Saturday, July 19, 2014

Hugo Ballot 2014: Short Stories

Nominees: “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”/“The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”/“Selkie Stories Are for Losers”/“The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere”
Unlike some other voters, I did find some SF/fantasy elements in these stories and won't reject most of them for lack of being sff.  However, all of them took Campbell's "assume your tech marvel and then tell a story" a bit TOO literally.
I did find it frustrating that all the stories fit a particular subtype within the broader SFF universe.  There is nothing in this category for people who like exploding spaceships, or hetero action heroes. I don't have to prefer one type of story to recognize that others do.  That all of the nominated stories fit this same pattern is a problem, imo.

Snowpiercer (2013 movie)

Go see this.  If you like post-apopoc movies, this is sort of thing you will love.

DO NOT LET YOURSELF GET SPOILED.

Brief non-spoilerly comments below the jump.