Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

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The Long List Anthology: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List (2014) edited by David Steffen

Please comment of each individual story in it's own topic in the Hugo Long List (2014) folder (Links to each story's topic in the Table of Content below.) You can use this topic for general discussions of the anthology as a whole or the author.

CONTENT
"The Breath Of War" by Aliette De Bodard –> DISCUSSION * @BCS.
"When It Ends, He Catches Her" by Eugie Foster –> DISCUSSION * @DailySF.com
"Toad Words" by T. Kingfisher –> DISCUSSION
"Makeisha In Time" by Rachael K. Jones –> DISCUSSION   @CrossedGenres
"Covenant" by Elizabeth Bear –> DISCUSSION *
"The Truth About Owls" by Amal El-Mohtar –> DISCUSSION * @StrangeHorizons
"A Kiss With Teeth" by Max Gladstone –> DISCUSSION   @Tor.com
"The Vaporization Enthalpy Of A Peculiar Pakistani Family" by Usman T. Malik –> DISCUSSION * @Medium.com
"This Chance Planet" by Elizabeth Bear –> DISCUSSION   @Tor.com
"Goodnight Stars" by Annie Bellet –> DISCUSSION
"We Are The Cloud" by Sam J. Miller –> DISCUSSION *   @Lightspeed.com
"The Magician And Laplace’s Demon" by Tom Crosshill –> DISCUSSION * @Clarkesworld
"Spring Festival: Happiness, Anger, Love, Sorrow, Joy" by Xia Jia –> DISCUSSION   @Clarkesworld
"The Husband Stitch" by Carmen Maria Machado –> DISCUSSION * @Granta.com
"The Bonedrake’s Penance" by Yoon Ha Lee –> DISCUSSION   @BCS
"The Devil In America" by Kai Ashante Wilson –> DISCUSSION * @Tor.com
"The Litany Of Earth" by Ruthanna Emrys –> DISCUSSION   @Tor.com
"A Guide To The Fruits Of Hawai’i" by Alaya Dawn Johnson –> DISCUSSION * @AlayaDawnJohnson.com
"A Year And A Day In Old Theradane" by Scott Lynch –> DISCUSSION
"The Regular" by Ken Liu –> DISCUSSION
"Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" by Rachel Swirsky –> DISCUSSION * @Subterranean

* These stories were previously discussed from other collections: Nebula Award short fiction nominees discussion & and Strahan's "Best SF of the Year #9 anthology discussion"; Links for those stories go to the existing discussion for further comments!

@ Many of these stories are available to read on-line for free; I've provided links tagged with the @.

Just FYI, several novella from the long list were not included in this anthology: The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Yesterday's Kin, We Are All Completely Fine, Dream Houses and Skin Deep. Those are being sold as a standalone e-books. Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome was published on-line @Tor.com.

Of the short stories, "Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon was on the Hugo long list (and a Nebula Ward nominee) but is not in this collection. It can be found on-line @Apex if you're interested.

Of the novelettes, "Each to Each" by Seanan McGuire was on the Hugo long list but is not in this collection. It's available @Lightspeed if you're curious.

(I don't think those are going to be included in this month's discussion unless Jim gets bored with all the other stories :)

i found 16 of the 21 stories in The Long List Anthology are also available online to read for free. I've added @links to the table of contents above for all the stories where I found legitimate online sources to read for free. The anthology itself isn't terribly expensive in ebook format (us$5), but those interested can follow along without purchasing the collection. (obviously from the nature of this collection, like a "best of" anthology, all these stories previously appeared in some magazine or anthology or other source, and many are in one or more of the various "Best SF of 2014" collections, too.)

I helped with the crowd source funding for this book, so have it in ebook, paperback & audio format. I'll probably listen to it when I get done with my current one.

I'm sorry to say, but I'm abandoning this book. I've listened to 1 novellette & 4 of the short stories & am completely unimpressed. It's obvious that the editor & I have different ideas on what makes a good story. There are too many other books I want to read.

This looks fun and the price is right. when I'm done with Cyteen I'll give some of these a read.

Jim wrote: "I'm sorry to say, but I'm abandoning this book. I've listened to 1 novellette & 4 of the short stories & am completely unimpressed. It's obvious that the editor & I have different ideas on what mak..."

Sorry to hear that, especially since you were one of the backers of the kickstarter. The editors in this case were the Hugo nominators, since this anthology by definition includes the stories that received nominations (For some minimum number of ballots; it looks like the cutoff was around at least 33 nominations; and of course they had to clear the rights.)

Since you teased us by saying you read 5 of the stories already, maybe you could at least tell us which they were and why you didn't like them? Did you start at the beginning? (I suppose that's probable since you're using an audiobook.)

Brendan wrote: "This looks fun and the price is right. when I'm done with Cyteen I'll give some of these a read."

I invite you to revive our Cyteen discussion when you finish it, too!

The best was "Makeisha in Time" by Rachael K. Jones" & that was just OK. "The Breath of War" took way too long to make its point & I could never get my suspension of disbelief going. "When it Ends, He Catches Her" was short, at least. Ditto for "Toad Mouth". "Covenant" by Bear never grabbed me either. None of them did. The points were obvious & just not presented to my taste.