2015 Nebula nominees

[psocoptera]

Nebula nominees! Bolding things I've read, starring things I already had my eye on to try to read. Please feel free to point out things on here that you think I would like. Alas, there aren't any categories where I've read enough of the nominees to try to make a prediction this year, but I'd love to hear other people's predictions if you have any!

Novel
Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu
Uprooted, Naomi Novik
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen
Updraft, Fran Wilde*

Novella
Wings of Sorrow and Bone, Beth Cato
“The Bone Swans of Amandale,” C.S.E. Cooney
“The New Mother,” Eugene Fischer
“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn,” Usman T. Malik
Binti, Nnedi Okorafor*
“Waters of Versailles,” Kelly Robson

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*
Inside Out
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
Court of Fives, Kate Elliott
Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace
Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee
Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older
Bone Gap, Laura Ruby*
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson
Updraft, Fran Wilde*

Comments

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize I knew anyone who still hadn't seen Fury Road. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Zeroboxer isn't great at plot or character (and I'm a little surprised it got the nod) but the concept is amazing and the zero-gravity fight scenes are really interesting.

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Fury Road is phenomenal. Just so unexpectedly good. It's going to be hard for me to decide whether MM:FR or Star Wars will get the #1 spot on my Hugo ballot.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Heh, probably The Martian for me, unless Ex Machina turns out to be amazing. I loved TFA but it doesn't feel as much like a Hugos sort of love, to me? I don't know, I've deleted a couple of explanations of this and maybe it just doesn't make sense. I have a bias towards voting for good standalone science fiction over any of fantasy, superheroes, nostalgia, movies that end up weirdly important to me personally, etc, I guess.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Heh, I feel like I know a lot about Fury Road through fandom osmosis and have enjoyed that without feeling a lot of draw to actually see it? I'm very curious to see whether it'll get nominated for a Hugo (it's interesting where Hugo fandom and fandom-fandom do or don't overlap) and will definitely watch it if it does. I guess until then it would make a killer "Never Have I Ever". :)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

But the reasons it's so great are all about aesthetics and subtleties and visuals. Osmosis is great for the meta side of things, and discussion certainly enriched my second and third viewings of the movie a good deal, but you gotta actually watch it! My thing, love my thing! XD

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Oh, huh, Deepwater Bride is up for nomination. I haven't read it, but was going to back when it was originally going to be a (free) webcomic. I mostly like Tamsyn Muir's stuff, but it can get a bit inaccessible. And with a few exceptions she tends toward dark (sometimes a-)morality tales, and as far as I know from back when it was being advertised as an upcoming webcomic, this was going to be a horror story (about half her stuff is).

Seconding that Fury Road is excellent. Otherwise, the few things on here that I've read/watched that you haven't, I basically loved but don't think would be to your tastes. (I mean, first of all, The Fifth Season, where I totally understand why you didn't get very far in it and think for those reasons it would not be for you, but I still love it a lot.)