2011 Hugo Nominee: Novelette - "The Jaguar House, in Shadow" by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov's, July 2010)

I’m a sucker for Mesoamerican stuff, and I like the idea of mashing that intriguing material into speculative tales. It makes for a cool aesthetic at the very least. So, this was one of the more highly anticipated reads for me this year, but I’m not sure the story fulfilled its promise.

The plot is fairly simple, though its telling is more complicated. The Mexica Empire of an alternate reality Earth has become corrupted due to a despotic, demagogic figure called the Revered Speaker. The titular Jaguar House consists of elite Mexica special forces. One of these Jaguar Knights, a woman named Onalli, attempts a rescue mission for her friend Xochitl. That missions serves as a framing story for Onalli remembering her history with Xochitl and the corruption of the Jaguar House that jumps backward in time, first months, then years.

I don't see, in the end, what the backwards chronology brings to the story. I didn’t really learn enough about the characters or the world to be stunned by any of the revelations that come from slowly unveiling the backstory. I’m not sure that much is done with the setting either. Considering that the setting was my favorite part of the story, this was problematic. I learned more about it in the one sentence introduction from Asimov’s than from the rest of the story, though there was some strong material on the cultural relevance of sacrifice.

In other words, I had the same problem that I had with Paul Cornell’s story last year – this is part of a series of stories that I’m unfamiliar with, and I’m not convinced it works on its own. Maybe that suggests that I might enjoy a novel or short story collection set in this world, but I think Hugo-winning stories should stand as independent pieces.

Grade: B-

1999 WFA – THE ANTELOPE WIFE by Louise Erdich

When playing the old genre definition game, one of the trickiest traps of all is dividing fantasy from magical realism. The latter is a rather distinctive genre, more closely identified with the realms of literary fiction than the speculative variety. The basic idea is to take a population and explore real-world problems like identity, poverty, or totalitarianism by adding a bit of folkloric magic. The genre came out of Latin America (Gabriel Garcia Marquez is probably its most famous practitioner) but subsequently spread into other regions. I don’t think there’s any question that this novel, which deals with the rough and tumble relationships of several Ojibwa Indians in modern Minneapolis through the lens of myth, fits the bill.

We begin with the story of a US cavalryman who takes part in a massacre of Indians on the Northern Plains, then, feeling deep guilt, miraculously nurses a child separated from her family in the chaos. We then turn to the story of an Indian trader named Klaus Shawano, who bewitches a strange, untamed woman that people dub his “antelope wife.” At the same time, we get a love triangle between Klaus’s brother Frank, Richard Whiteheart Beads, and Richard’s wife Rozina. The story is mostly told through a series of vignettes that shift focus from character to character. There are multiple twins, talking dogs, tragedy and comedy, and eventually we learn how the modern characters are descended from the characters from the massacre at the novel’s beginning.

Erdich’s prose is quite poetic and full of poignant one-liners. But, it did feel a bit disjointed in the end. The problem is this: I think to really appreciate this novel, I’d need to read it again immediately to better understand the characters in light of later revelations about them; however, the novel didn’t quite sell me on the idea that doing so would actually be worth my time. So, instead, I’ll probably set it aside somewhat dissatisfied, but I am interested in reading more of Erdich’s work (especially since she’s such a major presence in my local literary scene). I do like that WFA has recognized magical realism though – it’s a slight bit of genre-bending that gives the award a definitive identity – we’ll see another example in the next decade that is one of my favorite books of the past decade.

Grade: B