Hugos 2011 - Short Stories

[kfrye]

This summer, Aaron and I are going to Reno with Kim for the World Science Fiction Convention aka WorldCon. This means that I get to vote for the Hugos, so I'm making it a mission to actually read everything that was nominated. These are my notes.

Best Short Story

• "Amaryllis" by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010): Dystopic world in which population growth is strictly controlled. The main character is a child born by a woman flaunting these rules. As a result of the birth, the family was literally dismantled, and the child never met her mother. The child is now an adult with her own family who are now wanting their own child. Very Margaret Atwood. I didn't find this story particularly compelling, but it was okay if somewhat predictable.
• "For Want of a Nail" by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov's, September 2010): A generational ship story about a family that preserves all its memories with an AI. Something happens to the AI, which eventually reveals that it has been covering something crucial up. This is really a story in which, for the good of the entire population, people are discarded when they are no longer useful, and this ends up including the AI personality as well as actual humans. Very sad, but a great story.
• "Ponies" by Kij Johnson (Tor.com, November 17, 2010): Loved this story. My favorite by far. It's about how cruel little girls can be when they feel the need to fit in. This one has my vote... and (after I made this decision) it just won the Nebula.
• "The Things" by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010): Cool creepy story about an alien life with a hive brain that infects a group of people and animals after it crash lands on Earth. Close runner up to "Ponies."