Musings of a Babylon Lurker

Hugo Awards 2010 : Short stories vs. Novellettes

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 | awards | No Comments

This year I generally liked the novellettes better than the short stories. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues when I get to read the novellas.

Tags: Hugo Awards

Hugo Awards Novellette : “It takes Two” by Nicola Griffith

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 | awards, books, scifi | No Comments

A very well chosen title for a cautionary tale. Nicely ambiguous. Are we talking about Richard and Cody, or about Cody and Susana.

Going deep into the question of how reliable our memories are, and how we could be influenced to do things we would not otherwise do.

While the idea could be said to be lifted from the “Red Pill/Blue Pill” choice in “The Matrix”, this story has a quite different take on the concepts of memory and reality.

8/10

Tags: Hugo Awards, scifi

Hugo Awards Novellette : “Eros, Phillia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 | awards, books, scifi | No Comments

Interesting take on the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence evolving into consciousness. In this case involving a robot, or should I say android.

I found the story a bit longer than I would prefer for this relatively simple plot, on the other hand I found the writing itself interesting and somewhat captivating.

Also the relationship between robots/androids takes an interesting turn when the robot is set free to evolve. Maybe a good example why most robot stories abide Asimov’s rules.

8/10

Tags: Hugo Awards, scifi