2021 Nebula nominees!
Mar. 15th, 2021 10:10 pmSee them here or behind the cut with my commentary!
NOVEL
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin
Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk
Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse
Network Effect, Martha Wells
Well, props to Ursula for solid predictions here. I guess they were technically Hugo predictions, but same difference. Signs definitely point to me needing to read Piranesi and City We Became. (I am trying to read Black Sun right now but the library ebook turned out not to be the usual format and blah blah blah I'm probably going to wait longer until I can get a copy where I can navigate back to the map and chara list if I want to, phooey.)
NOVELLA
“Tower of Mud and Straw”, Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis)
Finna, Nino Cipri
Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark
“Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon”, Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg
Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi
Very interesting. More I didn't see coming than I would have guessed, honestly. "Tower of Mud and Straw" is not on the Locus list, the rest are, for "how predictive is the Locus list" tracking. I'm particularly surprised not to see Empress of Salt and Fortune, hm.
NOVELETTE
“Stepsister”, Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
“The Pill”, Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
“Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
“Two Truths and a Lie”, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
“Where You Linger”, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
“Shadow Prisons”, Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as “The Shadow Prison Experiment”, “Shadow Prisons of the Mind”, and “The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma”, Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Not my favs, but seems plausible. Half on the Locus list, half not (the Cypess, Stufflebeam, and Yoachim stories are the not.) I guess I would have read the Stufflebeam story already if I had read all of Uncanny like I have in other years.
SHORT STORY
“Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse”, Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
“Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math”, Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
“A Guide for Working Breeds”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
“The Eight-Thousanders”, Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
“My Country Is a Ghost”, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
“Open House on Haunted Hill”, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
I'm reading Made to Order right now and I wasn't that impressed by "A Guide for Working Breeds" but I'm also a pretty hard sell on stories that lean on the appeal of cats or dogs. I mean, the story is not about that, and it's a fun story, but "likes dogs" just isn't a sympathetic character trait for me in the way I think it is for some people. The Picchi and Sanford stories are not on the Locus list, the rest are.
THE ANDRE NORTON NEBULA AWARD FOR MIDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
A Game of Fox & Squirrels, Jenn Reese (Holt)
Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)
I've only read two of these but I've heard of two others, which seems better than some years! No Raybearer or Game of F&S on the Locus list (but those are the other two I'd heard of, from friends).
GAME WRITING
Blaseball, Stephen Bell, Joel Clark, Sam Rosenthal (The Game Band)
Hades, Greg Kasavin (Supergiant)
Kentucky Route Zero, Jake Elliott (Cardboard Computer)
The Luminous Underground, Phoebe Barton (Choice of Games)
Scents & Semiosis, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Cat Manning, Caleb Wilson, Yoon Ha Lee (Self)
Spiritfarer, Nicolas Guérin, Maxime Monast, Alex Tommi-Morin (Thunder Lotus Games)
I know nothing about any of this but "Scents and Semiosis" is... intriguing, as a title.
THE RAY BRADBURY NEBULA AWARD FOR DRAMATIC PRESENTATION
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
The Expanse: “Gaugamela”
The Good Place: “Whenever You’re Ready”
Lovecraft Country, Season 1
The Mandalorian: “The Tragedy”
The Old Guard, Greg Rucka
Heyyy, I've seen The Old Guard! Look at me, I'm participating in watching-things culture!
NOVEL
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin
Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk
Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse
Network Effect, Martha Wells
Well, props to Ursula for solid predictions here. I guess they were technically Hugo predictions, but same difference. Signs definitely point to me needing to read Piranesi and City We Became. (I am trying to read Black Sun right now but the library ebook turned out not to be the usual format and blah blah blah I'm probably going to wait longer until I can get a copy where I can navigate back to the map and chara list if I want to, phooey.)
NOVELLA
“Tower of Mud and Straw”, Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis)
Finna, Nino Cipri
Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark
“Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon”, Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg
Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi
Very interesting. More I didn't see coming than I would have guessed, honestly. "Tower of Mud and Straw" is not on the Locus list, the rest are, for "how predictive is the Locus list" tracking. I'm particularly surprised not to see Empress of Salt and Fortune, hm.
NOVELETTE
“Stepsister”, Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
“The Pill”, Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
“Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
“Two Truths and a Lie”, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
“Where You Linger”, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
“Shadow Prisons”, Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as “The Shadow Prison Experiment”, “Shadow Prisons of the Mind”, and “The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma”, Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Not my favs, but seems plausible. Half on the Locus list, half not (the Cypess, Stufflebeam, and Yoachim stories are the not.) I guess I would have read the Stufflebeam story already if I had read all of Uncanny like I have in other years.
SHORT STORY
“Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse”, Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
“Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math”, Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
“A Guide for Working Breeds”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
“The Eight-Thousanders”, Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
“My Country Is a Ghost”, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
“Open House on Haunted Hill”, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
I'm reading Made to Order right now and I wasn't that impressed by "A Guide for Working Breeds" but I'm also a pretty hard sell on stories that lean on the appeal of cats or dogs. I mean, the story is not about that, and it's a fun story, but "likes dogs" just isn't a sympathetic character trait for me in the way I think it is for some people. The Picchi and Sanford stories are not on the Locus list, the rest are.
THE ANDRE NORTON NEBULA AWARD FOR MIDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
A Game of Fox & Squirrels, Jenn Reese (Holt)
Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)
I've only read two of these but I've heard of two others, which seems better than some years! No Raybearer or Game of F&S on the Locus list (but those are the other two I'd heard of, from friends).
GAME WRITING
Blaseball, Stephen Bell, Joel Clark, Sam Rosenthal (The Game Band)
Hades, Greg Kasavin (Supergiant)
Kentucky Route Zero, Jake Elliott (Cardboard Computer)
The Luminous Underground, Phoebe Barton (Choice of Games)
Scents & Semiosis, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Cat Manning, Caleb Wilson, Yoon Ha Lee (Self)
Spiritfarer, Nicolas Guérin, Maxime Monast, Alex Tommi-Morin (Thunder Lotus Games)
I know nothing about any of this but "Scents and Semiosis" is... intriguing, as a title.
THE RAY BRADBURY NEBULA AWARD FOR DRAMATIC PRESENTATION
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
The Expanse: “Gaugamela”
The Good Place: “Whenever You’re Ready”
Lovecraft Country, Season 1
The Mandalorian: “The Tragedy”
The Old Guard, Greg Rucka
Heyyy, I've seen The Old Guard! Look at me, I'm participating in watching-things culture!
no subject
Date: 2021-03-16 03:15 am (UTC)"Where You Linger" made me exhausted. I was so tired after the first part that I still don't understand what was supposed to be happening in the rest. (Charles Payseur's explanation in Quick Sip Reviews helped a little, here.) Anyways, online here.