BSFA Awards 2009: Winners announced

Nothing on the official BSFA site yet, but Twitter has some links.

Short fiction winner is Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's novelette "The Beloved Time of Their Lives" (download). Happened to be first on my ranking too.

Parting thoughts on BSFA Awards 2009 short fiction nominees

I've now read 4 of the 6 nominees. Two I won't bother with, two ok reads though nothing really noteworthy about them.

I'll call this a much better list than this year's Aurealis, but very weak compared to last year's BSFA.

Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's "The Beloved Time of Their Lives" (novelette, love story, free)

I think I would have liked it much more had I read it 2 years back, when I was just getting initiated into the genre. Now ... well ... there are so many stories of this kind. Still a generally light read, & might bring some smiles among readers from places where McDonald's restaurants are popular.

It's a love story - a man & a woman looking for one eternal true love, & finding it ... in an unusual way.

Fact sheet.

First published: Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's "The Beloved of My Beloved" (coll, 2009).
Download full text from one of the authors' site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for BSFA Award 2009 in short fiction category.
Related: Fiction about grandfather paradox.

Ian Whates' "The Assistant" (short story, robots, free)

In a high tech future, small insect-sized robots are used for corporate espionage & sabotage. This is the story of the adventures with these nuisances the nightly cleaning crew of an office building has been recently facing.

Ending is unnecessarily anti-Physics: these robots are powered by the friction with surroundings of their own movements in parallel universes! Don't ask me where the power to move came from in those alternate realities.

Except for last few paras, it's generally an ok read.

Fact sheet.

First published: George Mann (ed)'s "The Solaris Book of Science Fiction, Volume 3" (2009).
Download full text from author's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for BSFA Award 2009 in short fiction category.
Related: Stories of Ian Whates.

BSFA Awards 2009: Short fiction nominees, winner, my rankings, & download links

The official announcement is actually is two days old, but I just noticed.
Update 5 April 2010: Winner announced.

All nominees were originally published in UK during 2009.

Controversy [via James Nicoll]: Hal Duncan declines non-fiction nomination for his "Ethics and Enthusiasm".

Short fiction nominees (6 stories, best first, unread last).

Links on author or publisher fetch more matching fiction. My rating (A = worth the time, = don't bother) is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a story, link on title goes there.

1. [winner] [novelette] Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's "The Beloved Time of Their Lives" (B); download; Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's "The Beloved of My Beloved" (coll), Newcon Press; love story: A man & a woman looking for eternal love find it ... in an unusual way.
2. [ss] Ian Whates' "The Assistant" (B); download; George Mann (ed)'s "The Solaris Book of Science Fiction Volume 3": Tiny insect-like robots, powered by magic, do industrial espionage & sabotage.
3. [ss] Kim Lakin-Smith's "Johnnie and Emmie-Lou Get Married" (C); download; Interzone, #222: Fight of two street gangs, when a girl from one gang goes to marry the leader of other gang. By the end of the story, the two are married while she's bleeding from a stab wound inflicted by her own gang; it's not clear if she survives.
   
   In between, we see steam powered cars, guns, & gliders the gangs use. Energy source to create steam is not clear. Also not clear is how the goons are able to carry around so much water needed to produce this steam.
4. [novelette] Eugie Foster's "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" (C); download; Interzone, #220: I once tried reading it - gave up part way through. Beginning looked like something inspired by Jack Vance's funny "The Moon Moth" - a society where it's impolite to meet someone without wearing a mask. But it's nothing like Vance's classic, & I got quickly bored.
5. Ian McDonald's "Vishnu at the Cat Circus": Not read.
6. Dave Hutchinson's "The Push"; Newcon Press (looks like it's a novella published solo in its own book): Not read.

[via Fantasy Book Critic]

Related.

1. Last year's BSFA Award short fiction.
2. Competing awards that recognize "best" fiction originally published in 2009: Aurialis (Australian authors).
3. Anthologies that collect "best fiction originally published during 2009": Dozois', Horton's, Strahan's.
4. My "best fiction originally published during 2009, 2010" lists (also list others' best of relevant year lists at bottom).
5. "Best of" lists.
6. Fiction originally published in 2009, during 2000s.
   

Note: I normally update list posts like this when I read a story, find new links, etc. This post was last updated 2 February 2010.

BSFA Awards 2008: Winners announced

BSFA official site doesn't yet have anything, but the winners' list is all over the net. Here is one, at Torque Control.

Short fiction winner: Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (download text/MP3).
Related: All short fiction nominees, including download links (all are online).

PS: This award is about fiction originally published in UK during 2008.

BSFA Awards 2008: Short fiction nominees & download links

BSFA website is currently down, but many sites have posted the list. It's about stories first published in UK during the year 2008.

Update 24 January 2009: The official post at BSFA site is now available: "The Awards will be presented at this year’s Eastercon, LX, on 11th April."

Update 12 April 2009: Winner is announced. Marked in list below.

Nominees (4 stories, best first).

1. [winner] [ss] Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (A); download text/MP3; Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy": A "man"'s quest for knowledge in an unusual universe reveals something unexpected & alarming. Included in my "best of 2008" list.
   
2. [novelette] Greg Egan's "Crystal Nights" (A); download text from publisher's site, or podcast at Transmission from Beyond (includes downloabable MP3 audio); Interzone, #215 (April 2008): A retelling of Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God". A man creates a fast-evolving micro-cosmos as a computer simulation, but things aren't quite under control...
3. Paul McAuley's "Little Lost Robot" (B); download text/MP3; Interzone, #217; space opera: A war machine launched eons back during a war by earth to destroy human colonies elsewhere in galaxy has come back to destroy earth! Because it can no longer distinguish between friend & foe - all life is enemy.
   
4. [ss] Mary Rickert's "Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account" (C); download text/MP3; F&SF, October/November 2008; horror: Talibanization of the US. A dystopia where Homeland Security hunts & publicly executes any woman who's ever had an abortion. These executions are very common & regular - & the events are treated as entertainment!

[via Jason Sanford & Torque Control]

Related.

1. Last year: BSFA Awards 2007: short fiction; Nebula Awards 2007: short stories, novelettes, novellas (best of US); Hugo Awards 2008: short stories, novelettes, novellas (international).
   
2. This year: Nebula Awards 2008: short stories, novelettes, novellas (best of US); Aurealis Awards 2008: short fiction (best of Australia).
3. My best of the year 2008 list (also links more "best of 2008" lists, including anthologies that collect stories from last year).
4. "Best of" lists.

* Ian Whates' "The Gift of Joy" (short story, science fiction)

A human shape shifter, but he transforms himself to other's bodies by technology rather than magic! Technology itself is a variation on Cory Doctorow's "0wnz0red". He has spent a lifetime living other people's lives - sometimes after killing the original, other times by playing the dead so the world doesn't know original is gone. He used to do this work for a security agency of local government.

Sick with living someone else's life, he escaped & has been living the life of a supposedly nameless male prostitute in some town. Only, his services involve sex after he transforms himself to a celebrity of the client's fantasy - from among a menu of celebrities whose profiles he has in his database!

Now his old boss has caught up with him, & wants him to live the life of country's President. President has recently died, & the security racketeers want to keep him alive!

Fact sheet.

First published: TQR.
Rating: B
Download full text.
Was among finalists in BSFA Awards 2007 in short fiction category.

Note: Why is this post so short?

BSFA Awards 2007 - Short Fiction: Brief story descriptions & my ranking

"BSFA Awards 2007" applies to works up to novella length first published in UK during 2007; so stories might be older. Awards themselves are given in 2008.

Shortlist at their web site doesn't really have a persistent URL, but is currently available here. List below is only of finalists (Including the winner); I didn't look at nominated works - the previous stage of their process - because that list is so huge as to be meaningless.

Story list (5 stories, best first).

1. [final] Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (A); download; novelette; first published as a short book by Subterranean Press, July 2007; fantasy: Four time travel folktales - told in the style of (I think) Arabian Nights. Added to my best of the year 2007 list.
2. [final] Alastair Reynolds's "The Sledge-maker’s Daughter" (A); download; Interzone #209 (April 2007); science fiction: A victim of sexual assault gets a weapon to punish her oppressor.
3. [final] Ian Whates' "The Gift of Joy" (B); download; TQR; science fiction: A human shape shifter, but he transforms himself to other's bodies by technology rather than magic! Technology itself is a variation on Cory Doctorow's "0wnz0red". He has spent a lifetime living other people's lives - sometimes after killing the original, other times by playing the dead so the world doesn't know original is gone. He used to do this work for a security agency of local government.
   Sick with living someone else's life, he escaped & has been living the life of a supposedly nameless male prostitute in some town. Only, his services involve sex after he transforms himself to a celebrity of the client's fantasy - from among a menu of celebrities whose profiles he has in his database!
   Now his old boss has caught up with him, & wants him to live the life of country's President. President has recently died, & the security racketeers want to keep him alive!
4. [winner, final] Ken MacLeod's "Lighting Out"; disLocations: Not read.
5. [final] Chaz Brenchley's "Terminal"; disLocations: Not read.

Note: Above list has my rating (ABC: A = worth your time, C = don't bother) in brackets. If I've posted a separate note on a story, main link takes you there. If the full text of the story is available online, download link fetches it for you.

Alastair Reynolds' "The Sledge-maker’s Daughter" (novelette, science fiction): A victim of sexual assault gets a weapon to punish her oppressor

Very readable story - but you've probably seen most of its many threads elsewhere.

Full text of this story is available for download.

Story summary.

Earth seems to be at the end of the "Great Winter" - brought about by cooling of the sun. And sun has cooled because two parties of space warriors have been overdrawing its energy!

Both warring parties seem to be of earthly origins - men vs robots, but I'm not sure. Robots are evil, men fighting them are good. Apparently, robots wanted to be masters of humanity, or something.

War started so far back in time - it's not generally known to those on earth, except for "skydrift" - mysterious but valuable stuff that periodically falls from the sky. Both warring parties always stay in the sky - there are legends, but they are generally not seen on earth's surface.

Story is set someplace in UK. This ice age society appears to have fallen back to medieval days. But this warming up of earth is making some people very unhappy - among them Brendan Lynch. Brendan is a sledge-maker, & vanishing ice means wheels are in demand rather than sledges. He now does a laborer's job at a construction site, & his 16 year old daughter Kathrin does some things to help out. This is the story of Kathrin.

On the day of the story, she is carrying a pair of hogs' heads to sell to 300 year old Widow Grayling, locally known as a witch! On her way, she must pass the construction site her dad works at. And his supervisor, Garret Kinnear, has been making passes at her. He had once forced sex with her on the threat that otherwise his dad will be dismissed. Today, he tries again - unsuccessfully, but he takes away one of her hog's heads.

So she arrives at Grayling's home still thinking of the episode. The old woman seems to have a liking for her, & the girl would end up telling her about the villain during the visit. That's when the old woman passes on a burden she has carried for long to young girl, in the process equipping the girl to take care of her tormentor.

When the old woman herself was young, she had met a man - a fighter from among those waging war in the skies had fallen & was near death. She showed him some kindness, & he gave her a couple of gadgets. A kind of hand held & mentally controlled ray gun, & a bracelet that can prevent sicknesses or aging & authorizes the use of ray gun.

Last scene is the girl nearing the place of her tormentor, intent on using the gun.

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection" (2008).
   

Fact sheet.

"The Sledge-maker’s Daughter", short story, review
First published: Interzone #209 (April 2007).
Rating: A
Among the finalists for BSFA Award 2007 in short fiction category.
All stories by Alastair Reynolds.

Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (novelette): Four time-travel "folktales"

This extremely readable story is written in the style of ancient framed folktales - story within story, & with a moral. It covers a theme I've already seen in at least two stories by Chiang - "What's Expected of Us", & "Story of Your Life" - interaction between events happening in different times.

And yet it offers a very different plot - ability to change yourself as well as history by influencing events of the past (in spite of constant denials by author that past cannot be altered by visitors from future).

Full text of this story is available for free download (text, MP3 (via teaoodle)). This note is based on text version.

Story summary.

Outermost story frame is tiny - Fuwaad ibn Abbas (the narrator) is pleading why he is innocent & should be released by the Caliph (English distortion of "khalifaa", sort of a king) in Baghdad.

Next frame is the protagonist's story - how Fuwaad ended up getting arrested by Caliph's cops. This is the story to which the title applies. This frame includes 3 related but independent stories, each with its own title - "The Tale of the Fortunate Rope-Maker", "The Tale of the Weaver Who Stole From Himself", & "The Tale of the Wife & Her Lover". I summarize each in its own section below.

The main story.

Fuwaad is a merchant of "fine fabrics". One fine day, he is taking a walk through the "district of metalsmiths" in Baghdad to buy a gift for a business associate, & enters a shop with amazing gadgets. During his conversations with the Bashaarat, the shop owner, he will learn that Bashaarat is an "Alchemist". But the term "Alchemist" is used very liberally - Bashaarat is actually a prolific inventor of fantastic gadgets.

One the gadgets he will be shown is the gate - a kind of time travel device. A "stout metal hoop ... mounted upright" where whatever enter from right ends up T time into future, & whatever enters from left ends up T time into past! T is a spec of the gate - there are gates of "several seconds" & there are gates of 20 years - later will play a key role in the story. Reminded me of Bob Shaw's "Light of Other Days" - but you could only see pictures of another time in its "slow glass", not actually go there as in this story.

Among the many cool demonstrations at "several seconds" gate, one I really liked was where Bashaarat gets to future, pulls out the ring from the hands of Fuwaad, comes back to past, & shows it to him - two rings for a time! After the requisite time has passed, a hand comes & actually pulls the ring from his hand - so he is only left with his ring with Bashaarat!

A key aspect of these Gates is - if you cross 20 years into future, you won't age - only the rest of the world would have aged! So you can meet your own older self!

Bashaarat invites Fuwaad to travel 20 years to future. Fuwaad is reluctant - that is when Bashaarat narrates the other 3 stories - of other time travelers that used his Gate.

Eventually, Fuwaad is willing, but wants to go 20 years back in time - not future. Not possible, according to Bashaarat, since this Gate was built only weeks back - you will be able to go back here only after 20 years have lapsed.

But Bashaarat has an older 20 years Gate still in operation - in Cairo, & run by his son. Fuwaad tarvels there, goes back to past because of a guilt he is carrying - blaming himself for her death 20 years back. He won't be able to save her even after time travel, & will get arrested for violating curfew - that is how he ended up the court of the Caliph.

The Tale of the Fortunate Rope-Maker.

Hassan, a poor rope maker, used the 20 years Gate at Cairo to meet his older self. Found he was very rich. Older self gives him minor tips but lets him actually experience the major events; he won't even get to see the wife of his older self - so courting can be fun.

He will eventually get rich after digging up a chest of precious gems hidden by thieves, on a tip from his older self. Sort of a loop here!

The Tale of the Weaver Who Stole From Himself.

Another loop story in the tradition of looping pictures by Eicher included in Douglas Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach"!

Moving story of Ajib, a poor weaver. Hearing of Hassan's tale, he will travel to future to discover that his future self is as poor, & stays in the same house with same lock! On investigating the house when older self is away, he will find a chest of gold.

What is miser this future self is! So he steals the chest from his own future & returns to present - living lavishly. Spends a lot, marries his lady love Taahira. Gets notices by bad elements who kidnap his wife, & take away all the remaining fortune he brought from future as ransom!

When asked by his wife, he will tell her someone gave him money & he need not return. Wife will have none of this - he must return the money. So he will spend next 20 years saving the money so his younger self can steal it!!

The Tale of the Wife & Her Lover.

This is where travelers from future tinker with the past - to change the course of history.

This is the story of Raniya, wife of Hassan the rope make who got rich.

While she was never introduced to younger Hassan, she was intrigued by the young visitor to her home. Pestering her husband, she learns the time travel story. When older Hassan is away for a while on business, she travels back in time to younger Hassan, & lusts him. Younger Hassan is yet to meet his lady love.

While tailing him, she will follow him to a jewelery store where Hassan is trying to sell one of the necklace from fortune he dug up - sale is agreed for next day. As it happens, two of the thieves whose fortune Hassan stole are also in the shop - she overhears their conversation about looting Hassan after he sells the necklace, & will also force him to give up rest of the stuff. Sounded a bit like the story of "Alibaba & 40 Thieves" from a school text book - original is probably from Arabian Nights.

She knows no harm will come to Hassan - since he lives in future & had actually given her the same necklace. She decides to take care of thieves. Goes back to her own time, & then another 20 years into future - to meet her even older self. The "two" women will both come to shop next day when Hassan is visiting with thieves waiting with their chief. They will come with their own & the same necklace - trying to sell when Hassan is selling. Multiple copies convinces thieves & shop owner it's common stuff. Hassan's deal goes sour, but thieves are off his back.

+40 version will return to her time; +20 will spend some time in this past. She will befriend Hassan & teach him the joys of sex - before eventually returning to her own time.

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection" (2008).
   

Fact sheet.

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", short story, review
First published: As a short book by Subterranean Press, July 2007. Immediately after that, republished in F&SF, September 2007.
Rating: A
Winner of Nebula Award 2007 in novelette category.
Winner of Hugo Award 2008 in novelette category.
Among the finalists for BSFA Award 2007 in short fiction category.
Added to my best of year 2007 picks.
Related: All stories of Ted Chiang.