Taskmaster and Hugo homework (get used to this combo, guys)
May. 7th, 2025 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hamsterwomanWe are in a double Taskmaster phase for the next couple of weeks!
Taskmaster Oz s4e06 -- I had found the last couple of episodes a bit less fun than the start of the season, but this was a return to form for me. So funny! ( Spoilers )
And now, the real thing!
Thoughts on the Taskmaster S19 interviews (before watching the first episode): ( no spoilers )
Episode 1 -- that was a really fun ep! And I feel like I have a good sense of all five contestants out of it. ( Spoilers )
Ooh, ad Ed's podcast now has a video version on YouTube the day after??! The first episode is with Nick and it was delight to see him again.
Also, someone on Reddit posted a compelling theory about a S20 contestant, and I'd love for them to be right. (ETA: Although it appears to be debunked by reality, alas.)
Speaking of Reddit, I should probably collect my Reddit thoughts/milestones somewhere. This is the first (UK) series I'm watching real time(ish) while having a Reddit account, but because I can't watch it live with the UK crowd, the experience is ot actually any different -- the episode reaction posts don't really lend themselves to anything but liveblogging. But about a month ago I noticed that I'd never actually joined r/taskmaster as a member, even though I was reading it daily and commenting a lot -- and once I did, that meant that I was eligible to start earning the "Rising Star" achievement, of 1000 upvotes in your first month. Which turned out to be quite a bit easier to achieve than I had expected, as there were some fun threads going on at the time. And when the stats refreshed for April, I apparently also got the Top 1% commenter achievement, which comes with a nifty little flair.
*
Hugo homework: Voter Packet has dropped, which bestirred me to actually get a membership for this year's Worldcon. Just a virtual one for now, because I'm waiting to see what happens with a) the fallout from the ChatGPT thing, and b) my job -- I'm planning on attending, but kind of metering my commitment on a just-in-time basis. Anyway, it's nice to be reading again, and possibly this is a sign I should've been reading short fiction all along. But, like, pre-vetted good short fiction...
Poems: - I'm really excited that this is the special category this year, and also curious to see how the results compare against the Rhyslings, which are already a standalone award to recognize speculative poetry. I have read the 5 short nominated poems (thoughts below), and am like 60 pages into the last poem, which is a novel in verse (oops, if I'd known that, I would not have started with this category)
( Poems )
Poems -- (5/6) "A War of Words", Ever Noir, Visiting Dragon, taxis, We Drink Lava
**
Short stories: ( Mary Robinette Kowal, Rachael K Jones, Arkady Martine, Isabel J Kim, Nghi Vo, Caroline M Yoachim )
Short stories: (DONE, 6/6) Omelas Hole, Stitched to Skin, Tartarus, We Will Teach You How to Read, Marginalia, Beheading
**
( Fan artist )
Fanartist: because I want some new names to win, Meg Frank, Alison Scott, Sara Felix, Espana Sheriff, Michelle Morrell, Iain Clark.
( Pro artist )
Pro artist: Micaela Alcaino, Alyssa Winans, Rovina Cai [these were my top 3 last year, too, just in a different order -- I'd be happy with any of these three winning -- or, rather, I think all three are very deserving of a win, but wish someone other than Rovina Cai would win for a change, just for variety's sake), then it gets harder, as I basically just like individual pieces of the portfolios -- Tran Nguyen, Audrey Benjaminsen, Maurizio Manzieri, I guess?
**
Novelettes:
Sarah Pinsker, "Signs of Life" -- I enjoyed this a lot! While And Then There Were (N-One) remains my favorite Pinsker, and I've enjoyed her various other sci-fi, I think the thing I enjoy most consistently is when she's writing this kind of thing, a contemporary setting that seems to be just well-realized normal life, but with fantastic elements that are so thoroughly embedded and grounded, they really don't stand out. It feels too real to be urban fantasy, and also not quite magical realism, although closer maybe, but whatever it is, I like it a lot. This is a good example of it. ( Spoilers )
Naomi Kritzer, "The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea" -- I enjoyed this one less than I usually enjoy Naomi Kritzer's short fiction (which is usually a lot), so this was a bit disappointing, even though I'm glad I had a chance to read it. ( Spoilers )
Ann Leckie, "Lake of Souls" -- OK, I'm not judging the story based on this, obviously, but this is a really obnoxious way to provide a copy for the voter packet -- PDF with a heavy watermark on every page. Which is too bad, as the story is very much my kind of thing. Leckie writes aliens and alien POV really well -- it's one of my favorite things about her writing -- so ( spoilers )
Premee Mohamed, "By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars" -- I've been meaning to read some Premee Mohamed for a while (I think since she won a Nebula for something?), and now I have. It was fine? A classic wizard vs dragon story, and ( spoilers ) But overall pretty slight.
Thomas Ha, "The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video" -- obviously I was intrigued by that title, but the title ended up being my favorite thing about the story... It's atmospheric to be sure, but not the kind of atmosphere I enjoy -- a sort of near-future noir. ( Not really spoilery )
Eugenia Triantafyllou, "Loneliness Universe" -- I've been seeing the author's name around awards lists and so curious to check out her work. This was fine, but not the kind of spec fic I prefer. Or, OK, that's not fair -- I'm pretty sure I've been sold on stories like this when it was someone like Ted Chiang writing them, but I think there's a particular balance of Deep Thoughts to setting and character work that makes a high concept story like this work for me, and this didn't fall inside that range. Maybe it would've worked better for me as a short story? Because I don't feel like the added length of a novelette contributed much new to the central conceit... ( Spoilers )
Novelette: (DONE, 6/6) Lake of Souls, Signs of Life (these two are close of me, but I do really enjoy Leckie's aliens), Four Sisters, Loneliness Universe, wizard one / Montague St Video ('Video' is the more interesting story but I personally enjoyed it less)
Currently working my way through the Best Related Work category, and the first of the novelettes (the T.Kingfisher one, which I'm enjoying a lot more than I expected based on the horror-y title).
Taskmaster Oz s4e06 -- I had found the last couple of episodes a bit less fun than the start of the season, but this was a return to form for me. So funny! ( Spoilers )
And now, the real thing!
Thoughts on the Taskmaster S19 interviews (before watching the first episode): ( no spoilers )
Episode 1 -- that was a really fun ep! And I feel like I have a good sense of all five contestants out of it. ( Spoilers )
Ooh, ad Ed's podcast now has a video version on YouTube the day after??! The first episode is with Nick and it was delight to see him again.
Also, someone on Reddit posted a compelling theory about a S20 contestant, and I'd love for them to be right. (ETA: Although it appears to be debunked by reality, alas.)
Speaking of Reddit, I should probably collect my Reddit thoughts/milestones somewhere. This is the first (UK) series I'm watching real time(ish) while having a Reddit account, but because I can't watch it live with the UK crowd, the experience is ot actually any different -- the episode reaction posts don't really lend themselves to anything but liveblogging. But about a month ago I noticed that I'd never actually joined r/taskmaster as a member, even though I was reading it daily and commenting a lot -- and once I did, that meant that I was eligible to start earning the "Rising Star" achievement, of 1000 upvotes in your first month. Which turned out to be quite a bit easier to achieve than I had expected, as there were some fun threads going on at the time. And when the stats refreshed for April, I apparently also got the Top 1% commenter achievement, which comes with a nifty little flair.
*
Hugo homework: Voter Packet has dropped, which bestirred me to actually get a membership for this year's Worldcon. Just a virtual one for now, because I'm waiting to see what happens with a) the fallout from the ChatGPT thing, and b) my job -- I'm planning on attending, but kind of metering my commitment on a just-in-time basis. Anyway, it's nice to be reading again, and possibly this is a sign I should've been reading short fiction all along. But, like, pre-vetted good short fiction...
Poems: - I'm really excited that this is the special category this year, and also curious to see how the results compare against the Rhyslings, which are already a standalone award to recognize speculative poetry. I have read the 5 short nominated poems (thoughts below), and am like 60 pages into the last poem, which is a novel in verse (oops, if I'd known that, I would not have started with this category)
( Poems )
Poems -- (5/6) "A War of Words", Ever Noir, Visiting Dragon, taxis, We Drink Lava
**
Short stories: ( Mary Robinette Kowal, Rachael K Jones, Arkady Martine, Isabel J Kim, Nghi Vo, Caroline M Yoachim )
Short stories: (DONE, 6/6) Omelas Hole, Stitched to Skin, Tartarus, We Will Teach You How to Read, Marginalia, Beheading
**
( Fan artist )
Fanartist: because I want some new names to win, Meg Frank, Alison Scott, Sara Felix, Espana Sheriff, Michelle Morrell, Iain Clark.
( Pro artist )
Pro artist: Micaela Alcaino, Alyssa Winans, Rovina Cai [these were my top 3 last year, too, just in a different order -- I'd be happy with any of these three winning -- or, rather, I think all three are very deserving of a win, but wish someone other than Rovina Cai would win for a change, just for variety's sake), then it gets harder, as I basically just like individual pieces of the portfolios -- Tran Nguyen, Audrey Benjaminsen, Maurizio Manzieri, I guess?
**
Novelettes:
Sarah Pinsker, "Signs of Life" -- I enjoyed this a lot! While And Then There Were (N-One) remains my favorite Pinsker, and I've enjoyed her various other sci-fi, I think the thing I enjoy most consistently is when she's writing this kind of thing, a contemporary setting that seems to be just well-realized normal life, but with fantastic elements that are so thoroughly embedded and grounded, they really don't stand out. It feels too real to be urban fantasy, and also not quite magical realism, although closer maybe, but whatever it is, I like it a lot. This is a good example of it. ( Spoilers )
Naomi Kritzer, "The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea" -- I enjoyed this one less than I usually enjoy Naomi Kritzer's short fiction (which is usually a lot), so this was a bit disappointing, even though I'm glad I had a chance to read it. ( Spoilers )
Ann Leckie, "Lake of Souls" -- OK, I'm not judging the story based on this, obviously, but this is a really obnoxious way to provide a copy for the voter packet -- PDF with a heavy watermark on every page. Which is too bad, as the story is very much my kind of thing. Leckie writes aliens and alien POV really well -- it's one of my favorite things about her writing -- so ( spoilers )
Premee Mohamed, "By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars" -- I've been meaning to read some Premee Mohamed for a while (I think since she won a Nebula for something?), and now I have. It was fine? A classic wizard vs dragon story, and ( spoilers ) But overall pretty slight.
Thomas Ha, "The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video" -- obviously I was intrigued by that title, but the title ended up being my favorite thing about the story... It's atmospheric to be sure, but not the kind of atmosphere I enjoy -- a sort of near-future noir. ( Not really spoilery )
Eugenia Triantafyllou, "Loneliness Universe" -- I've been seeing the author's name around awards lists and so curious to check out her work. This was fine, but not the kind of spec fic I prefer. Or, OK, that's not fair -- I'm pretty sure I've been sold on stories like this when it was someone like Ted Chiang writing them, but I think there's a particular balance of Deep Thoughts to setting and character work that makes a high concept story like this work for me, and this didn't fall inside that range. Maybe it would've worked better for me as a short story? Because I don't feel like the added length of a novelette contributed much new to the central conceit... ( Spoilers )
Novelette: (DONE, 6/6) Lake of Souls, Signs of Life (these two are close of me, but I do really enjoy Leckie's aliens), Four Sisters, Loneliness Universe, wizard one / Montague St Video ('Video' is the more interesting story but I personally enjoyed it less)
Currently working my way through the Best Related Work category, and the first of the novelettes (the T.Kingfisher one, which I'm enjoying a lot more than I expected based on the horror-y title).
