Nebula nominees!

Nebula finalists are out!

Novel
The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal
The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang
Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
Witchmark, C.L. Polk
Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse

Spinning Silver and Blackfish City are both on my Hugo noms so this is a good sign for them. I had actually thought that Semiosis might make the Nebula ballot (I mean, I predicted it would) so clearly I was wrong about that. Adding Witchmark and Poppy War to my to-reads.

Novella
Fire Ant, Jonathan P. Brazee
The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark
The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard
Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson
Artificial Condition, Martha Wells

I'm so excited to see Black God's Drums on here. Lucky Peach is also one of my noms. I think it's interesting that despite all my efforts to seek out novellas there are two on here I hadn't even heard of before (Fire Ant and Alice Payne) - neither was on the Locus list, even. Also, no Binti 3, although I still think we might see it on the Hugos.

Novelette
The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)
“The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections”, Tina Connolly (Tor.com 7/11/18)
“An Agent of Utopia”, Andy Duncan (An Agent of Utopia)
“The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births”, José Pablo Iriarte (Lightspeed 1/18)
“The Rule of Three”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Future Science Fiction Digest 12/18)
“Messenger”, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R.R. Virdi (Expanding Universe, Volume 4)

I concluded awhile ago that Only Harmless was likely to make the Hugos and I could thus wait to read it until it showed up in the packet. I liked the Iriarte story although it wasn't a standout for me.

Short Story
“Interview for the End of the World”, Rhett C. Bruno (Bridge Across the Stars)
“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”, Phenderson Djèlí Clark (Fireside 2/18)
“Going Dark”, Richard Fox (Backblast Area Clear)
“And Yet”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 3-4/18)
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/6/18)
“The Court Magician”, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed 1/18)

Definitely some stuff here to check out before I finalize my noms, hm.

Game Writing
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker (House of Tomorrow & Netflix)
The Road to Canterbury, Kate Heartfield (Choice of Games)
God of War, Matt Sophos, Richard Zangrande Gaubert, Cory Barlog, Orion Walker, and Adam Dolin (Santa Monica Studio/Sony/Interactive Entertainment)
Rent-A-Vice, Natalia Theodoridou (Choice of Games)
The Martian Job, M. Darusha Wehm (Choice of Games)

I think it's cool that this is a category now. I mean, a category I know nothing about and likely never will, but, like podcasts, I think it's cool that other people are paying attention.

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
The Good Place: “Jeremy Bearimy”, Written by: Megan Amram
Black Panther, Written by: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
A Quiet Place, Screenplay by: John Krasinski and Bryan Woods & Scott Beck
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Screenplay by: Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman
Dirty Computer, Written by: Janelle Monáe and Chuck Lightning
Sorry to Bother You, Written by: Boots Riley

Three of my Longs and one of my Shorts, aka I have seen everything on here that isn't a Place.

The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book
Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
Aru Shah and the End of Time, Roshani Chokshi
A Light in the Dark, A.K. DuBoff
Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman
Dread Nation, Justina Ireland
Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword, Henry Lien

Have added Peasprout Chen to my to-read list, and I might check out Aru Shah and see if I think Junie would like it.

In The Vanishers' Palace

In The Vanishers' Palace, Aliette de Bodard doing Beauty and the Beast, only they're both women, the beast is a dragon and doesn't need to be transformed (at least not in a shapeshifty way), and the Beauty character is there to teach her children. I expected to really like this from everything I knew about it and then it didn't quite click for me. The imagery was abstract in a way that confused me, I never quite felt the chemistry of the central romance, the worldbuilding and some of the stuff going on with some of the other characters was interesting but that's not where the story was centered, there was a lot of stuff going on about disease and treatment that I felt like I wasn't quite connecting with, I dunno. This is not quite a dis-rec - it's a short (48k) f/f fantasy novel with interesting stuff going on by de Bodard, if that's relevant to your interests you probably do want to read it - but, I dunno, it's not exactly a glowing rec, either, alas.