Novelettes tend to be long short stories (7500-17500 words). The little bit of extra space gives more flexibility and can lead to greatness (last year’s Tomato Thief springs to mind), but far to often they fall into the uncanny valley where the length makes them flabby without gaining the depth of a longer work.
Author: James
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – Short Story
Hugo short stories can be surprisingly long (7500 words or less). I tend to prefer the vignette, but regardless of length, I want a self contained story that hits its mark.
Hugo Awards Extravaganza 2018 – Introduction
Hugo time again. If you want a primer on the Hugo awards and where I fit in, I did one last year. This year, some personal stuff happened and I got a little bit sidetracked.
Hugo Nominee Suggestion Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) 2018 – Badwater (Alice Isn’t Dead)
I haven’t read enough new books or short works to tell anyone what to nominate, and I’m behind on movies, but I have been a voracious consumer of TV. The Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) category is generally dominated by tv episodes, so of course, what I would like to do is instead suggest you nominate a podcast episode.
Review – Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab
The world might be different but there will always be London, or at least there are four of them, spanning from Georgian England to a lifeless world scoured by magic. A few special mages ferry messages between the worlds, but not all messages are created equal…
Review – Welcome to Nightvale: All Hail
Welcome to Nightvale is the 300lb gorilla of the sf narrative podcast scene – a community radio show from a simple town in the desert where the one world government helicopters are always circling, angels called Erika are on every corner, and the community calendar is as likely to contain temporal paradoxes as crocheting events. Nailing a tone that reminds me of the best of the comedic X-files episodes, and hosted by the mellifluous Cecil Baldwin, Welcome to Nightvale is a permanent fixture in my podcast rotation. None of which answers the current question – how does a radio show do live
2017 books in review
I read 55 books this year, plus a wide assortment of shorter works and comics, which, while not likely even close to my peak in my teens and early 20’s, is still enough to feel pretty happy with.
Reviews – Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee (Plus The Battle of Candle Arc)
Sequel to Ninefox Gambit/Book 2 of the Machineries of Empire Trilogy
I thought Ninefox Gambit was brilliant and strange, if a little obtuse. With all the strange technology and bizarre calendar tricks out of the way, Raven Stratagem feels like a chance for Yoon Ha Lee to cut loose and have fun.
Review – Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
A young woman in private practice after being cast out of the academy in disgrace, is hired by a partner in a major firm to assist in a post bankruptcy restructuring of a global entity, but a range of opponents both old and new are arrayed against her. Oh and the practice is wizardry, the academy was above the clouds, and the entity being restructured is a god.
The Orville Episode 2 – Command Performance
I didn’t intend to write more about the Orville, yet here we are. Command Performance shares 95% of it’s DNA with a lower tier TNG episode. It starts with the ship receiving a distress signal from a freighter and arriving to find that the ship is carrying Captain Mercer’s parents. Since the third in command […]