Asimov’s Science Fiction 39th Annual Readers’ Award Finalists

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

These are works that finished in the top slots in each category of the 39th Annual Readers’ Award Poll, covering the 2024 issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. Overall, the stories are enjoyable, with good stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Greg Egan, Peter Wood, Sean McMullen, Naomi Kritzer, James Van Pelt, James Maxey and Jeffrey Ford.

Best Novellas

• “Death Benefits” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (November/December 2024): a series of short vignettes, with one main story, set in a time of conflict, when people are struggling to come to terms with the deaths of their loved ones, and struggle with their emotions as they receive their death benefits. In the main story, one person is convinced that her loved one is still alive, and only an investigator can discover the truth.
• “Death and the Gorgon” by Greg Egan (January/February 2024): a cave collapse kills a guard and causes the frozen heads of a cryogenic company to thaw. The investigation, involving an AI software Sherlock, would lead to a group with extreme longtermism ambitions, with short-sighted ways to achieve their goals. But it would also lead to doubts about the use of AI software as an investigative aid when its suggestions could cause an investigator to take deadly risks.
• “Proof of Concept” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (January/February 2024): an investigator on a spaceship is called to the scene of a murder. What she discovers will turn out to be more than just a murder, involving family abuse, over dependency on ship systems and a proof of concept attack that may affect other ships.
• “Une Time Machine S’il Vous Plait” by Peter Wood (March/April 2024): four people take a ride in a rocket powered by tachyons. Then, a malfunction sends their minds back into the past, where they now have an opportunity to change the future. One is an actress in a Canadian Star Trek-like show who wants to change the depiction and role of women in the show; the other is the star of the show (the Captain) who only wants things to remain the same. The other two are siblings who will now struggle to control their family’s restaurant business. Who will change the future, and will it be for the better?
• “Wildest Skies” bySean Monaghan (November/December 2024): a disaster strands one member of a space exploration crew on an alien planet. Rescue comes in the form on aliens with a different way of communicating. But a subsequent exploration of the local area would reveal how the disaster happened, and how it is related to a series of unusual sculptures found in the area.

Best Novelettes

• “After the Winter Solstice” by Sean McMullen (January/February 2024): on another planet falling into deep winter, a group of explorers strives to make measurements of their distant sun. But to get the measurements will take courage, and some deceit among the explorers.
• “Charon’s Final Passenger” by Ray Nayler (March/April 2024): in an alternate history, alien technology allows the Allies to defeat Nazi Germany and push back the Soviet Union. Now, a person must search the recent memories of a dead person to discover if secrets have been passed to the Russians.
• “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer (September/October 2024): a married academic family moves to a small town. There, she discovers a beach and a group of seals that she is startled to discover were the ones she was doing research on years ago, but then lost her data on them. Struggling to gain some academic recognition while editing her husband’s research paper, she opens up to the locals in the town and learns about the town’s unusual history and founding myth involving selkies. Then, she makes a discovery that would upend her relationship with her husband; resolving it may involve the intervention of unusual forces.
• “The Rattler” by Leonid Kaganov, translated by Alex Shvartsman (May/June 2024): a TV crew attempt to make a live broadcast about an alien known as the Rattler, which can apparently (and semi randomly) kill people anywhere in the world at the rate of one person a second. It is only when they interview a mathematician, do they get an apparently rational explanation for its behaviour and what must be done to stop it. But it would require a collective (cowardly) action.
• “This Good Lesson Keep” by James Van Pelt (July/August 2024): a fascinating look at a future where a teacher initially struggles to keep her students interested while they are distracted by their own gadgets. Then she leads the class into staging their own version of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and the class not only discovers a fascinating for the play, the play itself becomes part of a drama between two students who want to be together, but are being kept apart from parental pressure.

Best Short Stories

• “A Gray Magic” by Ray Nayler (September/October 2024): a woman faces death while feeling alone. Then, a gadget offers her advice that’s makes her re-evaluate her thoughts on what to do in the time remaining.
• “An Unplanned Hold” by Zohar Jacobs (September/October 2024): the ghost of a man continues to haunt a space control centre, unnoticed. As the years past, and a new moon landing is in progress, the ghost sees a problem. Perhaps solving the problem is its final task.
• “Mere Flesh” by James Maxey (November/December 2024): one person is preparing for the launch of an AI assistant that can help and guide people with dementia to remember things and perform actions. But things might be getting out of hand when the person’s father does unexpected things, guided by the AI. When one very unexpected thing occurs, the person must decide whether the AI may have ‘taken over’ his father’s body for its own ends.
• “Sunsets” by Lavie Tidhar (March/April 2024): a person from Mars visits Earth, hoping to find a sunset that will help her deal with the pain of losing her companion on Mars.
• “The Adherence” by Jeffrey Ford (January/February 2024): a man meets an old friend, and they reminisce about their past. The man lost his wife when she turned to dust, a ‘side effect’ from being surrounded by too many cheap imitation furniture and objects from one company. Then he discovers that there may be a way he can bring her back, but it may not be in the form that he expects.

Stories read from 2025/03/31 to 2025/04/11