[emohawk]

The final ballot for the 2003 Nebula Awards has been announced, the nominees are:

Novels
•Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
•The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
•Light Music by Kathleen Ann Goonan
•The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
•Chindi by Jack McDevitt
•The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

Novellas
•"The Potter of Bones" by Eleanor Arnason
•"The Empress of Mars" by Kage Baker
•"Coraline" by Neil Gaiman
•"Stories for Men" by John Kessel
•"Breathmoss" by Ian MacLeod

Novelettes
•"The Mask of the Rex" by Richard Bowes
•"Of a Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs" by Adam-Troy Castro
•"0wnz0red" by Cory Doctorow
•"The Empire of Ice Cream" by Jeffrey Ford
•"The Wages of Syntax" by Ray Vukcevich

Short Stories
•"Knapsack Poems" by Eleanor Arnason
•"The Brief History of the Dead" by Kevin Brockmeier
•"Goodbye to All That" by Harlan Ellison
•"Grandma" by Carol Emshwiller
•"What I Didn't See" by Karen Joy Fowler
•"Lambing Season" by Molly Gloss

Scripts
•Finding Nemo
•Minority Report
•"Where No Fan Has Gone Before," Futurama
•Spirited Away
•The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The only nominee for novel that I've read is Diplomatic Immunity which I though was pretty average - then again most of the Nebula winners of recent years have been pretty average. Winners will be announced April 18.

[Leiali]

The only novel I have read there is the same Emo hawk, though I have to say she is an above average writer, A Civil Campaign was a much better book. I don't understand the script nominations, Why is Minority Report in it? It is effectively a re writing, and I thought it was out two years ago? Very confusing.

The only other thing I have read is Coraline. Wonderful book. Just the right element of creepy and gothic.

[lemming]

I've been hyping The Speed of Dark all year--it only has one flaw (incomplete fleshing out of unrealistic bad guy) and is as luminous as a book can get.

Oh yes, Coraline was also very very good.

I'm impressed to see Nalo Hopkinson on the list (good work, Nalo!) but haven't read The Salt Roads, so can't comment beyond that.

Might use this as a basis for my reading list in the next few weeks... I was pretty well out of ideas, and this is a place to start. :o

[FicusFan]

Originally posted by emohawk
The final ballot for the 2003 Nebula Awards has been announced, the nominees are:

Novels
•Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
•The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
•Light Music by Kathleen Ann Goonan
•The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
•Chindi by Jack McDevitt
•The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon


The only nominee for novel that I've read is Diplomatic Immunity which I though was pretty average - then again most of the Nebula winners of recent years have been pretty average. Winners will be announced April 18.

Well the New York Review of Science Fiction Link (http://www.nyrsf.com/) several years ago ran an editorial called: 'Things We Liked By People We Know'. Their point was that although it is supposed to be an award that covers all SF/F printed in a specific time period in English (which is their definition) it always boils down to only SFWA members as both Nominees and Winners. There also is a good bit of vote trading that supposedly goes on (SFWA members vote for the winer), along the lines of ' If you vote for my book this year, I'll vote for yours next year'. Don't know how true all that is, but I agree many of the recent winners have been rather average and lackluster -- at least for best Novel which is the only thing I read.

I have read Diplomatic Immunity by LMB and actually liked it very much. I didn't care for a Civil Campaign or pretty much any of the books that Miles' doormat of a new wife is in as a major character, I have read the whole series.

I have also read The Mount by CE. It is a tale of slavery and humans and aliens trying to build a relationship as equals. It was very good.

I read one Nalo Hopkinson book (Brown Girl in the Ring) and will probably never read another. I think she is vastly overrated.

I tried to read Queen City Jazz by KAG it is the first in the same series. It was so shallow in terms of its characters and so full of Deus Ex Machina that I couldn't get through it. It also struck me as a badly done 'homage' to Dhalgren by SRD. The next one I picked up and tried to read started off with Marie Laveau as the main character, and I have decided that KAG seems to recycle other's stuff rather than develop her own.

I have Chindi by JMcD - but have not read it yet.

I like EM, and will buy and read The Speed of Dark once it goes into paperback.

All in all the list isn't that bad, and certainly seems better than when they gave it to Catherine Assaro or Sharon Shinn ( I find them pretty interchangeable) .

[Dawnstorm]

Eleanor Aarnason's short story "Knapsack Poems" is brilliant. Would make a worthy winner. :D

[Soon Lee]

The only novel I've read is the Bujold which I enjoyed but don't think it's good enough to win.

As for the novellas, I've read all of them except the Baker which I am currently doing at Asimov's (http://www.asimovs.com/). They've made stories they've published, that made the preliminary Nebulas, available for a short time. The stories have been well worth the effort even though I dislike reading stories on screen. I have trouble choosing between "Potter of Bones" and "Breathmoss".

I haven't read any of the novellettes and only "Lambing Season" in the short story section. "Lambing Season" was a bit weird, very rural with the SF very much in the background except at the end.

As for the scripts, a sentimental favourite would be the Lord of the Rings but I wouldn't be terribly unhappy if it went to any of the others.

[FicusFan]

This past weekend the SF Con Boskone 41 (http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/) was held in Boston. One of the panels was put on by Del Ray, they were trying to flog their new books for this/next year. But they were also giving away books that they probably had too many of, a few of the hardcovers are about to go into PB/TP. Anyway I ended up with a free hardcover copy of The Speed of Dark by EM. So I will be reading it sooner than I had expected.

[ezchaos]

FicusFan:

I know this is off topic but did you see George Martin at Boskone 41? I was thinking of going since I live in Maine but didn't make it.

[FicusFan]

Yes I did. I had two of his books that I needed him to sign. I also saw him on a panel about good fantasy he did with Ellen Kushner and Alex Irvine.

He had a blue baseball cap and on the front in gold thread was embroidered a wolf with his head thrown back and his mouth open, howling I presume, and above it the legend:
DON'T EVEN ASK

All I asked was if that was his positon on the 4th book, and he said yes. Last year his hat supposedly said: No, Feast of Crows is not done yet, and no I don't know when it will be. Or something along those lines according to a friend who saw it up close. I didn't have anything new for him to sign, and I didn't catch a panel that he was on last year so I didn't see it myself.

He was doing a reading this year on Sunday, and I wanted to go to it, but I ended up being lazy and didn't go to the con on Sunday. I am about 50 miles north of Boston, and commuted in. I just can't see paying the hotel rate and then $36.00 per day to park your car, and forget trying to park on the street. The hotel in not close to a subway stop like Arisia and the Park Plaza, so I only went Saturday. It was a good con though. I would have stayed over if it had been back in Framingham.

[Colonel Worf]

I don't think I've even heard of anything on this list...which just goes to prove I only read a small percentage of what's out there.