“Everything starts as somebody's daydream.”

February 20, 2017 7:30 PM

SFWA Announces 2016 Nebula, Norton, and Bradbury Award Nominees! [SFWA.org] The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is pleased to announce the nominees for the 51st Annual Nebula Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book.

Novel:

• All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
• Borderline, Mishell Baker (Saga)
• The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Ninefox Gambit,Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
• Everfair, Nisi Shawl (Tor)

Novella:

• Runtime, S.B. Divya (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)
• Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• “The Liar”, John P. Murphy (F&SF)
• A Taste of Honey, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com Publishing)

Novelette:

• “The Long Fall Up”, William Ledbetter (F&SF)
• “Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea”, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed)
• “Blood Grains Speak Through Memories”, Jason Sanford (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
• “The Orangery”, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
• The Jewel and Her Lapidary, Fran Wilde (Tor.com Publishing)
• “You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay”, Alyssa Wong (Uncanny)

Short Story:

• “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”, Brooke Bolander (Uncanny)
• “Seasons of Glass and Iron”, Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood)
• “Sabbath Wine”, Barbara Krasnoff (Clockwork Phoenix 5)
• “Things With Beards”, Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld)
• “This Is Not a Wardrobe Door”, A. Merc Rustad (Fireside Magazine)
• “A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers”, Alyssa Wong (Tor.com)
• “Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station│Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed)

Bradbury:

• Arrival, Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Screenplay by Eric Heisserer, 21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films/Xenolinguistics
• Doctor Strange, Directed by Scott Derrickson, Screenplay by Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill, Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures
• Kubo and the Two Strings, Directed by Travis Knight, Screenplay by Mark Haimes & Chris Butler; Laika Entertainment
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Directed by Gareth Edwards, Written by Chris Weitz & Tony Gilroy; Lucusfilm/ Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures
• Westworld: ‘‘The Bicameral Mind’’, Directed by Jonathan Nolan, Written by Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan; HBO
• Zootopia, Directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, & Jared Bush, Screenplay by Jared Bush & Phil Johnston; Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Animation Studios

Norton:

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin Young Readers)
• The Star-Touched Queen, Roshani Chokshi (St. Martin’s)
• The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK; Abrams)
• Arabella of Mars, David D. Levine (Tor)
• Railhead, Philip Reeve (Oxford University Press; Switch)
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, Lindsay Ribar (Kathy Dawson Books)
• The Evil Wizard Smallbone, Delia Sherman (Candlewick)

posted by Fizz (43 comments total)

The Lie Tree was the best new genre book I read last year. I would have liked it to be nominated for the Nebula.
posted by tavegyl at 7:36 PM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

[to the tune of 'Hercules Mulligan!]

N.K. Jemisin!
A fantasy writer, best of the 2010s /
Compelling characters reckoning with oppressionin' /
Serving trolls & Puppies their punishment /
Proving fantasy's bigger than Conan and Tolkien /
Owning the Hugos with Ann Leckie and I am loving it /
When you knock her down she gets the fuck back up again!
posted by sixswitch at 7:36 PM on February 20, 2017 [14 favorites]

Good stuff!

I can attest The Obelisk Gate and Ninefox Gambit are both great (Obelisk is part 2 of a trilogy though) and I flat out love The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe.

Alyssa Wong seems to be everywhere this year and justifyably so.

And Things With Beards is award nominated The Thing fanfic, which if you put it together with Peter Watt's The Things is now its own little sub genre?
posted by Artw at 7:40 PM on February 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh heck yes, Borderline! Highly recommended.
posted by minervous at 7:42 PM on February 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

N.K. Jemisin!
A fantasy writer, best of the 2010s

I agree to an extent, but I don't think The Obelisk Gate was her best work, far from it. Luckily it's not in competition against her own oeuvre.
posted by tavegyl at 7:42 PM on February 20, 2017

I'm currently in the middle of Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers and holy shit. She isn't nominated or anything but I just wanted to share a really awesome SF book with a really kickass protagonist.
posted by Fizz at 7:45 PM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile...

2016 BSFA Awards Finalists

Best Novel

Chris Beckett – Daughter of Eden (Gollancz)
Becky Chambers – A Closed and Common Orbit (Hodder & Stoughton)
Dave Hutchinson – Europe in Winter (Solaris)
Tricia Sullivan – Occupy Me (Gollancz)
Nick Wood – Azanian Bridges (NewCon Press)
Best Short Fiction

Malcolm Devlin – The End of Hope Street (Interzone #266)
Jaine Fenn – Liberty Bird (Now We Are Ten, NewCon Press)
Una McCormack – Taking Flight (Crises and Conflicts, NewCon Press)
Helen Oyeyemi – Presence (What is Not Yours is Not Yours, Picador)
Tade Thompson – The Apologists (Interzone #266)
Aliya Whiteley – The Arrival of Missives (Unsung Stories)
Best Non-Fiction

Rob Hansen – THEN: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK 1930-1980 (Ansible Editions)
Erin Horáková – Boucher, Backbone and Blake: The Legacy of Blakes Seven (Strange Horizons)
Anna McFarlane – Breaking the Cycle of the Golden Age: Jack Glass and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy (Adam Roberts: Critical Essays, Gylphi)
Paul Graham Raven – New Model Authors? Authority, Authordom, Anarchism and the Atomized Text in a Networked World (Adam Roberts: Critical Essays, Gylphi)
Geoff Ryman – 100 African Writers of SFF (Tor.com)
Ann & Jeff VanderMeer – Introduction to The Big Book of Science Fiction (Vintage)
Best Artwork

Juan Miguel Aguilera – Cover of The 1000 Year Reich by Ian Watson (NewCon Press)
Tara Bush – Transition (Cover of Black Static #53)
Suzanne Dean and Kai & Sunny – Cover of The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan (William Heinemann)
David A Hardy – Cover of Disturbed Universes by David L Clements (NewCon Press)
Sarah Anne Langton – Cover for Central Station by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publications)
Chris Moore – Cover of The Iron Tactician by Alastair Reynolds (NewCon Press)

...A Closed and Common Orbit being another fave of mine there.
posted by Artw at 7:46 PM on February 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

Extracurricular Activities - a bit of a prequel to Ninefix Gambit.
posted by Artw at 7:50 PM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

So, does it seem that you-know-who have given up trying to game the awards? Or is that not possible now?
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:52 PM on February 20, 2017

That's the Hugos, which are a popular vote. Nebulas are voted by member of the SFWA.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:54 PM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

They have no sway over the SFWA. The Hugo nomination process is currently in progress, and I'd expect them to be making a lot of noise if they were trying to hand it, but I've not really heard much of a peep from them.

Both them and Gamergate have been pretty quite post trump victory, draw whatever conclusion from that that you will.
posted by Artw at 7:55 PM on February 20, 2017

Just in case there are any Hugo Nominators here and you're stuck for anything to nominate in the short fiction categories, this post is a great resource.
posted by Artw at 8:02 PM on February 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

I loved All The Birds in the Sky and am very glad it was nominated.

@Fizz, I just read Behind the Throne and the sequel After the Crown, both of which were highly entertaining. Can't wait for book 3!
posted by mogget at 8:06 PM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

JUst bought The Lie Tree based on recs here and elsewhere.
posted by Artw at 8:19 PM on February 20, 2017

Just in case there are any Hugo Nominators here and you're stuck for anything to nominate in the short fiction categories, this post is a great resource.

This year's recommended reading list from Locus may also be helpful.

I haven't read all the Nebula nominees, but I've particularly enjoyed the following ...

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee (novel; Solaris)

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire (novella; Tor.com Publishing)
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (novella; Tor.com Publishing)

"Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies" by Brooke Bolander (short story; Uncanny)
"This Is Not a Wardrobe Door" by A. Merc Rustad (short story; Fireside)

I'm still reading for the Hugo, but here's the rest of my (unordered) personal long list ... which, uh, overlaps a lot with that FPP and the Locus list.

A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky (novel; Regan Arts)
The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar (novel; Small Beer Press)

"A Dead Djinn in Cairo" by P. Djeli Clark (novelette; Tor.com)
"Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home" by Genevieve Valentine (novelette; Clarkesworld)
"The Venus Effect" by Joseph Allen Hill (novelette; Lightspeed)
"Gorse Daughter, Sparrow Son" by Alena Indigo Anne Sullivan (novelette; Strange Horizons)
"Touring with the Alien" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (novelette; Clarkesworld)
"Extraction Request" by Rich Larson (novelette; Clarkesworld)

"The City Born Great" by N.K. Jemisin (short story; Tor.com)
"We Have a Cultural Difference Can I Taste You?" by Rebecca Ann Jordan (short story; Strange Horizons)
"The Right Sort of Monsters" by Kelly Sandoval (short story; Strange Horizons)
"Afrofuturist 419" by Nnedi Okorafor (short story; Clarkesworld)
"And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald (short story; Clarkesworld)
"Something Happened Here, But We’re Not Quite Sure What It Was" by Paul McAuley (short story; Tor.com)
"That Game We Played During the War" by Carrie Vaughn (short story; Tor.com)
"A Good Home" by Karin Lowachee (short story; Lightspeed)
"Two's Company" by Joe Abercrombie (short story; Tor.com)
"Successor, Usurper, Replacement" by Alice Sola Kim (short story; Buzzfeed)

posted by Wobbuffet at 8:29 PM on February 20, 2017 [10 favorites]

Yay Mishell and Seanan!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:54 PM on February 20, 2017

Interesting, I wonder if this is the first year to have nothing from Asimov's or Analog, or have they been on the outs for a while?
posted by 445supermag at 9:07 PM on February 20, 2017

Guess I better give Borderline another shot. The first time it seemed like the worst sort of tryhard edgelord UF and I gave up after about three or four chapters.

Absolutely loving the attention N.K. Jemisin is getting. Well-deserved IMHO. Ninefox Gambit is on my to-read list and I think I'll just bump it up a couple spots.
posted by Sternmeyer at 9:23 PM on February 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

My SF awards confession: I've bounced off Three Body Problem twice and I don't think I'm trying again, no matter how much acclaim it got. Sometimes a book is just not for you.
posted by Artw at 9:26 PM on February 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

I found the Three Body Problem to be very dry and lacking in character building, although that may have been the translation. It was an amazing concept, though.
posted by ashbury at 9:32 PM on February 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

Is this a post I would have to know words to appreciate?
posted by Samizdata at 10:02 PM on February 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

“Things With Beards”, Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld)

Oh wow. That's an amazing read.

Thanks for sharing the link, Artw.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:20 PM on February 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Things Is Clarkesworld as well... they're five or six stories away from having an anthology.
posted by Artw at 10:26 PM on February 20, 2017

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet -- Cat Rambo’s work, “Red in Tooth and Cog” was originally listed in the Novelette category, but was deemed ineligible when it was found to have a word count of only 7,070. It would have been eligible to take a spot on the current finalist list for short story, and this was offered to her, but if she had accepted, that would have displaced a three-way tie for fifth in that category, bumping three other works off the list altogether. Instead, Rambo withdrew her work from Nebula consideration.

My thoughts on the nominees --

General:

2016 wasn't a year that I thought had a single stand-out work of genius that towered over the rest like 2015's The Fifth Season, 2014's Cuckoo Song (although to be fair, the Area X trilogy gave it close competition that year), or 2013's Ancillary Justice. Of course, I haven't read everything in 2016, including well-regarded works like Ninefox Gambit and Too Like The Lightning, so there may yet be something waiting in the wings that will blow me away. All that being said, there was of course a lot of good SFF in 2016, and this list seems like a decent representative sample of it.

Specific:

All the Birds in the Sky -- This book had beautiful writing, and a great portrayal of growing up feeling isolated and the effects it has both in childhood as on the adults that are formed by this. However, I felt the ending was a bit of a letdown.

Borderline -- There’s certainly a lot to like about this book. It’s told from a perspective that’s rare in literature (possibly unique, although I couldn’t swear to it), and it manages the difficult task of presenting a main character with serious issues, warts and all. That’s not easy, and the author deserves a lot of credit for it. That being said, exposition nearly killed this book for me. There is a *lot* of exposition. I also think one of the central premises ultimately made little sense, but that’s almost a minor issue compared to the amount of information that was told rather than shown.

The Obelisk Gate -- This was gripping, stylistically unique, and full of great depictions of flawed, realistic characters. It’s hard to judge this one on its own, though, because it is very much the middle third of a story. Less happens from a plot perspective than did in the first book, and much more is revealed about what is going on and why. The narrative is also not as innovative in terms of storytelling technique, although it’s still hardly a conventionally written novel. This book is, in large part, set-up for the third and final book, and in some ways how good it is will depend on how good the finish is.

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire -- The characters and concepts are great, absolutely on the level of what I consider her best books. But the plot was (in large part) a murder mystery where the perpetrator was completely obvious to me right away. I know she can write a mystery where that isn’t the case, so I’m not sure why it happened here.

The Lie Tree -- I don’t think Frances Hardinge has ever written a novel that wasn’t riveting; in this one, the main character is great, the plot is compelling, and the story is layered with complexity of intent often not found in YA. However, it doesn’t quite rise to the level of her absolute best books, like Cuckoo Song or Fly By Night or Gullstruck Island or A Face Like Glass. I’d put it more on the level of Verdigris Deep or Twilight Robbery. Basically, I’d say this is a very good book, whereas she has other books that I will rave about at length to anyone who will hold still long enough.

Railhead -- This was OK. A solid YA read, taking what looks like it’s going to be a fairly standard heist plot and taking it a step beyond by not shrinking away from the ethical implications. However, the book is eventually willing to let the main character off a little easy, keeping this from going as far as it could have; it’s not at the level of his Mortal Engines or Fever Crumb books. An enjoyable read, but I didn't think it rose to much more than that when it could have.

BSFA:

A Closed and Common Orbit -- This is a charming book, with all the empathy and warmth of The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, but with a more tightly focused, less episodic plot. It’s a look at the rights of artificial intelligences which by clear extension is a parable about rights in general, and how people treat each other and interact as groups and as individuals. Basically, if you liked TLWTASAP, you’re very likely to like this one as well.

Occupy Me -- A [spoiler] who looks like an angel is trapped on earth when a [spoiler] steals her [spoiler] and tries to use it to [spoiler] with funds he obtains by [spoiler]. As you might guess, it’s a complicated plot with a lot of reveals. I … wasn't sold on it. As with the other book by Tricia Sullivan I’ve read, I found myself quite interested in some characters but utterly uninterested in others, and at some of the big reveals at the end I reacted with more of a shrug and a “so what?” than anything else. While there is a story here, I got the distinct impression that the story exists mostly as an excuse to let the Big Ideas spool out.
posted by kyrademon at 2:34 AM on February 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

More books for the backlog, I see. I'm working my way through Dhalgren at the moment, but it's slow going.

Three Body Problem I quite enjoyed.
posted by Harald74 at 4:15 AM on February 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've recently finished Ninefox Gambit and thought it was a really interesting read. I'm looking forward to the sequel which is out later this year.
I haven't read any of the other nominated titles, but have heard wonderful things about N.K. Jemisin.

From the BSFA list I've only read A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. I totally loved it. I loved her first one too, which had a definite Firefly vibe to me. They are both great sci-fi, and they feel like hugs in book form. So if you like that sort of thing I'd give them a try.
posted by Fence at 4:34 AM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Both them and Gamergate have been pretty quite post trump victory, draw whatever conclusion from that that you will.

It's going pretty much how you would expect: Brad Torgersen is engaging in borderline white-supremacist ranting and having sads about that nice Nazi boy being punched in the face, and Larry Correia is doing his "if Trump upsets liberals then I'm 110% on board" schtick. Sarah Hoyt, who is apparently the showrunner this time around, is ranting about "illegals" and frozen peaches and why anyone to the left of Sean Hannity is a bloodthirsty fascist who wants Sharia Law (she actually seems to believe that Bernie Sanders is the second coming of Stalin and bin Laden combined).

In other words, there's even less sunlight than the already-minimal amount between the sads and rabids, which isn't surprising seeing that the puppies--despite the fanfic they and their defenders kept on coming up with--were literally running a "Make AmericaSF&F Great Again" campaign from the very beginning.
posted by zombieflanders at 5:21 AM on February 21, 2017 [4 favorites]

Things with Beards just cropped up on the Clarkesworld podcast, if you're feeling lazy. I found it well-written, if a bit heavy-handed in the symbolism stakes. Worth a listen, though.
posted by Leon at 6:05 AM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Unlike men, not all puppies are created equal. The especially virulent Rabid Puppies, led by unsavory bigot Vox Day, who is extremely paranoid about Aztecs, have made it their mission to boot SJWs (“social justice warriors”) out of science fiction and fantasy. The Sad Puppies at least pretend to a more moderate agenda: They’d like to see the genre recover its adventurous, upbeat roots. (In practice, though, this means spending less time fretting over diversity and discrimination.)

posted by Etrigan at 6:57 AM on February 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

The sads were the ones who claimed it was about "taking politics out of SF&F" which largely meant making conservative white dudes popular again. The rabids wanted to burn the Hugos to the ground. Both partnered with violent hate groups, and the various leaders of both engaged in both implicit and explicit bigotry.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:57 AM on February 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

This marks the last year before the new voting system kicks in for the Hugo's, I believe, which should make gaming the thing significantly more difficult.
posted by Artw at 7:37 AM on February 21, 2017

Artw: "This marks the last year before the new voting system kicks in for the Hugo's, I believe, which should make gaming the thing significantly more difficult."

I hadn't heard anything about that. Toss a brother some linkage?
posted by Samizdata at 9:23 AM on February 21, 2017

I hadn't heard anything about that. Toss a brother some linkage?

E Pluribus Hugo.

Basically, your nomination gives you a point which can be subdivided depending on how many nominations you make. However, a lot of people also need to nominate the work because the works with the least number of people voting for them also stand for elimination. If the puppies try to vote for one work, they risk that work being eliminated for being least popular (least number of people who voted for it). If they try to vote for five works, they risk not making it through the points process for lack of points.
posted by Talez at 9:48 AM on February 21, 2017

It's super wonky but the numbers show it should should be effective against regular slating. There's some question as to wether it's effective against puppy-scale slating but those guys are showing signs of getting bored and wandering off.
posted by Artw at 9:57 AM on February 21, 2017

Talez: "I hadn't heard anything about that. Toss a brother some linkage?

E Pluribus Hugo.

Basically, your nomination gives you a point which can be subdivided depending on how many nominations you make. However, a lot of people also need to nominate the work because the works with the least number of people voting for them also stand for elimination. If the puppies try to vote for one work, they risk that work being eliminated for being least popular (least number of people who voted for it). If they try to vote for five works, they risk not making it through the points process for lack of points."

Cheers. Reading it now.

Artw: "It's super wonky but the numbers show it should should be effective against regular slating. There's some question as to wether it's effective against puppy-scale slating but those guys are showing signs of getting bored and wandering off."

Rabies and attention span don't mix well.
posted by Samizdata at 10:25 AM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sadly I suspect the awful things they've gone off to do elsewhere are worse and of more consequence.

Between Gamergate and the Puppies it really does seem like we've been at the frontline of some weird test-run for fascist tactics and wether people are too polite to oppose them.
posted by Artw at 10:40 AM on February 21, 2017 [8 favorites]

I really liked Ninefox Gambit, even when it went over my head at times.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 12:59 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Last I heard, Vox Day had moved on to building his own Wikipedia fork where everyone could define their own reality and never have to argue about facts again because a different version of the same article would be displayed based on your political and other preferences. Quite predictably, it's basically dead.
posted by daniel_charms at 8:46 PM on February 21, 2017

There are 13 books in my Amazon cart. Please stahp.
posted by Justinian at 11:58 AM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just popping back in here to mention that as of today, this earlier statement of mine is no longer true:

> "2016 wasn't a year that I thought had a single stand-out work of genius that towered over the rest ..."

It does now. The Power, by Naomi Alderman. Whoa.
posted by kyrademon at 7:14 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Power, by Naomi Alderman. Whoa.

Currently on £1.99 on Amazon.co.uk. Thanks for the tip!
posted by tavegyl at 7:46 PM on March 3, 2017

BTW, Naomi Alderman is the primary writer behind the running app Zombies, Run! . I'm stoked to see she found time to write a novel, as well.
posted by suelac at 9:24 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I read The Power last night, and it was flawed but also very good. Thanks for the recommendation, kyrademon, and if anyone wishes to talk about it on Fanfare I'll happily join in.
posted by tavegyl at 1:07 AM on March 13, 2017