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Hugo reading
Jun. 4th, 2020 09:23 amThe Hugo packet dropped on Sunday, so I've started my reading. So far I've inhaled two novellas:
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang
Parallel universes, therapy, crime: all things I'm into right now. If you could communicate with yourself in an alternate reality, what would happen? How would your choices change? Chiang gets into the nitty gritty of combining parallel universes with everyday lives. I really enjoyed this, and highly recommend it.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
Is it still steampunk if the gadgets are powered by magic? I'm not sure, but "what if the opening of a magical portal made Egypt a 19th/early 20th century powerhouse?" is a brilliant concept. I liked this a lot, but I'm not sure it's award-worthy -- there's some clumsy writing here and there, and a character whose dialogue seems far more contemporary and American than everyone else's. I liked it enough to buy the first novella in the series -- this is the second -- but I feel like Clark is a talented author let down by inadequate editing.
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang
Parallel universes, therapy, crime: all things I'm into right now. If you could communicate with yourself in an alternate reality, what would happen? How would your choices change? Chiang gets into the nitty gritty of combining parallel universes with everyday lives. I really enjoyed this, and highly recommend it.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
Is it still steampunk if the gadgets are powered by magic? I'm not sure, but "what if the opening of a magical portal made Egypt a 19th/early 20th century powerhouse?" is a brilliant concept. I liked this a lot, but I'm not sure it's award-worthy -- there's some clumsy writing here and there, and a character whose dialogue seems far more contemporary and American than everyone else's. I liked it enough to buy the first novella in the series -- this is the second -- but I feel like Clark is a talented author let down by inadequate editing.
