sophia_sol | 2020 Hugo Award: Best Novella

OKAY I've read all the Hugo novella nominees now! Time to rank them! And oh dear this was hard. My top three are honestly all so good that I want all of them to win first place, and it was a real trial to rank them. I kept being like, NOOOO this one deserves first, but if I rank THAT one first then the other two have to be LOWER and I can't bear to rank any of them second or third!!!! And they're all good in such DIFFERENT ways that it's hard to compare them.

Anyway I can't actually rate all three of them first place, so I gritted my teeth and put them in some kind of order. I may yet change my mind, I've still got nearly 2 weeks before I have to commit on a voting form.....

(links to my full reviews for each book are in the titles)

1. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P Djèlí Clark
This book is a total delight! I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of reading it.

2. To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers
It's so lovely and I love it a lot and I had a lot of feelings and I cried.

3. The Deep, by Rivers Solomon
Just so impressive and powerful and transportative!

4. Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom, by Ted Chiang
Very interesting but the pacing and engagement felt thrown off to me by all the infodumping.

5. In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire
Good but also frustrating.

6. This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Boring, unfortunately.