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From: Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: 2025 Hugo Awards Homework - The Novellas
Date: Sat, 31 May 2025 21:58:37 -0700
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First was ³Navigation Entanglements² by Aliette de Bodard (James 
Nicoll¹s review can found at 
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/you-and-me-together). I have doubts 
that the plotters¹s plot would had worked even if the unexpected event 
hadn¹t happened. 

The second title read was ³The Brides of High Hill² by Nghi Vo (James 
Nicoll¹s review can be found at 
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/wedding-bells). Several chapters in, 
I decided that the story was a Bluebeard variant, but the final twist 
was entirely unexpected, though in retrospect, there were hints that 
things were not as they seemed.

The third title read was ³The Butcher of the Forest² by Premee Mohamed 
(James Nicoll¹s review can be found at 
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/quiet-solitude). A villager is sent 
on a mission under pain of death (she succeeds or all of her relatives 
and neighbors will be killed). The problem is that the forest in 
question is a borderland for Faerie (not that it is called that in the 
story) which operates under its own rules. 

The fourth title read was ³The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain² by 
Sara Samatar. This story is set on a generation ship (but is it actually 
going somewhere?) that is part of a fleet with severe social 
stratification. I have referred to stories that sang to me or didn¹t 
sing. IMHO, this one was badly out of tune. I have read claims that this 
story had lyrical prose; I see woo-woo and violations of conservation 
laws (energy and momentum).

The fifth title read was ³The Tusks of Extinction² by Ray Nayler. 
Russian scientists in (I think) the 22nd century are trying to recreate 
the Pleistocene Arctic Biome in a large tract in Siberia. They started 
with recreating the Wooly Mammoth, but ran into problems. They solve the 
problem by downloading the recorded mind of a 21st century Russian 
scientist who had studied elephants thoroughly (before poachers had 
killed all of them in the wild) into a female mammoth who would then 
train the rest of the herd of youngsters on how to be mammoths. What 
could go wrong? If nothing had, there wouldn¹t be a story.

The sixth title read was ³What Feasts at Night² by T. Kingfisher. This 
is the 2nd Sworn Soldier story (the third will be published later this 
year). Lieutenant (retired) Alex Easton (and friend) arrives at the 
family hunting lodge to discover that the care keeper had died several 
weeks earlier. Efforts to repair neglect are complicated by the 
potentially fatal attentions of a ghost of sorts. Fortunately, the 
original care keeper was the only fatality.

-- 
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
‹-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com