a little.\u00a0 In spite of this, this is such an usual and unique tale that it deserves attention.<\/p>\n Utterly unique and idiosyncratic, this is a cure for predictable and generic fantasy stories.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n A street musician and dealer in magics turns to the old ones to find justice in 20’s black New York.<\/em><\/p>\n This didn’t work for me as either a mythos tale or a ballad.\u00a0 As a mythos tale it lacked the sense of insignificance and existential dread I associate with the best Cthulhu stories, while as a Ballad, it isn’t focused enough on Black Tom in the middle.<\/p>\nPenric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold<\/h2>\n
A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson<\/h2>\n
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaVall<\/h2>\n