It’s that time of year again; the grass is turning green, the trees are budding out, the Nebula awards ceremony is coming up and the Hugo award nominees have been announced! The Nebula nominations were announced in February, of course.
I haven’t read any of them myself (sad day!) but I’m about to start Boneshaker - a steampunk zombie adventure. How could you go wrong? I love zombie movies, and Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, and I even liked Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (in defiance of the box office, movie critics, and the opinion of everyone I know).
Also! One of the nominees for the Andre Norton YA Scifi Award (presented with the Nebulas) is actually a free online novel: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making How cool is that?
Even if you’re one of those who “don’t read scifi,” there are plenty of boundary-defying books on the lists to satisfy you. Some of them, like Palimpsest and The Love We Share Without Knowing, aren’t even marketed as scifi or fantasy.
Did you like The Time Traveller’s Wife or The Lovely Bones? Or anything by Haruki Murakami or Kenzaburo Oe? The Love We Share Without Knowing is a very Japanese collection of strangers awakening to the strangeness and connection of everyday life. Or you might go for Palimpsest, where sleep takes you to a dream-city populated by other dreamers.
How do you feel about police and crime procedurals, like CSI on TV or maybe Anne Rule? China Mieville’s The City and the City is the story of a cop in the Extreme Crimes Division solving a murder in a universe right next door, with just hints of the supernatural for flavor. I’ve heard it’s a good match for fans of Jim Butcher or The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, too.
Similarly, for the mystery buffs out there, Finch is a noir mystery set in a city under occupation. Reviewers have compared the setting to modern-day Kabul or Baghdad - this could be a good choice for fans of military fiction or thrillers like David Baldacci or Preston & Child.
Or maybe you enjoyed the post-apocalyptic dystopias of The Road or The Book of Eli. Julian Comstock would be a good bet, taking place after a series of disasters that drastically reduced the world population. The Wind-Up girl has a similar mood, though it takes place in a much more overtly-scifi urban environment.
The nominations for best new writers are also exciting - Gail Carriger’s sassy Victorian paranormal mysteries will appeal to fans of light-hearted paranormal romance or maybe the Stephanie Plum novels. Seanan McGuire’s paranormal mysteries are similar but closer to Kim Harrison or Jim Butcher - a little darker, with a little more action.
The Hugo ballot has six novels and the Nebula ballot has five. I’m always interested to see which selections, if any, overlap. It’s usually a good indication of excellence. This year there are two:
The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey, May09)
Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor, Sep09)
The Nebula team also has these three on their list:
The Love We Share Without Knowing, Christopher Barzak (Bantam, Nov08)
Flesh and Fire, Laura Anne Gilman (Pocket, Oct09)
Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland Press, Oct09)
And the Hugo has these three:
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
Wake, Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
I think we’ll be getting most of these in the store over the next few weeks - check them out and expand your horizons!
