2019 Philip K. Dick Award Rankings

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As I’ve done for the past few years, I’ve read all of the nominated works for this year’s Philip K. Dick Award. Following is my ranking, from least favorite to my favorite and pick for the award (which, if history is any guide, means that it won’t be the winner, so my apologies in advance…), along with my brief comments.

Much like the first in this series, there are a lot of interesting ideas, in this case about stories, narratives, and our relationships with them…yet it simply didn’t resonate with me at all.

Some of these are funny, many of them are disquieting and leave the reader a little uneasy. I didn’t dislike it, though I’m not sure I can really say that I liked it, either.

  • 84K by Claire North (Orbit)

Set in a distressingly plausible near-future dystopic Britain, the unrelenting dreariness was difficult for me. As with post-apocalyptic fiction, I’m not a big fan; I prefer more hope in my futurism.

Neat near-future exploration of interpersonal connections and intimacy, through the lens of research into the sexual habits of bonobo apes.

A short, sweet tale of soldiers in love, time travel, the unraveling of their story, and the love of books. I very much enjoyed this one.

One of the best collections I’ve read in a long time. Fascinating, sometimes haunting stories, not a dud in the bunch, and a definite pleasure throughout.

Good luck to all the authors! I look forward to seeing as many as can attend at the award ceremony at Norwescon 42 in just a couple months!

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Book thirteen of 2019: 84K, by Claire North. #PKDickAward nominee. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Set in a distressingly plausible near-future dystopic Britain, the unrelenting dreariness was difficult for me. As with post-apocalyptic fiction, I’m not a big fan; I prefer more hope in my futurism.

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Seattle Snowpocalypse 2019 Saturday morning update: Went out for a short walk to enjoy the scenery and scoff at the people driving too fast for conditions. That’s enough outside for us for a while!

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🖖 #StarTrekDiscovery S02E04: A marked improvement over last week (no Klingons makes a big difference). Mysteries, science and technobabble, pissy fungus blobs, Number One, and reasons for no holograms on the Big E and (potentially) for no spore drive! Much better!

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Seattle Snowpocalypse 2019 status check, Friday afternoon.

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I’ll admit that I’m not a big fan of four-wheeling as a recreational activity; it seems to me wasteful and often damaging to the environment. That said, I can allow a little leeway if you have the chance to do it on the moon (gorgeous stabilized 60FPS video).

Prepping for Snowpocalypse 2019

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Survived my first experience with pre-*pocalypse shopping last night. The shopping itself wasn’t actually all that bad – we knew what we were getting into, and apparently so did most other people; it was definitely unusually busy, but people weren’t being unusually obnoxious – and it was amusing to see the many empty shelves where the store had been cleared out. It did take us, quite literally, an hour of standing in the checkout line before we made it to the register, but even that was made a little more entertaining by watching new shoppers’ eyes go wide as they walked in the doors and saw the lines.

End result: we’re prepped and ready to not leave the house for the foreseeable future (well, Prairie teaches this morning, but should be home by noon before the snow gets serious).

Stay safe and warm, everyone!

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Idle curiosity: What other biological mutations would Dumbo have needed in order to fly, particularly given an elephant’s weight, the lack of bones to give the ears structure to support the body, and their forward placement meaning the body would tend to droop below the head?

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I’m as much of a fan of Rent as any other average theatre nerd, but I swear I’ve had that damn earworm stuck in my head for at least 525,600 minutes by now, and I really need all of you to stop making references to it, okay? 🎵