The 2015 Nebula Awards winners have been announced, and there are some amazing speculative fiction reads on the list of nominees and winners. (Head over to Locus Magazine for the full list!) If you’re looking for some fantasy, horror, and/or science fiction to read, this is a great place to start.
Winner, novel: Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. This one’s been on my reading list for a while, and now I guess I have even more reason to get around to actually reading it. Read an excerpt at tor.com. Every novel nominated in this category is on my reading list. So. much. good. stuff.
Winner, novella: Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor: read my review. This is such a fantastic science fiction story, and Okorafor has signed on for two sequel-novellas: yay! Read an excerpt of ‘Binti’ at tor.com. Another great story that was nominated in this category is The Bone Swans of Amandale, by C.S.E. Cooney (click to read it at Mythic Delirium). I read it recently and it’s the reason why I picked up Cooney’s story collection ‘Bone Swans’.
Winner, novelette: Our Lady of the Open Road, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s, June 2015). I haven’t read this one (yet), but it’s available at Pinsker’s own website. I did read Rose Lemberg’s nominated novelette Grandmother-Nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 11 June 2015), and it’s a fantastic read: one of the most memorable stories I’ve read in recent years.
Winner, short story: Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers, Alyssa Wong (Nightmare, October 2015). Dark and creepy, original and with a whole lot of emotional depth: a brilliant horror tale. (Also read Sandra Odell’s interview with Wong where she talks about the inspiration behind the story.) Cat Pictures Please, by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld January 2015) was also nominated, and I loved that story too: hilarious and original.
Winner, Andre Norton Award for YA science fiction/fantasy: Updraft, by Fran Wilde – read my review. This is such an excellent book! Read it now: the sequel – ‘Cloudbound’ – comes out later this year! You can check out the first chapter at tor.com. Shadowshaper, by Daniel José Older was also nominated (read my review), and it’s a great read as well. Haven’t read the other nominees, but yeah, my TBR list will be growing…
Also: ‘Mad Max’ won the Ray Bradbury Award (can’t argue with that).
The one story from last year I wish I’d seen on the list of nominees is The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson. (Read my review.) This story (novella? novel?) was one of my favourites from last year, and made a huge impression on me as both a reader and a writer.
And the one novel I would have nominated would have been Dark Orbit, by Carolyn Ives Gilman. (Read my review.) A brilliant science fiction novel that has made me want to read everything Gilman has ever written.
Maria Haskins 