Hugo Nominated Novellas
Posted on: July 7, 2013
- In: awards | Hugo Awards
- 9 Comments
and. . . . we’re back to Hugo stuff!
The nominations for best novella are:
- After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
- The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
- On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
- San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats by Mira Grant (Orbit)
- The Stars Do Not Lie by Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)
Those links will let you read an excerpt of the novellas.
Boy did I get lucky! I’ve already read and reviewed After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall and The Emperor’s Soul! (Those links will take you to my reviews)
Over the next few days I’ll be posting my reviews of the others.
In the meantime, two conversation prompts:
1. Have you read any of these novellas? what did you think of them?
2. Do you find novellas difficult to access? I meant that in a few ways. Novellas are tough for me because there’s so little time. As soon as I find myself immersed and invested, the story is over. They are super duper short novels. And they are tough to find! Every issue of Asimov’s and most of the other magazines have a novella each month, and many anthologies or author’s collections will feature one or two novellas. But if you don’t read the magazines, or pick up the right anthologies or collections, how else will you get to read novellas?
9 Responses to "Hugo Nominated Novellas"
July 7, 2013 at 8:32 am
I’ve read the Sanderson, Kress and de Bodard. I was sent an early review copy of Kress’ novella and enjoyed it very much. Passed it on to my wife and best friend who also really liked it. We all loved The Emperor’s Soul. I read it just before Christmas and then turned around right after the new year and read it aloud to my wife. I fell hard for de Bodard’s work when “Immersion” was nominated for the Nebula and after that wanted to track down more of her stuff so I bought the hardback copy of On a Red Station, Drifting. Love it!!!
It is hard for me to choose just between these three, not having read the other two, but my heart leans towards de Bodard.
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July 7, 2013 at 9:54 am
I’ve read de Bodard and Kress. I generally love Kress’ work but I don’t think this novella was her best. I vastly prefer On a Red Station, Drifting. Her Xuya stories are very interesting. I think it is past time someone collected them.
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July 7, 2013 at 10:38 am
I agree with this, “Novellas are tough for me because there’s so little time. As soon as I find myself immersed and invested, the story is over. They are super duper short novels. And they are tough to find!” Most anthologies are too pricey or not even AVAILABLE in the UK, and it’s hard to find the others unless they get a lot of press (such as Emperor’s Soul) or I stumble across them somewhere. And immersion is a big issue.
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July 7, 2013 at 10:54 am
I honestly don’t think I have ever read a novella! But I’ve been eyeing the Snow White one by Cathrynne Valente and this list also looks like a good place to start. I’ll check your reviews. I think e-readers makes almost everything more accessible these days. I sometimes feel guilty counting smaller books toward any reading goals I have though – and graphic novels. Weird, right?
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July 7, 2013 at 12:17 pm
I have to admit I mostly only read novellas if they are part of series… Not because I don’t want to read them but just because they don’t seem to come across my radar as much as novels…
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July 7, 2013 at 2:53 pm
I adored “The Emperor’s Soul,” and it’s one of my favorite of Sanderson’s books thus far. I couldn’t put it down.
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July 7, 2013 at 10:32 pm
They actually have Nancy Kress’s novella at my library. I’m not particular about short stories, novelettes, novellas, or novels. I just like good stories (although complex plots and character development work best in novels).
I like how Richard Matheson’s (RIP) novellas are packaged with his short stories. A few others collect novellas this way too.
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the Little Red Reviewer 
July 7, 2013 at 8:30 am
1.) I haven’t read these novellas, but I do have San Diego 2014… on my Kindle, just waiting to be picked up. I suppose because they’re so short, I’ve got no excuse – in fact I might start filling some blogging time between full-length novels with shorter fiction…
2) Your points about access are good ones! I’m not a big reader of magazines, and I don’t like to pay for one just to read one or two articles/stories/whatnot. Same with anthologies. But I would like easier access to the stories that are published in mags/anthologies, because I do enjoy the occasional novella! So it’s a tricky thing.
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