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hrjAgain, a briefer than previous round-up of the finalists in this category not previously covered.
"Paranormal Romance," Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed 6/13)
In a couple of previous reviews I've included a comment to the effect of, "It's a given that a Nebula-nominated story will have excellent writing." Well, I'm going to have to walk that back because I found this one to be clunky and awkward in style. I bounced off it badly enough that I honestly don't recall much of the story either.
"They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass," Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s 1/13)
An unnerving and dark post-apocalyptic tale of a small personal slice-of-life quest, ventured under the threat of a randomly violent occupation. To my mind, the story evokes a deliberate transplantation of current US international activities (especially in Afghanistan/Pakistan) into a domestic setting, with a dollop of reactionary Christianist extremism for flavor.
"The Litigation Master and the Monkey King," Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/13)
While several of the stories I've been reviewing thrust the reader into an unfamiliar culture (whether a non-default contemporary culture or an alien one) and expect the reader to experience the story via that culture's gaze, this one tackles characters and events drawn from Chinese history and legend in a more distanced, didactic fashion. The prose stylings are more in the fairy tale vein and I felt like I was reading a history lesson (and one specifically aimed at a reader outside the culture) than a story. The conceit of the protagonist having an ongoing internal dialog with the Monkey King was intriguing, but overall the moral felt forced and artificial.
"In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind," Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons 7/1 – 7/8/13)
An ordinary love story, reviewed at the end of an architect's life by his soon-to-be-widow, who discovers a belated curiosity for one of her husband's projects that hints at extraterrestrial encounters. Alas, though the hints imply complicity in (and sabotage of) a cruel injustice, there is no suggestion that the woman's curiosity extends to following up on the matter. An intriguing allusive premise, but overall unsatisfying.
"Paranormal Romance," Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed 6/13)
In a couple of previous reviews I've included a comment to the effect of, "It's a given that a Nebula-nominated story will have excellent writing." Well, I'm going to have to walk that back because I found this one to be clunky and awkward in style. I bounced off it badly enough that I honestly don't recall much of the story either.
"They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass," Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s 1/13)
An unnerving and dark post-apocalyptic tale of a small personal slice-of-life quest, ventured under the threat of a randomly violent occupation. To my mind, the story evokes a deliberate transplantation of current US international activities (especially in Afghanistan/Pakistan) into a domestic setting, with a dollop of reactionary Christianist extremism for flavor.
"The Litigation Master and the Monkey King," Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/13)
While several of the stories I've been reviewing thrust the reader into an unfamiliar culture (whether a non-default contemporary culture or an alien one) and expect the reader to experience the story via that culture's gaze, this one tackles characters and events drawn from Chinese history and legend in a more distanced, didactic fashion. The prose stylings are more in the fairy tale vein and I felt like I was reading a history lesson (and one specifically aimed at a reader outside the culture) than a story. The conceit of the protagonist having an ongoing internal dialog with the Monkey King was intriguing, but overall the moral felt forced and artificial.
"In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind," Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons 7/1 – 7/8/13)
An ordinary love story, reviewed at the end of an architect's life by his soon-to-be-widow, who discovers a belated curiosity for one of her husband's projects that hints at extraterrestrial encounters. Alas, though the hints imply complicity in (and sabotage of) a cruel injustice, there is no suggestion that the woman's curiosity extends to following up on the matter. An intriguing allusive premise, but overall unsatisfying.
