2013 Nebula Nominees Announced

Women Authors of Science Fiction and Fantasy Swept the Fiction Awards this year.

All of the fiction awards for 2013 were awarded to amazing women authors of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The Nebula Awards have for several years recognized women and authors of color. It is a great sign of the pendulums swing, I now am looking forward to the day that this is not actually news, and we can move beyond the need to point out how amazing this is.

2013 Nebula Awards

Novel 

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)  

Nominees:

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)
Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Hild, Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island)
A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)
The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (Harper)

Novella

The Weight of the Sunrise, Vylar Kaftan (Asimov’s 2/13)   

In her compelling new novella about the Incan empire, Vylar treats us to an alternate look at the history of the New World.
 Read Free Online Version

Nominees:

Wakulla Springs, Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages (Tor.com 10/2/13)
Annabel Lee, Nancy Kress (New Under the Sun, Arc Manor/Phoenix Pick)
Burning Girls, Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com 6/19/13)
Trial of the Century, Lawrence M. Schoen (lawrencemschoen.com, 8/13; World Jumping)
Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean)

Novelette

The Waiting Stars, Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky) 

Nominees:

Paranormal Romance, Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed 6/13)
They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s 1/13)
Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters, Henry Lien (Asimov’s 12/13)
The Litigation Master and the Monkey King, Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/13)
In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind, Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons 7/1 – 7/8/13)

Short Story

If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love, Rachel Swirsky (Apex 3/13) 

Nominees:

The Sounds of Old Earth, Matthew Kressel (Lightspeed 1/13)
Selkie Stories Are for Losers, Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons 1/7/13)
Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer, Kenneth Schneyer (Clockwork Phoenix 4)
Alive, Alive Oh, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (Lightspeed 6/13)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, director; Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, writers) (Warner Bros.)

Nominees:

Doctor Who: ‘‘The Day of the Doctor’’, (Nick Hurran, director; Steven Moffat, writer) (BBC Wales)
Europa Report (Sebastián Cordero, director; Philip Gelatt, writer) (Start Motion Pictures)
Her (Spike Jonze, director; Spike Jonze, writer) (Warner Bros.)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence, director; Simon Beaufoy & Michael deBruyn, writers) (Lionsgate)
Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, director; Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro, writers) (Warner Bros.)

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

Sister Mine, Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central)  

Nominees:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Indigo)
When We Wake, Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin; Little, Brown)
The Summer Prince, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
Hero, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
September Girls, Bennett Madison (Harper Teen)
A Corner of White, Jaclyn Moriarty (Levine)

Damon Knight Grand Master Award: Samuel R. Delany
Special Guest: Frank M. Robinson

Links:

SFWA : 2013 Nebula Awards Winners Announced

Book Review: Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson

Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sister Mine is one of those books that is hard to review in a simple or singular comment.
Hopkinson weaves so many threads and individual pieces into Sister Mine.
The story mixes and crosses so many genre's and sub genre's, plots and threads that at points the story feels chaotic and lacking in cohesion. In a way this lack of cohesion and multiple subplots works. Though at times it clutters the story.

Hopkinson has managed to pull the plot complexity, and multiple layers of myth and epic fantasy, and wrap them in a contemporary fiction. Sister Mine is a story of dysfunctional families, sisterly love, sibling rivalry, individual identity and growth. While also being a mystery, a ghost story, a story about the power and magic of music, the myth of the child of gods.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the modern twist on mythology, and for anyone that is looking for the non-standard Contemporary or Urban fantasy.

Awards:

• Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (2013)
• Sunburst Award Nominee for Adult (2014)

Details:

Published March 12th 2013 by Grand Central Publishing

Links:
Nalo Hopkinson


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Book Review: So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy by Nalo Hopkinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nalo Hopkinson (Editor), Uppinder Mehan (Editor), Karin Lowachee, Devorah Major, Nnedi Okorafor, Eden Robinson, Opal Palmer Adisa, Celu Amberstone, Wayde Compton, Andrea Hairston, Maya Khankhoje

I really enjoyed reading "So Long Been Dreaming" many stories in this anthology push the boundaries of what we are familiar with in a fantasy or Science Fiction world, the authors have taken risks in exploring the issues raised, and in the fascinating look at colonizing, colonized, and colonizers.

Like any anthology some stories in this collection were fantastic, some were great, and many were good. Some of the stories felt like they ended to soon,or were rushed, and perhaps they are snippets of fuller stories to come by these amazing authors.

Though I am a life long Sci-Fi Fantasy, speculative fiction reader it is a treat to be introduced to a wide range of writers looking at SF/F from a different viewpoint.
It is always a treat to read new authors I have not discovered yet. I will be adding many of the authors from this anthology to my to-read list.

Links:
Nalo Hopkinson
Nnedi Okorafor

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