Thoughts on the Hugo Nominated Short Stories by Adam Callaway
(Edit: this post was actually written by Adam Callaway. I forgot that WordPress would use my ID to indicate the author if I was the one who created it. Sorry for any confusion.) I am both pleasantly surprised and just a little disappointed with this year’s batch of nominees. There were no short stories I found to be of poor quality. In my opinion, there was one mediocre story, two good ones, and one very good one. I wish there had been a full ballot of short stories to read through. I also wish there had been more diversity in terms of theme and content. In the end, I feel like these are incredibly mature stories that show the changing face of speculative literature in the 21st century. In many ways, they share more in common with fiction published in the New Yorker than Amazing Stories. Instead of ray guns and magic swords, you have metafiction and magical realism. Regardless of the quality of these stories, this is a Good Thing for the future of the genre. But are these really the best stories genre produced last year? Hmm… Here are my brief thoughts on each of the nominees:
Geekomancer Under Glass – Fall 2014 Upfronts
Hi folks! I’m back from a novel-induced hiatus, and I’m excited to talk to you all about Fall 2014 Upfronts. For those who don’t follow TV development, Upfronts are the part of the broadcasting season where networks show off their upcoming seasons, new and returning shows, in order to secure up-front advertisement buys. These days, the side-effect of Upfronts is that debut shows get trailers, which end up on YouTube, and then end up in blog posts by geeky writers. I’ve watched through a number of these videos, and bring you some of the most promising and most ridiculous of these Upfronts, to get everyone excited months and months ahead of when any of these shows will be debuting.
