Starship Fonzie

Evaluating this year's Hugo Award nominees has brought The Space Between Worlds, by Micaiah Johnson, to my attention, and it didn't disappoint. (This is not to be confused with the RomCom film from 2019 directed by Ian Stewart Fowler.) It's an interesting universe where travel between parallel universes is possible. The catch? One cannot travel to a parallel world if one's "counterpart" in that world is still alive. Cara, the main character of this story, is an anomaly in that most of her other-world selves have already died. Only a few remain. And that leads to one of the more interesting twists of the book: Cara is not really Cara. She is Camela, one of Cara's counterparts. When Cara travels to Camela's world, and Camela just happens to be standing nearby the arrival point, the shock to Cara's system kills her. And Camela, being the opportunistic survivor she is, picks up the communications devices off her dead doppelganger, assumes Cara's id...

The following is my evaluation of the Hugo Award nominees for 2021, eligibility year 2020. I'm seeing how this stacks up against my Hugo Award recommendations from back in March, and it holds up fairly well, considering it was my first go-round. But now I have something I've never had before to evaluate nominees - a Hugo Awards Packet! It's fascinating looking into the deep background for all of these. Here's my take on everything: Astounding Award for Best New Writer Lindsay Ellis (1st year of eligibility)* Simon Jimenez (1st year of eligibility)- Micaiah Johnson (1st year of eligibility)- A.K. Larkwood (1st year of eligibility) Jenn Lyons (2nd year of eligibility) Emily Tesh (2nd year of eligibility) I had to give this one a long, long look. Larkwood, Lyons and Tesh have all written great works, but they are great works of fantasy, and so fall prey to my admitted pro-sci-fi bias. For me, that leaves Ellis, Jiminez, and Johnson. Lindsay Ellis has been the subject of co...