If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again
"If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" is a fantasy short story by Zen Cho. It was first published on the official Barnes & Noble blog, in 2018.
Synopsis
Byam is an imugi who desperately wants to ascend to dragonhood; however, because human perception interferes with the process of ascension, Byam is forced to devise an alternate plan, which has effects it could never have expected.
Reception
"If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" won the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.[1]
James Nicoll considered the story to be "a pleasing change of pace" from more violent themes, and found it "surprisingly easy to identify with Byam", who he compared to "the coyote who always fails to catch the roadrunner".[2]
Aliette de Bodard called it "sweet and powerful and just right".[3]
References
- ^ 2019 Hugo Award & 1944 Retro Hugo Award Finalists, by Cheryl Morgan, at TheHugoAwards.org; published April 2, 2019; retrieved April 15, 2019
- ^ I Get Knocked Down, by James Nicoll, at JamesNicollReviews; published December 3, 2018; retrieved April 15, 2019
- ^ 2018 Awards Consideration - Recommendations Post, by Aliette de Bodard, at AlietteDeBodard.com; published January 16, 2019; retrieved April 15, 2019
External links
- Text of the story, at Barnes & Noble
- Official sequel at ZenCho.org (via archive.org)
- v
- t
- e
- "Rule 18" by Clifford D. Simak (1939)
- "The Roads Must Roll" by Robert A. Heinlein (1941)
- "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov (1943)
- "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett (1944)
- "First Contact" by Murray Leinster (1946)
- "The Little Black Bag" by Cyril M. Kornbluth (1951)
- "Earthman, Come Home" by James Blish (1954)
- "The Darfsteller" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1955)
- "Exploration Team" by Murray Leinster (1956)
- "The Big Time" by Fritz Leiber (1958)
- "The Big Front Yard" by Clifford D. Simak (1959)
- "The Last Castle" by Jack Vance (1967)
- "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber (1968)
- "The Sharing of Flesh" by Poul Anderson (1969)
- "Goat Song" by Poul Anderson (1973)
- "The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison (1974)
- "Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W" by Harlan Ellison (1975)
- "The Borderland of Sol" by Larry Niven (1976)
- "The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov (1977)
- "Eyes of Amber" by Joan D. Vinge (1978)
- "Hunter's Moon" by Poul Anderson (1979)
- "Sandkings" by George R. R. Martin (1980)
- "The Cloak and the Staff" by Gordon R. Dickson (1981)
- "Unicorn Variation" by Roger Zelazny (1982)
- "Fire Watch" by Connie Willis (1983)
- "Blood Music" by Greg Bear (1984)
- "Bloodchild" by Octavia E. Butler (1985)
- "Paladin of the Lost Hour" by Harlan Ellison (1986)
- "Permafrost" by Roger Zelazny (1987)
- "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1988)
- "Schrödinger's Kitten" by George Alec Effinger (1989)
- "Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another" by Robert Silverberg (1990)
- "The Manamouki" by Mike Resnick (1991)
- "Gold" by Isaac Asimov (1992)
- "The Nutcracker Coup" by Janet Kagan (1993)
- "Georgia on My Mind" by Charles Sheffield (1994)
- "The Martian Child" by David Gerrold (1995)
- "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly (1996)
- "Bicycle Repairman" by Bruce Sterling (1997)
- "We Will Drink a Fish Together..." by Bill Johnson (1998)
- "Taklamakan" by Bruce Sterling (1999)
- "1016 to 1" by James Patrick Kelly (2000)
- "Millennium Babies" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (2001)
- "Hell Is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang (2002)
- "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick (2003)
- "Legions in Time" by Michael Swanwick (2004)
- "The Faery Handbag" by Kelly Link (2005)
- "Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle (2006)
- "The Djinn's Wife" by Ian McDonald (2007)
- "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (2008)
- "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear (2009)
- "The Island" by Peter Watts (2010)
- "The Emperor of Mars" by Allen Steele (2011)
- "Six Months, Three Days" by Charlie Jane Anders (2012)
- "The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi" by Pat Cadigan (2013)
- "The Lady Astronaut of Mars", by Mary Robinette Kowal (2014)
- "The Day the World Turned Upside Down" by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Lia Belt (2015)
- "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang (2016)
- "The Tomato Thief" by Ursula Vernon (2017)
- "The Secret Life of Bots" by Suzanne Palmer (2018)
- "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho (2019)
- "Emergency Skin" by N. K. Jemisin (2020)
- "Two Truths and a Lie" by Sarah Pinsker (2021)
- "Bots of the Lost Ark" by Suzanne Palmer (2022)
- "The Space-Time Painter" by Hai Ya (2023)
This article about a fantasy short story (or stories) published in the 2010s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e