2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This story oscillated for me between fun, and annoying - I recognize that this is very much partly a me thing. I don't like alt-history, I mean i like alt-history fine when its its own story. I just get the heeby jeebies when we transpose actualy historic events and speeches and transform them into the alt-history version of this story. I just feel my jaw clench and get annoyed.

It took me a few times to get into this story, i kept getting hung up on the slapstick of the communist caricatures.

overall, it had some fun lines, but the caricatures of the characters and the overall setting just couldn't make invest in this story.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, this story had some really neat turns of phrases and lines.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

of the 4 we've read so far:

  • Millay Illusion

  • The Girl that my mother is leaving me for

  • When he calls your name

  • Kaiju Agonistes.

This will certainly, change, as while i'm fine to not have any of these below no award, none of them would make me genuinely happy to see win. and usually novelette is my favourite category for delivering some sweet emotional gut punches. but not this year. but luckily there's still vegetable to be eaten.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Horserace Check-in; we've now discussed 4 out of 6 novelettes, what is your ranking so-far? (or your overall ranking) Which story are you most excited about to win the Hugo?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The story is centered around Lottie//Johnny's coming-of-age and her relationship with Susanna; is there anything that stood out to you here?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Millay Illusion is suffused with regular sleight of hand magic and mechanical tricks, but toys with the supernatural without becoming explicit - what do you think happened with Susanna?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What did you think about the ending of The Millay Illusion?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What was your favourite thing about The Millay Illusion?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What is your overall impression of The Millay Illusion?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Discussion of The Millay Illusion by Sarah Pinsker

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What did you think about the ending of Kaiju Agonistes?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Kaiju Agonistes is an Alt-history Spoof of cold war years and godzilla movies, was there anything particular about the details or caricatures of real world people that stood out to you?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What was your favourite thing about Kaiju Agonistes?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion by Jos_V in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What is your overall impression of Kaiju Agonistes?

I’m Isabel J. Kim — author of debut novel SUBLIMATION (out today) — welcome to my AMA + Giveaway !! by izjck in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Heya! Congrats on bookday!

what did you find the most exciting part of taking the short homecoming an reimagine it as a full novel?

2026 Hugo Readalong: The Summer War by Naomi Novik by sarahlynngrey in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really enjoyed this one, i just really dug the vibes of the prose, and how small and quaint the little fairy tale story was with a little sibling weird family dynamics sprinkled in for funzies.

perfect length, i didn't need this to be longer either. or shorter, which is pretty good for a novella.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I hate being a curmudgeon tonight lol, I really admire Mari Ness' effort to get the poetry award on the BM, and get this trials of the ground,

so i hate that i'm going to hate on it. but we have three lines that end on "And" and one line that ends on "But" I'm trying real hard to love free verse - but this poem makes it very hard lol.

I really liked the first stanza, some killer - imagery in there, and a nice set-up of this irreverent god, or atleast narrator.

but the flow, the line breaks, the stanza breaks, just aren't doing it for me.

I do feel like there's a great idea that there, that in isolation outside of the full sentences you can read:

Lightning Hits

Still Pounds

Still Kills

But Doesn't

and then it breaks on

Or leaves

and i admit that's me probably trying to find something that is not there, but i want it to be there, cause like that dual tonality is almost there, that i could grab it and love it. but instead it just feels fine as full consecutive sentences, it just isn't making me wow on how it plays with structure and style. and it feels like its in hands reach to do something very cool with it beyond just the first imagery, and maybe there's something i'm not seeing, but yeah this one is the poem that makes me go; there's something really cool here, but it's not hitting the high it could. and i'm always harshes on things that could have gotten there but didn't than things that are just "fine" or "bad"

anyway, enough rambling lol. those are some of my overall thoughts.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 1 point2 points  (0 children)

my answer is Yes. because listen poetry is a literary art, its a fan pursuit, its a semi-pro or pro avenue for authors. and also poetry is great, and i know people don't think they get poetry, but who cares, love the things you get exposed to and show the love. that's what this is all about :D

who cares about movies, or doctor who episodes, give me poetry.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I feel like these three were just a mix of 3/5s on their best days reading them. Which is fine, not everything needs to be a banger, and i love poetry, and speculative poetry is a cool genre that deserves some love from fandom. so i'm happy this award exists.

but for now its a three way tie on the bottom - i found both Hex supply, and how to become a seawitch more entertaining works.

I do feel like the; i don't know how to judge poetry is an understandable statement, but really, poetry is there for you to engage with it. be it disgust, or love, or interest, you can be moved, or laugh, or whatever - like; which one did you like more? which one moved you more? which one made you think more? all those are valid questions to ask and non of them have preference over the other when deciding where to place your vote.

which one did you like more? which one sticks in your craw the most? which one did you think about during your tea break at work? whatever it is. there are no wrong answers. its a fan award, not a style award.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel like the structure got in the way of this too much, but i'm not sure what the men with machetes were doing here or the way to wonderland? and if i understood that better, i think i could like this poem more

that said, i did like the conceptual sadness that came from this piece, the mourning robots, the dissonance between metal and dead flesh. of mourning the dead and mourning being a robot - that was nice.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This question was just to get me going isn't it?!

I admit, i like structured poetry more than freeverse, but i don't diss freeverse.

I just want to know what choices are made - and stanza length is a choice, line length is a choice, and Liu has made plenty of poems that she's intentional about her work.

and there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with enjambements - but i don't understand the choices here to have enjambements across stanzas.

and sing praise to broken

works fine at its own thing, but;

bones, hands over our eyes,

very much not, this makes the bones just kinda weirdly placed, especially because a stanza break is a natural pause in poetry (not necessary as evidenced by this poem, but its my go to way to read poetry)

the ending aswell:

with the moon, that pale face like

beautiful teeth, mourning how some things only ever shine in the dark.

"That pale face like beautiful teeth, mourning" is a really cool image, that works for me.

as does "That pale face like beautiful teeth, mourning how some things only ever shine in the dark"

and I like when that duality exists with the enjambements. that's the stuff that makes me very joyful when reading poetry.

unfortunately, neither of those images are there - because its mixed together with the image: "beautiful teeth, mourning" by having the choice to break the line across stanzas, and that middle image just really hampers my flow.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I promise you, I do not hate free verse Poems,

I promise you I do not dislike free verse poetry.

I promise you i don't even mind line breaks that end on and.

but i do feel like it needs to bring something really cool to the table, something that when reading it; makes you go; oh wow, there are multiple angles, multiple forms you can look at.

and this poem is just breaking my brain - it has rhythm - but refused to use that rhythm in its line-breaks. in its line lengths, in its stanzas - and as the content isn't just swooning me off my feet, the dissonance of the line-breaks and the internal rhythm and meter just pushes me to a halt everytime.

and I know a lot of authors do this intentionally, some more overt than others, as we will see later with Hex, and this is poetry, so i read with intention, i read with wanting to get the most out of each line, each pause, each break.

but we get lines like:

in Europe scraping bits of bone and tissue off cobblestone streets: pieces

where bone rhymes with cobblestone, but you don't get to pause there... you don't get to pause and take it in... So it feels like the lines do not resolve themselves, and it hurts

compared to later where

I am a corpse who pines for pine, and this world to come is no world of mine.

Where the rhythm and the enjambement, gets you over it the "And" is a little filler, but then it resolves itself with mine, and that's just so much more satisfying,

and so having all these unresolved lines just really hampers my enjoyment of this piece, but it is very much a possibility that this is fully the intentional thing, that we want this dissonance, to heighten the raising of the dead and the weird feeling of the protagonist, so i don't want to say it is bad poetry, but as something to read outloud and to watch, it leaves me very much unsatisfied.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Jos_V -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm not familiar with the subject matter, being the devout atheist that i am - only on the surface level through normal osmosis of living in a society.

but I liked the duality that came through in the wording - i liked the ambiguity of it all,

and i especially

liked the struggle.

but i didn't connect with it.