Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

• Best Novella

  • √All Systems Red(#1)
  • √Binti: Home (#2) 
  • √River of Teeth (#3)
  • √Down Among the Sticks and Bones (#4)
  • √“And Then There Were (N-One),”(#5)
  • √The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang (DNV)

This category was harder than I suspected, as well. 

But All Systems Red: Wells handles Murderbot and his introvert-ness ably, and creates a character that is compelling and amusing.   Her prose is clean and simple, a style I'm finding I adore.    The world is rich, but I'd argue that Murderbot is the richest, fullest thing about this world - and I love him so much. 

Binti: Home: I read this after getting it signed.   And I love it.  I fell in love with Binti, and before All Systems Red?   This would have been, no doubt, my number one choice.   I was conflicted when I saw these both on the ballot, because I felt, at times, that I loved them equally. 

But... Murderbot.   When I closed my eyes and had to make a split second decision, it was Murderbot.   I did this for a couple days and I always ended up with Murderbot.   So apparently I love All Systems Red more, but just slightly and the fact that there was a bot in there didn't help.   

Binti: Home has a different feel than Binti in many ways, but I also felt very deeply connected to this character and world.   It's got some mythos that Binti didn't have, based on Nigerian customs and beliefs, and I got to hear about them from the author herself which made me feel more connected to this story. 

River of Teeth: man-eating hippos.   Because it's cowboys - with hippos.  I don't even know what to say about this: it's weird, I loved most of the characters - except the dicks who were written to be dicks, so they served their purpose - and it was weird and hilarious and you should read it.  Alternate history is something I usually steer clear of, but this?   I'm so glad I read this.   Have to check out the sequel as well!

Down Among the Sticks and Bones:  So... I loved this until the end, and I was like WTF, what's going to happen?   It was a nerve wracking ending and it obviously made me feel, but ugh, I don't know?  I was so super 'meh' about the ending I almost knocked this out of a voting position completely.   I dunno?   I still enjoyed most of this more than the next story and I think the ending makes sense, just not when it ended if that makes sense.   There was no conclusion, no resolution that made sense to me, and that?    That left me feeling adrift.   I think the ending would have been perfect had we known what happened after that last scene. 

And Then There Were (N-One): I thought I'd enjoy the meta, especially since the author has a convention of multiple Sarah Pinkser's - her own name - but the mystery in this ended up lagging for me after a while. 

I simply didn't enjoy it as much as most of Down Among the Sticks and Bones, so here we are. 

Black Tides of Heaven:   Another high fantasy - silk punk - that didn't do it for me.   I wanted to enjoy it because the writer really has talent, and it deals with gender and sexuality in a very, very progressive way that interested me.   The main plot, and the characters, however didn't grab me enough to even read the excerpt of the next novella.   The writing was more clean and direct than Jemisin's, which was much more flowery.   Since I simply enjoy the direct style more than the flowery, I ended up enjoying this enough to make it through one novella.   I in fact started the excerpt of Black Tide's sequel and really couldn't get into it enough to convince myself I'd want to finish, so I dropped it and decided this wouldn't get my vote this year. 

I wouldn't hesitate recommending it to a reader who enjoyed this type of fantasy, however.