BSFA Award Short Story Nominees
Apr. 4th, 2009 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerIf you're a BSFA member or are attending Eastercon, you're eligible to vote in the BSFA Awards. All four short story nominees are available online:
'Exhalation', Ted Chiang
'Crystal Nights', Greg Egan
'Little Lost Robot', Paul McAuley
'Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account', Mary Rickert
Of these, I placed the Rickert fourth. I felt bad about that, as it's the only piece by a woman on the short story ballot, and it's arguably the most realistic, poignant and relevant piece of the four. But the issue it confronts was realistic, poignant and relevant back when Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale, and like so many other stories of dystopian right-wing oppression it suffers from having been written in that unpleasant historical period best referred to as Before Obama.
The McAuley also dealt with an old idea - the berserker machine - but from the weapon's perspective. An interesting idea, and I can see it as a sort of very long-distance epilogue to The Quiet War. I enjoyed it, but didn't quite come away feeling that my sense of wonder had been engaged.
The Egan did a rather better job of that: full of enough ideas to have seeded a collection by most authors, as is often the case in an Egan short. But again, it was mining a well-excavated vein; the virtual world that grows aware of, and manipulates, the wider world around it. Ken MacLeod addressed this issue in a throwaway paragraph in The Stone Canal - as well as the ruthlessly pragmatic way of dealing with it.
For me though, the stand-out was the Chiang. Yes, it is oddly old-fashioned, an epistolary narrative addressed to a future reader. True, the central plot conceit is just entropy, albeit presented in an intriguing way (the pressure death of the universe?) But something about the style and presentation just took hold of me. It's a simple idea, beautifully executed, and there's a lot to be said for that.
So, for me it will be Chiang, Egan, McAuley and Rickert in the 1 to 4 positions. I'll see if I can comment on the novels later, although I can't see that I'll get to read The Gone-Away World in the next week, seeing as how I have The Margarets and House of Suns lined up first.
'Exhalation', Ted Chiang
'Crystal Nights', Greg Egan
'Little Lost Robot', Paul McAuley
'Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account', Mary Rickert
Of these, I placed the Rickert fourth. I felt bad about that, as it's the only piece by a woman on the short story ballot, and it's arguably the most realistic, poignant and relevant piece of the four. But the issue it confronts was realistic, poignant and relevant back when Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale, and like so many other stories of dystopian right-wing oppression it suffers from having been written in that unpleasant historical period best referred to as Before Obama.
The McAuley also dealt with an old idea - the berserker machine - but from the weapon's perspective. An interesting idea, and I can see it as a sort of very long-distance epilogue to The Quiet War. I enjoyed it, but didn't quite come away feeling that my sense of wonder had been engaged.
The Egan did a rather better job of that: full of enough ideas to have seeded a collection by most authors, as is often the case in an Egan short. But again, it was mining a well-excavated vein; the virtual world that grows aware of, and manipulates, the wider world around it. Ken MacLeod addressed this issue in a throwaway paragraph in The Stone Canal - as well as the ruthlessly pragmatic way of dealing with it.
For me though, the stand-out was the Chiang. Yes, it is oddly old-fashioned, an epistolary narrative addressed to a future reader. True, the central plot conceit is just entropy, albeit presented in an intriguing way (the pressure death of the universe?) But something about the style and presentation just took hold of me. It's a simple idea, beautifully executed, and there's a lot to be said for that.
So, for me it will be Chiang, Egan, McAuley and Rickert in the 1 to 4 positions. I'll see if I can comment on the novels later, although I can't see that I'll get to read The Gone-Away World in the next week, seeing as how I have The Margarets and House of Suns lined up first.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 12:09 pm (UTC)I gather that the achievement is somewhat of an accident in that they were able to get rights to all the shortlist - something they can't guarantee to repeat.
My order is Chiang, Rickert, Egan, McAuley. I acknowledge and somewhat agree the force of your comment on the mood of the Rickert but it was beautifully done.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 12:53 pm (UTC)Hmm, not sure about the eligibility there -- material published by the BSFA not being eligible for the awards, and all. I'm not sure whether it was first used elsewhere, though, in which case it would presumably be eligible.
I gather that the achievement is somewhat of an accident in that they were able to get rights to all the shortlist - something they can't guarantee to repeat.
Yes. Also, there's a length issue, in that if something like "Magic for Beginners" gets on the ballot again, it would be as long as this booklet on its own, which might make printing costs a bit prohibitive. (It would have to be perfect-bound, for starters.) I'd like us to do it every year, but no guarantees, unfortunately.
Further discussion of the nominees at
no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 01:50 pm (UTC)