Good Thing I Didn't Have Any Money Riding on This

Cheryl Morgan is blogging the Hugo results in real time, and it seems that I'm 0 for 2 in the short story and novelette categories. Kelly Link took the novelette Hugo for "The Faerie Handbag". As I said, I don't think any of the novelette nominees were undeserving, but it does seem a bit sad that this should be the story for which Link is finally acknowledged by the SFF 'establishment'. Handbag was written for a teen audience, and reading it, you can feel Link's preference for the surreal and the grotesque straining at her self-imposed restrictions, as she tries to write a kid-friendly story. It's a wonderful piece, but not nearly as brave as Link's other work, and it's a shame that she's being rewarded for reigning in her prodigious imagination.

As baffled as I was by Mike Resnick's twin nominations, I'm flabbergasted by the fact that his "Travels With My Cats" actually won a Hugo. If I had been handed this story by a fledgling writer and asked if it were ready for submission to a professional market, I would have recommended against it. I can't even imagine what confluence of events could have led to its winning the field's top award.

Composition of the long TV-related post I promised has been on hold today due to reading - Angela Carter's Wise Children, specifically, which I simply can't recommend enough.

Comments

Didi said…
You wanna know why Resnick's story won? People like him, and people like cats.

Also, it was such a weak category this year, that any story could have won.
August 12, 2005 3:15 AM

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