It’s awards season, and I want to know what stories I should be nominating.
I didn’t read nearly enough in 2011, and I want to remedy that. So please tell me what you wrote in 2011 that you were proud of, what really got your attention, what you think I ought to read. I’ll try to keep a list here.
So far, these are the ones that I liked and would recommend:
- “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, by E. Lily Yu, at Clarkesworld (April). A complex, beautiful political fable with a sting as sharp as those of the titular insects. Picked up by two of the Year’s Best anthologies. Easy to see why.
- “Her Husband’s Hands”, by Adam-Troy Castro, at Lightspeed (October). I loved Castro’s Arvies from last year, and this one was just as good. A moving story about love, even in pieces.
- “The Fish of Lijiang”, by Chen Qiufan, at Clarkesworld (August). I translated this story into English, so I’m somewhat biased. But Chen is one of the most talented writers I know, and I wish I managed to convey some of the beauty of his words in my translation of this tale about dislocation, modernity, and the search for authenticity.
I’ll add to this list as I read more in the coming weeks. So let me know what I should be reading! Thank you.
More recs (based on suggestions):
- “Ghostweight”, by Yoon Ha Lee, at Clarkesworld (January). Much praised by reviewers, this is a political meditation with some amazing images. It is what I think of as the quintessential Clarkesworld story, written in a rich, elaborate style I dub “awesome scifi”.
- “Chrestomathy”, by Anatoly Belilovsky, at Ideomancer. An alternate history where Pushkin did not die at that fateful duel in 1837 but went on to change the world. Belilovsky is extremely erudite and an expert at taking on literary voices. The more you’ve read, the more you’ll like this. (Incidentally, I believe he’s eligible for the Campbell.)
- “The World is Cruel, My Daughter”, by Cory Skerry, at Fantasy. A beautiful retelling of the story of Rapunzel. What I like about this is the way it marries the beautiful with the raw, ugly, and visceral. In so doing, it restores a sense of wonder to a tale that may have lost some of its power in repetition.
- “Movement”, by Nancy Fulda, in Asimov’s. This is a story about technology, evolution, the growth of individuals and species, but it speaks to me most as a story about the eternal inner conflict in each of us between conformity and transcendence. It has one of the best endings I’ve read in a story this year. (If you haven’t read it, you can go to Nancy’s site and ask for a copy).
- “Ray of Light”, by Brad Torgersen. This is the classic Analog story, and Nancy Fulda’s recommendation is well deserved. It’s a mistake, I think, to describe Analog stories only with the label “hard scifi.” Plenty of hard scifi stories don’t fit the magazine. What really distinguishes an Analog story from others is its attitude towards technology and exploration, an attitude that is hard to sum up but amply on display in this story.
- “Diving After the Moon”, by Rachel Swirsky, at Clarkesworld. Poised between science fiction and fantasy, this story is built around one of my favorite folktales as a child: the one about monkeys forming a chain to fish the moon out of the water. I also like the world it creates, a melancholic future tinged with hope, not despair. The tone reminds me of her “Eros, Philia, Agape”, one of my favorite Tor.com stories.
