Nebula Winners Analysis Part Two
And now for part two.
Nebula Award for Short Story
Winner: “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia
Apparently everyone wanted cute robots today. The first Trinidadian Nebula winner provided a story about an old woman, a goat, and a robot that is hilarious, heartwarming, and a counterpoint to all the evil AI out there.
Everything on the finalist list deserved to be there. I also greatly appreciated Kritzer’s “Better Living Through Algorithms,” which was also heartwarming…but was also about AI in a slightly more nuanced way.
I would have been happy for any of these to win…plus, as usually, ten or fifteen more stories I read and liked that didn’t make the cut.
Nebula Award for Novelette
Winner: “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer
Honestly, this one surprised me the most. I truly expected Ai Jiang to win for I Am AI, a haunting cyberpunk tale about AI, art, and humanity. I really thought a bunch of writers would pick that one.
Instead, they went with a story that might have gone to Analog if it hadn’t been snapped up by Uncanny. It’s a problem story with a solarpunk twist, very beautifully written, but not all that…fashionable?
Again, I would have been happy with any of the winers, although I wasn’t so fond of Angela Liu or, surprisingly, the Eugenia Traintafyllou story…I usually like her stuff, but “Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge” didn’t quite do it for me.
Nebula Award for Novella
Winner: Linghun by Ai Jiang
And to show that my personal taste means little… I liked “Linghun” the least of all of the stories presented. I would much rather have seen Thornhedge, a darkly beautiful sleeping beauty retelling by T. Kingfisher, or Malka Older’s interesting exploration of life on Jupiter in The Mimicking of Known Successes win.
I’m not quite sure why I wasn’t there for “Linghun,” a story about ghosts, privilege, and people literally fighting over housing, but it just didn’t quite get there for me.
Ah well. I’m only one person…and one voter…and sometimes things are going to swing “against” me. And I was glad to see Jiang recognized, if not for the work I would have preferred.
Nebula Award for Novel
Winner: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
This was possibly the most polarizing book of 2023. People either loved it or hated it, and not much in between. While I loved the idea of a secondary world fantasy with cellphones and social media, I have to admit I was towards the hate end of the spectrum. I’m not typically a fan of Chandrasekera’s brand of weird.
At the same time, I couldn’t fail to recognize its excellence, and a book that induces hate (unless that hate is because the bad guy is a lizard alien disguised as a money lender named Benedict, and no I will never forgive or forget) is a book that…I actually think this may end up being a “classic.”
Personally, I strongly preferred Leckie’s truly twisted romance novel Translation State for the deep dive it presented into consent and the taint sexual assault leaves on somebody (And for people trying to get the Raadch ambassador to stop misgendering literally everyone).
I’m not as fond of Martha Wells’ fantasy as I am of Murderbot! but apparently Murderbot won’t be getting any more major awards. I respect Wells’ decision.
I enjoyed all of the books here, and they all deserved to win, but despite my profound dislike of it, I’m unsurprised The Saint of Bright Doors got the nod. It’s a very…interesting…book.
There we go. Until…well, until I do this for the Hugos. I’m currently on Editor, Short Form, which is not as far as I’d like to be, but I’m working on it!