Hugos 2023: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Published: 2022
Acquired: July 2023
Read: September 2023

This retells Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"... only I've never read that. I imagine that's cleverly done (Vernon certainly makes it sound so in her afterword), but it also works totally on its own. I guess it's a piece of horror, but I didn't find it scary... that's not an indictment, though, because I did find it really interesting. When I began reading it, I assumed it was fantasy, but actually I think it's science fiction: it's about fungus, but it's all carefully done in terms of plausibility (as far as these things go, anyway).

The narrator is from a Ruritanian country, travelling to another one (but not the actual Ruritania of Prisoner of Zenda, despite what the back cover says); ka is from a country with a lot of pronouns, including specific ones for soldiers (God and priests/nuns each also get their own set). There's some interesting stuff with gender as a result, and I found ka a very fun narrator.

This is by Ursula Vernon, so the main thing to note is that it's all leavened perfectly by comedy. The narrator's Scottish batman is particularly excellent, but all the characters here are good fun. A quick, interesting read, well put together.