As I mentioned in an earlier post, the 2024 Locus Awards will be announced in Oakland, California, tomorrow, on June 22nd.
The list of nominees is huge and includes horror along with SF and fantasy, as well as a variety of categories. Even if I had started reading quite a while ago, I might not have read everything nominated, not even every novel–my main focus here. And I don’t usually read horror. But as it turns out, in my reading of every novel short-listed for the Nebula Awards, I have already read quite a few of the Locus nominees:
Martha Wells, Witch King (also nominated for the Hugo Awards, coming up in August)
S. L. Huang, The Water Bandits
Ann Leckie, Translation State (another nominated for a Hugo)
Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers
Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors (another nominated for a Hugo; won the Nebula)
Wole Talabi, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon
I’ll be looking forward to the results of the Locus judging!
I’ve also realized that the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Awards given to SF published in Great Britain will be announced on July 24th. As a reader of speculative fiction written in English, that’s a list I should be paying close attention to as well. Here’s the short-list:
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars
Lavanya Lakshminarayan, The Ten Percent Thief
Martin MacInnes, In Ascension
Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea
Emily Tesh, Some Desperate Glory
Isabel Waidner, Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
I’d say I have the reading for the month all laid out for me! How about you?
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).
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!
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.
What a hard choice! Now that I’ve read all six Nebula Awards 2024 finalists for best novel, I’ve thought about which one I’d vote for. If I had a vote, that is. I don’t.
BUT IF I DID–oh, man. Hard, hard choice. These six novels are all so great. Here are the six, again–and see my preceding three posts for reviews of each:
I really think I’d vote for Annalee Newitz’s The Terraformers. It’s unique, it’s compelling, it’s beautifully written. What it has to say is incredibly important. It checks all my boxes. However–BIG however–I’d have to think hard before voting for it instead of The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajira Chandrasekera. That novel is just as excellent, and in the same ways. What a hard choice! Making it even harder, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, by Wole Talabi, is right up there with those two. And I loved the other three. Don’t make me choose! I guess I’m just as glad I’m not a member of the SWFA and have to cast a ballot for only one, although I’m actually thinking of applying to join.
AND HEY, TELL US IN THE COMMENTS HOW YOU WOULD VOTE! It would be great to get a conversation going about these amazing novels. Every reader is different and comes to these novels with a different perspective. If you do–be civil.
Information about the SWFA
The Nebula Awards are sponsored by the SFWA–The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Only members of the SFWA vote. The SFWA web site explains: “full, senior, and associate members” of the SFWA are eligible to vote. What is the SFWA, exactly, and who are its members? Here’s the information from the SFWA web site about eligibility for membership. I’m not a member now, but I am considering joining–only as an associate, though. I’m not that successful! You can join if you are an indie-published, traditionally-published, or hybrid-published author of SF or fantasy, as long as you meet certain requirements for income generated from your books.
What I take away from this information: there are other categories for membership, but for the most part, the Nebula Award is decided by OTHER WRITERS of the same types of books–not by some academic panel or celebrity judges. I think that’s important. If you’ve ever tried to write a book like one of these, it’s hard. To do it well–harder. To do it at the level of these six amazing writers–WOW. Just wow. (Excuse me while I fangirl out a little, here. Just a bit!)
COMING UP NEXT: More SF and Fantasy awards.
Watch this spot. The Locus Awards are coming right up, and after that, the Hugo. Happy reading!
Fantastes 
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