I received this email from Amazon today. I subscribe to their Sci Fi and Fantasy newsletter. I don’t really follow the world of Sci Fi, I just enjoy reading it. For those who are more knowledgeable, are there any works nominated here that I should consider picking up on Kindle?
https://www.amazonbookreview.com/post/27e0d9ab-3b1f-40d0-9c63-672038387e17/nebula-award-finalists
I’m working on reading for my ballot. Haven’t read all, but my favorite novel so far is The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter.
Sarah Pinsker has two strong stories. The novella “And Then There Were (N-1)” is online. and “Wind Will Rove” really stuck with me.
I read and enjoyed several of the shorter pieces such as “And Then There Were (N-One)” by Sarah Pinsker, All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, “Fandom for Robots” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, and “Carnival Nine”, Caroline M. Yoachim
I’ve read all the short stories. Not a strong field; all were flawed, nut “Utopia, LOl?” was the best.
“Fandom for Robots” stops in the middle of the story. I thought at first that part of it wsn’t posted to get you to a pay wall or something, but the comments I’ve read also remark about that. It’s a cute and very minor story at best. Why in the world should it make the ballot?
Just FYI, here are links to the works available online.
Short stories
"Fandom for Robots”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny 9-10/17)
“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM”, Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex 8/17)
“Utopia, LOL?”, Jamie Wahls (Strange Horizons 6/5/17)
“Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 9-10/17)
“The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard)”, Matthew Kressel (Tor.com 3/15/17)
“Carnival Nine”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 5/11/17)
Novellette
"A Series of Steaks”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld 1/17)
“A Human Stain”, Kelly Robson (Tor.com 1/4/17)
“Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time”, K.M. Szpara (Uncanny 5-6/17)
Novella
“And Then There were (N-1)” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/17)
The people definitely liked Uncanny Magazine.
Thanks for that. I am so behind on recent science fiction.
I read Spoonbenders and enjoyed it. It wasn’t great or life-changing, but it was good.
I’m at a little less than half the novel nominees.
Amberlough: I tried this one, I really did, but I’m pretty well saturated with novels set in a mysteriously magical and/or steampunk version of Victorian England. This wasn’t technically Victorian England, but it felt enough like it that if they wanted it to be more, say, Weimar Republica, they shoulda made that clearer. After about fifty pages I gave up.
Jade City: I finished this one, and it was fun enough–superpowered Jade-fueled gangsters in a knockoff of a mid-twentieth-century Japanese city–but there was nothing especially memorable about it.
Stone Sky: A wonderful ending to one of the best trilogies I’ve read in a very long time. The previous two won Hugos; did they win Nebulas? Of the ones I’ve tried, this one far and away wins my vote.
But I love seeing what the other nominees are; these are going on hold at the library for me :).
Interesting. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter has a similar setting, with literary characters popping up. Sort of like what Alan Moore did in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
I do love that mellieu. My one reluctance about Amberlough is that it’s listed as “Book 1.” I don’t like books that don’t end. If the resolve the main conflict and leave other questions, that’s fine, but if you have to read book two to find out what happens, I’m not particularly interested.
I read a couple of reviews of it this morning, and it sounds like the setting is more Weimar Republic than Victorian England–but in the first several chapters, that wasn’t clear enough to be important (I mean, there was a cabaret, but otherwise the politics and names and other setting aspects seemed fairly Londonish). For me, the London setting is just super played out: given all the other places you could set fantasy, why choose the city that’s seen so much already? Set your fantasy in Cairo or Seoul or Buenos Aires or Jerusalem or Dallas or Naples or Beijing or any of dozens of other major cities with a dearth of fiction set there. Let London rest!
I know that’s a personal quirk rather than a literary trend, but it gets on my nerves :).
I really enjoyed Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory but I doubt it’ll win. It features a family of disgraced hucksters and carnie performers, some of whom may (or may not) have powers of some sort.
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz was really good; if I had to vote for any of the novels, it would be this one. It’s medium future, post-climate change, with lots of robot/AI & gender politics mixed in with a modern cyberpunk-ish plot.
I have a feeling The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin will win the novel category. It’s the final part of a very well received trilogy.
Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren in the YA Andre Norton Award list was too long, with a really stodgy middle where there’s a lot of easily skipable time travel stuff you know will make very little difference to the overall story.
For shorter stuff, I’ve only read the novella River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey. What if hippos had been introduced to raise for meat in the southern swamplands!? Sort of an alternate history western. Good fun but I haven’t bothered reading the sequel yet. (Both stories, plus more, get published together soon as American Hippo).
Alchemist’s Daughter is clearly Victorian, with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Jeckyll, and many other literary figures of the time.
I’ve glanced at Amberlough; it’s clearly set in a fantasy world, but with similarities to 19th century England.
I’ve been catching up on Hugo winners, and when I read the first of the trilogy I rushed out to get the second before it won also. I agree, the third is just as good, and not bloated like too many third novels of trilogies.
Most of the other Hugo winners in series I’ve read I’ve had no desire to read more of.
I got off my ass and looked this up (okay, technically, this involved no off-ass-getting): no, they were beaten by Uprooted and All the Birds in the Sky, both of which are IMO far inferior novels (Uprooted was pretty good, but not as good as Ancillary Mercy or The Fifth Season that year; and All the Birds in the Sky was a bit of forgettable didacticism, which definitely should’ve lost to The Obelisk Gate). My prediction is that the Peter Jackson/ROTK effect will kick in, and Stone Sky will win as a stand-in for the entire trilogy.