Carolyn Ives Gilman

Hugo Novella Nominee 2012

I liked the style of this for the most part; it reminded me at the start of Leiber, Tidhar and towards the end the Stross/Doctorow collaboration ‘Rapture Of The Nerds’. It started off with a very light touch, giving impressions of the world and history and environment, nice pencil sketches that served to enhance rather than fully flesh out the world.

As I read it, I thought it touched deftly around the Holocaust, and was going to draw parallels that were subtle enough that, like Chris Beckets short stories, leave you thinking a lot after. Unfortunately, it jumps to a sudden heavy handedness that is all the more surprising for the earlier deftness, and for me, ruined it as I was enjoying doing the work myself. If the second half had been like the first it would have easily been my recommendation for the category so far.