Lorem Ipsum

In case some of you would like to read some Hugo-nominated short fiction but don't have time to read all 14 of the stories that are freely available online, here are my recommendations for what to read. This brief list includes both my favorites and the stories that I think are likely to get the most attention, the "important" stories on the ballot; also includes the stories that I think are likely to win in their categories.

• The Chief Designer
• Lobsters
• Undone
• The Dog Said Bow-Wow
• Hell Is the Absence of God

If you've read F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" (freely available online; follow the link on that page to the full text), then you should definitely read "The Diamond Pit." (And then you may be interested in Charlie Finlay's interesting and insightful discussion of the two stories, which is what pointed me to the Fitzgerald story in the first place. Though Charlie doesn't mention the biting satire of the Fitzgerald piece, which I think works better in some ways than the more direct addressing of the moral difficulties of the story in the Dann version.)

The Le Guin would go on the above list, but I didn't list it because you can't read it without getting the printed Le Guin collection, and I figure anyone who gets that collection will read the story regardless of what I say about it. :)