The novella length is becoming more popular lately - and the high quality of this year's nominees shows it.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - Every so often as a writer you read a work you wish you could have written. All Systems Red has just the kind of snarky humor I often aim for, except better. It also plays with sentience, gender, and civil rights in a quite interesting way.
And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker - A fun science fiction murder mystery, but I couldn't bring myself to like it as much as I like the author. Sorry, Sarah.
Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor. In my opinion, weaker than the original. The sheer amount of ancient tech lying around in weird places is starting to damage my suspension of disbelief.
The Black Tides Of Heaven by JY Jang. Asian science fiction is on the rise...and rightly so. Jang is Singaporean and calls what he writes "silkpunk." In contrast to All Systems Red, this is a story I would never attempt to write. He too plays with gender, albeit in a very different way, showing a world in which everyone gets to choose their sex in a completely matter of fact style.
Down Among The Sticks And Bones by Seanan McGuire. McGuire, as usual, has the fairytale narrative down, but I didn't find this one of her stronger pieces.
River Of Teeth by Sarah Gailey. You'll either love it or hate it. The ridiculous idea of hippo ranching is played just straight enough to be hilariously funny. I think it might be too subjective to win, though.
My choice: All Systems Red
My prediction: All Systems Red - it's taking the award world by storm this year and everyone is talking about it.
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