2021 Nebula winners!

[psocoptera]

Here, or behind the cut with my comments!

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

So, once Open House won the short story and Defensive Baking won the Norton, I was like "oh it's definitely going to be Network Effect then", and behold. I mean, I think they are all worthy works! But I also think a lot of us this year were looking for, oh, I don't know how to put it exactly without sounding dismissive. Good feelings. Warmth and optimism and stories that were easy *to* read, the kind of page-turner that you could sit down with and get completely sucked into for awhile, and I don't think any of this is bad! I mean, I know I was! I just feel like that's the pattern I see here.

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

I still haven't read Riot Baby, so I was hesitant to have an opinion about whether it could beat Ring Shout, but I have totally seen Ring Shout as the one anything else would have to beat since I read it.

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)

I like Pinsker, but I wasn't wild about this story, but I haven't read half the rest of this, so, sure.

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)

Ok, look, I liked Open House, but it's cute and cozy and My Country Is a Ghost was *sharp* and I think this was a case where I would have liked to see the award go sharp. (Although I think my own Hugo voting may fail to back that up, so, hrm.)

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 really thought Elatsoe had this in the bag, although I still haven't read the other three.

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 continue to know nothing!

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

I haven't seen it but from what I've heard, another one for the good feelings train.



Eagerly anticipating the Hugo packet now that everyone knows how they did in these! :)

Comments

[ursula]

Hades was really well written and also the biggest release, so it makes sense as a crowd favorite!

[jedusor]

I don't want to spoil in case you do end up watching it but I'll just say that while some elements of The Good Place do fit the "good feelings train" vibe, that particular episode is *not* one of them.

[antimony]

Having played Hades, Scents & Semiosis, and none of the others: I am both unsurprised and disappointed; it's an excellent *game*, but the writing is just solid. It's absolutely the biggest of the titles in terms of reach, which helps, and it's a blast to play even if you're terrible at that genre (like me) but eh.

(Scents & Semiosis is not my cuppa but is very quick to take for a spin and I encourage everyone to do so. Kentucky Route Zero is on my to-play list as I've heard nothing but good about it. And I am just delighted to see modern text-based gaming at the Nebulas.)