2 hugo nominated short stories
Many of the Hugo nominated works are available for download, and I decided to start with the short stories since I'm more guaranteed to get through them all.
Quick of the top of my head reviews to remind myself later for voting. I don't normally really like short stories, especially if they have emotionally unsatisfying endings.
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin
Unfortunately, I went in hoping for mathsy scifi and instead got scifi which used maths as a metaphor about the human condition. Which is an entirely valid genre, but one I don't like as much :) Other than spending the whole story thinking "But what does this mean for quantum mechanics?" I enjoyed it and it was pretty good for what it is.
"Spar" by Kij Johnson
One long weird unpleasant sex scene. Interesting to start with but it dragged and didn't really go anywhere. Also blurs the line between sex and rape in a creepy way, kind of thought provoking but..I don't know. Mostly it was just creepy.
EDIT: Heh. I was thinking "Fanfic has raised my standards for short stories that consist entirely of one weird symbolic sex scene" and then I came across this tetris porn, which is a perfect example of the way fanfic writers tend to take a truly weird sex idea and express it effectively and efficiently.
Quick of the top of my head reviews to remind myself later for voting. I don't normally really like short stories, especially if they have emotionally unsatisfying endings.
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin
Unfortunately, I went in hoping for mathsy scifi and instead got scifi which used maths as a metaphor about the human condition. Which is an entirely valid genre, but one I don't like as much :) Other than spending the whole story thinking "But what does this mean for quantum mechanics?" I enjoyed it and it was pretty good for what it is.
"Spar" by Kij Johnson
One long weird unpleasant sex scene. Interesting to start with but it dragged and didn't really go anywhere. Also blurs the line between sex and rape in a creepy way, kind of thought provoking but..I don't know. Mostly it was just creepy.
EDIT: Heh. I was thinking "Fanfic has raised my standards for short stories that consist entirely of one weird symbolic sex scene" and then I came across this tetris porn, which is a perfect example of the way fanfic writers tend to take a truly weird sex idea and express it effectively and efficiently.