Next SFF Author: Chloe Neill

Previous SFF Author: Vera Nazarian

Series: Nebula Award

SHORTS: Anders, Nagata, Howard, McGuire, Clarke

After a few weeks’ vacation, SHORTS returns to continue exploring free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read recently that we wanted you to know about.

“As Good as New” by Charlie Jane Anders (2014, free at Tor.com, 99c Kindle version)

Marisol Guzmán, a pre-med student who decided that being a doctor was a better career choice than a playwright, is saved from the end of the world only because she’s housecleaning a mansion when massive earthquakes began.

SHORTS: de Bodard, Smith, Buckell, Steele, Pinsker, Barnett

Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.

The Waiting Stars by Aliette de Bodard (2013, free to read online or download on author’s website). 2013 Nebula award winner and 2014 Hugo award nominee (novelette)

In this 2013 Nebula award-winning story, set in the 22nd century, Aliette de Bodard weaves together two narratives that at first seem unconnected but in the end, of course, are. The first concerns a woman’s exploration of a derelict spaceship in a graveyard of spaceships in an isolated corner of space controlled by the Outsiders.

Rendezvous with Rama: Multi-award winner with controversial ending

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

In 2131, humans are minding their own business when a large object thought to be an asteroid is detected at the edge of our solar system. As it gets closer to Earth it is photographed and found to be unnatural — obviously an alien spaceship. A team of scientists is sent to meet the ship dubbed “Rama” and to make our first contact with an alien species. When they get there, they find Rama uninhabited and they set out to discover all they can about the aliens who must have launched it.

Thoughtful Thursday: The 2016 Nebula Awards

This year’s Nebula conference (May 18-21) will be held in Pittsburgh, and the 2016 Nebula Awards will be announced on Saturday, May 20, 2017.

As with the Hugo finalists, there are some unexpected names, some shocking omissions, and the authors we would expect; for instance, I expected to see Jemisin, but I’d also expect to see Dexter Palmer’s Version Control on the finalists list. Here are the finalists. Click the links to read our reviews:

BEST NOVEL:

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Borderline by Mishell Baker
The Obelisk Gate by N.K.

May 11th, 2017. Marion Deeds | Nebula Award | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 31 comments |

All the Birds in the Sky: A likeable fable about magic and science

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders, is a likeable book. The writing is fluent, filled with grace notes, witty observations and jokes that poke fun, but gently, at certain subcultures and stereotypes — mostly, the ones we all enjoy mocking from time to time.

Furthermore, in her Afterword, Anders says that if you don’t understand the story, she will come to your house and “act the whole thing out for you.

Slow River: A must-read

Slow River by Nicola Griffith

Slow River (1995) is Nicola Griffith‘s second novel and the third one by her I’ve read. Like her debut Ammonite (1992), it attracted quite a bit of attention. The novel won a Nebula Award in 1996 and has made it into the Gollancz SF Masterworks series. I enjoyed both Hild (2013) and Ammonite an awful lot so this book ended up on the to-read stack right after finishing Ammonite.

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union: How can one resist?

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon

[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]

Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is (breathe in) an alternate history science fiction noir police procedural that won plaudits from the literary mainstream as well as several top honors from the science fiction community (breathe out).

SHORTS: Chiang, Liu, Sanderson, Kinney, Seybold

Our weekly exploration of free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.

“Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang (1998, originally anthologized in Starlight 2, reprinted in Stories of Your Life and Others). 2000 Nebula award winner (novella) and 1999 Sturgeon award winner.

Being more of a fantasy lover than a sci-fi fan, I still hadn’t read the short-story superstar Ted Chiang.

The Dispossessed: Not simply an anarchist utopia/capitalist dystopia

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

The Dispossessed is a perfectly achieved thought experiment, perhaps Ursula K. Le Guin’s greatest achievement, but there is little I can say that hasn’t been said more eloquently, forcefully, thoroughly, or knowledgeably by other reviewers. It transcends genre as a Novel of Ideas. It explores with great intelligence anarchism-socialism vs capitalism; freedom/slavery in terms of politics, economics, society, intellectual endeavor, and personal relationships; the struggle to perfect a scientific theory that unifies time and space; whether human nature inevitably corrupts all political ideals;

SHORTS: Dicken, Martin, Sturgeon, Simak, Garcia-Rosas, Vonnegut

Here are a few short stories we’ve recently read and listened to that we wanted you to know about. This week’s selection includes some excellent classic tales.

“The Uncarved Heart” by Evan Dicken (Nov. 2016, free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 99c Kindle magazine issue, 0.99£ UK magazine issue)

It’s hard to tell what someone is really made of, at least until you crack them open. Some have hearts fragile as spun glass, quick to break and impossible to put back together; others have iron in their chests heavy enough to weight the whole of their being.

November 28th, 2016. Katie Burton, Kat Hooper, Tadiana Jones and Marion Deeds | Clifford D. Simak, George R.R. Martin, Kurt Vonnegut, Theodore Sturgeon | Audio, Free!, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Next SFF Author: Chloe Neill

Previous SFF Author: Vera Nazarian

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