The 2024 Hugo Award ceremony is about to start, and I am watching the livestream, so this post is nothing if not timely. Maybe even by the time I have finished it, I will know how my choices compared with those of the other voters. Here are briefish notes on each finalist, in ascending order …
Tag: Nghi Vo
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/11/hugo-awards-2024-best-novelette/
Jul 28 2024
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
In the first two novellas of Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills series — The Empress of Salt and Fortune, and When the Tiger Came Down from the Mountain — violent conflict is kept at a distance, and much of the tension in the stories arises from the question of whether it can continue to be kept from …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/28/mammoths-at-the-gates-by-nghi-vo-2/
Jul 09 2024
Mammoths At The Gates by Nghi Vo
For all that each novella in this series is touted as a standalone, I do very much think that readers would benefit from reading at least a few of the earlier books first. I was struck with Nghi Vo’s propensity for giving almost no backstory to readers in Book One, preferring to immerse us directly …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/09/mammoths-at-the-gates-by-nghi-vo/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/06/20/hugo-awards-2024-best-novelette-nominees/
May 28 2022
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo
It isn’t true that the full title for When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain was originally meant to be When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain With Her Two Tiger Sisters and Considered Eating Cleric Chih but it could have been. Except that at that point it would have been politic to mention the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/05/28/when-the-tiger-came-down-the-mountain-by-nghi-vo/
Nov 26 2021
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Though it contains tales of considerable violence, The Empress of Salt and Fortune remains in my mind as an almost restful story. It’s set at a secluded compound near Lake Scarlet, a nearly perfectly round lake formed by a falling star, and named for a glow that sometimes appears at sunset, starting faintly and then …
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Jun 17 2021
The Chosen And The Beautiful by Nghi Vo
I’ve read F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby twice, and each time I’ve been baffled by the acclaim*. Much like the critics of its time, I think the book is fine, but not much more than that. The trouble is that Gatsby is an idiot, Nick not much better, and Tom and Daisy are just …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/17/the-chosen-and-the-beautiful-by-nghi-vo/
Mar 17 2021
The Empress Of Salt And Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) by Nghi Vo
I’m so glad I managed to sneak in this novella between work assignments! It’s a swift read, tho the first few pages require the reader to make several quick adjustments as Nghi Vo drops us directly into her Asian-inspired milieu. It’s well worth it tho, as Ms Vo packs a whole lot more into this …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/03/17/the-empress-of-salt-and-fortune-the-singing-hills-cycle-1-by-nghi-vo/