Completed 6/16/2025 Reviewed 6/17/2025
In this blog entry, I review and rank the six Hugo nominees for Best Short Story. These are stories under about 30 pages in length. I don’t remember the exact count of words that defines a short story, but the stories range from a page or two flash fiction to what you normally think a short story’s length would be.
Unlike the Novelette nominees, my opinions of the short stories ranged from really like to “huh?” One story played with format while another was filled with footnotes and historiography (defn: the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline). So here comes my list from favorite to least favorite:
“Stitched to the Skin Like Family Is” by Nghi Vo – Creepy story about a Chinese woman making her way across the US to find her brother. She supports herself by sewing. While sewing, she can feel the most recent events of the life of the wearer. She ends up at an Inn that was the last address she had of her brother. She offers family sewing services in exchange for a hot meal and a place to rest. Little does she know that the clothes she sews will tell her horrifying stories of the Inn’s caretakers.
I love Vo’s work. This story, through basically a horror story, is a joy to read. This touching something and getting its history is a frequently used trope, but Vo’s writing elevates the story of racism and serial killers to great heights. Not for the faint of heart, but profound in its message of family love and courage.
“Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones – Flash fiction about criminals being sentenced to paralyzed immortality in space.
Being only 3 pages long, I can’t really say much else. But it punches you in your gut with frightening realism. The scene with the preparation for being put in space is horrifying.
“Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal – A more traditional fantasy story about Margery, a young woman living with her palsied mother and younger brother in a dirt floor house. The mother was once the housekeeper at the manor of the Lord John Strange. The boy, Hugh, wants to be a squire for him. When a giant snail comes from the forest to attack, Hugh begs to go watch the Lord Strange ride out in defense. Margery lets him, but after a long while begins to worry. When the lord’s horse shows up unattended, she runs to look for him. She finds him guarding the lord who is stuck under a tree. Then the snail attacks.
I thought this was well written, even though it doesn’t have a strong message. It’s just good basic fantasy. The world building is quite amazing for a short story and the characters are very multi-dimensional.
“We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim – This was the story with played with formatting to get the point across. I wasn’t positive, but I think it was an alien race that could think along multiple threads trying to train humans to read multiple threads.
This was definitely experimental. I don’t know if I actually got it, but it was an interesting concept and execution. It certainly spoke to me considering I test CPUs that have many threads, so it kind of reminds me of how computers process data.
“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim – Strange story of a town of Nice Houses where the people put a child in a hole as a support structure to guard against catastrophe. If catastrophe strikes, they kill the child and find another one. If they don’t, the child starves to death.
This was very weird. I don’t know if it was supposed to be a metaphor for sacrificing children to the gods for protection or school shootings or child abuse or what. It certainly raised my hackles, though, and was hard to finish. It evoked a lot of anger and emotional response from me. Didn’t really like it.
“The Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine – This was the really bizarre one that tells different perspectives of an uprising and beheading of the leader of the rebellion.
This had lots of discussions about historiography, which basically lost me. I almost didn’t finish this sixteen page story because at page eleven, I just was so bored and lost. I did not like this.
That’s my summary and ranking of the six nominees. They can be found in various sci fi/fantasy publications and often can be found for free on the publisher’s or magazines’ websites.
No comments:
Post a Comment