2026 Nebula Nominees

I have my laptop back! There is much rejoicing and also catching up! The one thing I will say about having my battery and remaining functional port fail more or less simultaneously is that I only had to pay the open-the-case fee once, yay efficiency, otherwise I do not recommend it.

Anyways! Some things have happened, such as the Nebula nominees coming out! Here, or below the cut with my comments.

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some graphic novels

I still hope for another round of Annual Take Advantage Of My Best Friend's Comic Purchasing Day, but in my first pass at sitting in her living room and reading her books, I enjoyed:

The Other Jay & Eve, Emma Jayne, 2025 graphic. What if you and your roommate got duplicated for money and then you met up with your duplicates and then you found out they were *engaged*. An obviously instantly compelling premise with good execution, although I initially felt like it didn't reach a satisfying conclusion, but on further reflection I think it worked, and definitely worthwhile overall.

Who Killed Nessie?, Paul Cornell and Rachel Smith, 2025 graphic. A murder mystery at a convention for mythological creatures, which one newbie hotel worker has been left by her coworkers to staff. Fun premise and a bunch of the joke made me laugh.

Testament, J. Marshall Smith, 2025 graphic. A nun and a caretaker robot, the last survivors of a one-way mission of planetary exploration, contemplate their situation. This is exactly the sort of thing I like - space nuns, quiet sad thinky stuff about how space exploration might really work and who would do it and what it would be like, beautifully illustrated alien biology. Recommended to fans of To Be Taught If Fortunate, Scavengers Reign, and maybe anyone who remembers whatever that Robert L. Forward novel with the one-way mission was.

Mickey 17

Mickey 17, 2025 science fiction movie directed by Bong Joon Ho and staring Robert Pattinson as a hapless space colonist who has agreed to be killed and reprinted over and over again as a way to escape Earth. I'm always excited to see a movie try to do what I might call "real science fiction" and there were some interesting elements and moments but I didn't really feel like it all hung together. Maybe if it had tried to do a little less? I was more interested in the sfnal or personal character story than in the political satire parts. I mean, I was interested in seeing a movie do a multiple-bodies story, and I'm interested in first-contact stories, but I didn't end up feeling like it said anything particularly interesting about either, alas.