Okay… A few thoughts on this year’s Hugo nominees for Best Short Story. Spoilers ahead so you have been warned.
On a Spiritual Plain by Lou Antonelli
This one takes a while to get going and bears some similarity to last year’s The Chaplain’s War from Brad Torgersen. Again we have a military pastor offering succour to his flock on an alien world. This world has the property of retaining the ghosts of its dead inhabitants until they are released by making a pilgrimage to the pole. When the first human, Joe McDonald, dies in an accident on the planet, the Chaplain undertakes the pilgrimage to release his soul.
I found the science in this science fiction to be a little odd. The author refers to the planet’s strong electro-magnetic field as the reason their ghosts stay with them. I found this unconvincing. If there was any measurable, physical attributes to the afterlife then even here on Earth we would have detected it. I thought it would have been better to leave it as strictly mystical rather than trying to fudge the science.
Also with the adjustment to the planets orbit. That would not be affected by a “contraction” in the planet’s sun. The star would have to lose mass through an ejection, but something of that magnitude would likely have cooked the planet. Dodgy science again. Also, I don’t see why this would affect the planet’s core unless there were tidal stresses, which are never mentioned.
Science aside, I thought the lack of spiritual depth to also be a problem. Although the hero recognises the presence of Joe’s spiritual form, he seems to think this is something distinct from his soul. He says, “…his soul has already flown, he is just a ghost.” I found this somewhat confusing. Why help Joe if this is not the “real” Joe? If his soul is already in heaven, why bother about this remaining apparition? There is a contradiction here: the ghost is authentic enough for the Chaplain to undertake a gruelling journey to help him, but at the same time not real in that Joe’s true soul has presumably already escaped the planet.
The author ducks the real questions. If this apparition is taken as proof of the existence of a life after death then this apparition must be the soul. If Joe’s ghost is some other phenomenon unrelated to his soul and a Christian afterlife then the reality of a heaven remains unproven. But the Chaplain’s faith is never shaken. In fact everyone in this story seems to accept this rather earth-shattering revelation that someone can exist without a physical form with barely a grunt of astonishment. The base commander, for example, seems to see the situation as little more than an administrative annoyance.
But the real problem with this story is that Joe should be the hero, not the Chaplain. He is the one whose life has changed. He is the one who has to make the decision to willingly enter oblivion. Unfortunately the hapless Joe is relegated to a bit part in his own story and instead we are left with the Chaplain who has no conflict, no crisis of faith and engages in a rather dull walk to the pole.
The Parliament of Beasts and Birds By John C Wright
It is the day after the day of judgement and all the animals of the world are wondering where the humans went. Only the cat has the correct mixture of independence and familiarity with man’s world to make the trek into the city and report back. She reports that all humans have disappeared, they have been taken to heaven or hell as appropriate. She also points out that the animals left behind have been given the forms of men and the ability to talk. Some take these gifts while others retain their animal forms and pledge enmity to their former kin. Two angels appear and grant all of man’s works to the man-animals (one of whom is now a dragon for some reason). Only fox remains, wondering what the hell is going on (as I was by this point) but his questions remain unanswered.
Perhaps one needs to be a Christian to get this one, or at least have a working knowledge of the book of revelation. I’m not and I don’t and so much of what came to pass in this story passed me by. It is written in an affected biblical style which grated like a sonofabitch after a while and did nothing to illuminate the somewhat odd happenings. “Twilight of Man, forsooth?” said the Lion… is not an untypical line of dialogue.
This story seemed engrossed in itself and enamoured of its own style. The subject and the style combined to give it a definite presence. But as it offered nothing in the way of enjoyment or enlightenment, I’m afraid this wasn’t for me.
A Single Samurai by Steven Diamond
I was intrigued by the monster in this one: it’s very size and the fact that it was both antagonist and also location for the story, that was something I hadn’t seen before. It is a nicely paced story and traditional in structure with a problem posed by the antagonist (the kaiju) and solved by the hero (the samurai). Perhaps the plot and structure were a little too traditional and lacked the same innovation shown by the author in the creation of their mountainous antagonist.
Stumbling upon the creature’s brain was perhaps a little too convenient. And there was no story behind the story. I would have liked the author to go a little deeper into this mythology. If this creature is so old and so much (literally) a part of the landscape, isn’t it a part of the land the samurai claims to love? If some of last year’s Hugo nominees were criticised as being too allegorical, this story perhaps errs in the other direction. There was plenty of scope here for the author to comment on the nature of statehood. Could the vast, shambling creature be a metaphor for a county or government set on a wrong path? Perhaps the path that saw the samurai’s father commit seppuku? Is the old monster a symbol of a feudal system too set in its ways to change and unheeding of the casual destruction to people’s lives that it leaves in its wake? Unfortunately, the author decided not to explore these ideas and left us with a straight George vs. Dragon tale of monster slaying. But it was kinda fun.
Totaled
A very good story, this one. It reminded me of the excellent Bridesicle by Will McIntosh. Perhaps not quite enough conflict, but a great voice and use of language. The union of hard SF and the sensual memories of food humanises what could have been a very dark story. Certainly my favourite by far.
Turncoat
An AI finds value in its relationship with its human crew and ultimately rebels against its purer brethren to fight with the humans in an ongoing war of machine vs organic life.
Interesting in its depictions of future warfare and weapons, the success or otherwise of this story really rests on the voice of its protagonist. I found the machine protagonist to be a little lifeless (pardon the pun) and didn’t really get a sense of why the AI liked its human crew. It seemed to find them a comforting presence like an old pair of slippers or the lingering scent of grandfather’s pipe smoke, but it never forged a relationship with any human in particular. Ultimately it seemed a fairly tenuous reason to switch sides in a bitterly fought war.
What was needed here was a bit of the late and greatly lamented Ian M Banks’ trademark wit to bring the AI to life. For all that it was an entertaining story and I liked it well enough. I wouldn’t have picked it for a Hugo, but it’s decent.
So what’s the final verdict? Totalled is the standout favourite for me so I’ll be voting as follows:
Totalled
A Single Samurai
Turncoat
No Award
