The Hugos this year were full of moment and tension and wonder. The short-story categories, in particular, were chock-full-o-tough choices. Take the novelette category (which Ted Chiang won), where voters were asked to choose from Hell is the Absence of God by Ted Chiang and Lobsters by my sometime collaborator and soon-to-be-houseguest Charlie Stross, The Return of Spring, by my Campbell Award comptetitor Shane Tourtellotte, Undone, by my pal and mentor James Patrick Kelly, and The Days Between by Allen Steele.
And then there was Fast Times and Fairmont High by Vernor Vinge, which won in the Novella category.
Michael Swanwick, who won Best Short Story for The Dog Said Bow-Wow wins an additional Doctorow prize for best acceptance speech (as delivered by Eileen Gunn, since Swanwick couldn't make it), in which he called on the audience to applaud as loudly as possible for all the other short story writers who are kicking ass in the field.
These and many other of the stories on this year's ballot are available online for free reading. Don't miss 'em — see the link below.
(via Oblomovka)
