Matthew's Journal

I've read all of these, and propose to vote as follows. Again, I found the ranking quite hard, although I think the winner is just a bit clear of the rest, and I nearly considered voting the last below No Award for Not Being SF/F/Horror...

1) "Down Among the Sticks and Bones", by Seanan McGuire
2) "All Systems Red", by Martha Wells
3) "The Black Tides of Heaven", by JY Yang
4) "Binti: Home", by Nnedi Okorafor
5) "And Then There Were (N-One)", by Sarah Pinsker
6) "River of Teeth", by Sarah Gailey

No cut this time, as I think I've avoided spoilers...

"Down Among the Sticks and Bones" is, I learn while writing this entry, part of a series (the Wayward Children); it doesn't feel like it. It's one of those slightly disturbing fairy stories which are a bit knowing without being smug, and a bit moralising without being simplistic; and there's a certain inevitability to events without the plot being predictable. This story really drew me in, compelling and stylishly written. Like a number of the other entries in this category, this has twins in who are both very similar and very different; as a twin myself, I've enjoyed this emergent theme.

I enjoyed "All Systems Red", and while there are to be more murderbot books, this felt like a satisfactory story in its own right. I enjoyed murderbot's dry authorial voice, its uncomfortable relationship with humanity (and its own humanity), and the malevolent corporate cost-cutting. I wouldn't say the plot was particularly revolutionary, but this is still a great deal of fun, and I'm looking forward to the sequels.

"The Black Tides of Heaven" is the first of a two-part series (the second part was released at the same time), and I think that probably they should just have been released as one book. I will probably try and get hold of a copy of the second part, though! I liked the world-building, and the coexistence of magic (called slack-craft) and more scientific means (the machinists); and the plot kept me turning the pages. And there are some interesting free will questions lurking, too.

"Binti: Home" suffers a bit from being the middle of a trilogy (that I haven't read the first part of); the ending felt in some ways like just the point where the book's getting going. And I imagine I missed some of the impact of already knowing the characters. But it was self-contained enough that I got into the story pretty quickly; I didn't feel this was doing anything particularly new thematically, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I liked the premise of "And Then There Were (N-One)" - someone arranges a convention of Sarah Pinskers from lots of different parallel realities and then one of them dies. So lots of that "what if...?" that I think people have about life decisions. Despite that, I didn't find myself caring about the plot (and, indeed, the solution felt a bit contrived).

I've got into trouble for this before (back in 2014, when I ranked "Wakulla Springs" below No Award), but I didn't think "River of Teeth" was really SF - it's an interesting enough alt history where a chunk of the Mississippi delta has been flooded and people ranch hippos. I quite enjoyed it, though the epilogue to set up a sequel annoyed me a bit; I felt the story had ended quite nicely, and then the epilogue un-ended it, if you see what I mean.

I've read all of these. They're all really good, and I found ranking them quite hard! Still, rank them I must, so:

1) “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time,” by K.M. Szpara
2) “Extracurricular Activities,” by Yoon Ha Lee
3) “The Secret Life of Bots,” by Suzanne Palmer
4) “Wind Will Rove,” by Sarah Pinsker
5) “A Series of Steaks,” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
6) “Children of Thorns, Children of Water,” by Aliette de Bodard

( a few thoughts, some spoilers )

I've read all of these, and plan to vote thus:

1) “Fandom for Robots,” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad [my favourite by some margin]
2) “Sun, Moon, Dust” by Ursula Vernon
3) “The Martian Obelisk,” by Linda Nagata
4) “Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™,” by Rebecca Roanhorse
5) “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand,” by Fran Wilde
6) “Carnival Nine,” by Caroline M. Yoachim

( slightly more thoughts, mild spoilers )