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My favorite method of procrastination: Linkhopping at the AO3. (Is this the cool acronym? I don't remember.) There's a "try a new author" link on the frontpage! And you can go through fandoms and tags and things!)

This time I arrived in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog fic, and I want to rec this one: What A Man's Gotta Do by minkhollow. A lgbtfest story about Captain Hammer. And by the end, I really, really liked the Captain. *boggles* If you haven't, read it! (And keep surfing the Archive. I've found a lot of cool stuff there.)

Hugos: Novelettes

What are novelettes anyway? (I can see the need for a word that means "longer than a short story but shorter than a novella", but somehow I'd expected the English language to come up with something... better. I'm thankful for "Erzählung".)

Anyway, nominees and my votes! The links take you directly to the stories (the overview is here); you can read them for free and I encourage you to do this. Cool fiction for free - almost like in fandom! *g* (In fact, some of the Nominees are fanfic.)

My number one: The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi. READ THIS. I MEAN IT. The POV character is an online journalist in the US with Lao roots, and the story is about that, but also about doing the right thing and telling the important stories and how you hold on to what's important. I loved this and I really, really want this story to win a Hugo.

Second place: Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders by Mike Resnick. This is a story about two ninety-year-old guys who have been friends all their life. ( slight spoilers )

The reviews I've seen are mostly negative, but I liked this.

Third: Pride and Prometheus (pdf-link) by John Kessel. This is exactly what you might suspect - and by "you" I'm talking about a fandom person. ( vague spoilers for the premise of the story )

So I recommend those stories (the last one with caveats, see the cut above). The last two nominees I don't want to win.

Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear. This one's fanfic, too! Lovecraft fanfic, to be exact. The reason I'm not rating this one is the obvious one - I only heard of Bear during RaceFail, and I don't want her to win a Hugo. I read the story with that in mind, to be honest, but the story itself didn't convince me either. ( plot spoiler )

The last nominee: The Ray Gun - a Love Story by James Alan Gardner. This one simply bored me, and I didn't finish it, so I don't have anything useful to say.