2023 Nebula nominees!

[psocoptera]

This happened two days ago why did I not hear about it.

Here, or below the cut with my commentary.



Nebula Award for Novel

Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree (Cryptid; Tor)
Spear, Nicola Griffith (Tordotcom)
Nettle and Bone, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK)
Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler (MCD; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Very interesting! I've read three of these (Kingfisher, Kuang, Muir) and had the Griffith and Nayler on my maybe-to-read list at a middle priority. Let's talk about what's not here: the second Jemisin cities book (which I haven't read), Siren Queen (which I thought was maybe getting some buzz), Half-Built Garden (on my personal list). I probably shouldn't try to predict based on only having read half but I think it goes to Babel.

Nebula Award for Novella

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)
“Bishop’s Opening”, R.S.A. Garcia (Clarkesworld 1/22)
I Never Liked You Anyway, Jordan Kurella (Vernacular)
Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
High Times in the Low Parliament, Kelly Robson (Tordotcom)

Not a great sign for my anti-Prayer for the Crown-Shy agenda. (It was fine! But slight! We could do better!) I've never even heard of the Kurella (seriously, it's not on the Locus list) but it seems to be an Orpheus-and-Eurydice retell, a genre which I feel has already been pretty saturated lately, and I bounced hard off that Garcia novella in Clarkesworld. Rooting for Polk. (Missing here: the second of that Harrow duology (Mirror Mended), Roanhorse's angel fantasy standalone (maybe Polk took the angel slot), any of my candidates.)

Nebula Award for Novelette

“If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You”, John Chu (Uncanny 7–8/22)
“Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold”, S.B. Divya (Uncanny 5–6/22)
“Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness”, S.L. Huang (Clarkesworld 12/22)
“A Dream of Electric Mothers”, Wole Talabi (Africa Risen)
“The Prince of Salt and the Ocean’s Bargain”, Natalia Theodoridou (Uncanny 9/22)
“We Built This City”, Marie Vibbert (Clarkesworld 6/22)

Welp, my reading has not gotten to any of these yet, so I'm in the dark. Something to look forward to if I ever make any more progress I guess.

Nebula Award for Short Story

“Destiny Delayed”, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Asimov’s 5–6/22)
“Give Me English”, Ai Jiang (F&SF 5–6/22)
“Rabbit Test”, Samantha Mills (Uncanny 11–12/22)
“Douen”, Suzan Palumbo (The Dark 3/22)
“Dick Pig”, Ian Muneshwar (Nightmare 1/22)
“D.I.Y”, John Wiswell (Tor.com 8/24/22)

Told you re D.I.Y. :)

Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction

Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, K. Tempest Bradford (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
The Scratch Daughters, H. A. Clarke (Erewhon)
The Mirrorwood, Deva Fagan (Atheneum)
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, Maya MacGregor (Astra Young Readers)
Every Bird a Prince, Jenn Reese (Henry Holt)

No love for Golden Enclaves, and also I've never heard of any of these.

Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Andor: “One Way Out”
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Nope
Our Flag Means Death
The Sandman: Season 1
Severance

Gotta watch Nope one of these days.

Nebula Award for Game Writing

Elden Ring
Horizon Forbidden West
Journeys through the Radiant Citadel
Pentiment
Stray
Vampire: The Masquerade – Sins of the Sires

Sure, I think it's great SFWA is taking an interest, although why no graphic novels category if they're willing to consider other collaborative/multimedia forms.

Comments

[glynhogen]

Yes, you need to watch Nope! While it gives the impression of being meandering, it is so damn tight. I (still) haven't seen Everything Everywhere All at Once. It's a really strong category (though I personally don't find OFMD sufficiently genre, especially with the strength of the other nominees and potential nominees, it's less outrage and more "well, that makes the decision easier by one").

I did not realize (but should have) that Spear was a novel, just packaged as a novella. It's the only one I've read, because I am Very Behind(TM) (I finally got to She Who Became the Sun a month ago).

The Wiswell struck me as more "this is fun/cute/fine" than "let me smash nomination buttons," the Ekpeki seems like it wants to be a novella, and I'm not a fan of last minute POV switches like the Muneshwar...but I still feel like they're all worthy nominees and it's great for a category when those stories are the ones in my personal bottom half. I don't want to flip a coin between the remaining three stories; it may come down to whether I'm feeling melancholy, angry, or sad when it comes time to vote.

[elysdir]

Re the Bradbury: I meant to post a comment on your Hugo noms post from the other day mentioning a couple items from this Bradbury shortlist. In particular:

* Andor—I liked this series a lot, but unlike a lot of people, I didn’t consider that ep to be the standout. I’m inclined to put the whole series under DPLF.

* Our Flag Means Death—I’m baffled by why this counts as sf. I suspect that nominators were applying the usual “if I like it it must be sf” rule. (Some former SH fiction editors once told me that Sherlock Holmes stories are inherently sf; it seemed as obvious to them that they are as it is obvious to me that they aren’t.) I see that a long review at SH (http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/our-flag-means-death-season-one/) says that there are supernatural elements—but if I’m reading it right, the only “supernatural” element that that review describes is that the captain’s cabin is supposedly bigger on the inside than on the outside. From my perspective, OFMD is historical fiction, though it’s also comedy so there are some larger-than-life aspects and unlikely coincidences and such. But I feel like if this counts as sf, then so do pretty much all TV comedy shows.

* The Sandman: Season 1—I forgot to consider this for DPLF. Now that I’ve seen it on the Nebula ballot, I’ve considered it, and decided not to nominate it. :) But given how much everyone seemed to love it, I think it’s a strong contender for not only appearing on the Hugo ballot but also winning.

[glynhogen]

I think that's the Andor episode I ended up nominating based on the leaderboard theory and the fact that it was a good episode, but I agree that a full-season nomination seems a better fit. As a whole, I find it has stand-out scenes more than episodes, and the dialogue-light finale is entirely a long-spear payoff.

[elysdir]

Re the Nortons: I’m excited about two that I haven’t read yet, because they’re by friends of mine whose writing I like:

_Ruby Finley_ is by Tempest, the author of the excellent but painful story “Until Forgiveness Comes” (http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/until-forgiveness-comes-2/); I expect this book to be a lot lighter in tone, but I’m looking forward to reading it.

_Every Bird a Prince_ is by Jenn, the author of _A Game of Fox & Squirrels_, one of my favorite books of 2020—a middle-grade novel dealing with abuse and the aftereffects of abuse.

I own both books but haven’t gotten around to reading them yet; I suspect that I won’t manage to read them before Hugo noms are due.