2017 Nebula/Bradbury/Norton Award Finalists announced

The Nebula award is one of the top literary awards in science fiction and fantasy, as both the finalists and the winners are selected by the members of SFWA, the world's biggest professional organization of science fiction and fantasy authors. This year's list of finalists makes me quite happy, as it is full of terrific work by friends and other people I like.

Best Novel

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Jade City by Fonda Lee
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Daryl and Mur are friends, and their books are super good. And really, these are all pretty great. My vote, however, goes to The Stone Sky, because it's the last book in a era defining masterpiece trilogy.

Best Novella

River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
Passing Strange, Ellen Klages (Tor.com Publishing)
“And Then There Were (N-One)”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/17)
Barry’s Deal, Lawrence M. Schoen (NobleFusion Press)
All Systems Red, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
The Black Tides of Heaven, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

I haven't read all of these, but River of Teeth is great, and All Systems Red is amazing (and will be published in Hebrew by me in a few months). Disappointing not to see Seanan McGuire's brilliant "Down Among The Sticks and Bones" here, as it is the prequel to last year's winning novella, and recent Nova Press publication, "Every Heart A Doorway," and is even better than Every Heart was.

Novelette

“Dirty Old Town”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 5-6/17)
“Weaponized Math”, Jonathan P. Brazee (The Expanding Universe, Vol. 3)
“Wind Will Rove”, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 9-10/17)
“A Series of Steaks”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld 1/17)
“A Human Stain”, Kelly Robson (Tor.com 1/4/17)
“Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time”, K.M. Szpara (Uncanny 5-6/17)

More catching up to do here. I'm probably not going to read the Robson, as it is horror and I am afeared, but plan to read the rest of those I missed soon. “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time" is great, and "A Series of Steaks" was Prasad's debut story, which I absolutely loved.

Short Story

“Fandom for Robots”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny 9-10/17)
“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”, Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex 8/17)
“Utopia, LOL?”, Jamie Wahls (Strange Horizons 6/5/17)
“Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 9-10/17)
“The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard)”, Matthew Kressel (Tor.com 3/15/17)
“Carnival Nine”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 5/11/17)

"Fandom for Robots," "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM," and “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand” are all brilliant. Need to read the rest.

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Get Out (Written by Jordan Peele)
The Good Place: “Michael’s Gambit” (Written by Michael Schur)
Logan (Screenplay by Scott Frank, James Mangold, and Michael Green)
The Shape of Water (Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Written by Rian Johnson)
Wonder Woman (Screenplay by Allan Heinberg)

These are great!

The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book

Exo, Fonda Lee (Scholastic Press)
Weave a Circle Round, Kari Maaren (Tor)
The Art of Starving, Sam J. Miller (HarperTeen)
Want, Cindy Pon (Simon Pulse)

Sam Miller's book is very good. I haven't read the rest yet.

All in all, this is a terrific list of nominees. Note that many of the short fiction links are direct reading links, and I definitely recommend you click and read.

Related: My Current Locus Award Ballot