2025 Hugo Awards Homework - The Novellas

First was �Navigation Entanglements� by Aliette de Bodard (James
Nicoll�s review can found at
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/you-and-me-together). I have doubts
that the plotters�s plot would had worked even if the unexpected event
hadn�t happened.

The second title read was �The Brides of High Hill� by Nghi Vo (James
Nicoll�s 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 �The Butcher of the Forest� by Premee Mohamed
(James Nicoll�s 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 �The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain� 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 didn�t
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 �The Tusks of Extinction� 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 wouldn�t be a story.

The sixth title read was �What Feasts at Night� 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_.
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Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com