A Hugo Review: John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer - Sarah Gailey

There is only one story in Gailey's packet, but there are links to four others. The one in the packet, Haunted, is about a house. From a different perspective than I've seen, in general. Nicely done, with a bittersweet ending.

She also links to Stars, which is a tale about death. I realized about halfway through that it wasn't going in the direction I expected, and I found I enjoyed it.

Another story linked in the packet was Bargain, in which a demon turns out to be not nearly as demonic as he ought to have been and a lab gets a second lease on life, sort of. The sequel to that story, Rescue, is also fun.

The last story she links to, Homesick, was more than a bit twisted and made my eyebrows try to hide in my hair. A very interesting tale, particularly the singular "tree".

So, all five stories taken together are a good little sample. Gailey's short fiction, and all of these are nicely short, are powerful little pictures of lives from good perspectives. Each one is satisfying on its own and each one works. With the two linked stories, I could see her developing longer stories. While it would be easy to dismiss her work as being too light and fluffy, I really did enjoy all of them and Homesick made me think.

Conclusion: Well, for the moment she gets the top spot. This is the kind of fiction I enjoy.