It’s a special Nebula noms list this year. I know or know of several of the authors, and that makes me happy. Also, the amount of just good stuff here makes me happy too. If the stuff I haven’t read is as good as the stuff I have, it’ll be a hard, hard call. Good luck SFWA members.
Annotations follow.
Short Story
* ‘‘Arvies’’, Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine 8/10)
* ‘‘How Interesting: A Tiny Man’’, Harlan Ellison® (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)
* ‘‘Ponies’’, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10) (Just recently discovered Kij Johnson as a writer I adore. Read this author. READ this author.)
* ‘‘I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno’’, Vylar Kaftan (Lightspeed Magazine 6/10) (Vylar is personable and friendly, and a hell of a good writer.)
* ‘‘The Green Book’’, Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine 11/1/10) (I’ve heard this author read. The lyrical nature of her work takes my breath away.)
* ‘‘Ghosts of New York’’, Jennifer Pelland (Dark Faith) (A fellow VP alumn, and a Broad, I’ve read with Jennifer before, and find her work edgy and compelling.)
* ‘‘Conditional Love’’, Felicity Shoulders (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 1/10)
Novelette
* ‘‘Map of Seventeen’’, Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride) (Loved “The Love We Shared without Knowing”, Liked “One for Sorrow”, and found this story to be insightful. Barzak slips on his narrator like a well-worn pair of jeans.)
* ‘‘The Jaguar House, in Shadow’’, Aliette de Bodard Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 7/10)
* ‘‘The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara’’, Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10) (Wait! I know this guy! He’s a fellow VP’er, and he got me to apply in the first place. He’s also a fellow Cats Curious author (the few, the proud!) And the story he’s nommed for? It was one of my top 15 for last year.)
* “Plus or Minus’’, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 12/10)
* ‘‘Pishaach’’, Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride) (I read this one as well. This is tragic and romantic and strong and dangerous all rolled into one.)
* ‘‘That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made’’, Eric James Stone (Analog Science Fiction and Fact 9/10)
* ‘‘Stone Wall Truth’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 2/10)
Novella
* The Alchemist, Paolo Bacigalupi (Audible; Subterranean)
* ‘‘Iron Shoes’’, J. Kathleen Cheney (Alembical 2) (Wait! I know this author too! I think she may be one of the most underrated of the new crop of SF writers. Her prose is piquant and smooth at the same time. The relationships in her stories are complicated.)
* The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
* ‘‘The Sultan of the Clouds’’, Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 9/10)
* ‘‘Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance’’, Paul Park (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1-2/10)
* ‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’’, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine Summer ’10) (I haven’t had the pleasure of this story, but have read a lot of Rachel’s work. She’s a versatile writer who could probably do about any genre.)
Novel
* The Native Star, M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
* Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) (I’m a few short books away from this one. It excites me. Also, the author has great taste in clothes and shoes.)
* Echo, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
* Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW) (Also one of my 15 best from last year. I first heard Nnedi read at Fantasy Matters and was captured as a reader in seconds. WFD does what good genre fiction should–points us in the direction of what we can prove in our reality.)
* Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)
The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
* Despicable Me, Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (directors), Ken Daurio & Cinco Paul (screenplay), Sergio Pablos (story) (Illumination Entertainment)
* Doctor Who: ‘‘Vincent and the Doctor’’, Richard Curtis (writer), Jonny Campbell (director)
* How to Train Your Dragon, Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders (directors), William Davies, Dean DeBlois, & Chris Sanders (screenplay) (DreamWorks Animation) (Give it to the dragons, guys! No personal notes here, just personal preference!)
* Inception, Christopher Nolan (director), Christopher Nolan (screenplay) (Warner)
* Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Edgar Wright (director), Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright (screenplay) (Universal)
* Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich (director), Michael Arndt (screenplay), John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, & Lee Unkrich (story) (Pixar/Disney)
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
* Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown) (A good book with an important message. Well-paced with engaging characters.)
* White Cat, Holly Black (McElderry)
* Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)
* Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (Amulet)
* The Boy from Ilysies, Pearl North (Tor Teen)
* I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper) (Loved this one. It’s a great topper to the Aching trilogy.)
* A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow) (Many people did not care for this one. I was fond of the main character from the author’s previous works, and liked its sublety)
* Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)
Aw, thanks ;o) ::blushes::
There really is a great crop this year. I was really pleased to see so many of the ‘younger’ authors make it into the pack.
As always, thanks for all your support this last year, Catherine. Your review and list mention meant a lot to me, and helped publicize the series.
Thanks so much!
J. Kathleen: Me too. There’s a lot of ‘younger’ writers that deserve the recognition.
Chris: You wrote an awesome and interesting story. It deserved the support. My hope is that this recognition means we will see more of it published!
I’d like that. The second story has been in a slush pile for about nine months, but at a place I’d very much like to see it published.
And the series will definitely be continuing in Brazil…