I'm really struggling with Ninefox Gambit, my loves. It's so intense and it's so hard to read something to read text that is a block of words you recognize, but some of those words do not mean what you think they mean. Really, all of scifi has bits like that. It's just that after awhile, the reader adjusts and it lets up. This one is NOT letting up.
Novellas
Confession, this section was completely rigged because Every Heart a Doorway was one of my favorite books from last year. I did not know then that it was a novella, nor did I care. To be fair, I read all of the nominees and, I could cry, because some of them are SO GOOD. Runtime was everything for me. If you say science fiction story, Runtime is exactly what I think of. It's perfect. It's awesome, it was soooooo good.
I loved The Dream-Quest of Villett Boe because it featured a middle-aged woman on a quest with a cat. I was left with the feeling of missing out on some element because I was not aware of the Lovecraft story (this seems to be a reoccurring thing as Black Tom has some Lovecraft connections too). The Liar was kickass. Seriously, it was similar to a Stephen King story and THAT is why I consider it horror and it should not even be competing with theses stories. I bemoaned the death of the horror genre two posts back, if you remember. Same deal here. The Ballad of Black Tom was so freaking cool. It needs it's own soundtrack. I couldn't get into A Taste of Honey-so I literally sped through it. I understand it is a story set in a world better covered in a novel from 2015 or something. I tried. I ended up listening to it on audio just to hear how some of the names were pronounced.
This post proves why this challenge is already a success. I would not have read ANY of these titles had I not challenged myself (well, I read Kij Johnson, so MAYBE if Villett Boe had shown up in a collection later on....). I was so glad to read Runtime, Black Tom, and The Liar. Obviously, my clear winner is still Doorway. I have a countdown until the sequel is published.
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