2016 Nebula Award Finalists

From the press release:

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is pleased to announce the nominees for the 51^st Annual Nebula Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book.
 
Novel

• All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
• Borderline, Mishell Baker (Saga)
• The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Ninefox Gambit,Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
  
• Everfair, Nisi Shawl (Tor)

Novella

• Runtime, S.B. Divya (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)
• Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• “The Liar”, John P. Murphy (F&SF)
• A Taste of Honey, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com Publishing)

Novelette      

• “The Long Fall Up”, William Ledbetter (F&SF)
• “Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea”, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed)
• “The Orangery", Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
• “Blood Grains Speak Through Memories”, Jason Sanford (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
• The Jewel and Her Lapidary, Fran Wilde (Tor.com Publishing)
• “You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay”, Alyssa Wong (Uncanny)

Short Story

• “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”, Brooke Bolander (Uncanny)
• “Seasons of Glass and Iron”, Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood)
• “Sabbath Wine”, Barbara Krasnoff (Clockwork Phoenix 5)
• “Things With Beards”, Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld)
• “This Is Not a Wardrobe Door”, A. Merc Rustad (Fireside Magazine)
• “A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers”, Alyssa Wong (Tor.com)
• “Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station│Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed)

Bradbury

• Arrival, Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Screenplay by Eric Heisserer, 21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films/Xenolinguistics
• Doctor Strange, Directed by Scott Derrickson, Screenplay by Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill, Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures
• Kubo and the Two Strings, Directed by Travis Knight, Screenplay by Mark Haimes & Chris Butler; Laika Entertainment
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Directed by Gareth Edwards, Written by Chris Weitz & Tony Gilroy; Lucusfilm/ Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures
• Westworld: ‘‘The Bicameral Mind’’, Directed by Jonathan Nolan, Written by Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan; HBO
• Zootopia, Directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, & Jared Bush, Screenplay by Jared Bush & Phil Johnston; Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Animation Studios 

Norton

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin Young Readers)
• The Star-Touched Queen, Roshani Chokshi (St. Martin’s)
• The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK; Abrams)
• Arabella of Mars, David D. Levine (Tor)
• Railhead, Philip Reeve (Oxford University Press; Switch) 
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, Lindsay Ribar (Kathy Dawson Books)
• The Evil Wizard Smallbone, Delia Sherman (Candlewick)

2015 Nebula Award Winners

Picked this up from Locus, but it was all over the internet.

Below are the winners of the 2015 Nebula Awards.  Congratulations to all the winners (an an extra congratulations to Sarah Pinsker and Nnedi Okorafor - I LOVED those stories)

Novel: Uprooted, by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Novella: Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
Novelette: "Our Lady of the Open Road", by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov's June 2015)
Short Story: "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers", by Alyssa Wong (Nightmare Oct 2015)
Andre Norton Award: Updraft, by Fran Wilde (Tor)
Ray Bradbury Award: Mad Max: Fury Road
SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master: C.J. Cherryh

2015 Nebula Award Nominees

Picked this up from Tor.com: Below are the nominees for the 2015 Nebula Awards (presented in 2016). I'll probably have some initial thoughts on the nominees this coming week. I will provide links to as many of the stories as become freely available online.

Congratulations to all the nominees.


Novel
Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)

Novella
Wings of Sorrow and Bone, Beth Cato (Harper Voyager Impulse)
‘‘The Bone Swans of Amandale’’, C.S.E. Cooney (Bone Swans)
‘‘The New Mother’’, Eugene Fischer (Asimov’s 4-5/15)
‘‘The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn’’, Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 4/22/15)
Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
‘‘Waters of Versailles’’, Kelly Robson (Tor.com 6/10/15)

Novelette
‘‘Rattlesnakes and Men’’, Michael Bishop (Asimov’s 2/15)
‘‘And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead’’, Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 2/15)
‘‘Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds’’, Rose Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/11/15)
‘‘The Ladies’ Aquatic Gardening Society’’, Henry Lien (Asimov’s 6/15)
‘‘The Deepwater Bride’’, Tamsyn Muir (F&SF 7-8/15)
‘‘Our Lady of the Open Road’’, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 6/15)

Short Story
‘‘Madeleine’’, Amal El-Mohtar (Lightspeed 6/15)
‘‘Cat Pictures Please’’, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 1/15)
‘‘Damage’’, David D. Levine (Tor.com 1/21/15)
‘‘When Your Child Strays From God’’, Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld 7/15)
‘‘Today I Am Paul’’, Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld 8/15)
‘‘Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers’’, Alyssa Wong (Nightmare 10/15)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation 
Ex Machina
Jessica Jones: AKA Smile
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
Seriously Wicked, Tina Connolly (Tor Teen)
Court of Fives, Kate Elliott (Little, Brown)
Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK 5/14; Amulet)
Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace (Big Mouth House)
Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee (Flux)
Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older (Levine)
Bone Gap, Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)

2014 Nebula Award Winners

Via Tor.com, here are the winners of the 2014 Nebula Awards. Congratulations to all the winners.

Novel
The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Tor)
Trial by Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor)
Coming Home, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
***Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals)

Novella 
We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)
***Yesterday’s Kin, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
“The Regular,” Ken Liu (Upgraded)
“The Mothers of Voorhisville,” Mary Rickert (Tor.com 4/30/14)
Calendrical Regression, Lawrence Schoen (NobleFusion)
 “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap),” Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’14)

 Novelette
“Sleep Walking Now and Then,” Richard Bowes (Tor.com 7/9/14)
“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon,” Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14)
***“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” Alaya Dawn Johnson (F&SF 7-8/14)
“The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado (Granta #129)
“We Are the Cloud,” Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed 9/14)
“The Devil in America,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 4/2/14)

Short Story 
“The Breath of War,” Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/6/14)
“When It Ends, He Catches Her,” Eugie Foster (Daily Science Fiction 9/26/14)
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye,” Matthew Kressel (Clarkesworld 5/14)
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family,” Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous)
 “A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide,” Sarah Pinsker (F&SF 3-4/14)
***“Jackalope Wives,” Ursula Vernon (Apex 1/7/14)
“The Fisher Queen,” Alyssa Wong (F&SF 5/14)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation 
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
***Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
The Lego Movie

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy 
Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan (Random House)
Salvage, Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow)
***Love Is the Drug, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future, A.S. King (Little, Brown)
Dirty Wings, Sarah McCarry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Greenglass House, Kate Milford (Clarion)
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, Leslye Walton (Candlewick)

Thoughts on the Nebula Award Nominees: Novellas

We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)
Yesterday’s Kin, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
“The Regular,” Ken Liu (Upgraded)
“The Mothers of Voorhisville,” Mary Rickert (Tor.com 4/30/14)
Calendrical Regression, Lawrence Schoen (NobleFusion)
“Grand Jeté (The Great Leap),” Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’14)

In a weird turn of events, this is the first year I've finished the reading all of the Nebula Award nominated novellas this far before the awards are to be announced.  Part of the reason for this is that there was just enough time in between the Nebula announcement and when I needed to get in my Hugo nominations that I could quick push through the novellas to consider these novellas for my ballot.

Previously, I would schedule up my Nebula posts to all go up the week leading up to the awards.  This year I'm going to wrap up each category as I finish it.  There will likely be a fairly decent gap between this article and my next Nebula article.

As I have done in the past, my comments on the novellas will be in reverse order of how I would rank them.

Calendrical Regression: Lawrence Schoen has thrice been nominated for a Nebula Award, each one for one his novellas and also in each of the last three years.  Calendrical Regression fits into his buffalito series of stories and I constantly marvel at the concept of a miniature buffalo named Reggie. They are charming and fun and generally funny.  Calendrical Regression is no different, and while I'm always happy to read a buffalito story, I'm not sure I would have nominated it for an award. 

Yesterday's Kin: If we're talking about awards, Nancy Kress has won five Nebula Awards and has been nominated for many more. This is also the last time we're going to talk about the number of previous wins or nominations for the rest of the category. Nobody here has more than Kress. Yesterday's Kin is a story of what happens after the first contact with aliens and also of genetics.  It's fascinating, though as with many of Kress's shorter works, I wanted to dig more into the stuff she built the story on.  I want to get more into the genetics - or less into the genetics and more into the implications of the genetics, to get to different aspects of how this would all play out.  What really happens next.  Yesterday's Kin is complete, but I want more - or different. 

"The Regular": At this point my rankings get a bit murky, as I might flip the next three stories around on any given day.  The distance between them is not great.  Ken Liu is a fantastic storyteller and "The Regular features a detective working a case the police closed without a deeper investigation.  Liu deals with the intersections of race, class, expectation, and melds it together in a wonderful (if occasionally awful, because the details are not always pleasant) stew.

"The Mothers of Voorhisville": What if one man managed to get nearly every woman in a small town pregnant, except that the man might be supernatural in some way and all of the babies aren't exactly normal? As told in an oral history of the event / events.  The result is Mary Rickert's "The Mothers of Voorhisville", a story I couldn't look away from though sometimes I wanted to cover my eyes.  It's not a nasty story in the sense of covering my eyes, but it gets exceedingly uncomfortable.  Well done.

"Grand Jete": It is no secret that I have enjoyed Rachel Swirsky's fiction of the years and "Grand Jete" is as worthy of admiration as so many of her other stories.  It is a story of a dying young girl, a father building a simulacrum of his daughter, and the heaviness of loss, grief, and fear.  It is beautiful, bitter and somewhat sweet.

We Are All Completely Fine: I am constantly surprised by how little Daryl Gregory I have actually read. I read his first novel and somehow managed to not read the rest, but We Are All Completely Fine was so good that I am for sure going to read the novel Harrison Squared, which is something of a prequel to this, a novel set in what seems like an AA group meeting, except that all of the members are survivors of some sort of serial killer level trauma - but there's even more going on with each of their stories than that.  It's fantastic, and I immediately started trying to describe the book to my wife, with little success except to say "This was excellent, you should read it."

Preliminary Thoughts on the Nebula Nominees

The Nebula Award nominees were announced on Friday and I wanted to wait a few days to think about what was nominated before posting.  Now that I've waited, I'm not sure my thoughts are any different.  Overall, this appears to be a very solid list of nominees, though I have read very few of the shorter works so I may change my mind on that.  I hope not. 


Novel
The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Tor)
Trial by Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit)
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor)
Coming Home, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals)

I have read three of the six nominated novels and they are all likely going to make my Hugo ballot. The Goblin Emperor, Ancillary Sword, and Annihilation are all outstanding works of fiction and area all more than worthy of a nomination.  I have a copy of The Three Body-Problem at home and had been looking forward to reading it regardless of any nomination it may garner.  The Nebula nomination just pushed it farther up my to-read pile.  Charles Gannon was nominated last year for his novel Fire by Fire.  I was a bit put off by the protagonist's dismissive sexism, but thought it was a well enough written novel that was easy enough to read and kept me just entertained enough to keep going.  Assuming the level of writing and storytelling in Trial by Fire is consistent with Gannon's first novel, it seems a little out of place on this ballot.

On the other hand, the SFWA is an organization with over 1800 members and as much as I think that my tastes should be much more widely shared, people enjoy and appreciate different things and they love what they love no less passionately than I do.  For them, Charles Gannon wrote outstanding novels two years in a row.  And while I haven't read Jack McDevitt before despite his frequent Nebula nominations, I understand that he writes a similar sort of science fiction.  The audience of Gannon and McDevitt are likely fairly similar.  I'll give McDevitt a shot this year.  I'm long over due. 

Novella 
We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)
Yesterday’s Kin, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
“The Regular,” Ken Liu (Upgraded)
“The Mothers of Voorhisville,” Mary Rickert (Tor.com 4/30/14)
Calendrical Regression, Lawrence Schoen (NobleFusion)
 “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap),” Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’14)

I have read three of the nominated novellas and the Mary Rickert and Rachel Swirsky stories are both consistently excellent, which is what one has come to expect from those two.  They will both be on my Hugo ballot.  Nancy Kress's story is a worthy addition, though it gave me less of the knock out punch that Rickert and Swirsky delivered.  

 Novelette
“Sleep Walking Now and Then,” Richard Bowes (Tor.com 7/9/14)
“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon,” Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14)
“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” Alaya Dawn Johnson (F&SF 7-8/14)
“The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado (Granta #129)
“We Are the Cloud,” Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed 9/14)
“The Devil in America,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 4/2/14)

I have not read any of the Novelettes and am not overly familiar with any of the authors, which means that there is a whole lot of discovery here for me.

Short Story 
“The Breath of War,” Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/6/14)
“When It Ends, He Catches Her,” Eugie Foster (Daily Science Fiction 9/26/14)
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye,” Matthew Kressel (Clarkesworld 5/14)
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family,” Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous)
 “A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide,” Sarah Pinsker (F&SF 3-4/14)
“Jackalope Wives,” Ursula Vernon (Apex 1/7/14)
“The Fisher Queen,” Alyssa Wong (F&SF 5/14)

Likewise, I have not read any of the Short Stories, though last year I very much enjoyed Sarah Pinsker's "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind".  I tend to enjoy Aliette de Bodard's fiction, whether it is a novel or short story.  The one thing that really struck me about this category, though, is that Eugie Foster's nominated story was her last story, published the day before she died.  Foster had previously won a Nebula Award in 2009. 


Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation 
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
The Lego Movie

When it comes to the Nebula Award, I tend to focus on the Nebula "Proper" and less on the Bradbury and Norton Awards.  With that said, while I haven't seen Birdman I am surprised to see a nomination here as I was not aware there were any genre elements beyond being about an actor who once played a superhero.  But maybe that's enough.  I still don't understand the raw love for The Lego Movie. 

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy 
Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan (Random House)
Salvage, Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow)
Love Is the Drug, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future, A.S. King (Little, Brown)
Dirty Wings, Sarah McCarry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Greenglass House, Kate Milford (Clarion)
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, Leslye Walton (Candlewick)

I have not read any of these novels.

2014 Nebula Award Nominees

Picked this up first from John Scalzi, below are the nominees for the 2014 Nebula Awards (presented in 2015.  I should have some initial thoughts on the nominees next week.

Congratulations to all the nominees. 

Novel
The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Tor)
Trial by Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor)
Coming Home, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals)

Novella 
We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)
Yesterday’s Kin, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
“The Regular,” Ken Liu (Upgraded)
“The Mothers of Voorhisville,” Mary Rickert (Tor.com 4/30/14)
Calendrical Regression, Lawrence Schoen (NobleFusion)
 “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap),” Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’14)

 Novelette
“Sleep Walking Now and Then,” Richard Bowes (Tor.com 7/9/14)
“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon,” Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14)
“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” Alaya Dawn Johnson (F&SF 7-8/14)
“The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado (Granta #129)
“We Are the Cloud,” Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed 9/14)
“The Devil in America,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 4/2/14)

Short Story 
“The Breath of War,” Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/6/14)
“When It Ends, He Catches Her,” Eugie Foster (Daily Science Fiction 9/26/14)
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye,” Matthew Kressel (Clarkesworld 5/14)
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family,” Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous)
 “A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide,” Sarah Pinsker (F&SF 3-4/14)
“Jackalope Wives,” Ursula Vernon (Apex 1/7/14)
“The Fisher Queen,” Alyssa Wong (F&SF 5/14)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation 
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
The Lego Movie

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy 
Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan (Random House)
Salvage, Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow)
Love Is the Drug, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future, A.S. King (Little, Brown)
Dirty Wings, Sarah McCarry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Greenglass House, Kate Milford (Clarion)
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, Leslye Walton (Candlewick)

2013 Nebula Award Winners

(Via Tor.com)

The 2013 Nebula Awards were given out last night. Below is the list of winners (full nominees can be found here):

Best Novel: Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
Best Novella: "The Weight of the Sunrise", by Vylar Kaftan
Best Novelette: "The Waiting Stars", by Aliette de Bodard (my review)
Best Short Story: "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love", by Rachael Swirsky (my review)
Ray Bradbury Award for Best Dramatic Presentation: Gravity
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction: Sister Mine, by Nalo Hopkinson

Congratulations to all the winners.  I was not able to read either Ann Leckie's novel or Vylar Kaftan's novella before the awards, but I very much enjoyed and admired the stories from Aliette de Bodard and Rachael Swirsky. I have been a fan of both authors for years and I am very happy that each were recognized with Nebula Awards this year.  Congratulations again.

Thoughts on the Nebula Award Nominees: Novels

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)
Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Hild, Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island)
A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)
The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (Harper)

This is my final post covering the nominees of this year's Nebula Awards.  Very disappointingly, I was not able to read all of the nominees before the awards will be given this weekend, though I expect to read two of the three I missed sometime this summer. 

Though I did not get to read Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice for my Nebula reading, I will be reading it as part of my Hugo Award reading and coverage. That said, I would read this book regardless of nominations.  Likewise, I missed out on Hild, from Nicola Griffith. I am a fan of her work, and for reasons, I did not acquire the book when I thought that I might, and that threw a very large wrench into my plans. The other novel I did not get the chance to read was Linda Nagata's The Red: First Light. I am still not buying very many books right now, and because it was a self published novel, my library did not carry it. This was always the book that I was going to miss out on.

So, with those three novels not part of this conversation, what follows is some brief thoughts, with links to my reviews, of each of the nominees in reverse order of my esteem.

A Stranger in Olondria (my thoughts): I do very much recommend clicking through to my not-quite-a-review and following links there and looking at what other people, smarter than me, have to say about it. I expect that I am very much in the minority for this novel. I can see, sort of, what other readers appreciate in this, but I just can't get there myself.

Fire with Fire: I am not quite sure what to think about this book. It was intriguing enough that I wanted to keep reading and learn more about what is going on, but compared to the other nominees on this slate, it seems out of place and slight. This doesn't come across as Big Science Fiction like I think of Peter Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds, and it may be more accessible than either one of those two writers, but it also isn't nearly as good. Also, I was thrown off very early on with the protagonist's sexism towards a woman who was to be his corporate "guide" on the new world. I don't really expect or desire all characters to be upstanding citizens, but it was still jarring and offputting. Regardless of that, Fire with Fire was a fairly well crafted novel, just not one that I would put forth as one of the best of the year.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (my review): From my review: "This is a novel about memory and family, and yes about the secrets that people keep, even from themselves.  It is quietly beautiful and sad.  Fowler challenges the expectations of readers, both in what they think about the novel but also what they think about in general.  It is quite a challenge."

The Ocean at the End of the Lane (my review): This was very, very good. I think it might be one of the best things that Gaiman has written. I still haven't completely decided how to interpret the novel, whether as a recollection of events exactly as they happened, or the projection of very real fears by a child who cannot quite understand what he is struggling with. Either way, it is a wonderful novel.

The Golem and the Jinni (my review): Oh, how I love this novel. Helene Wecker cannot write her second novel fast enough, whatever it is going to be. This is a rich, vibrant novel, and I will recommend it to everyone I meet.

I do not have the faintest idea how the SFWA will vote for this award, and I will not be terribly surprised if A Stranger for Olondria wins the award, but I do think that The Golem and the Jinni was very much the strongest novel on the slate (out of the ones I have read). Ancillary Justice has been nominated for pretty much everything this year and I hold Nicola Griffith in the highest esteem, so I would like to see her win the Nebula just because she is a fantastic writer and I expect that Hild is a masterwork. But, I haven't read it. 

Overall, and this goes for the short fiction categories as well, I think that this was a very strong year for the Nebula Awards. Well done, SFWA.

Thoughts on the Nebula Award Nominees: Novellas

‘‘Wakulla Springs," by Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages (Tor.com 10/2/13)
‘‘The Weight of the Sunrise,’’ Vylar Kaftan (Asimov’s 2/13)
‘‘Annabel Lee,” Nancy Kress (New Under the Sun)
‘‘Burning Girls,’’ Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com 6/19/13)
‘‘Trial of the Century,’’ Lawrence M. Schoen (lawrencemschoen.com, 8/13; World Jumping)
Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean)

This is going to be somewhat of a disappointing post, but given that I have had to pre-schedule my Nebula wrap up posts due to the vacation that I am currently on (picture me on an island, on a beach, with a delicious drink in my hand), I also very much ran out of time to do much with my reading of the Nebula nominated novellas. 

By "do much", I mean "read anything other than Cat Valente's novella".   I have downloaded the available stories; so I have everything except for the Nancy Kress, which is also not available through my library system or through interlibrary loan. 


Six-Gun Snow White (my review): On my ballot of one, Valente wins?


Having only read one of the nominated stories, I don't have much of an emotional stake in this.  "Wakulla Springs" has also been nominated for a Hugo Award, and I will read it as part of my coverage of that award (I promise).  I have seen unfailingly positive comments directed towards it as well, but I have also seen folks talking up "Burning Girls", so I don't know.

On the other hand, if I'm only aware of a fraction of who is speaking online, anything could surprise me.  I would expect the award to go to either Duncan / Klages, Schanoes, or Valente. 

I would like to say that I will absolutely get to all of the nominated stories after the awards are given out this weekend, but since I will begin my Hugo reading as early as possible, I suspect that I will miss out on most of these stories. The exception to this is that I will try to read whatever story wins the award, assuming that it is not Catherynne Valente's story. 

Tomorrow: Novels!

Thoughts on the Nebula Award Nominees: Novelettes

‘‘Paranormal Romance,’’ Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed 6/13)
‘‘The Waiting Stars,’’ Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky)
‘‘They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass,’’ Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s 1/13)
‘‘Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters,’’ Henry Lien (Asimov’s 12/13)
‘‘The Litigation Master and the Monkey King,’’ Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/13)
‘‘In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind,’’ Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons 7/1 – 7/8/13)

Today I continue my coverage of the Nebula Awards with my second post, this time doing a wrap-up of the Novelette category. As with the short stories, I was able to read all of the nominees this year, which makes writing and thinking about the category much easier.  I will talk a little bit about each one in reverse order of how I felt about the stories, with links to anything I previously wrote about them. 


"Paranormal Romance" (my review): I mentioned in my review of "Paranormal Romance" that I would like to read more stories dealing with Sheila and Corinne, and that remains true today. There is nothing wrong with this story, but it just doesn't feel as strong or as immediately important as the other stories. That's not a flaw, but in evaluating for an award, it isn't enough.

"The Waiting Stars" (my review): This is where things begin to get difficult for me. I'm a fan of what Aliette de Bodard writes and she seldom disappoints, nor did she here. I very much like this sort of fiction, and I could flip this with the next story very easily, but today, this is where I would place it if I had a Nebula ballot. It's very good, though, so please don't assume placement is indicative of quality. The bar is raised here.

"They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass" (my review): If there is any chance that Johnson is going to write more "glassman" novels, please sign me up to be one of the first readers to get a copy. There is so much room here for additional stories and she hooked me fairly early in wanting more and wanting to know more.

"In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind" (my review): I'll quote myself: "This is a moving, emotional story.  It is beautiful, and at touches, heartbreaking.  But the heartbreak here is not the raw heartbreak of some of the nominated short stories, but more that of a long life well lived that is very much in its last moments, whether those moments are days or years.  The heartbreak is also in the loss of an ambition and the cause for it.  It hints at some of the American mythology and legends that we don't really believe, though we tell ourselves, "maybe.""

"Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters" (my review): Ask me tomorrow, and this may be my choice for the best story on the Novelette slate. Also, as much as I want that Alaya Dawn Johnson novel that probably isn't going to happen, I really, really want the subsequent Pearl novel that Henry Lien is currently shopping out. I am told that the tone will be different, but it'll be a direct sequel. I absolutely cannot wait and I hope it sells fast, for a lot of money, and we get many more.

"The Litigation Master and the Monkey King" (my review): As I mentioned for the Lien story, I could easily flip these two on any given day and feel good about the decision. It's probably best that I'm not a member of SFWA with a vote.  This is the story I read most recently, and I may be struck by the emotions of reading the story, but as with many of Ken Liu's stories, this one is just really damn good. Liu is one of the finest short story writers we have working today and this is another excellent tale.


If I had to guess, and why else am I doing this if not to do exactly that, the award will go to either Ken Liu or Henry Lien. If I had a vote, this list is how I would vote, but I feel fairly good about the relative quality of all of the stories and how I can see SFWA members voting. Sometimes it is tougher, where I just cannot connect to a story that I know a lot of other people will (I feel that way about a number of stories from Charles Stross). Overall, though, this was a solid lineup of stories, and one well worth reading.

Thoughts on the Nebula Award Nominees: Short Stories

‘‘The Sounds of Old Earth,’’ Matthew Kressel (Lightspeed 1/13)
‘‘Selkie Stories Are for Losers,’’ Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons 1/7/13)
‘‘Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer,’’ Kenneth Schneyer (Clockwork Phoenix 4)
‘‘If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love,’’ Rachel Swirsky (Apex 3/13)
‘‘Alive, Alive Oh,’’ Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (Lightspeed 6/13)

With the Nebula Awards to be given out this coming weekend, I would like to discuss the nominees with a series of wrap-up posts.  This first one is for the short stories. Happily, I have read all of the stories this time around and as a whole found this to be a solid line up.  I will talk a little bit about each one in reverse order of how I felt about the stories, with links to anything I previously wrote about them.


"Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" (my review): This was always going to be a tough sell for me as fiction about art and the formatting of program notes is just something that I have a difficult time engaging with.  This was easily my least favorite of the stories and there is a pretty noticeable gap between how I felt about this one and the other four.

"The Sounds of Old Earth" (my review): This is where putting the stories in any type of ranking is madness and becomes frustrating. I like all four of the remaining stories and they each impinge upon a different part of my heart and on what I like about fiction.  They all do different things.  But, I think the Kressel story, as much as I like it, takes up a smaller part of my heart than the rest. I like this damn story.

"Selkie Stories Are for Losers" (my review): Based on what I've been reading online about this story, about the Nebulas, and even about how some writers were talking about the Hugos, I would not at all be surprised if this story wins the Nebula this weekend. Samatar has received a lot of good press this year and this story is a very good one.  I feel that this one may be a favorite, even if it is not my favorite.  It is a wonderful story dealing with loss and leaving and not being where you belong.

"Alive, Alive Oh" (my review): Ask me on a different day, and I might flip this and the Samatar, but today it goes like this.  I loved this story for what I had to imagine between the lines, for all of the story left untold that I so very much wanted to know about, that I was almost desperate to know about.

"If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" (my review): It is no secret that I am a fan of Rachel Swirsky's fiction.  I've been reading her for years and I know each time I read one of her stories that there is a strong chance I am reading one of the best stories of any given year. It is a difficult reputation to live up to, but she does so, and on a consistent basis.  This one twists and breaks my heart and it's the one I've read multiple times and want to pass around and make sure that other people read this.


My guess is that the Sofia Samatar story is the one that will win the Nebula and that Matthew Kressel will be the runner up.  My heart, however, does belong to Rachel Swirsky's story.  It was easily the most moving and impactful story of the nominees, which isn't necessarily a marker for how "good" a story is but it is what made it the most remarkable.  Overall, though, this was a solid lineup of fiction.

Nebula Award Nominee: "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King"

"The Litigation Master and the Monkey King"
Ken Liu
Lightspeed: August
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novelette

Tian closed his eyes and thought about Yangzhou, with its teahouses full of indolent scholars arguing with singing girls about rhyme schemes, with its palatial mansions full of richly-robed merchants celebrating another good trading season, with its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants happily praying for the Manchu Emperor’s health. Did they know that each day, as they went to the markets and laughed and sang and praised this golden age they lived in, they were treading on the bones of the dead, they were mocking the dying cries of the departed, they were denying the memories of ghosts? He himself had not even believed the stories whispered in his childhood about Yangzhou’s past, and he was quite sure that most young men in Yangzhou now have never even heard of them.

Now that he knew the truth, could he allow the ghosts to continue to be silenced? 

What is heroism?

There is a conversation midway through the story between the titular characters about heroes from the past, how people are never just one thing, and, though it is left directly unaddressed, how much strength is required for an "ordinary" person to push down all of his fear just far enough so that he can stand up and act.  It is only a small section, and it likely plays out in any number of stories written as long as stories have been told, but it is absolutely vital and Ken Liu plays that scene perfectly.

I don't know if this is the central point that Liu is making with "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King", or it has to do more with facing history with honesty, or if it is something else entirely, but this is what I have latched on to.  No matter what else this is a story about, this is a story about heroism and doing something that is right, to hell with the personal consequences.

It hurts.

It makes you question.

It makes you question, not just history, but also the present.

I was curious, having read this story, how much of the historical events referenced had actually happened. They had. Perhaps not the exact story of Tian Haoli, but the massacre happened. The document referenced is real. These are details that reader knowledgeable of Chinese history would not have to question, they would understand the references.  Western readers without that background can be stunned by those referenced events, but there is actual history referenced here. 

This is a difficult story to read, and the closer to the end, the more emotionally wrenching the act of reading becomes.

Tian sat down and closed his eyes. “I’m just an old and frightened man, Monkey. I don’t know what to do.”

Nebula Award Nominee: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
Marian Wood: 2013
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novel

In her review of the novel in the New York Times, Barbara Kingsolver wrote, "To experience this novel exactly as the author intended, a reader should avoid the flap copy and everything else written about it. Including this review." It is fair warning, though, because the narrator of the story, Rosemary Cooke, is intentionally holding back a significant piece of information until midway through the novel in order to build up the reader's expectations and image of what is going on before gently subverting it. That reveal is important, and as Rosemary suggests, understanding that what the reader knows will shape how certain facts are viewed, the reader would not accept certain truths the way that she sees them if they were presented in a straightforward manner.

If all of that sounds intentionally vague, it is.  The difficulty in talking about We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves lies in the nature of that very secret. If, like most other reviews written about the book in newspapers, the reviewer chooses to reveal that secret, writing about the book becomes easier but the reader loses the ability to discover that secret and, as Kingsolver wrote in her review before doing exactly that, "to experience the novel exactly as the author intended."  However, this is not a "spoiler" that is revealed in the first two chapters of the book, which I believe are fair game, because those early events are things on which entire novels are predicated.  This novel has something which the narrator (and the author) has chosen to hide, in order to alter the reading experience.

This is a lot of time spent talking around something that I have no plans to reveal within the bounds of this review.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is Rosemary Cooke's story, and narrating from the present day, she jumps back and forth in time to tell it, alternating between her childhood, school years, and college years.  The childhood and college years are the most important here and, as such, get the most time.  In her freshman year of college, Rosemary realizes that she has had the weirdest family, but unlike those potential new friends, she is reluctant to talk about it so she can escape so much of the stigma she dealt with growing up.

Her family: scientist parents, a brother who ran away and is wanted by the FBI, and a sister who disappeared. And Rosemary herself.

How Karen Joy Fowler tells this story through the eyes of Rosemary is nothing short of masterful.  The reveals change how we read the novel and the construction of how Fowler builds the story is wonderful.  Rosemary is a narrator with a specific point of view, and as we get closer to the end, we see that she also has an agenda and it is tied into the larger central secret of the novel. Of course, everything is. It permeates the novel.

This is a novel about memory and family, and yes about the secrets that people keep, even from themselves.  It is quietly beautiful and sad.  Fowler challenges the expectations of readers, both in what they think about the novel but also what they think about in general.  It is quite a challenge.

Nebula Award Nominee: "Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters"

"Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters"
Henry Lien
Asimov's: December 2013
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novelette

I am called familial name Jiang, personal name Suki, although I prefer to be referred to as Her Grace, Radiant Goddess Princess Suki, and I think this is the stupidest essay ever assigned and I think that Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters is the stupidest place under Heaven.

You wish us to to write this essay about what we have done and learned during our sentence here at Pearl Colony. You have "Wicked Girls Return as Good" carved over the entrance gate. You think that girls can be humiliated into excellence. You think that we can be shamed into preparing for the examination for the Pearl Opera Academy next year by making us say that we are lazy and ungrateful. Think whatever you want.

That's the opening to Henry Lien's Nebula nominated story, and it is definitely a statement opening that causes the reader to pay attention.  Is this story about to be the full essay of an entitled young woman ranting her way through what she has learned during her forced time at the Pearl Colony?  It is difficult to tell, because shortly after that first passage, the tone shifts from the forceful first person perspective of the essay into a more standard first person perspective of "just" a story.  Which begs the question, is the meat of the story part of the essay Suki has written or is the story telling of Suki's time self narrated but more of an interlude?

I'm not quite sure how much it matters, either to me or at all.  The way I choose to read the main narrative is that it is part of Suki's essay and that at the very end, when the tone shifts back to what we see in those first paragraphs and Suki reveals what she has learned, it is coming out of her revealing what her perspective on her experience at Pearl Colony was.  The only trouble with this reading is that there is a significant tonal shift.  While the entire story is full of Suki's personality ("Normally, girls get kicked out for smoking sinkweed or violating curfew or getting caught with boys in their rooms, but this one is so uptight she probably wipes her ass with lace scarves") and her exclamations ("Piss me off to death"), I was surprised when the story moved into a more traditional storytelling style and away from the informal essay style of the opening paragraphs. 

That shift likely allows "Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters" to be a much more successful story than it would have been if it had retained the informal essay format of those first paragraphs. Suki details, from her perspective, the horrible treatment all of the ungrateful daughters have received, beginning with the first day where the students start with three hours of a toe kicking drill without bathroom breaks, followed by six hours of jumping drills.  The question here, of course, is whether Suki can be considered a reliable narrator.  If this is her essay, is she exaggerating her experiences? Does her obvious anger at having to go to this "school" influence how we read the character and her relative honesty in telling her story?

The final thing I want to mention is that in this story, there is something called Wu-Liu.  Wu-Liu is this odd melding of ice skating (except that the skating is a surface made of pearl) and kung-fu.  It is baffling and completely awesome. Even more awesome, Henry Lien has a forthcoming novel (The Taming of the Pearl) which is a sequel to this story.  I can't wait to see more from Lien.  This was a fantastic story and one of my favorites, so far, of my Nebula reading.

Nebula Award Nominee: "The Waiting Stars", by Aliette de Bodard

"The Waiting Stars"
Aliette de Bodard
The Other Half of the Sky
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novelette

Two stories. 

The first, that of Lan Nhen searching through what is an interstellar boneyard of derelict ships that have been attacked and abandoned.  She searches for her great-aunt's ship, a Mind Ship, which science fiction readers will recognize as being code for a sentient ship of some sort, whether it is a human mind controlling the ship or something similar one of Anne McCaffrey's brain ships that are alive in their own right.  Either way, a derelict Mind Ship is a horrible thing to contemplate, but Lan Nhen is hoping to restore and rescue the ship. 

The second is Catherine, a young woman who was rescued as a child "so that you wouldn't become brood mares for abominations."  She lives in the Institution, which seems to be a rehabilitative center to transition the children from the lives they once knew into citizens of the Galactics. That they were being made safe.  But, this also has the ring of American history and the treatment of Native American children being forced to give up their language and "savage" culture in the Americanizing schools in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  This isn't, by any means, a stretch of a comparison.  Given that Catherine and her fellow students / captives / dorm mates are described as being "smaller and darker skinned" and that "one only had to look at them, at their squatter, darker shapes, at the way their eyes crinkled when they laughed", the story of Lan Nhen suggests that these children were "rescued" from the more southwest Asian heritage of the Mind Ship families. Is there a similar history with the Vietnamese compared to the Native Americans?  Or, is the comparison too easy because of what I bring to the table as an American reader?  

While the two stories seemingly remain separate, it doesn't take long for the reader to see what de Bodard is doing here, how she is weaving the two together while letting the two stories run separately.  The two story strands make a much stronger whole than if either strand was the entire story.  

"The Waiting Stars" is a fantastic science fiction story, heart rending as the gradual reveal is given of what is going on with those children, now grown, are living with and dealing with. With what is left buried that is eating them from the inside out.  "The Waiting Stars" is good and it is smart. 

Nebula Award Nominee: The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker

The Golem and the Jinni
Helene Wecker
Harper Collins: 2013
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novel

New York City, 1899. A golem arrives on a steamship and escapes to find her way, masterless, in the city.  A jinni, trapped in a copper flask for one thousand years, is released by a tinsmith. 

From the author's website:

Each unknown to the other, the Golem and the Jinni explore the strange and altogether human city. Chava, as a kind old rabbi names her, is beset by the desires and wishes of others, which she can feel tugging at her. Ahmad, christened by the tinsmith who makes him his apprentice, is aggravated by human dullness. Both must work to create places for themselves in this new world, and develop tentative relationships with the people who surround them.

Helene Wecker posits a world in which cultural mythology is real, where the Jewish mysticism and magic that allows someone to create a facsimile of life out of clay is possible, and where intelligent spirits of fire really do exist out in the deserts of the Middle East.  She has done so, and then she places these two creatures in the turn of the century New York City and surrounds them, initially, with caring individuals who welcome them into their lives.  This is important, because it provides the opportunity for the reader to become immersed in the various immigrant pockets of the city and into the lives of the Golem and the Jinni as they, respectively, figure out who they are and how to exist in this world so far from what they know. 

The conflict here, however, is much more than these two beings passing as human and the inherent struggle that presents when one is a creature of fire in a city surrounded by water and the other doesn't breathe, can hear thoughts and desires, and has only been alive for several months.  Though, that by itself is enough to tell a story.  It's just not all that Wecker is doing with this novel.  There is more, and it begins to set up fairly early in the novel, but saying more about how Wecker weaves all of this together is to lessen the impact. 

But, lessening the impact of seeing how everything fits together is also a minor concern because the true impact of The Golem and the Jinni is how beautifully written and constructed this novel is.  It is easy to get lost in this early New York City, and while we may believe that it is fraught with peril and dirt and grime of industry, it is also beautiful and haunting and full of the promise that is the new world and a second and third chance for the immigrants coming to find something new, different, or better.  That exists in The Golem and the Jinni and it comes across well. 

The Golem and the Jinni is surely one of the best novels published last year and the most remarkable thing about it is that this is the debut novel from Helene Wecker. It is a stunning work of fiction, beautiful and moving and all of the other superlatives I could come up with to pile on top. I say this in April, but this will be one of my favorite reads of the year. I have no doubt.

Nebula Award Nominee: "They Shall Salt the Earth With Seeds of Glass"

"They Shall Salt the Earth With Seeds of Glass"
Alaya Dawn Johnson
Asimov's: January 2013
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novelette

I want a novel length version of this, or at least set in this world.  I want to know more, so much more.

No one knows what they really look like. They only interact with us through their remote-controlled robots. Maybe they’re made of glass themselves – they give us pregnancy kits, but won’t bother with burn dressings. Dad says the glassmen are alien scientists studying our behavior, like a human would smash an anthill to see how they scatter. Reverand Beale always points to the pipeline a hundred miles west of us. They’re just men stealing our resources, he says, like the white man stole the Africans’, though even he can’t say what those resources might be.

The title refers to bomb fragments the aliens, the glassmen, have dropped. The bombs look like little jewels waiting for a child to pick them up, except picking it up is death by explosion.  Are the bombs just bombs, like seeding a road with land mines?  Do they have another purpose?  Does it matter?  I don't know, but this setting of a ruined future is so perfectly created that I am left with the desire for more and more.

The story itself is of two sisters and the new challenge provided by the pregnancy of the younger woman.  Her desire for an abortion in a society where so many services have been destroyed by the glassmen is the driving force of the narrative, and it is a well told story that moves the sisters through this world and into parts of the land they had not been to.

The wonder here is in trying to piece together what happened to this America (and, presumably, the world at large), what the glassmen are and how they interact with humans.  Nothing is ever fully explained, but the reader comes away with a fairly solid idea of how this all pieces together.  It's fascinating and, beyond just the story that Johnson is telling, it leaves the reader wanting more.  Maybe more of these two sisters, maybe more of the "terrorists" the glassmen are concerned about, maybe just more of everything. 

Nebula Award Nominee: "Paranormal Romance", by Christopher Barzak

"Paranormal Romance"
Christopher Barzak
Lightspeed Magazine: June 2013
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novelette

Witchcraft, love potions, werewolves, and bad dates. At a quick glance, that's some of what "Paranormal Romance" contains, but that's a gross simplification and it's borderline inaccurate because it suggests something else, something lesser.  What we actually have here is the story of a woman who happens to be a witch and who creates temporary love spells for her clients and who has a mother who is concerned about her daughter's lack of a romantic life, even if the daughter is not.

That still makes the story sound trite.  It is not.

This desire for normality also explained why Sheila wanted to kill her mother after she opened the door that evening to find a man dressed in a black leather jacket, tight blue jeans, a black v-neck shirt, and work boots, sporting a scraggly goatee, whose first words were, “Wow, you don’t look like a witch. That’s interesting.”

“Probably the least interesting thing about me,” said Sheila. She tried to restrain herself, but couldn’t refrain from arching her eyebrows as a cat might raise its back. 

This is just the story of a woman. That's it.

While this is a pleasant and enjoyable story and one which I enjoyed reading, I'm not quite convinced this will be near the top of my Nebula list for the novelettes. With that said, I would happily read more stories Christopher Barzak happens to write about Sheila the witch. Or, more about Corinne.

Nebula Award Nominee: A Stranger in Olondria

This is more of an acknowledgment than it is a review.  I suspected that I would struggle with A Stranger in Olondria and I was correct.  There is a formality to the prose that as a reader, I found difficult to engage with.  The novel takes the form of a memoir, and to me, it had the feeling of a hundreds of years old memoir. 

This isn't to say that how I felt about A Stranger in Olondria is representative of the overall consensus.  I believe that I am in the minority opinion.  Nic Clarke raved about it at Strange Horizons.  Amal El-Mohtar was entranced at Tor.com.  Abigail Nussbaum was impressed, and has since said that "the farther I get from this novel, the more special it seems."  Cheryl Morgan liked it.  They aren't wrong.  This is the difference in who readers are and what they bring to the table.  For all the things that Nick, Amal, Abigail, and Cheryl appreciated about the novel, I failed to. 

I am just unable to express this very eloquently at all, and I was only able to push through the first half of the book before putting it aside.  If I hadn't planned to cover the various Nebula nominated works, I probably wouldn't have mentioned the book at all.  I tend to not talk about the books I don't finish because I seldom have anything constructive to add to the conversation.  Other people have much smarter things to say about this than I.