A review by sofipitch
The Long List Anthology Volume 2: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List by Ursula Vernon, Catherynne M. Valente, Megan Grey, Elizabeth Bear, Ann Leckie, Martin L. Shoemaker, Tamsyn Muir, Aliette deBodard, Kai Ashante Wilson, Sarah Pinsker, Alyssa Wong, Rose Lemberg, Amal El-Mohtar, David Levine, David Steffen, Seanan McGuire, Usman T. Mailk, Nicola Griffith, Naomi Kritzer
4.0
5 star picks:
I picked up this anthology because I wanted to read The Deepwater Bride by Tamsyn Muir. It was the last thing on my list before becoming a Muir completist and boy did it not disappoint. It was easily one of my favorite stories. One thing Muir loves and I really enjoy is where her stories reveal something at the end that recontextualizes the whole thing. But it's done in such a way that you never feel like you had to play detective the whole time to appreciate it. Part eldritch horror part rom com with two teen girls. I adored it.
The other shining star was "The Hungry Daughters of Starving Daughters" by Ali Wong. I had actually read it before in "Queers Destroy Horror" and thought it was great, but a lot of the stories in that collection were okay at best, so I reread it to see if it was good or just good in comparison and it was genuinely good. It toys with the concept of energy vampires without calling it that and in a new and different way.
"The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" by Usman T. Malik is the last of my 5 star picks. This one was well written and weird.
None of the other stories in the anthology were bad, there were a few others I liked. The otherd I just felt failed to be anything particularly interesting. In a few cases I felt like the story was depending on interest in sci fi elements to capture my attention as opposed to good writing or plot etc.
I would be remiss to not mention "So Much Food" by Naomi Kritzer which stands out to me in 2023 because it is about a recipe blogger quarantining during a pandemic. Kritzer accurately predicted so many details of the Covid 19 pandemic it wasn't just eerie it made my stomach turn, because it was written in 2015. It was good on it's own but I don't know if it would have stood out if not for the growing dread of familiarity it created.
I picked up this anthology because I wanted to read The Deepwater Bride by Tamsyn Muir. It was the last thing on my list before becoming a Muir completist and boy did it not disappoint. It was easily one of my favorite stories. One thing Muir loves and I really enjoy is where her stories reveal something at the end that recontextualizes the whole thing. But it's done in such a way that you never feel like you had to play detective the whole time to appreciate it. Part eldritch horror part rom com with two teen girls. I adored it.
The other shining star was "The Hungry Daughters of Starving Daughters" by Ali Wong. I had actually read it before in "Queers Destroy Horror" and thought it was great, but a lot of the stories in that collection were okay at best, so I reread it to see if it was good or just good in comparison and it was genuinely good. It toys with the concept of energy vampires without calling it that and in a new and different way.
"The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" by Usman T. Malik is the last of my 5 star picks. This one was well written and weird.
None of the other stories in the anthology were bad, there were a few others I liked. The otherd I just felt failed to be anything particularly interesting. In a few cases I felt like the story was depending on interest in sci fi elements to capture my attention as opposed to good writing or plot etc.
I would be remiss to not mention "So Much Food" by Naomi Kritzer which stands out to me in 2023 because it is about a recipe blogger quarantining during a pandemic. Kritzer accurately predicted so many details of the Covid 19 pandemic it wasn't just eerie it made my stomach turn, because it was written in 2015. It was good on it's own but I don't know if it would have stood out if not for the growing dread of familiarity it created.