BSFA short fiction and Hugo nominations

[nwhyte]

Thanks to the BSFA's new two-round nomination system, we have a long list of 41 stories in the Best Short Fiction category, from we we can choose four to be aggregated into the eventual shortlist of five. This is actually quite tough, because four of the stories of the 41 are there because I nominated them, and so I am reading the others in

Comments

[fishlifter]

I asked Pete Crowther of PS for the word count of Wylding Hall and he said it was a shade under 49,000. Where did you get your figure?

-- Mark

[nwhyte]

I converted my Kindle copy to .docx format using Calibre, and did a word count.

[fishlifter]

Ok, thanks. I've been quoting that 49k figure to various people assuming Pete knew what he was talking about!

-- Mark

[nwhyte]

The whole document is 45,005 words; shorn of front and back matter, I make the story itself 43,460.

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[ninebelow]

We have quite a lot of overlap in the stories we like but usually on opposite sides of the voting/bubbling under divide. I haven't read Wylding Hall yet but currently my votes are:

A Day In The Deep Freeze by Lisa Shapter
The Game of Smash and Recovery by Kelly Link
Manifesto of the Committee to Abolish Outer Space by Sam Kriss
Elephants and Corpses by Kameron Hurley

If I had another four, they would be:

Fabulous Beasts by Sharma Priya
Wooden Feathers by T Kingfisher
Liminal Grid by Jaymee Goh
Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong

I do think the novella thing is a bit odd. Sorcerer Of The Wildeeps is the same length as Wylding Hall (I think) but in the Best Novel category.