Recently, I’ve posted reviews of the six finalists for the Nebula Award for best SF or fantasy novel. The Nebula is one of the Big Three speculative fiction awards. They are, in order of upcoming winner announcements:

• The Nebula Awards–awards presentation to be made on June 8, 2024 at the annual conference of the SFWA. You can watch it online.
• The Locus Awards–these awards for the best SF, fantasy, and horror of the year are voted on by subscribers to Locus magazine, one of the most notable publications for reviews and news of speculative fiction. Non-subscribers can also vote for the Locus awards, but subscribers’ votes count more. The 2024 Locus awards will be made on June 22, 2024 at its annual Locus Awards Weekend (in-person).
• The Hugo Awards–oldest of these Big Three awards, the Hugo bills itself as a science fiction award but also includes fantasy. The awards are administered and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”) in a complicated procedure that has not been without controversy. The Hugo Awards will be presented on August 11, 2024, at Worldcon, held this year in Glasgow. The Glasgow Worldcon website has a great little presentation about the awards, mentioning every single nominee in every possible way.

Nebula Awards categories

I reviewed the finalists for best SF or fantasy novel written in the preceding year (2023). As I mentioned in my previous post, the awards are all based on voting by the membership of the SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). See the full list of finalists on the Nebula site, and all my reviews for short-listed novels on this site. Other categories include: novella, novelette, short story, the Andre Norton award for middle grade and young adult fiction, game writing, the Ray Bradbury award for dramatic presentations. Note also the Nebula people provide a great reading list for recently-published SF and fantasy, which they update regularly. I see I’ve reviewed at least one of the novels on that list already (Leif Enger’s I Cheerfully Refuse)–you can see it on this blog.

Locus Awards categories

Here is the list of the Locus Awards finalists for 2024. Categories are broader than the Nebula list, in keeping with the Locus mission of serving as “the preeminent trade magazine for the SF/F publishing field,” and include horror as well as SF and fantasy. Categories include best SF novel, fantasy novel, horror novel, young adult novel, first novel, novella, novelette, short story, anthology, collection, magazine, publisher, editor, artist, nonfiction, illustrated/art book. This year’s Locus nominees overlap a quite a bit with the Nebula finalists. Looking only at the novels categories, I see all six of the Nebula finalists I reviewed on this blog are also Locus nominees: Martha Wells, Witch King and S. L. Huang, The Water Bandits (in fantasy). Ann Leckie, Translation State and Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers (in SF). Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors and Wole Talabi, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (in First Novel–wow, think of that–the first novel for these two, and they are both beyond excellent). This makes me itch to read all of the finalists before June 22, but that’s too big a list–even with just the novels, even with me the fast reader–to think of doing any such insane thing. I’ll enjoy reading through the list, though. I think I’ll broaden my horizons, browsing through the Locus finalists. Look at this one, nominated for best illustrated/art book. Iain Banks fans (me! me!), rejoice!

Hugo Awards categories

Here is the list of the Hugo Awards finalists for 2024. Categories include: best novel, novella, novelette, short story, series, graphic story/comic, “related work” (including those Iain Banks Culture drawings), dramatic presentation–long form, dramatic presentation–short form, game/interactive work, editor–long form, editor–short form, professional artist, semiprozine, fanzine, fancast, fan writer, fan artist. In addition, the Awards include the Lodestar Award for best YA book, and the Astounding Award (sponsored by Dell Magazine) for best new writer. Three of the books I reviewed on my quest to read all the Nebula finalists for best novel are also here on the Hugo’s list of best novel finalists: Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors, Ann Leckie (also a finalist for best series–Imperial Radsch), Translation State, and Martha Wells, Witch King. I intend to read the other three finalists and report back by August 11 in this very space.