As a member of the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon, I’ve been reading for the Hugo Awards. Novellas are little novels (as the name implies) between 17,500 and 40,000 words. I think of it as short enough to explore an idea with urgency but long enough to explore the idea with depth.

As with the categories of novelette and short story, I was pleased to see that Chinese fans from last year’s Worldcon were able to nominate works they found worthy. But I’m afraid I question their judgement now.

My ballot:

1.  Rose/House by Arkady Martine (Subterranean) — A detective investigates a murder in a dead architect’s landmark creation, but the house is haunted by a mad AI. The tense, creepy story is told with haunting, lyrical prose and features a variety of well-drawn characters.

2. Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom) — Cleric Chih returns to the Singing Hills Abbey, and war mammoths are menacing the gate. This installment in the Singing Hills Cycle is a quiet story about grief, memory, and family, with a beautiful twist at the end. It was also a Nebula Award finalist.

3. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor, Titan UK) — A knight, a half-fairy, and a changeling walk into a story … and something luminous happens. Fairies and humans mix disastrously, though. The sorrow is palpable and deftly told. It was also a Nebula Award finalist.

4. The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (Tordotcom) — It’s billed as “a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance, set on Jupiter,” and that’s what it is. The story moves slowly, however, and has some plot holes. This was also a Nebula Award finalist.

5. No Award — As the rules say, “If you vote for No Award … it means that you believe the finalists you placed above No Award were worthy of a Hugo, but that those not placed above it were not worthy.” The translation of these stories is a bit too literal, but that’s not the problem.

“Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet” by He Xi, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers) — Humanity is colonizing distant planets, but it cannot tolerate competition. A team is sent to judge whether the pioneer species of one of the planets qualifies as human. This could have been an interesting story except for the stilted dialogue, wooden characters, infodumping, and a plot hole that caused genocide.

“Seeds of Mercury” by Wang Jinkang, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers) — A life form that lives in molten metal is discovered and sent to live on Mercury. A rich man accompanies them, and a society develops on Mercury. Good ideas, although not terribly original, but clumsily told. Good ideas are not enough to win my vote. Ideas must be paired with good storytelling.