I’m an attending member of this year’s Worldcon in Glasgow, Scotland, in August, so I get to read and vote for the Hugo Awards. They’ll be presented at a formal ceremony on Sunday evening, August 11, and I’ll be there.

As often happens, the short story finalists overlapped with the Nebula Awards. I was pleased to see some Chinese finalists. The voting is ranked-choice, and here are my choices, but you may have different opinions — my husband doesn’t agree with me. It’s a solid ballot, and I congratulate the winner, whoever it is.

6. “Answerless Journey” by Han Song, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers) — Two people alone on a space journey seek answers and, instead, find something worse. A parable for our times. It’s a fine story but with a remote storytelling style.

5. “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlé Clark (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023) — No matter what they tell you, do not raise a kraken in your bathtub. Read the entire owner’s manual first, or else the result will be the basis of a cute old-timey story, perhaps a bit predictable but lots of fun.

4. “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, May-June 2023) — An escapee from a space disaster goes back on a rescue mission. The story is told with the skill typical of Aliette de Bodard.

3. “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023) — A new app seems suspiciously and very specifically helpful. I laughed out loud. It ends with an obvious solution to app culture.

2. “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare Magazine, October 2023) — Not even a portal into fantasyland can save school children from an active shooter. A gut-wrenching story about our reality — the kind of story that fantasy is uniquely well-equipped to tell. It won my vote for the Nebula for being the most risk-taking among an excellent field of Nebula finalists.

1. “Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times” by Baoshu (Galaxy’s Edge Vol. 13: Secret Room in the Black Domain) — What if technology could allow us to access the feelings of other people as they eat? Baoshu takes this idea to its logical extremes three times. You know it’s going to be bad, but how bad? Original and well-done. In the end, the originality won me over, edging out Jones’ story, but not by much.