Part of the recent BSFA mailing included a chapbook containing all of the nominated short stories. An excellent idea, now every BSFA member can read the stories and make their mind up, rather than trying to seek out copies elsewhere. It's now easier to vote on the stories with some opinion (that's either removing the barriers or providing a nudge depending on which business speak bullshit you want to use). The chapbook also contains all the artwork nominees on the back cover, the full list of nominees in the novel and non-fiction categories and details of how to vote (either by email or the included ballot form). Nice job. And consequently I've now read all the stories. Here's my review.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
There's been maybe one or two Chiang stories that I loved. The others tend to leave me feeling impressed by technical ability, or ideas, but otherwise a bit cold. Exhalation is one of those stories. Whilst it's undoubtedly a novel, interesting idea, that's just not enough for me. The Victorian style first person account detracts from any suspense, leaving me to enjoy the vaguely described robot world and the mystery at the heart of the story, but not care about the main character. Good but didn't love it.
Crystal Night by Greg Egan
In contrast to Exhalation, Crystal Night had a plot that hooked me in and kept me reading, giving me a genuine want to find out what happens. As you'd expect from Egan there's some hard-ish Science at the core of the plot, although the extrapolation is perhaps a little more extrapolated than I was expecting. Still, it's an entertaining tale of trying to create Artificial Intelligence and the ending is amusing. It reminded a bit of a Lite variant of Permutation City, which you really should read if you haven't.
Little Lost Robot by Paul McAuley
Paul McAuley has written novels and stories that I love, Fairyland and Gene Wars are both stories that I often think about. And I really enjoyed this story too. Little Lost Robot starts with fun big robot prose. Boy's toys stuff perhaps. I loved it. A quick quote from the opening:
"Sooner or later it'll be coming to the star next door to you, and it will rock your world."
Nice. The story is fast, fun and entertaining and yet ends on a thoughtful note, suddenly casting the story in a different light. With a chunk of hard science thrown in too. Great stuff. My favourite of the nominees.
Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account by M. Rickert
This story is a harrowing extrapolation what might happen if fundamentalist anti-abortion laws are pursued. It reminded me of The Handmaiden's Tale or The Carhullan Army. It's undoubtedly designed as a warning to US citizens and the right wing religious tendencies. The extrapolation is taken to a horrible future conclusion. It's emotional and well written, but it's hard to love a story that makes me feel like that. You should read it, but it isn't fun.
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