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Nebula Awards Showcases #32
Nebula Awards 32: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year
In reviewing last year's Nebula Awards anthology -- the annual selection of award-winning and award-nominated fiction from the Science Fiction Writers of America -- I commented that the series "may turn out to be the best record we have of how SF writers have wanted to represent their craft to the world." Jack Dann, the editor of Nebula Awards 32, apparently agrees -- he includes that quotation in his introduction to this year's selection. But it's not only the stories that make each new Nebula anthology exciting; it's also the essays by various science fiction writers about the state of the field (they're worried), the inclusion of some of the year's best science fiction poetry (the Rhysling Award winners), an acute overview of the year's science fiction films by Bill Warren (a bit dated, since the films covered are from 1996), and tributes and fiction from the Grand Master Nebula winner (in this case Jack Vance, whose short story "The Men Return" is still stunningly audacious 40 years after its original appearance).
Of the fiction selections, the most impressive include Dann's own Nebula-winning novella "Da Vinci Rising" (which reworks material from his novel The Memory Cathedral), Harry Turtledove's alternate Civil War/World War II history "Must and Shall," Esther M. Friesner's controversial abortion story "A Birthday," and equally entertaining stories from Dean Wesley Smith, Paul Levinson, Jonathan Lethem, Bruce Holland Rogers, and Nicola Griffith.
Gary Wolfe
326 pages, Hardcover
First published April 17, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 2, 2016
Think of this volume as a rather thick magazine. It has articles, awards, and short stories. The last is the best part, though I did enjoy reading about Science Fiction Films of 1996. Jack Dann acted as editor, and I wonder if he influenced the choice of Time Travel stories (my favorite genre) for this volume.
Unfortunately Jack Dann's story "DaVinci Rising" is the one I liked least. Most impactful was the very short "A Birthday" by Esther Friesner. Will keep an eye out for more by her.
This slightly dog-eared book has been riding around in my car since February, and I am glad to replace it with another short story collection for the summer.
Unfortunately Jack Dann's story "DaVinci Rising" is the one I liked least. Most impactful was the very short "A Birthday" by Esther Friesner. Will keep an eye out for more by her.
This slightly dog-eared book has been riding around in my car since February, and I am glad to replace it with another short story collection for the summer.
May 4, 2020
This anthology of the 32nd Nebula Awards winners is overall a strong collection of some of the best scifi and fantasy of 1996. Leaving aside various non-fiction essays and poetry, I summarize the story contents as follows:
MUST AND SHALL, Harry Turtledove. Louisiana, 1942. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Suppression hunt for Nazi weapons smuggled into the occupied provinces of the Old Confederacy. Turtledove is best in short form, where his weakness in character and dialogue don't have room to derail his highly imaginative and entertaining plotting of alternate history.
IN THE SHADE OF THE SLOWBOAT MAN, Dean Wesley Smith. An ageless vampiress confronts the mortality of her human partner. Short, sweet, and sad, this was a surprisingly moving meditation on love and loss.
DA VINCI RISING, Jack Dann. Leonardo da Vinci becomes increasingly obsessed with his theoretical flying machine, igniting a chain of unpredictable consequences. This was an interesting idea too thin for a full novella, and which spent too much time in da Vinci's inner dialogue.
A BIRTHDAY, Esther M. Friesner. A woman struggles to cope in a world where a compromise has been struck: abortion is fully legalized, but not without consequence. Deeply personal and powerful, this story profoundly moved me, and will likely stay with me for some time.
THE CHRONOLOGY PROTECTION CASE, Paul Levinson. The universe would unravel from paradox if time travel could be achieved, and getting too close can be costly. This is a fairly straightforward police procedural with a clever twist, and likely a one-time read for me.
THE MEN RETURN, Jack Vance. Life finds a way, if you want to call it life, when causality no longer exists. Vance's world of effect without cause is wildly exotic and terrifying, and well worth a visit to this blasted landscape where only the irrational can truly thrive.
YAGUARA, Nicola Griffith. A deeply private photographer awakens to her sexuality and to life in the mystical jungles of Belize. The concept of ancient Mayan jaguar cults thriving in the modern age is interesting enough, but I found the execution a bit too lengthy and the theme of unleashing the wildness within a little too on the nose. It was also a more sexualized story than I prefer, prude that I am.
FIVE *****, Jonathan Lethem. A man and a woman are drawn to each other irresistibly and catastrophically. Again, being the prude that I am, I find the vulgarity of the title an unfortunate heading for a weird and wild and completely unique ride. Sex is never consequence-free, but I don't think I've ever seen consequences laid out in such an insane or entertaining way.
LIFEBOAT ON A BURNING SEA, Bruce Holland Rogers. Immortality through technology can take many faces, but so can mortality; and splitting the difference can be devastating. The ideas here are evocative and thought-provoking, but the story that develops from them fell short for me. I'd like to see more roads explored along this otherwise intriguing line.
MUST AND SHALL, Harry Turtledove. Louisiana, 1942. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Suppression hunt for Nazi weapons smuggled into the occupied provinces of the Old Confederacy. Turtledove is best in short form, where his weakness in character and dialogue don't have room to derail his highly imaginative and entertaining plotting of alternate history.
IN THE SHADE OF THE SLOWBOAT MAN, Dean Wesley Smith. An ageless vampiress confronts the mortality of her human partner. Short, sweet, and sad, this was a surprisingly moving meditation on love and loss.
DA VINCI RISING, Jack Dann. Leonardo da Vinci becomes increasingly obsessed with his theoretical flying machine, igniting a chain of unpredictable consequences. This was an interesting idea too thin for a full novella, and which spent too much time in da Vinci's inner dialogue.
A BIRTHDAY, Esther M. Friesner. A woman struggles to cope in a world where a compromise has been struck: abortion is fully legalized, but not without consequence. Deeply personal and powerful, this story profoundly moved me, and will likely stay with me for some time.
THE CHRONOLOGY PROTECTION CASE, Paul Levinson. The universe would unravel from paradox if time travel could be achieved, and getting too close can be costly. This is a fairly straightforward police procedural with a clever twist, and likely a one-time read for me.
THE MEN RETURN, Jack Vance. Life finds a way, if you want to call it life, when causality no longer exists. Vance's world of effect without cause is wildly exotic and terrifying, and well worth a visit to this blasted landscape where only the irrational can truly thrive.
YAGUARA, Nicola Griffith. A deeply private photographer awakens to her sexuality and to life in the mystical jungles of Belize. The concept of ancient Mayan jaguar cults thriving in the modern age is interesting enough, but I found the execution a bit too lengthy and the theme of unleashing the wildness within a little too on the nose. It was also a more sexualized story than I prefer, prude that I am.
FIVE *****, Jonathan Lethem. A man and a woman are drawn to each other irresistibly and catastrophically. Again, being the prude that I am, I find the vulgarity of the title an unfortunate heading for a weird and wild and completely unique ride. Sex is never consequence-free, but I don't think I've ever seen consequences laid out in such an insane or entertaining way.
LIFEBOAT ON A BURNING SEA, Bruce Holland Rogers. Immortality through technology can take many faces, but so can mortality; and splitting the difference can be devastating. The ideas here are evocative and thought-provoking, but the story that develops from them fell short for me. I'd like to see more roads explored along this otherwise intriguing line.
April 16, 2022
NEBULA AWARDS 32
RATED 89% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 3.89 OUT OF 5
9 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 6 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
The Nebula Award anthologies are quirky and I kinda like that. 2001 was all about the winners and lots of excerpts. 2015 reprinted all the nominees, plus the winning novella. 2016 made a big boast in the introduction that the stories couldn’t live up to. This anthology (from the period when they were numbered not listed by year) offers a strong collection of stories and a plethora of essays.
The one weird choice is the reprint a novella from the winner of the novel category. For me - a lover of short science fiction - that was an excellent way to do it. The story was a worthy inclusion.
Many of these stories speak for themselves and I try to address with the review of each other. This is a strong readable anthology with a great diversity of subgenere’s.
This anthology adds one story to my list of Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time:
https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
A Birthday • (1995) • short story by Esther M. Friesner.
A woman prepares for her daughter Tessa’s six birthday, but as the story progresses, we realize that something is off in this society. And it has something to do with abortion. Great idea with serious character development. This is thoughtful instead of a political screed.
NEBULA AWARDS 32 IS RATED 89% POSITIVE
9 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 6 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
Must and Shall • (1995) • novelette by Harry Turtledove
Good. Alternate history New Orleans depicted quite interestingly. In this history’s Civil War, the Union victors were harsh on the Confederate vanquished. The seething resentment is leading to collaboration with Nazis against the USA.
In the Shade of the Slowboat Man • (1996) • short story by Dean Wesley Smith
Good. A poignant story of a vampire visiting her husband in a nursing home for the last minutes of this life.
Da Vinci Rising • (1995) • novella by Jack Dann
Good. Young Da Vinci is working on a flying machine, but the political machinations of Machiavelli make it much more complicated.
A Birthday • (1995) • short story by Esther M. Friesner
Great. A woman prepares for her daughter Tessa’s six birthday, but as the story progresses, we realize that something is off in this society. And it has something to do with abortion.
The Chronology Protection Case • (1995) • novelette by Paul Levinson
Average. Scientists have made a bit discovery about the universe. Something that makes the universe want to strike back. Is there a way to unlearn something?
The Men Return • (1957) • short story by Jack Vance
Good. The far future earth has fallen into a pocket of non-causality, human brains lost their value, and the world got very weird.
Yaguara • (1994) • novella by Nicola Griffith
Good. A sensual and erotic story of a woman who has shut herself off from experience until she travels to Belize to photograph a beautiful scientist who has discovered an important ruined temple complex.
Five Fucks • (1996) • novelette by Jonathan Lethem
Good. Each time a couple has sex, a part of the universe disappears.
Lifeboat on a Burning Sea • (1995) • novelette by Bruce Holland Rogers
Average. Scientists are trying to create a computer to store human memories for ‘life-after-death,’ but the death of their charismatic partner causes funding to disappear. Perhaps they could creat their own artificial version of him?
RATED 89% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 3.89 OUT OF 5
9 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 6 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
The Nebula Award anthologies are quirky and I kinda like that. 2001 was all about the winners and lots of excerpts. 2015 reprinted all the nominees, plus the winning novella. 2016 made a big boast in the introduction that the stories couldn’t live up to. This anthology (from the period when they were numbered not listed by year) offers a strong collection of stories and a plethora of essays.
The one weird choice is the reprint a novella from the winner of the novel category. For me - a lover of short science fiction - that was an excellent way to do it. The story was a worthy inclusion.
Many of these stories speak for themselves and I try to address with the review of each other. This is a strong readable anthology with a great diversity of subgenere’s.
This anthology adds one story to my list of Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time:
https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
A Birthday • (1995) • short story by Esther M. Friesner.
A woman prepares for her daughter Tessa’s six birthday, but as the story progresses, we realize that something is off in this society. And it has something to do with abortion. Great idea with serious character development. This is thoughtful instead of a political screed.
NEBULA AWARDS 32 IS RATED 89% POSITIVE
9 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 6 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
Must and Shall • (1995) • novelette by Harry Turtledove
Good. Alternate history New Orleans depicted quite interestingly. In this history’s Civil War, the Union victors were harsh on the Confederate vanquished. The seething resentment is leading to collaboration with Nazis against the USA.
In the Shade of the Slowboat Man • (1996) • short story by Dean Wesley Smith
Good. A poignant story of a vampire visiting her husband in a nursing home for the last minutes of this life.
Da Vinci Rising • (1995) • novella by Jack Dann
Good. Young Da Vinci is working on a flying machine, but the political machinations of Machiavelli make it much more complicated.
A Birthday • (1995) • short story by Esther M. Friesner
Great. A woman prepares for her daughter Tessa’s six birthday, but as the story progresses, we realize that something is off in this society. And it has something to do with abortion.
The Chronology Protection Case • (1995) • novelette by Paul Levinson
Average. Scientists have made a bit discovery about the universe. Something that makes the universe want to strike back. Is there a way to unlearn something?
The Men Return • (1957) • short story by Jack Vance
Good. The far future earth has fallen into a pocket of non-causality, human brains lost their value, and the world got very weird.
Yaguara • (1994) • novella by Nicola Griffith
Good. A sensual and erotic story of a woman who has shut herself off from experience until she travels to Belize to photograph a beautiful scientist who has discovered an important ruined temple complex.
Five Fucks • (1996) • novelette by Jonathan Lethem
Good. Each time a couple has sex, a part of the universe disappears.
Lifeboat on a Burning Sea • (1995) • novelette by Bruce Holland Rogers
Average. Scientists are trying to create a computer to store human memories for ‘life-after-death,’ but the death of their charismatic partner causes funding to disappear. Perhaps they could creat their own artificial version of him?
March 4, 2022
This is a collection of stories and novellas that won Nebula Awards in 1996. Aside from some naval-gazing essays in the front of the book about the state of science fiction in the mid- ‘90s, this was an ok collection.
In the first story, “Must and Shall,” by Harry Turtledove, someone killed Lincoln while Hamblin was still his vice president. The Union declared full-on end-of-Southern-civilization war against the Confederacy, and the Union won. But it’s 1942 as the story opens, and Union occupying forces remain stationed throughout the South. The Confederacy, what’s left of it, has joined forces with the Nazis, and Hitler is supplying the Confederacy with guns. He’s sinking Union ships off the U.S. coastline. A hated northerner is in New Orleans to determine how vast shipments of weapons with Nazi insignias are finding their way into the ongoing conflict between the states.
Dean Wesley Smith’s “In the Shade of the Slowboat Man” is a sad ad haunting tale about a female vampire who doesn’t age and the love of her life who does and is dying. This one really stayed with me.
“Da Vinci Rising” by Jack Dann looks at the consequences had Da Vinci taken his drawings of a flying machine farther. Interesting but longer than it needed to be.
In Esther M. Friesner’s “A Birthday,” You can get an abortion in this society anywhere you want it any time you need it. But there are jarring consequences.
“The Chronology Protection Case” by Paul Levinson looks at how the universe might protect itself from unraveling if time travelers sought to change history. This is part mystery part science fiction, and I enjoyed the story immensely.
Jack Vance’s “The Men Return” whisks you to a place where there is no cause-and-effect relationship. Anything can happen for no reason at all, and it often does. A nameless creature referred to as “The relic” is on a planet, and he is hungry. Humans are his prey, and he sees some at a distance. Getting to them will be anything but easy. The story flashes back to a time when men dominated the Earth and when the relationship between cause and effect existed. But it ceased to exist, and the story is vague on why that relationship ended. The “relics” are survivors, but death stocks them in large numbers, and most won’t survive. We all take cause and effect so much for granted, and this is a fascinating way to look at what life would be like without it.
“Yaguara” by Nicola Griffith examines an extremely private photographer who valued her craft because people focused on her pictures and not on her. When Jane wants to do a photo essay on a female academic who explores the most remote jungles of Belize, the woman agrees, and off Jane goes. This becomes a lesbian love story that involves jaguars. It’s disturbing and odd.
“Five F*cks” by Jonathan Lethem put me off first because of the vulgar title. It’s a story that proves that sex has its consequences.
“Lifeboat on a Burning Sea” by Bruce Holland Rogers is the final submission. It looks at the impact of preserving the thoughts, memories, and voices of the dead among other things.
In the first story, “Must and Shall,” by Harry Turtledove, someone killed Lincoln while Hamblin was still his vice president. The Union declared full-on end-of-Southern-civilization war against the Confederacy, and the Union won. But it’s 1942 as the story opens, and Union occupying forces remain stationed throughout the South. The Confederacy, what’s left of it, has joined forces with the Nazis, and Hitler is supplying the Confederacy with guns. He’s sinking Union ships off the U.S. coastline. A hated northerner is in New Orleans to determine how vast shipments of weapons with Nazi insignias are finding their way into the ongoing conflict between the states.
Dean Wesley Smith’s “In the Shade of the Slowboat Man” is a sad ad haunting tale about a female vampire who doesn’t age and the love of her life who does and is dying. This one really stayed with me.
“Da Vinci Rising” by Jack Dann looks at the consequences had Da Vinci taken his drawings of a flying machine farther. Interesting but longer than it needed to be.
In Esther M. Friesner’s “A Birthday,” You can get an abortion in this society anywhere you want it any time you need it. But there are jarring consequences.
“The Chronology Protection Case” by Paul Levinson looks at how the universe might protect itself from unraveling if time travelers sought to change history. This is part mystery part science fiction, and I enjoyed the story immensely.
Jack Vance’s “The Men Return” whisks you to a place where there is no cause-and-effect relationship. Anything can happen for no reason at all, and it often does. A nameless creature referred to as “The relic” is on a planet, and he is hungry. Humans are his prey, and he sees some at a distance. Getting to them will be anything but easy. The story flashes back to a time when men dominated the Earth and when the relationship between cause and effect existed. But it ceased to exist, and the story is vague on why that relationship ended. The “relics” are survivors, but death stocks them in large numbers, and most won’t survive. We all take cause and effect so much for granted, and this is a fascinating way to look at what life would be like without it.
“Yaguara” by Nicola Griffith examines an extremely private photographer who valued her craft because people focused on her pictures and not on her. When Jane wants to do a photo essay on a female academic who explores the most remote jungles of Belize, the woman agrees, and off Jane goes. This becomes a lesbian love story that involves jaguars. It’s disturbing and odd.
“Five F*cks” by Jonathan Lethem put me off first because of the vulgar title. It’s a story that proves that sex has its consequences.
“Lifeboat on a Burning Sea” by Bruce Holland Rogers is the final submission. It looks at the impact of preserving the thoughts, memories, and voices of the dead among other things.
March 26, 2024
What a bad year for movies.
Jack Vance deserves the love.
Jack Vance deserves the love.
Currently Reading
September 3, 2009Nonfiction from 1996 seems really dated now; most sf does not. Weird.
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