Thoughts on 2008 World Fantasy Award Nominees: Short Stories

"The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics" - Daniel Abraham
"Singing of Mount Abora" - Theodora Goss
"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" - Kij Johnson
"Damned if you Don't" - Robert Shearman
"The Church on the Island" - Simon Kurt Unsworth


I will start with Theodora Goss's "Singing of Mount Abora". Originally published Logorrhea and reprinted in Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Two, this story from Theodora Goss was a complete loss for me. I remember reading this story about telling a story (not sure the song part was all that essential) and right away I was ready to read something else. I didn't re-read "The Singing of Mount Abora" for this category, so I'm going off what I can vaguely remember from July. But, what I remember is that I didn't like the story, that it wasn't the sort that would ever engage me. Unlike the other Logorrhea story nominated for the WFA. More on that later.

Next, onto "The Church on the Island", which I reviewed back in August. What I said then still stands.

I'll grant the inherent creepiness of this ill-groomed priest, a priest whom one might expect to do bad things to Charlotte. So, in this description-heavy story there is good potential for something special to come out in the story, some bit of goodness that will cause "The Church on the Island" to rise above and merit the acclaim that comes from a World Fantasy Award nomination. Something that will explain what the nominating panel saw in the story.

Frankly, I don't see it.

Oh, the story is decent enough and there is some genuine horror in the story and the anticipation of horror (because what else is true horror than that which we don't see but fear?), but it never quite delivers.

"Damned If You Don't" from Robert Shearman is the first gasp of fresh air in this category (see review). You'll note that I'm working my way up from what I consider to be the bottom to the strongest / best story nominated for the award. I was charmed by Shearman's collection of short stories and "Damned If You Don't" hit me in a weird, wistful way. What I had to say:

“Damned If You Don’t” is ultimately a sad story. This isn’t fire and brimstone, nor is it at all a “Christian” story. By the end, Shearman has done quite a few things, touching on the nature of Hell, God, friendship, marriage, zombies, death, prejudice, and blame. “Damned If You Don’t” is a quiet story. It doesn’t do or say anything flashy. It is charming, in a darkly twisted sort of way.

I was very impressed by Kij Johnson's "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs at North Park After the Change." The title is still crazy-long, but it's one hell of a moving story. What I had to say regarding the Nebula Nomination for this story:

Heartbreaking. So much of reading is as much what the reader brings to the book as what the writer brings to the reader. I am a dog owner. Kij Johnson’s story of dogs abandoned after “The Change” just kills because the dogs’ basic nature hasn’t changed, just the fact that they can now speak. From the very start this was a moving story and Johnson did not let up. Stories are more than concepts, though, there has to be execution and I think that Kij Johnson nailed this one.

This leaves me with the story that, had it not been for Ted Chiang being nominated for the Hugo, certainly could have come home with this year's Hugo for Novelette. I expect Chiang's win, but Daniel Abraham would have been my sentimental favorite. "The Cambist and Lord Iron" is outstanding. I wasn't ready for the story to end. I still haven't picked up Logorrhea or the novels of Daniel Abraham, but based on this story alone - I think I need to. What I said then.

Rather than being a dull story about the value of things, “The Cambist and Lord Iron” is a smoothly written story with an interesting intellectual challenge for Olaf (and in turn the reader, if we want to think about the challenge before Olaf figures it out). Moreover, I liked “The Cambist and Lord Iron” enough that I intend to go find a copy of Logorrhea (the anthology the story is from), and also go read the novels of Daniel Abraham.

So there you have it. "The Cambist and Lord Iron" should win the World Fantasy Award. Will it? I have no clue. I'll only be disappointed if the Theodora Goss or the Simon Kurt Unsworth stories win. I don't think Robert Shearman's story is good enough to win the award, but I'm glad I had the chance to read it and it's a good story. If, for some reason, "The Cambist and Lord Iron" should fail to win, I hope that Kij Johnson's story with a title I'm not going to type out a second time (or even copy and paste) wins. Those are the standouts here.

Thoughts on Hugo Nominees 2008: Novelettes

"The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea ed. by John Klima)
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (F&SF Sept. 2007)
"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (Asimov's Oct./Nov. 2007)
"Glory" by Greg Egan (The New Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan)
"Finisterra" by David Moles (F&SF Dec. 2007)


I previously reviewed “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate" here, and really, I don't know quite what to say other than Ted Chiang is an outstanding writer and storyteller and this is a great story.

“Glory” was originally published in The New Space Opera, an anthology I apparently did not love as much as a goodly number of other people. The story opens with several pages of description of what is occurring to some antimatter needle, or something. Honestly, I didn’t get exactly what was happening or what the implications were. What I knew is that I was already turned off from “Glory”. This opening allows some sort of distant travel to be possible (distant meaning to far flung galaxies otherwise impossible to reach). “Glory” is chock full of too much SF technology and narration about technology, and this is the sort of thing that makes my eyes glaze over. Once we got past this initial eye glazing, however, Greg Egan began to tell a fairly interesting story about uncovering history on an alien world. Well, that’s not –exactly- what “Glory” is about, but it is as good an abstraction as any. “Glory” is an odd blend of overwhelmingly dull detail (mathematics cubes? Really?) and discovery. I don’t think the blend works nearly as well as this nomination suggests.

Greg Egan’s other nominated story is “Dark Integers”, a warfare via mathematics story. Yeah. Really. It’s different. I’ll grant Egan that much, but this is the sort of thing I’ve stopped reading Stross novels for. Too much technical detail, not enough humanity. Though, in the case of Egan there is a good deal more humanity than found in a techy Stross novel. Early on we are unclear on exactly how this works, but there is an incursion across borders by some unknown math program and flags are raised, hackles are up. The only ones who can be trusted not to screw up the investigation are three people who have formed their little secret society of sorts. Egan does something here, he makes the math talk somewhat interesting. I could care less about the plot, but the discussion of math as weapon somehow comes across as natural and real, rather than abstract. Beyond that, Greg Egan’s two nominated stories here fail to impress. They are competent and workmanlike, and some SF readers clearly delight in Egan’s fiction, but between “Glory” and “Dark Integers”, I’m not one of them. The best I can say is that there is a core of a good story here, but Egan doesn’t quite hit it.

You hope for the story from which you expect little and get much in return, the story that has a title which is makes no sense and turns you off from the story right away. “Finisterra”. Break down the title and the best I can come up with is “finis” “terra”. The end of earth. This is before I’ve read the story, by the way. I expected little from David Moles’ “Finisterra”. That’s what I got. 3 pages and I struggle. Not to make sense of the text, but rather to care. Moles writes descriptive prose, hitting details in Spanish and perhaps Arabic, and he evokes a multi-cultural, almost alien landscape. Or, skyscape, as the case may be. 6 pages and it’s official. I wouldn’t have bought this story. If this came out of a slush pile, the rejection slip would have gone out. It’s just a matter of taste and this story doesn’t suit me. I’m sure there is great descriptions, some action (things were thinking about heating up), and a good story, but Moles didn’t hit me in such a way that I wanted to keep reading.

Proving that you can’t truly judge a story by its title, we come to “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” by Daniel Abraham. A cambist is a person who is an expert in knowing exchange rates and the value of stuff. Lord Iron is that extravagantly wealthy individual with debased and decadent tastes who only seems to exist in fantasy stories, though I’m sure there is a real life counterpart somewhere. Olaf, a cambist, has no personal life outside of his job. One day, Lord Iron, on a capricious whim, challenges Olaf to exchange exceedingly rare currency. If Olaf fails to provide an accurate exchange rate, Lord Iron will destroy Olaf’s life and career. Because he can. Thus begins a series of three encounters between the Olaf, the cambist, and Lord Iron. Each meeting is for greater and greater stakes with increasingly difficult challenges of assigning value. Rather than being a dull story about the value of things, “The Cambist and Lord Iron” is a smoothly written story with an interesting intellectual challenge for Olaf (and in turn the reader, if we want to think about the challenge before Olaf figures it out). Moreover, I liked “The Cambist and Lord Iron” enough that I intend to go find a copy of Logorrhea (the anthology the story is from), and also go read the novels of Daniel Abraham.



The favorite for this category has to be “The Merchant and the Alchemists Gate” from Ted Chiang. It won the Nebula and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t win the Hugo. The story really is that good, as one would expect from Chiang. I expect it to win.

If it doesn’t, I’d be quite happy if Daniel Abraham won for “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics”. Besides being the only other story in this category worth a damn, it’s quite good.


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