Short Fiction Recs for April 2016
Apr. 29th, 2016 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofglorySo it is almost the end of the month, which means it is time for short fiction recs. However right now I'm feeling a bit discouraged about this project. The Hugo finalist were announced last week, and the bigoted slaters were able to control most of the nominations. This year more than 4000 people nominated, and I had hoped that would make difference. I'm angry for the people who nominated for the 1st time this year, that they had such cruddy experience, and I hope they won't all be discouraged from nominating again.
Really though, I'm so sad for the stories I loved last year. It was such great year for short fiction and I really hoped to see some of my favorites be recognized. Or if my favorites couldn't be on the short list, I wanted the stories that beat them out to have done so because people loved them. And it feels self aggrandizing to admit it but part of the purpose of this project is to help people find fiction they love to nominate for the Hugos, and I was hoping to have some impact on the final ballot. Which is silly because only an handful of people read my recs.
Anyways I do have some recs, because this project is also about sharing things I love with my friends. I wish this set was a bit more cheerful, but I hope you enjoy them.
"Dragon Brides" by Nghi Vo A slightly creepy story about what happens a princess after she is rescued form a dragon.
"This Is a Letter to My Son" by KJ Kabza (content note: cancer death) A sweet domestic story in the near future, featuring a trans girl and her dead mother.
"A Salvaging of Ghosts" by Aliette de Bodard (Content note: death of an adult child) This story is so beautiful and sad, and lovey. You should read it especially if you liked The Citadel of Weeping Pearls.
"From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review" by Marie Brennan I adore The Memoirs of Lady Trent, this story takes place between volumes 3 and 4 and stands on its own though it does contain spoilers. It is in the form of exchange of letters in scientific journal.
Have you read any good short fiction lately? Recs for something cheerful would be especially appreciated just now.
Really though, I'm so sad for the stories I loved last year. It was such great year for short fiction and I really hoped to see some of my favorites be recognized. Or if my favorites couldn't be on the short list, I wanted the stories that beat them out to have done so because people loved them. And it feels self aggrandizing to admit it but part of the purpose of this project is to help people find fiction they love to nominate for the Hugos, and I was hoping to have some impact on the final ballot. Which is silly because only an handful of people read my recs.
Anyways I do have some recs, because this project is also about sharing things I love with my friends. I wish this set was a bit more cheerful, but I hope you enjoy them.
"Dragon Brides" by Nghi Vo A slightly creepy story about what happens a princess after she is rescued form a dragon.
"This Is a Letter to My Son" by KJ Kabza (content note: cancer death) A sweet domestic story in the near future, featuring a trans girl and her dead mother.
"A Salvaging of Ghosts" by Aliette de Bodard (Content note: death of an adult child) This story is so beautiful and sad, and lovey. You should read it especially if you liked The Citadel of Weeping Pearls.
"From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review" by Marie Brennan I adore The Memoirs of Lady Trent, this story takes place between volumes 3 and 4 and stands on its own though it does contain spoilers. It is in the form of exchange of letters in scientific journal.
Have you read any good short fiction lately? Recs for something cheerful would be especially appreciated just now.
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Date: 2016-04-30 03:26 am (UTC)But it's not as bad as it could be. The novels didn't get controlled. The novella and novelette categories both appear to have at least one entry (and possibly multiple ones) that I could vote for over No Award, which is a change from last year. (In fact, last year's were so bad that I think I only voted two total entries below No Award in the short fiction categories; the rest were so bad I couldn't even rank them.) The short stories, well, we won't talk about those. Or Related Work, which I'm personally even more bitter about, the only saving grace this year being that it was a much weaker year (in my opinion) than last year for related work.
I'll be interested to see what got knocked off the ballot. My prediction is that Ursula Vernon and Aliette de Bodard got robbed.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 07:25 pm (UTC)Thank you paricularly for the Nghi Vo rec - I need to work out how to get alerted when she has new stuff out! - and for my part, recently I've particularly enjoyed:
- SL Huang's Hunting Monsters and Fighting Demons, which sort-of have happy endings (I also loved By Degrees And Dilatory Time, but that's... much less cheerful even, heh)
- lots of Ann Leckie shorts; The Nalendar was entertaining
- Tori Truslow's A Catalogue of Unreadable Things, which is not new but which I adored
- Eliza Victoria's story in Alternative Alamat, but also Parallel, though that one... really isn't cheerful
- And If The Body Were Not The Soul
... and seriously, thank you, your taking care to share fiction is in large part how I finally managed to get into reading non-fanfic short fiction. I'm deriving a great deal of pleasure and joy from it, so -- yeah. Thank you. <3
no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 10:19 pm (UTC)