Reviewing the 2021 Hugo Award Finalists: Short Stories
The Hugo Award, named after pioneering editor Hugo Gernsback, is arguably the most important award for literary Science Fiction and Fantasy. Given every year since 1955 by the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon,) it has among its winners some of the finest works of SF every written. One of the industry’s most powerful spotlights, it has had a significant impact on the fortunes and careers of the finalists and winners.
The 2021 Hugo Awards will be given on December 2021, but the Finalists have been posted. For the first time that I can recall, all of the Finalists in the Short Story category (7,500 words or less) are available for free online. I’ll share a link to the original story with each entry below.
Having now read all six stories, I offer my reviews of the Finalists and my pick for the Hugo Award.
“The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020).
Great. The perfect fusion of Fantasy and Science Fiction, with shades of The Little Mermaid and Robert A Heinlein. A young mermaid dreams of the stars and makes a deal with a Sea Witch for the opportunity to travel with aliens who have landed on her planet. I liked this a great deal for the combination of hypnotic, dreamy prose and smart SciFi elements. Read it here.
“Little Free Library” by Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com)
Good. Absolutely charming piece of domestic fantasy. A woman starts a friendship - and maybe inspires a revolution - centered around her Little Free Library and the books she offers. Relaxing and very pleasant, but ends too soon. Give me a short novel around this idea, please! Read it here.
“Open House on Haunted Hill” by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots – 2020, ed. David Steffen)
Good. Haunted Houses, real estate agents, a precocious young girl and her father. Just the right amount of creepiness and wistfulness combined. Will never visit an Open House with quite the same attitude again. Read it here.
“A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris))
Good. A cynical old robot that fights in death matches is force to mentor a chipper young robot working at a diner. Kinda witty and reasonably charming, but it didn’t quite reach the greatness for my taste, although it certainly did for others.. Read it here.
“Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
Average. Two giant robots (Brother and Sister) are captured by an enemy and have to evolve and find a way to survive. It is interesting with the ways in the which the robots transform their thinking and their bodies to increasingly deceptive purposes. Read it here.
“Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse” by Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020)
Average. A reasonable suspensful zombie adventure, focussing on a lesbian giving birth in very difficult circumstances. Nothing here that I haven’t seen in other zombie fiction, except the lesbian element. But I have to believe that this has been done before. Right? I think most people voted for the “Badass” title. Read it here.
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THE 2021 HUGO AWARD FINALIST: SHORT STORIES ARE RATED 83%.
AVERAGE STORY: 3.83
6 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
If I imagine the Finalists as a short anthology, it scores pretty well ~83% positive., but most of the good stuff is Fantasy, not Science Fiction. I have difficulty imagining that this was the very best that the year gave us in SFF Short Stories.
