Well, you know what they say, “better late than never”. It’s been the while since the Hugos were announced, but even being late to the party the Novellas this year were mostly good and deserve to be talked about. So let’s not waste anymore time and get right into the reviews.

The Mimicking of Known Success

Malka Older

Originally Published: Tor.com

Malka Older has previously been nominated for a Hugo Award for best series for her Centenal Cycle series, and she has herself been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for New Writers. She has not however had any Hugo wins, and this story was the first time an individual work of hers was nominated. Whilst with hindsight I know she didn’t win, The Mimicking of Known Success was still a competitor in this year’s ballot.

This story is a murder mystery and sapphic romance set on Jupiter. Well, the book description says Jupiter, and descriptions makes it obvious that these floating platforms are in the atmosphere of Jupiter, but the planet is never referred to as Jupiter. It is a minor quibble, but I feel like mysteries need to be clearer about this stuff than other genres, so I’m going to complain about that minor uncertainty. But it is a quibble, I am actually quite impressed with this story, and a big part of that is the worldbuilding. I love the descriptions of Jovian weather, the platforms and the railcars, the Mauzooleaum, and also the way these characters think about and study Earth.

I feel the mystery element was a bit weak considering how Holmesian of a vibe the story and characters are going for, though it was still compelling enough, and worked with the worldbuilding. As for the romance aspect, that was nice, but lacking. I think if we had more info on why Mossa and Pleiti fell out in the first place early in the story there would be more investment – and more uncertainty – about whether or not they’d get together. As it is, they fall back into being with each other after only one argument, and I don’t feel this part of the story has enough tension.

All in all, The Mimicking of Known Success is a decent mystery/queer romance, but it is being greatly elevated by the setting and the history of the world. I feel this series does have a lot of potential, but probably this entry was trying to do a bit too much.

Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet

He Xi

Translated by Alex Woodend

Originally Published: Adventures in Space: New Short Stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers

Okay, I gotta admit, I didn’t finish this one. He Xi, along with The Three Body Problem author Liu Cixin and fellow Hugo 2024 nominees Wang Jiankang (Seeds of Mercury) and Han Song (The Answerless Journey) has been called one of the ‘Big Four’ of Chinese science fiction. I liked The Three Body Problem so much that you’d think I would like authors compared to Liu Cixin, but so far two of the other ‘Big Four’ have been a miss for me.

Of course, it’s hard to say how much of my dislike is the story and how much is Alex Woodend’s translation. There was one story he translated that I did like, and I think I would have disliked The Answerless Journey regardless of how it was translated, so, it probably is the story rather than the translation I’m disliking here. Though speaking of Woodend’s translation, I do have to question this choice:

I don’t know if the innuendo was intended, but it was worth trying to read the story just for that line. That being said I can’t really say much about this story because I just could not get into it. It’s about a secret mission to a far away ocean world, however the FTL travel is done by wormhole jumps, and clusters of micro-wormholes can set a ship off course both in space and time.

This is something that should have pulled me in, but processing the words on the page felt like a chore. If anyone has read this story, let me know if it gets good, I might give it another go and have better luck another time.

Mammoths at the Gates

Nghi Vo

Originally Published: Tor.com

This is the fourth entry in Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle, a series that has a history in this category at the Hugos. The first entry, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, won the Hugo Award in 2021, and book 3, Into the Riverlands was a nominee in 2023. Vo has also been nominated for other works too, including this year with her novelette On the Fox Roads.

Until now, I’ve been worried that the Singing Hills Cycle may have peaked early, since even though I enjoyed When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain and Into the Riverlands, they didn’t blow me away like The Empress of Salt and Fortune did. That changed with Mammoths at the Gates. I’m still not sure which one I like better, but this is the first one that I feel sits comfortably next to Empress. This entry expanded the world and characters (especially our viewpoint character Chih, who has never had this much focus), and when the twist happened I felt the same sort of ‘holy shit’ feeling I did with Empress. Don’t worry though if you’re unsure about starting a novella series, as all four books can stand alone. Mammoths does feature a handful of call backs and easter eggs related to the first three books, so I think some knowledge of the world makes it more enjoyable, but it is still a self contained story that can be read alone.

Mammoths at the Gates, like all Singing Hills novellas, is a story about stories. The series as a whole does a great job of showing how stories get changed depending on who’s telling them, what information gets embellished or forgotten, and whether or not the teller is reliable. They examine the power of stories, and their relationship to the truth. In previous books, Cleric Chih travelled the world collecting stories for their order. They heard stories of royalty, tiger spirits, and mythic heroes, but in Mammoths they return home to the Singing Hills Monastery, where they learn stories about their recently deceased mentor. The personal connection between Chih and their mentor makes the revelations Chih discovers hit harder, and makes for a fresh take on these novellas.

I enjoy this series a lot, and this entry is a highlight. The worldbuilding is always top-notch, but I feel Mammoths at the Gates is one of the best character centered stories of the series. Despite being book four, it is certainly award worthy.

Rose/House

Arkady Martine

Originally Published: Subterranean

Arkady Martine is a huge name in science fiction. Her Teixcalaan duology won the Hugo Award for Best Novel with both books, A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace. I enjoyed both of these books a lot, as well as some of Martine’s shorter fiction, and was really excited about Rose/House. Not only is it by an author of considerable skill, but it was also described as a locked room mystery with in a house ‘haunted’ by an advanced AI.

Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed in Rose/House. It doesn’t work as a locked room mystery, and whilst the Rose House AI is a very well written creepy AI, this book didn’t work as a horror story for me either. For the first point, I think poor worldbuilding plays a part. We aren’t given enough information about the limits of the AI or what types of technologies exist in order to anticipate any ways the ‘no-one enters except Selene’ rule can be broken. Which is a shame, because the first loophole we see is really clever, and opens up a huge discussion on personhood. After that though, it seems that other loopholes are just new gadgets that pop up out of nowhere. Another issue that also technically falls under worldbuilding is that the factions and players involved with Rose House never pop up until they’re relevant, adding to the feeling that any new element could come into play at any time. This isn’t a ‘solvable’ mystery, and the plot isn’t character-driven enough for my liking.

There are a lot of things this story does well. It is very atmospheric, and examines the implications of an AI like Rose House well. Descriptions of the AI were really good, and the quality of the writing in general is high. I find it satisfying whenever an AI that doesn’t have human motivations pops up, since most of our motivations are related to our biology. There are things to like about this story, but ultimately the plot, world-building, and lack of good answers made this a miss for me.

Seeds of Mercury

Wang Jinkang

Translated by Alex Woodend

Originally Published: Adventures in Space: New Short Stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers

Here’s a story that was right up my ally. Maybe not the most character driven, but has an epic idea at it’s core, allows the characters, and thus the reader, to really sit with the implications of this Earth-shattering idea, and on top of that has some unique aliens in a completely un-Earthlike environment. This is pretty much everything I like about classic SF.

It’s not surprising that this story has an ‘older’ feel to it. It was originally written back in 2002. Not as old as the classic SF I want to compare it to, but still, as I hate to be reminded, over twenty years ago. The author is Wang Jinkang, one of the biggest names in Chinese science fiction. Along with The Three Body Problem author Liu Cixin and fellow Hugo 2024 nominees He Xi (Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet) and Han Song (The Answerless Journey) he has been called one of the ‘Big Four’ of Chinese science fiction. Seeds of Mercury seems to validate this position to me, and I’m certainly interested in reading more of his work.

Seeds of Mercury is a story about the ultimate act of creation. scientist Sha Wu has created life out of nanites that lives in a super-heated smelter. Her successor is tasked with releasing these metal-based microbes on Mercury, where they can grow and evolve in an environment suited to the biology. The story alternates between the release of the Mercurian microbes (and the contemplation of whether humanity should actually be doing this), and a story set ten million years in the future where the now sentient decedents of those early life forms go to the North Pole to look for their god.

I should add that there is an element that feels a bit ableist. One important character is severely disabled and described in a very unflattering way. When other characters discuss the disabled character’s motivation, the summery on his personality is basically ‘disabled/disfigured people can become really bitter over their lot and lash out. He gets that a bit, but he is by nature a kind-hearted person and that wins out’. Which, at first feels ableist, but then I remembered all the other fiction out there where the villain’s motivation can be summed up as ‘is bitter over being disabled’ and I realise that by comparison, Seeds of Mercury is a nuanced depiction, but that isn’t really a compliment on Seeds of Mercury. I suppose it doesn’t help that the dialog felt a bit off for that conversation. That could be a translation thing, but I’ve bagged out Alex Woodend enough when reviewing Answerless Journey. Overall, I feel he did a good job with this story.

I really enjoyed this story. It is very much my type of concept-driven piece, and yet it doesn’t get too bogged down in technical details the way say, Hal Clement would have. As much as I love modern speculative fiction, I’m glad that stories like these still have a place on the Hugo Ballots.

Thornhedge

T. Kingfisher

Originally Published: Tor, Titan UK

Ever since I finished A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking a few years ago, I’ve been saying I need to read more T. Kingfisher. I was planning for my next book of hers to be What Moves the Dead, which I picked up a signed copy of a few months ago. But due to the Hugos, Thornhedge moved up the list. So glad it did, because this has become easily my favourite Sleeping Beauty retelling.

Which, it’s kinda weird that there are so many Sleeping Beauty retellings out there. More importantly, this is neither Kingfisher’s first fairy tale, nor her first time at the Hugos. Kingfisher – both under this T. Kingfisher pseudonym and under her actual name, Ursula Vernon – has been nominated for the Hugo Award seven times previously, in Short Story, Novelette, Novel, Series and Graphic Story categories. She has won in every category except the Best Series, with her most recent Hugo win being last year for the Best Novel category with Nettle and Bone. Thornhedge was her first nomination for Best Novella, and since I’m late with these reviews I can also say it’s her first win in this category.

As stated, Thornhedge is a sleeping beauty retelling. It’s a retelling that challenges our assumptions about the story, and like in Maleficent, we find ourselves following the fairy who caused the curse rather than the sleeping princess or heroic prince. Though, I found Toadling in this story both more interesting, and a hell of a lot more relatable than Maleficent. Our questing knight Halim is also great. He’s a Muslim, loves his mother, and is fascinated by all things fae. He tracked down the tower out of curiosity, and now that he’s here, he doesn’t just want to save the fair maiden said to be at the top, but his strange new toad-fairy friend too. I love both of these characters so much, and the way they interacted with each other and this world was perfect.

I think Thornhedge deserved it’s win. Both for the Hugo and for the Locus. This really is such a good story, that’ll keep you turning the page looking for answers.

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And with that, I’m officially done with the 2024 Hugo Awards. What’s that, the finalists for Best Novel? Yeah nah, not very practical for me to do that this year. Maybe next year.

Happy Reading,

– Jayde