2011 Hugo Award for Best Short Story

[nwhyte]

This year's Hugo shortlist for the Best Short Story category is rather easy to digest - there are only four nominees (presumably there was a multiple tie for fifth place among the nominations), all of them are already available online, and one of them is very short indeed; to further simplify matters I had already read one which had been nominated

Comments

[despotliz]

(presumably there was a multiple tie for fifth place among the nominations)

The announcement mentioned that there were four stories as no other story got the 5% of the nominations necessary to appear on the ballot.

[nwhyte]

Indeed!

[kevin_standlee]

Had there been a multi-way tie for the last place on the ballot, then all of the nominees would have made the final ballot, such as happened in Best Editor, Long Form. In the Hugos, when there are ties, everyone wins. There have even been ties for the Hugo Award itself, in which case all of the tied candidates get the Award.

[communicator]

The Things is the only short story I have read in the last year that made me post about it I liked it so much. Glad to see it on the list, I thought it was terrific.

[ext_173313]

I encountered it on the Clarkesworld podcast. I was listening to a series of them while out running, so when it started I had no idea at all what was coming (well, you know, other than Peter Watts' reputation). It becomes clear very quickly, obviously, but it just added to the experience. Excellent.

[lostcarpark]

Coming to this late, but have just finished the short stories. I broadly agree with your comments, though I may order the stories differently. In some ways Amaryllis was the bet written story, but apart from the fertility restrictions, it could just as easily have been written as a non-SF story.