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Nebula Awards Showcases #50
Nebula Awards Showcase 2016
The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The editor, selected by SFWA’s anthology Committee (chaired by Mike Resnick), is American science fiction and fantasy writer Mercedes Lackey. This year’s Nebula winners are Ursula Vernon, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Nancy Kress, and Jeff VanderMeer, with Alaya Dawn Johnson winning the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book. From the Trade Paperback edition.
414 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 3, 2016
58 people are currently reading
316 people want to read
About the author
Mercedes Lackey
432 books9,562 followersMercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 7, 2017
I guess I don't have the same tastes as the Nebula Awards voters. I found many of the stories boring, and "literary" in a way that I perceive as pretentious, especially some of the ones toward the fantasy end of the continuum. I notice there was nothing in here from Asimov's; I guess I like the taste of Asimov's editors much better. I did like (and had already read) the novelette and novella winners. But the excerpt from the best novel winner didn't even tempt me to read it.
April 14, 2021
A lot of this was intensely depressing. Like, really incredibly messed up depressing. Some of it was fun. I added exactly one book to my to-read list because of it. Awards committees have very different standards - quality or meaningfulness rather than readability and fun. Like most Literature, "meaningful" equates to "absolutely miserable exploration of the human condition."
July 21, 2016
This is a really nice collection of short stories for the 2016 Nebula award winners and nominees. The stories here are really well written, and why shouldn't they be. They are arguably the "best of the best" from the sci-fi world voted on by fellow authors.
The stories here though are not for the casual reader. Being "encapsulated" as they are in genre fiction, the stories told in this collection to get nominated really have to push the boundaries to impress their fellow authors. Some of the short stories can be at times hard to read. Others can even be called "pretentious" and none of it is really going to be the sort of commercially digestible mass-market story that you might find elsewhere. If you do enjoy sci-fi though, there is bound to be at least a couple of stories in this collection that stick with you.
The stories here though are not for the casual reader. Being "encapsulated" as they are in genre fiction, the stories told in this collection to get nominated really have to push the boundaries to impress their fellow authors. Some of the short stories can be at times hard to read. Others can even be called "pretentious" and none of it is really going to be the sort of commercially digestible mass-market story that you might find elsewhere. If you do enjoy sci-fi though, there is bound to be at least a couple of stories in this collection that stick with you.
January 26, 2017
Meh. Mostly fantasy, mostly not to my taste.
Several felt like stories that were written to win an award, rather than to tell me a story.
I had no problem with the novellas, except that if you don't like one you've lost quite a few pages.
I'm just about done with the weird-girl-who-lives-apart-from the-world stories (once you've read "Cold Comfort Farm" it's hard to be impressed by anything else) and too many of these felt like that.
OK, there were a couple of good ones.
I don't need to go back to heroes in leather underpants eating stew in an inn where a man with a cowl is sitting alone in the corner, or pretty elves seducing plain young men and women, but I do like to be taken elsewhere once in a while, instead of meeting a naiad in downtown Schenectady. I'm an older reader, but I think the Showcases of years past were better.
Several felt like stories that were written to win an award, rather than to tell me a story.
I had no problem with the novellas, except that if you don't like one you've lost quite a few pages.
I'm just about done with the weird-girl-who-lives-apart-from the-world stories (once you've read "Cold Comfort Farm" it's hard to be impressed by anything else) and too many of these felt like that.
OK, there were a couple of good ones.
I don't need to go back to heroes in leather underpants eating stew in an inn where a man with a cowl is sitting alone in the corner, or pretty elves seducing plain young men and women, but I do like to be taken elsewhere once in a while, instead of meeting a naiad in downtown Schenectady. I'm an older reader, but I think the Showcases of years past were better.
July 12, 2017
It is either ironic or fitting that Mercedes Lackey is the editor of “Nebula Awards Showcase 2016” (Pyr, $18, 412 pages) as Lackey is best known for professionally written but seriously lightweight fantasies and yet here is editing, as she admits, fiction that supposed to make you uncomfortable.
This is part of the constant tug-of-war of genre fiction, as many – like myself – read it more for entertainment than art. But writers are writers, and even those who appear to be aiming low usually have much more ambition behind the scenes.
This conflict is evident in the selections for the book, as some of the stories are quite clearly meant to be literature, and others are both more focused on entertainment. For example, “When It Ends, He Catches Her,” is clearly written by someone looking to make a creative statement about life. “Yesterday’s Kin,” on the other hand, was much more entertainment – or, to put it another way, it created an unusual situation involving, in this case, aliens (of a sort) coming to Earth and fundamentally altering society. The story then plays out in unknown and unusual realms, which are much more macroscopic then character driven.
“Jackalope Wives” combined both of these traits into a single story, but that is not an easy task, and especially in a short story, tends to leave one or both strands unfulfilled.
The same dichotomy is clear in ”Invisible Planets” (Tor, $24.99, 383 pages), which is a compendium of Chinese science fiction and fantasy. Some of it has been translated into English before, and even won major prizes, but all in all it reveals the same faultlines that we see in “Nebula Awards Showcase 2016.” That is to say some of the stories are barely science fiction or fantasy at all, while others explore entirely different worlds and societies.
In terms of running out to buy either one of these books, if as a reader you land on one side of the fence or the other, you’re bound to be a little disappointed because half of the book won’t make you happy. Since I am more interested in “traditional” science fiction and fantasy, those stories that tap into the author’s desire to write “literature” don’t work as well for me and as a result, I wouldn’t really want to buy either of these books. By the same token, if I’m someone who really likes the literate aspects of genre fiction, then I also won’t be satisfied.
So on the one hand, this is a rather lukewarm recommendation for these books, but on the other, they show the depth and creative power of the genre, and also reveal that the concerns of Chinese authors and American authors aren’t really that different. People are, after all, people and we live in a common world culture much more so than in the past, so it’s not surprising that there is an overlap between the concerns and focus of Chinese and American science fiction and fantasy authors. It is rather heartening, though, to realize that the similarities are so consistent, and that the cultural divide might not be as great as we think.
Of course, the cultural divide between those who like the more experimental aspects of science fiction and fantasy, and those who prefer dragons, galactic empires, and alien first contact, might not be so easy to bridge. And though “Invisible Planets” and “Nebula Awards Showcase 2016” have one foot firmly planted on either side of the gulf, unfortunately they will probably wind up pleasing no one on either side.
This is part of the constant tug-of-war of genre fiction, as many – like myself – read it more for entertainment than art. But writers are writers, and even those who appear to be aiming low usually have much more ambition behind the scenes.
This conflict is evident in the selections for the book, as some of the stories are quite clearly meant to be literature, and others are both more focused on entertainment. For example, “When It Ends, He Catches Her,” is clearly written by someone looking to make a creative statement about life. “Yesterday’s Kin,” on the other hand, was much more entertainment – or, to put it another way, it created an unusual situation involving, in this case, aliens (of a sort) coming to Earth and fundamentally altering society. The story then plays out in unknown and unusual realms, which are much more macroscopic then character driven.
“Jackalope Wives” combined both of these traits into a single story, but that is not an easy task, and especially in a short story, tends to leave one or both strands unfulfilled.
The same dichotomy is clear in ”Invisible Planets” (Tor, $24.99, 383 pages), which is a compendium of Chinese science fiction and fantasy. Some of it has been translated into English before, and even won major prizes, but all in all it reveals the same faultlines that we see in “Nebula Awards Showcase 2016.” That is to say some of the stories are barely science fiction or fantasy at all, while others explore entirely different worlds and societies.
In terms of running out to buy either one of these books, if as a reader you land on one side of the fence or the other, you’re bound to be a little disappointed because half of the book won’t make you happy. Since I am more interested in “traditional” science fiction and fantasy, those stories that tap into the author’s desire to write “literature” don’t work as well for me and as a result, I wouldn’t really want to buy either of these books. By the same token, if I’m someone who really likes the literate aspects of genre fiction, then I also won’t be satisfied.
So on the one hand, this is a rather lukewarm recommendation for these books, but on the other, they show the depth and creative power of the genre, and also reveal that the concerns of Chinese authors and American authors aren’t really that different. People are, after all, people and we live in a common world culture much more so than in the past, so it’s not surprising that there is an overlap between the concerns and focus of Chinese and American science fiction and fantasy authors. It is rather heartening, though, to realize that the similarities are so consistent, and that the cultural divide might not be as great as we think.
Of course, the cultural divide between those who like the more experimental aspects of science fiction and fantasy, and those who prefer dragons, galactic empires, and alien first contact, might not be so easy to bridge. And though “Invisible Planets” and “Nebula Awards Showcase 2016” have one foot firmly planted on either side of the gulf, unfortunately they will probably wind up pleasing no one on either side.
August 23, 2017
I didn't even think twice when I saw the Nebula Wards Showcase 2016 anthology, edited by Mercedes Lackey, on the shelf at my local bookshop – I bought it. And then I was pleased to see some familiar names – Eugie Foster, Aliette de Bodard, and Alyssa Wong.
While I'm not going to go over every story or excerpt collected here, I will touch on the works that jumped out at me and why they resonated.
Aliette de Bodard's "The Breath of War" spoke to me as we meet Rechan, upon whose world expectant women need the support of their stoneman or -woman in order to give birth. This is a haunting tale infused with aspects of both fantasy and SF, and the mechanics of the sculpting of the sentient stone in this story reminds me a little of Robin Hobb's memory stone in the Farseer books. De Bodard examines the connections of family but also a deeper yearning of those who are never sure where their place is in existence, and being torn between the known and unknown.
Eugie Foster's "When it Ends, He Catches Her" is equally haunting, framed within a last dance between two lovers, and how memory endures, encapsulated within movement. The setting is desolate, and there is little hope here, but there is an intrinsic beauty that I've always associated with Foster's writing.
Alyssa Wong's "The Fisher Queen" is one of those scratchy-behind-the-eyes stories that stayed with me throughout as she takes the idea of mermaids and subverts it. What if an entire industry was based on *eating* mermaids? And what if they were put to *other* uses before brought to land. This is an uncomfortable read, and perhaps for that, I love it the best.
"Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon was just lovely, spun out with the lilting cadences of an American folk tale as we are plunged into a world where some folks are touched by a wilder magic, and what they make of it is entirely up to them. With the resultant unintended consequences.
Nancy Kress was the Nebula Award Winner for "Best Novella" and reading "Yesterday's Kin" in its entirety was a real treat. She examines the bonds of family within this tale of Marianne, a scientist, who believes that her paper on evolutionary genetics is nothing special – until first contact results in the aliens showing interest in her work. We segue also to her son Noah, and how different his experience with the aliens is. I won't give spoilers, but as far as first contact stories usually go, this one hit me with all the feels in the right places.
Overall, I'm seeing more of a tendency towards SF or magical realism in the stories selected. Not so much anything secondary world fantasy, which is a pity. But then I think this is a global trend at present. That being said, I still enjoyed this collection immensely, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to dip into the works that are currently considered to be the top of the SFF genre.
While I'm not going to go over every story or excerpt collected here, I will touch on the works that jumped out at me and why they resonated.
Aliette de Bodard's "The Breath of War" spoke to me as we meet Rechan, upon whose world expectant women need the support of their stoneman or -woman in order to give birth. This is a haunting tale infused with aspects of both fantasy and SF, and the mechanics of the sculpting of the sentient stone in this story reminds me a little of Robin Hobb's memory stone in the Farseer books. De Bodard examines the connections of family but also a deeper yearning of those who are never sure where their place is in existence, and being torn between the known and unknown.
Eugie Foster's "When it Ends, He Catches Her" is equally haunting, framed within a last dance between two lovers, and how memory endures, encapsulated within movement. The setting is desolate, and there is little hope here, but there is an intrinsic beauty that I've always associated with Foster's writing.
Alyssa Wong's "The Fisher Queen" is one of those scratchy-behind-the-eyes stories that stayed with me throughout as she takes the idea of mermaids and subverts it. What if an entire industry was based on *eating* mermaids? And what if they were put to *other* uses before brought to land. This is an uncomfortable read, and perhaps for that, I love it the best.
"Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon was just lovely, spun out with the lilting cadences of an American folk tale as we are plunged into a world where some folks are touched by a wilder magic, and what they make of it is entirely up to them. With the resultant unintended consequences.
Nancy Kress was the Nebula Award Winner for "Best Novella" and reading "Yesterday's Kin" in its entirety was a real treat. She examines the bonds of family within this tale of Marianne, a scientist, who believes that her paper on evolutionary genetics is nothing special – until first contact results in the aliens showing interest in her work. We segue also to her son Noah, and how different his experience with the aliens is. I won't give spoilers, but as far as first contact stories usually go, this one hit me with all the feels in the right places.
Overall, I'm seeing more of a tendency towards SF or magical realism in the stories selected. Not so much anything secondary world fantasy, which is a pity. But then I think this is a global trend at present. That being said, I still enjoyed this collection immensely, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to dip into the works that are currently considered to be the top of the SFF genre.
December 4, 2018
I only read the award-winning stories from this compilation:
* Jackalope Wives (short story) by Ursula Vernon
* A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i (novelette) by Alaya Dawn Johnson
* Yesterday's Kin (novella) by Nancy Kress
I enjoyed the stories I read, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed (at least some of) the rest of the compilation too, had I decided to read it. However, my reason for getting this out of the library was to read more of the Nebula Award Winners, so I stuck with just those.
They were all enjoyable, though they didn't always portray humanity in a flattering light. One of the things I liked was that though there was often a "humanity as a whole can be mean" type of feel, the heroines also served as examples that individual people can be beacons of hope in the darkness of mob mentality. (Side note: all three of the award-winners for 2015 featured female main characters.)
* Jackalope Wives (short story) by Ursula Vernon
* A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i (novelette) by Alaya Dawn Johnson
* Yesterday's Kin (novella) by Nancy Kress
I enjoyed the stories I read, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed (at least some of) the rest of the compilation too, had I decided to read it. However, my reason for getting this out of the library was to read more of the Nebula Award Winners, so I stuck with just those.
They were all enjoyable, though they didn't always portray humanity in a flattering light. One of the things I liked was that though there was often a "humanity as a whole can be mean" type of feel, the heroines also served as examples that individual people can be beacons of hope in the darkness of mob mentality. (Side note: all three of the award-winners for 2015 featured female main characters.)
June 26, 2019
I only read the short stories. I enjoyed:
- "The Fisher Queen" (Alyssa Wong): a fisherman's daughter who makes a choice involving a grotesque mermaid.
- "The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye" (Matthew Kressel): a galaxy-eating being and its minion re-create a long-dead human being. I wasn't sold until the end, when the wide-eyed wonder made me feel warm and fuzzy.
- "Jackalope Wives" (Ursula Vernon): a grandmother tries to undo her grandson's naive mistake.
- "A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide" (Sarah Pinkser): a farmer's new bionic arm has its own sense of self.
- "The Breath of War" (Aliette de Bodard): a pregnant woman seeks her long-lost animate stone carving, without whom her unborn child will die.
- "The Fisher Queen" (Alyssa Wong): a fisherman's daughter who makes a choice involving a grotesque mermaid.
- "The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye" (Matthew Kressel): a galaxy-eating being and its minion re-create a long-dead human being. I wasn't sold until the end, when the wide-eyed wonder made me feel warm and fuzzy.
- "Jackalope Wives" (Ursula Vernon): a grandmother tries to undo her grandson's naive mistake.
- "A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide" (Sarah Pinkser): a farmer's new bionic arm has its own sense of self.
- "The Breath of War" (Aliette de Bodard): a pregnant woman seeks her long-lost animate stone carving, without whom her unborn child will die.
February 23, 2018
A four star rating is about right for a collection with three five-star short stories (“A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide”, “Jackalope Wives”, and “We Are the Cloud”), a similar number of four-star stories, and one story I hated. I loved Nancy Kress’s novella “Yesterday’s Kin”. Definitely worth reading for any SF/F fan.
October 6, 2025
Some of the short stories were boring, and some I could not understand. I am not sure if I would read this one again. It also had very little science fiction in it, especially compared to the other collection that I read.
Yesterday's Kin was great, but the ending was sad, and I definitely want to check out Annihilation.
Yesterday's Kin was great, but the ending was sad, and I definitely want to check out Annihilation.
May 30, 2019
Good collection. Particularly strong stories by Sarah Pinsker, Matthew Kressel, Alyssa Wong, Ursula Vernon, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and of course Nancy Kress, whose Yesterday’s Kin I’ve already read and loved.
I skipped the excerpts (Novella and Novel nominees), I will source the full works later.
I skipped the excerpts (Novella and Novel nominees), I will source the full works later.
June 5, 2021
Top stories I liked: jackalope wives - Ursula Vernon, the fisher queen - Alyssa Wong, a guide to the fruits of Hawaii - Alaya dawn Johnson and yesterday's kin - nancy Kress. Everything else seemed generic.
February 21, 2022
The Nancy Kress novella winner was really the headliner for this group of stories, and did not disappoint. Nebula nominated short stories are always hit and miss, but there are usually few good ones in every collection, as in this one.
January 13, 2023
Great fiction, and I really like how they laid it out with all the nominees, then switched to excerpts when they got to the longer works. The background on how Nebulas are awarded and the ending list of all awardees ever were great context.
October 17, 2017
Great collection of stories. Some cutting edge stuff.
November 20, 2017
I love when I get time to read through these higher quality short story compilations. A few were misses, but most were hits for me.
March 23, 2018
I did not find it enjoyable. Sort of like walking on glass shards....so I had to stop!
March 10, 2019
Always a wild ride. Very enjoyable and a great way to find unknown authors.
August 11, 2021
An impressive compilation of the best sci fi and fantasy stories, novelettes, excerpt from novellas and from the best novel published in the year 2014.
September 18, 2021
Some weaker than others, all good. Recommend the Kress highly.
December 22, 2021
Short stories some I really liked, some I didn't understand but wonderful collection.
March 17, 2017
A myriad of fabulous extracts and short stories. Most valuable to me the comprehensive listing of all the previous awards won since the birth of the Nebula so lots to add to my reading list..!
June 26, 2017
TL;DR - An entertaing collection of new and innovate sci-fi and fantasy stories.
Though the quality wavers between entries, overfall this is an excellent collection of modern voices in genre fiction. Feelings on the individual stories:
"A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide" - 2 stars. Mostly muddled, unexplainable denouncement. About a man whose arm replacement makes him believe he is a road in the middle of nowhere.
"The Breath of War" - 3 stars. An innovative story about a young woman who has to return home to a creature she carved as a child during the war in order to give birth.
"The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family" - 3 stars, about a heroic young woman and her brother who falls to a rather literal dark side. The ending seems to render the story moot.
"The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye" 4 stars. Very hard sci-fi, with a character who has to stand up against a bad guy they've unwittingly been working with. A favorite.
"When It Ends, He Catches Her" 4 stars. Two words: Romance, undead. Innovative clash of genres.
"The Fisher Queen" 4 stars. A young girl's liberation of mermaids from some truly horrible conditions.
"Jackalope Wives" 5 stars. A story that starts like any other fairytale romance, but turns into something more when the unthinking hero commits an act of horror and his grandmother is left to repair the poor girl. Beautiful and uplifting.
"Sleep Walking Now and Then" 3 stars. Average Hollywood "the show must go on" story, with a predictable twist. Still entertaining.
"The Devil in America" 5 stars. Powerful use of fable to explore America's uneasy relationship with race. Painful but poignant.
"The Husband Stitch" 3.5 stars. Sometimes heavy-handed allegory for feminism, with ribbons being what hold women back. Good use of horror.
"The Magician and Laplace's Demon" 3.5 stars. Heavy sci-fi, about a program constantly trying to understand magic in the universe by removing it from the universe. Entertaining.
"We Are the Cloud" - 3 Stars. A story about a young boy who becomes a walking wifi beacon who stars in a gay love story that ends badly. Sad and a bit formulaic - surprise, the poor live to be taken advantage of. Written well, though.
"A Guide to the Fruits of Hawaii" - 5 stars. A young woman tries to survive a horrific vampire regime by taking care of young children that the vampires eventually feed on. Horrible yet understandable.
Excerpt from Calendrical Regression - 3.5 stars. A battle scene between a pirate queen and Mr. Smith; entertaining but didn't make me immediately look up the book it's based on.
Excerpt from The Mothers of Voorhisville - 3.5 stars. A story about mothers and children in bleak and sad conditions, with interesting experimentation in POV. The excerpt is too short to get much of a feel for the story, but I'd like to check it out.
Excerpt from The Regular - 2 stars. I like Ken Liu and this is written well, but the story literally made me sick to my stomach over its cavalier abuse of the main female character, a sex worker.
Excerpt from Grand Jete (the Great Leap)" - 3 stars. Well written but forgettable story about a man who makes a sister for his daughter, but she doesn't like the doll. A bit forgettable.
Excerpt from We Are All Completely Fine - 2 stars. Literally only three pages, far too little to get much of a hook into you. Not badly written, but not enough that I wanted to read more.
Yesterday's Kin - 5 stars. Brilliant, brilliant story about a mother and her family, and how all their lives are turned upside when aliens appear. Everyone changes, sometimes irrevocably, but all the changes feel organic.
Excerpt from Annihilation -5 stars. Sweet and suffocating atmosphere; I immediately ran out and read the book after reading this.
Though the quality wavers between entries, overfall this is an excellent collection of modern voices in genre fiction. Feelings on the individual stories:
"A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide" - 2 stars. Mostly muddled, unexplainable denouncement. About a man whose arm replacement makes him believe he is a road in the middle of nowhere.
"The Breath of War" - 3 stars. An innovative story about a young woman who has to return home to a creature she carved as a child during the war in order to give birth.
"The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family" - 3 stars, about a heroic young woman and her brother who falls to a rather literal dark side. The ending seems to render the story moot.
"The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye" 4 stars. Very hard sci-fi, with a character who has to stand up against a bad guy they've unwittingly been working with. A favorite.
"When It Ends, He Catches Her" 4 stars. Two words: Romance, undead. Innovative clash of genres.
"The Fisher Queen" 4 stars. A young girl's liberation of mermaids from some truly horrible conditions.
"Jackalope Wives" 5 stars. A story that starts like any other fairytale romance, but turns into something more when the unthinking hero commits an act of horror and his grandmother is left to repair the poor girl. Beautiful and uplifting.
"Sleep Walking Now and Then" 3 stars. Average Hollywood "the show must go on" story, with a predictable twist. Still entertaining.
"The Devil in America" 5 stars. Powerful use of fable to explore America's uneasy relationship with race. Painful but poignant.
"The Husband Stitch" 3.5 stars. Sometimes heavy-handed allegory for feminism, with ribbons being what hold women back. Good use of horror.
"The Magician and Laplace's Demon" 3.5 stars. Heavy sci-fi, about a program constantly trying to understand magic in the universe by removing it from the universe. Entertaining.
"We Are the Cloud" - 3 Stars. A story about a young boy who becomes a walking wifi beacon who stars in a gay love story that ends badly. Sad and a bit formulaic - surprise, the poor live to be taken advantage of. Written well, though.
"A Guide to the Fruits of Hawaii" - 5 stars. A young woman tries to survive a horrific vampire regime by taking care of young children that the vampires eventually feed on. Horrible yet understandable.
Excerpt from Calendrical Regression - 3.5 stars. A battle scene between a pirate queen and Mr. Smith; entertaining but didn't make me immediately look up the book it's based on.
Excerpt from The Mothers of Voorhisville - 3.5 stars. A story about mothers and children in bleak and sad conditions, with interesting experimentation in POV. The excerpt is too short to get much of a feel for the story, but I'd like to check it out.
Excerpt from The Regular - 2 stars. I like Ken Liu and this is written well, but the story literally made me sick to my stomach over its cavalier abuse of the main female character, a sex worker.
Excerpt from Grand Jete (the Great Leap)" - 3 stars. Well written but forgettable story about a man who makes a sister for his daughter, but she doesn't like the doll. A bit forgettable.
Excerpt from We Are All Completely Fine - 2 stars. Literally only three pages, far too little to get much of a hook into you. Not badly written, but not enough that I wanted to read more.
Yesterday's Kin - 5 stars. Brilliant, brilliant story about a mother and her family, and how all their lives are turned upside when aliens appear. Everyone changes, sometimes irrevocably, but all the changes feel organic.
Excerpt from Annihilation -5 stars. Sweet and suffocating atmosphere; I immediately ran out and read the book after reading this.
August 16, 2016
So, at work I'm constantly shelving these kinda weird looking children's comics that look totally uninteresting to me. When I read the short story winner for the Nebula (The Jackalope Wives) I was like, huh, name sounds familiar. Turns out the author who write those weird little comics is actually a fucking amazing writer who blends folklore into her fantastically written stories.
This was also the book where I discovered Alyssa Wong, so forever grateful for that.
A Guide to the Fruits of Hawaii was kinda cool, but kinda pissed me off because I'm pretty sure a white person wrote it and the main character is half Japanese who calls their grandma Obachan and eats ume boshi all the time...uh so basically I'm the main character???? Even I as a Japanese person don't feel comfortable writing words like obachan and ume boshi etc etc in my work...white people!
Seriously though, all of the short stories (the main reason why I picked this book up) were pretty amazing. Another honorable mention is The Meeker and the All Seeing Eye.
This was also the book where I discovered Alyssa Wong, so forever grateful for that.
A Guide to the Fruits of Hawaii was kinda cool, but kinda pissed me off because I'm pretty sure a white person wrote it and the main character is half Japanese who calls their grandma Obachan and eats ume boshi all the time...uh so basically I'm the main character???? Even I as a Japanese person don't feel comfortable writing words like obachan and ume boshi etc etc in my work...white people!
Seriously though, all of the short stories (the main reason why I picked this book up) were pretty amazing. Another honorable mention is The Meeker and the All Seeing Eye.
February 7, 2017
What I love about Anthologies is that it gives you such a broad range of stories in both the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres and this did not disappoint. There are stories here of all types, and each one wonderfully written. This is a solid collections of stories that are thoughtful, enjoyable and all very different from each other. You do get some excerpts only of a few novellas and a novel, which left me wanting more so I will be seeking those out to read in full!
July 27, 2016
Well, the book does what it says on the cover - a reprinting of the "winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)" for this year. Most of the science fiction and fantasy stories were well written and original. However, there were a few that re-hashed old stuff (boring and over-done) and some I just found completely strange for this type of collection (i.e. the very weak sci-fi story that revolves around gay porn).
December 5, 2016
A virtual smorgasbord of science fiction and fantasy that invites readers to sample new authors with short stories and novellas that have been chosen by top authors in the field. From an arm that thinks it is a portion of highway to angels that are devils and much more between, relax and try something new. All samples are award nominated or award winning selections and will challenge readers at every turn. (read more...)You can read this entire review at San Diego Book Review
December 3, 2017
Esta es una compilación que había empezado hace mucho pero cuyos últimos cuentos acabo de leer. No recuerdo la razón, pero la calidad de los cuentos no es un factor. Son muy buenos. Como habíamos mencionado otras veces, hay mucho afán literario en los cuentos modernos de ciencia ficción, a veces logrado, otras no. Mucho trabajo en el estilo, en la construcción de caracteres. A veces la historia sufre y resulta marginal. Todo lo contrario de los cuentos de hace 30-40 años donde la historia manda. En este caso, me parecieron un buen equilibrio entre ambos. Vale ampliamente la pena.
August 28, 2016
I really enjoyed the 2015 Nebula Showcase. This one, however, made me wonder. Are they just picking random stuff to showcase? Seems like it. It doesn't seem like it is necessarily anything to do with the year listed. That, and the fact that I had read many of the stories here in other anthologies made this one fall rather short.
Still, always a nice cross section, and it gives me new titles to add to my "want to read" list.
Still, always a nice cross section, and it gives me new titles to add to my "want to read" list.
July 27, 2016
Mostly fantasy this year and too many partial stories.
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