Tag: science fiction

And the winners of the 2024 Locus Awards are. . .

On By janewisemanIn fantastic fantasyLeave a comment

. . .too many to discuss thoroughly in this space. Here are a few of the winners in categories I follow, and no knock to shorter forms, which I don’t read enough:

Best SF novel: Martha Wells, System Collapse

Best fantasy novel: Martha Wells, Witch King

Best first novel: Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors

I don’t have much standing to comment on these. My project for reading all of the finalists for best novel posted by all the major speculative fiction awards was a bit too ambitious for me this year–I only decided to read this huge list of novels at the beginning of May–and that is especially true of the Locus Awards, coming so fast after the Nebula Awards. Next year I’ll do better! My take on the Locus Awards is that the vote is for fan-favorites, which is fine. However, Martha Wells is such a brand name that I feel slightly skeptical of the results. I should read more of her books to decide on that.

In the SF category: I need to read Wells’s System Collapse and see what I think. Among the runners-up, Ann Leckie’s Translation State (see my review HERE) is a really good book, and Annalee Newitz’s The Terraformers is simply superb. See my review HERE. To vote against either of those two must have taken a lot, and I can only hope all voters made a good-faith effort to read the entire list. As I say, I have little standing to comment or complain–there are seven other novels on that short-list that I haven’t read yet! One of the runners-up, Starter Villain, by John Scalzi, is nominated for the Hugo Award this year, so I plan to read that one soon in my quest to read every novel short-listed for the Hugo.

In the fantasy category: Witch King, the novel by Wells that I did read, was good but not overpoweringly good (only my opinion). Of the runners-up, I’ve only read S. L. Huang’s The Water Outlaws, which I liked more. See my reviews HERE and HERE.

In the first novel category: Here’s a winner I can enthusiastically endorse. Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors just won the Nebula Award for best novel, and it richly deserves the Locus win as well. See my review HERE. I did love one of the runners-up, Wole Talabi’s Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon. If that book had won either of these two awards, the Nebula or the Locus, I would have called it a great decision. See my review HERE. My gut feel is that Chandrasekera’s novel has more gravitas, and Talabi’s novel is more fun. I haven’t read any of the other short-listed books on the first-novels list for the Locus, but I am just about to finish one of them, Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh. That novel has been short-listed for both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Hugo Award, too. I’ll be reviewing it soon. I’m on the last few chapters, and I had to put the book down to write this post! (Just put. the. book. down, Jane.) Another novel short-listed for Locus best first novel is Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain-Gang All-Stars. I’ll read this one next and review it soon, because it is also short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, coming up fast on July 24..

As I’ve mentioned in preceding posts: I don’t read horror. I have nothing against horror. Some of my most admired writer-friends and mentors are writers of horror (John Skipp!) and some of my favorite novels in other categories of speculative fiction (China Miéville!) have more than a touch of horror in them. My own writing has been known to have a touch of horror in it. But I don’t really know horror and don’t feel I have enough insight into the genre to blog about it. I imagine anyone really interested in reading horror will find some good choices in the Locus Awards horror category.

And I feel bad that I don’t pay enough attention to shorter forms, especially the short story. That’s something I as a reader should remedy. I’ve been participating in the great George Saunders Story Club substack, where I’ve started re-acquainting myself with some of the masters of (literary) short fiction, so I’m making an honest start on that project. The categories for shorter forms short-listed for the Locus Award will give any reader of speculative fiction plenty of chances to discover something great.

Not to mention other media. . .The Hugo Awards are awarded in categories other than fiction in print form, and I may have to take a look at some of their nominees in film, gaming, long-form video/television, and all the rest. Essentially, though, I am a reader first, mostly a reader of novels, and that’s what this blog is (mostly) about.

And now, on to some heavy-duty reading, all of the nominees, all SF, for the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award, to be announced on July 24th.

Waiting for the Locus Awards

On By janewisemanIn fantastic fantasyLeave a comment

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?

It’s Awards Season for Speculative Fiction

On By janewisemanIn fantastic fantasy1 Comment

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:

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!

Find out more HERE.

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.