not in kansas anymore

1. "Six Months, Three Days" by Charlie Jane Anders
This is one that I nominated-- I adore time travel, and this story really delves into all the things I adore most about it. It's a perfect way of smashing two concepts of time together, but it's also a way of exploring two different people, and two ways of approaching life, and how those differences emerge. I adore it.

2. "What We Found" by Geoff Ryman
Quiet, but engrossing and compelling. Beautifully-realized. It doesn't feel like science fiction for a while, but once it does, it becomes a perfect reflection of the story itself.

3. "Fields of Gold" by Rachel Swirsky
Compelling, despite the fact that I disliked everybody in it. Reminded me of A Brief History of the Dead, but mostly in a way that made me want to re-read the other story. But, well-crafted, never generic, and fully-realized.

4. "Ray of Light" by Brad R. Torgersen
Well-written and well-conceived, but somehow less substantial than the others. The characters felt more like sketches or placeholders than people in their own right. And somehow it felt a little too pat for the sun to have returned after less than a generation, especially given the comparison to previous ice ages. But I liked it.

5. No Award

"The Copenhagen Interpretation" by Paul Cornell
Nearly unreadable. I gave up. I'll assume, generously, that this is part of some kind of series, and that's how it got nominated despite giving so little context I was surprised to discover that we were in a spacefaring future a third of the way along. It's good for a story to subtly interweave its novel elements into the story, rather than doing infodumps or belaboring the details, but you still have to put that information in somewhere near the beginning. By the time I'm three-quarters done with the story, I should have some idea of the restrictions of the setting and the probably consequences of the characters' choices.

1. "Remedial Chaos Theory" (Community)
This is the only episode of Community I've ever seen, and it was AMAZING. Amazing! I immediately wanted to re-watch it. It somehow managed to be thoughtful and lighthearted at the same time. I was also really impressed that I could show up at episode 4 of season 3 of a TV show I knew nothing about, and have no trouble whatsoever following the story. I like that it avoided the easy ending of having any of them be a "real" timeline, while still avoiding getting too tragic with the darkest one. Definitely great TV, but also great sci fi. Humor isn't easier than melodrama, and a short episode isn't easier than a long one-- rather the opposite. And, I feel like it means more when a non-SF show does a SF episode. It's a bigger risk, and it has a bigger impact on their audience. I want more shows to do stuff like this.

2. "The Girl Who Waited" (Doctor Who)
Now this is good sci fi. Perfectly, beautifully self-contained. Haunting. Completely driven by its sci fi elements, but driven to explore the human condition. Old Amy humanizes the time travel convention of undoing imperfect timelines. Of course it feels like a death to her; of course she would rather be rescued than erased. And of course Rory still loves Amy, and they're both "Amy 1". The only thing I found implausible was the Doctor's insistence that the TARDIS couldn't sustain the paradox, since it's sustained much bigger ones for much longer time periods-- but he's enough of an asshole, in his own way, that it also works to believe that he doesn't want to be faced with the existence of Old Amy, that he actually prefers for her to be erased so he can erase his own failure. And the worldbuilding was fantastic.

3. "The Doctor's Wife" (Doctor Who)
A stunning episode of Doctor Who. Perfect character moments for all our cast. But reflecting, I think the massive love for this episode hinges upon fifty years of love for the Tardis, rather than any particular conceptual heavy-lifting in the episode itself. Then again, is that a problem? Sexy's time-tangled conversations are great sci fi, as are Amy and Rory's time-twisted terrors. I think the episode would still make sense on its own, and carry much of the same emotional heft. The long history just helps catapult it from 'great' to 'unforgettable'-- and, however it gets there, 'unforgettable' has been my primary Hugo criteron so far.

4. No Award

"A Good Man Goes to War" (Doctor Who)
A pretty enjoyable episode of the show, but totally reliant on previous episodes in a way that I don't think allows this one to stand as a singular piece. Lots of beautiful tiny worldbuilding moments but just not that thoughtful.

"The Drink Tank's Hugo Acceptance Speech"
Yes, this makes me cry every time, but seriously? This is not a work of science fiction, and it does not deserve a Hugo. Giving this video a Hugo will not give us a repeat of those amazing feelings. It would actually be kinda dickish.

Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2012

The Way of the Needle, by Derek Künsken (novelette) - [*****]
Good old-fashioned sci fi, that actually tries to imagine a world utterly unlike our own. I was completely fascinated the whole way through. Künsken does an amazing job of constructing a complex world with a rich history, and compelling aliens in a well-fleshed-out society, without ever falling subject to the dreaded "infodump". AND he managed an emotional arc and plotty storyline, both with satisfying conclusions. Loved it.

The Pass, by Benjamin Crowell (novelette) - [*****]
Another one that unites a compelling story with a compelling emotional arc, with a memorable and clever setting. Chinchy is a complex blend of strong and vulnerable, and her strengths and vulnerabilities shift as she grows up. Her friends are also well-realized, and their story makes a nice foil to hers. Also refreshing is the lack of simplistic moralizing, even in a story that contains a couple pointed societal critiques. And again, a satisfying ending-- although also a fairly complex one. Chinchy and her friends make opposite decisions, but it still feels like the right way for things to turn out.

Golva's Ascent, by Tom Purdom (novelette) - [*****]
Is this just an unusually good issue? Another fascinating, well-crafted story that has a compelling arc and a thoughtful good-old-fashioned-SF premise, this time First Contact. And again, one that manages to avoid moralizing. Golva is an excellent narrator; he's an individual who sheds light on his own society, never a monolith. Doctor Leza, too, manages to have more personality to her than just The Good Human, though the same can't always be said of her opponents. The chase scene drags a little, but the big bang of the ending makes up for it. Another deeply satisfying read.

Nanny's Day, by Leah Cypress (short story) - [*****]
Definitely an unusually good issue. Another well-realized world that manages to contemplate a social issue without moralizing. It's a story about working moms losing custody rights to their nannies, and yet it avoids all of the "working mother" moral panic in favor of a very human story. I was actually raised by nannies, so I found it particularly interesting. I had a lot of different nannies as a toddler, but when I turned four my parents hired Amy, and she was my nanny for at least a decade. I think my parents still would have won an "attachment test" because Amy was the one in charge of making me do my homework and my chores, and she had a lot of rules that were stricter than my parents' -- but the same may not have been true of my younger brothers, who couldn't remember a time before Amy. So, the story evoked a lot of personal memories, but still rang very true. And the ending was perfect.

Mrs. Hatcher's Evaluation, by James Van Pelt (short story) - [***--]
Okay, here's one I didn't totally love. It wasn't bad or anything, and again it tackled an interesting social question without being obnoxious about it (in this case, standardized teaching) but it suffers from my biggest SF pet peeve -- a mysterious mystery that is never actually resolved. Science fiction is different from fantasy because it makes an attempt to explain itself, but this story doesn't bother. The main character is also a little bit annoyingly obtuse, though not nearly so much as the obnoxious principal character, who manages to believe Mrs. Hatcher's class is boring despite mountains of evidence that nobody is bored.

Patagonia, by Joel Richards (short story) - [*----]
Another one that isn't actually science fiction. Glancing over it again for this review, I think I gave up on finishing this one, after I'd been reading for five minutes and nothing had happened to catch my interest at all. Skimming it now, it seems everything devolves into mystical past-life stuff that gets no concrete explanation. I dislike any SF that doesn't explain itself, but I particularly dislike SF that centers around unexplained time travel. Let me clarify that-- I don't care how the time travel happens, because obviously it's impossible and any explanation will be rubbish; what I dislike are stories where the whole plot centers around the characters going "What's this? It's almost like... time travel?" and then the story ends with "What a mystery!" -- If you're going to do time travel, just do it! And then do something interesting with it. I probably wouldn't be so annoyed if Mrs. Hatcher's Evaluation hadn't done the same thing right before this one... or if the characters in this one had any life to them at all.

Poetry, by G.O. Clark, C.W. Johnson, and A. Walker Scott - [****-]
Are poets opposed to first names? Clark's "A Change in Gravity" was cheerful and charming. Johnson's "Discoveries in the Annals of Poetry" is complex and merits re-reading, making the history of science vividly personal. Scott's "Sonnet I" did not appeal to me at all-- a poem about Man conquering lady-space, who laughs "not joyous but in spite"; not at all how I feel about space travel. But the meter and rhyme was well-done.

Mythbusters

The Pinnochio Fallacy by toft. Adam/Jamie. 35,624 words.
Sci-fi AU. Adam is a sexbot on the lam with a developing personality. Grant and Tory dreamed of changing the world, but sold out to the man. Kari works in robot rights activism in her off-hours. Jamie specializes in making things do what they weren't supposed to.

Fantastic. Both heartbreaking and hilarious at times. Adam is the sweetest sexbot, and I love the way that Toft writes Jamie's particular sort of aloofness. But thefourthvine has already recced this* better than I ever could!

In Search Of by toft. Adam/Jamie. 40,968 words.
Adam and Jamie face down the end of the human race, with a baby. "Your first line of defense against the apocalypse is that we learn how to pickle?"

Okay, so, my taste in apocalypse fic is maybe a little idiosyncratic. I don't wanna read about, like, people dying off one by one or scary zombie fights or basically anything with guns. I want to read about the pickling. I want to read, in meticulous detail, the crazy and unexpected ways that people with modern sensibilities and modern stuff would re-create a pre-modern lifestyle. So Adam and Jamie are the perfect apocalypse protagonists, for me. And this fic does deliver on the "how would you really survive, day-to-day?" question, but it also delivers incredible pathos. Adam in particular gets an unusually deep characterization that answers my second-most-important question, "how would you really feel about the apocalypse, day-to-day?" Very satisfying, and highly recommended.

Robots Need Love Too by toft. Adam & Jamie friendship. 3,260 words.
"Everybody, this is Adam," says Educator Kari. She's standing next to a skinny kid with red hair, who's still wearing the white and blue jumpsuit they give new people. He's also wearing a cape.

Okay, this is secretly my favourite Adam & Jamie fic from my Toft Mythbusters RPF binge. Adam and Jamie are little kids in a space station, and Adam is the weird new kid who won't stop talking and Jamie is the weird kid who won't talk at all and of course they become friends and they play with logic blocks together and Adam gives Jamie a navy blue digi-pen and later Jamie remembers to smile so he smiles and if I tell you all the adorable little moments that make me happy inside, I will tell you the whole fic.

The fic is tagged with "neurodiversity" which is a great way to describe what's so lovely about the story. Early on Adam says to Jamie, "I guess we can be friends as long as you don't mind my behaviour abnormalities," which I think encapsulates a lot of the dynamic - these are both kids who aren't "normal", but are finding ways to be happy without changing who they are.

Vorkosigan Saga

Your College English Classes, Except With Hot Guys Banging by lannamichaels. Ivan Vorpatril/Duv Galeni. 1,244 words.
What it says on the tin.

I feel like this was perfectly tailored just for me, to make me feel better about the world while I write the neverending thesis. Containing references both to my current field of study (English Romanticism) and the poem I read for my valedictorian speech (This Is Just To Say)! And somehow, in character the whole time.

Sherlock (BBC)

Would You Like To Back Up Your Files? by rotaryphones. Art.

A Sherlock infographic, sweet and well-executed. Worth a look.

Harry Potter

Being Liquid by rotaryphones. Teddy Lupin/Victoire Weasley. ~7500 words.
When Teddy discovers a new way to be liquid, Victoire helps him to find stability.

A beautiful exploration of a genderqueer identity. This is probably my third time reading this fic, actually; every time I'm reminded of it, I have to re-read it again. Teddy is so perfectly-realized, I sink right into him and then can't get him out of my head for days. Victoire is also compelling as his companion. Next-gen HP fic is hard to pull off; it's easy for the familiar faces to steal the show, but the balance here is just right. One of my favourite scenes really highlights the generational differences -- a harmless prank in Teddy's eyes elicits a strong reaction from Harry et. al., who are, after all, war veterans -- but the overall effect is mostly one of making you relieved that you're not reading about child soldiers but about a quietly magical coming of age.


*Funny story: I went to thefourthvine's dw to find the post where they recced The Pinnochio Fallacy, and I did a ctrl-F for "sexbot" to find the relevant post... and The Pinnochio Fallacy was the second of three results just on the page. I think we have all learned something valuable about thefourthvine today.