Reviewing the 37th Annual Reader's Award Finalists from Asimov's Science Fiction. 2023. Novellas, Novelettes, and Short Stories
It has been very tough recently for the Science Fiction Short Story Magazines. These were never wildly profitable endeavors to begin with and Amazon’s decision to end their Kindle Subscription Service was a blow to magazines that relied on it. Then Artificial Intelligence attacked the submission slush piles. This all has happened in concert with the increasing prominence of free online science fiction, which has dominated the major awards and marginalized the great work being done in the classic paid and paper magazines.
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My Reviews: Asimov’s Reader’s Choice Awards
So I want to point out once again that each year ASF makes freely available the finalists for their annual reader’s award, which I consider to be the equal or superior to Hugo or Nebula awards. As of today (March 9th, 2023) the stories are available as a free download at this link.
Please read these stories, subscribe to Asimov’s Magazine and keep alive the classic paid & paper magazines that are producing much of the genre’s finest work.
Check out the stories below. No Spoilers Here!
37TH ANNUAL READER'S AWARD FINALISTS FROM ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION
RATED 90% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE: 4.27 OUT OF 5.00
15 STORIES : 7 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
BEST NOVELLAS
Snowflake – Nick Wolven (January/February 2022)
Great. A brutal and intense story about emotional destruction and costs paid to try to ‘get things together’ enough to do your job. Coco is woman who has ‘risen above’ a lifetime of poverty and abuse to become a rockstar. But the drugs and her friends aren’t enough to keep to her together anymore. The novella follows Coco’s best friend after the star felt apart on tour. The drugs haven’t be cutting it anymore and maybe an experimental technological implant will be better. But that implant may come with a cost to her humanity.
Goldie – Sean Monaghan (January/February 2022)
Great. A tale the connects the daily work of scientific study and the connection between scientists and their animal subjects. This is a leisurely story of a group scientists on a vertiginous planet who study the large, slow moving animals that traverse the gaps between the peaks. It is full of the wonder of a new world. Immersive the best way.
Blimpies – Rick Wilber (March/April 2022)
Great. A brother and sister have been brought to the homeward of the aliens that have conquered earth and get caught up the family politics. They have to escape across an amazingly rich alien landscape full of peril and beauties. One of the centerpieces of this landscape are the Blimpies, large sentient beings that float over the world and grab food with their tentacles.
The Goose – Rick Wilber (July/August 2022)
Average. A multiverse spy story in 1940s California full of fascists, baseball, the Spruce Goose. Not as much fun as it sounds with the writing dragging a bit and a mediocre, abrupt ending. The characters are fun to spend time with though.
Note: I didn’t read or review The Court Martial of the Renegat Renegades by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This was for no other reason than it was a serialized novel and not a novella. I’m sure it is great.
BEST NOVELETTES
Falling Off the Edge of the World – Suzanne Palmer (November/December 2022)
Great. Gabe and Alis are the only survivors of a spaceship nearly torn asunder by a collision in space. For 27 years, they survive communicating with each other but unable to make physical contact because of the damage. A poignant tale of the cost of isolation and survival.
Dollbot Cicily – Will McIntosh (March/April 2022)
Great. Cicily discovers that sexbots were built in her image and discovers a way to hijack their operating systems. While she lives in abject poverty, Cicily becomes addicted to the secret forays into the lives of wealthier men. What starts as mere criminality becomes an obsession.
Solidity – Greg Egan (September/October 2022)
Good. While daydreaming in a class, a young boy involuntarily transports to an alternate universe. The physical world seems the same, but all the people are different. He quickly discovers that people randomly change to alternate versions when you aren’t staring directly at them. A very interesting multiverse concept and played out with pathos and experimental rationality. My only gripe is an unsatisfying ending, but I could that changing to Great on future rereads.
Rocket Girls – Kristine Kathryn Rusch (May/June 2022)
Good. One of the “Rocket Girls” tells her snarky story of being inspired by the covers of pulp sci-fi and stealing a rocket ship from space camp in a climate ravaged Florida.
Grandmother Troll – Eleanor Arnason (September/October 2022)
Good. Pleasant bit of middle-grade fantasy as a young girl discovers an elderly troll woman and starts up a friendship. As climate change disrupts weather patterns, the young girl must protect the troll and keep her secret from her parents.
Things to Do in Deimos When You’re Dead – Alastair Reynolds (September/October 2022)
Good. The main character wakes up in a vaguely Florentine world. It turns out that he died during a low budget cryogenic trip, but a small part of him remains conscious in the computer simulation. The story focuses on what this means to his future existence.
BEST SHORT STORIES
Forty-Eight Minutes at the Trainview Café – M. Bennardo (November/December 2022)
Great. A man is entirely separated from his body and lives in multiple immersive VR worlds. He discovers a strangely boring simulation that is nothing but a train, platform, and café. Boring, yes, but also with a realism that is captivatingly unlike all else.
The Empty – Ray Nayler (November/December 2022)
Great. Life is tough in a world where A.I. has automated everything and a few humans struggle for the jobs of overseeing them. Sal manages the high-speed self-driving transportation trucks. When one breaks down in the middle of the empty desert, she will risk her life and livelihood to discover why. What she finds there will change her forever.
Sparrows – Susan Palwick (September/October 2022)
Good. A beautiful little story about fighting for normalcy in a world that has collapsed. In the face of apocalyptic flooding and evacuation, Lacey is determined to finish her final paper on Shakespeare.
Destiny Delayed – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (May/June 2022)
Average. An African man takes out a loan against his daughters future destiny. Surprise, surprise! The corrupt bank has made sure he’ll never be able to pay it off.
The Rules of Unbinding – Geoffrey A. Landis (September/October 2022)
Average. A silly little story about a genie and a lamp that seems to add nothing new to that genre.
