Aaron's 2011 Hugo Recommendations :: Best Short Story

And we finish off the fiction categories with my nominations for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story, along with a few of my other favorites.

MY FIVE FAVORITE SHORT STORIES OF 2010:
Aliette de Bodard, Age of Miracles, Age of Wonders (Interzone, Sept-Oct '10)
Aliette de Bodard, By Bargain and by Blood (Hub, Jan '10)
Samantha Henderson, Deutoroi (Abyss & Apex, 1st Qtr '10)
Hannu Rajaniemi, Elegy for a Young Elk (Subterranean, Spring '10)
Lenora Rose, It Shall Come to Pass on a Summer’s Day (Ideomancer, Sept '10)

OTHER RECOMMENDED SHORT STORIES:
Leah Bobet, Mister Oak (Realms of Fantasy, Feb '10)
Erin Cashier, Near the Flame (Shimmer #12)
Brian Keene, Lost Canyon of the Dead (The Living Dead 2)
An Owomoyela, Year of the Rabbit (ChiZine, Apr-June '10)
Ferrett Steinmetz, As Below, So Above (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nov '10)
Sarah Totton, If You Enjoyed This Story . . . (Tales of the Unanticipated #30)
Brandi Wells, Changing Woman (Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens #Y’aing’ngah)

This listing is probably academic -- unlike the other categories, my nominees for short story seldom make the final ballot (probably because many of them come from semiprozines and fanzines that aren't read widely enough to garner nominations). From this group, the Rajaniemi story is the only one with much chance at a Hugo nomination. Aliette de Bodard may get nominated, but probably not for the two stories I've chosen -- "The Shipmaker" is the more likely contender. Good luck to all the above just the same!

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: It Shall Come to Pass on a Summer's Day by Lenora Rose

Who the hell is Lenora Rose? How does an author who has never appeared in any publication I've ever heard of suddenly pop out of nowhere with a story as beautiful and powerful and thought-provoking as It Shall Come to Pass on a Summer's Day, in the September 2010 issue of Ideomancer? Could she really be a new pseudonym of Catherynne Valente or Rachel Swirsky, or Ursula LeGuin for that matter?

"It Shall Come to Pass on a Summer's Day" is narrated by a selkie with the gift(?) of prophecy. As he awaits his pregnant lover he foretells what lies ahead of them. The story is told in future tense, not because Lenora Rose is showing off that she can do it, but because that is exactly how this story needs to be told. The protagonist foresees the future, including his own attempts to use his prophecies to manipulate the future, but the best he can apparently hope for is to survive to a bittersweet end:

Or he may come bid me be a man and talk, though even in that possible fate I cannot see what I would ever have to say to him, who will have over forty years of honest love where I have a handful of days.

This is a gorgeously written piece that manages in less than 1,500 words to engage with the implications of being able to see the future in unique and memorable fashion. Here's hoping to see much more of Lenora Rose in our future.