This week the Nebula nominees were announced. The entire list can be viewed by clicking the link, but the nominees for best novel are:
The Native Star by M. K. Hobson
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
Echo by Jack McDevitt
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
This year 5 of the 6 nominees are women, which is nice to see since the past couple of years have only had one novel by a woman each year.
I’ve only read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but this looks like a pretty interesting list. The Native Star and Shades of Milk and Honey are both books I’ve been wanting to read – I actually almost picked up the former last time I was at the bookstore and now I wish I had. I’ve been waiting for paperback to get the latter. Echo is the fifth book in the Alex Benedict series, but the series sounds like it could be pretty fun. Who Fears Death is a new title to me, but it sounds like a book I’d like to read. Connie Willis is on my to-read list, but I’ll probably start with Doomsday Book.
The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy also looks like a great list, although I have yet to read any yet (3 are on my wish list and 2 more are in series I want to start):
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
White Cat by Holly Black
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch
The Boy from Ilysies by Pearl North
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
Behemoth by Scott Westerfield
I was particularly thrilled to see Megan Whalen Turner was a nominee since I love her Queen’s Thief series!
In a recent interview about Firefly being aired on cable, Nathan Fillion said:
If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.
This has, of course lead to many people wanting to contribute to the cause of bringing this fantastic but short-lived TV show back with new episodes. There’s now a new website with the self-explanatory domain name www.helpnathanbuyfirefly.com. Patrick Rothfuss, the author of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear (which is coming out next week!), wrote an open letter to Nathan Fillion about how he would like to contribute the proceeds from the book to helping buy back the show when he has more money than he knows what to do with. It’s quite an enjoyable read.
