This is a year of short stories for me. My goal is to read 100 books in 2018, thanks to Goodreads Challenge. I’ve been lazy for most of the year and right now, the only way to complete the challenge is to read more short stories!
The quest for short stories helped me to find some wonderful ones. Here are a few Hugo Award winning/nominated short stories I enjoyed reading. You can finish all three in (about) an hour.
That Game We Played During the War
The opening of the book gives enough introduction to the story.
The people of Gaant are telepaths. The people of Enith are not. The two countries have been at war for decades, but now peace has fallen, and Calla of Enith seeks to renew an unlikely friendship with Gaantish officer Valk over an even more unlikely game of chess.
This is a dazzling science fiction written by Carrie Vaughn and a nominee for the Hugo Award for Short Story (2017). The fantasy element adds more empathy to the story, and emotions are exquisitely portrayed while narrating the relationship between two people. It gives a glimpse to how the world can be different if people can read minds.
Seasons of Glass and Iron
Seasons of Glass and Iron, another fantasy fiction, is the winner of the Hugo Award for Short Story in the year 2017.
Amira, who eats golden apples, sits atop a glass hill. Tabitha, who walks in iron shoes climbs the glass hill and meets her. They are intimidated and intrigued at each other first. But that was just the beginning. The story progresses as they understand each other and makes decisions together.
This is a sweet and short read.
A Study in Emerald
A Study in Emerald is a Sherlock Holmes fan-fiction by Neil Gaiman, author of Norse Mythology. Even a Sherlock fan-fiction is incomplete without some mystery and fantasy elements if Gaiman is writing it. So, expect that as well. I would like to talk more about the story. But I can’t do it without spoiling it. You would enjoy this if you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes.
A Study in Emerald won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, and the 2005 Locus Award for Best Novelette.
The Mirror Dimension 