So, too busy for a real post, but did you know the Nebula winners have been announced?
Naturally the sole contender I’ve actually read is ANCILLARY JUSTICE. But hey, it won, so there you are! I couldn’t have voted fairly since I haven’t read the rest, but I’m glad it won. Have you all read it by now? Great book. I’m looking forward to the sequel, which is coming out this fall, I believe. You can click through to see the lists for the shorter forms, btw.
Best Novel
• Winner: Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood)
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)
• Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
• Hild, Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island)
• A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)
• The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (Harper)
I do have HILD on my wishlist. You know I loved loved loved Griffith’s THE BLUE PLACE mystery/suspense/whatever trilogy. I thought HILD was a straight historical, but since it was up for the Nebula, I suppose it had fantasy or magical realism elements. I do long to read it. Probably this fall.
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
• Winner: Sister Mine, Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central)
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Indigo)
• When We Wake, Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin; Little, Brown)
• The Summer Prince, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
• Hero, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
• September Girls, Bennett Madison (Harper Teen)
• A Corner of White, Jaclyn Moriarty (Levine)
Yeah, I am SO behind. I haven’t read a single one of these YA nominees, either. It’s terrible.
On the other hand, I am really enjoying my re-read of The Fall of Ile-Rien! In some ways I’m loving it even more as a re-read. I mean, this time I know that despite the best efforts of self-serving politicians, Ixion will get his. Go, Nicholas! Ile-Rien is quite different the second time through, partly because it’s the second time and partly because I’ve read THE DEATH OF THE NECROMANCER now, which I hadn’t the first time. Still a wonderful trilogy.
And yes, progress is happening on my WIP, too. Tonight the good guys should figure out what is actually wrong, though they won’t figure out how to fix it. (I don’t know how to fix it myself yet.)
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I recently finished HILD, and *I* thought it was pure historical fiction. While Hild is forcefully promoted by her mother as a seer and ‘the light of the world’ due to a dream Mom had while pregnant, Hild’s winning ‘sights’ look an awful lot like careful observation and extrapolation. Except for one when she’s drunk, and we don’t see the outcome of that yet -there’s a second installment coming.
I thought the book as a whole a bit slow for my recent taste, one reason I put it down for a couple months, but a pretty darn good attempt to get into the heads of people who lived in a very different environment and culture.
And the Christians aren’t monolithic, either.
I also read the GOLEM & JINNI, which was probably excellent for showing immigrant lateish 1800 NY. The rest was rather … meh.
I haven’t read ANCILLIARY JUSTICE, but my husband has, and thought it was good. I’ll get to it eventually.
Have you read THE ELEMENT OF FIRE? It is also set in Ile-Rien, in the time of Queen Ravenna, whose portrait is featured on board the eponymous ship. Ilias admires her: thinking her a warrior queen surrounded by her husbands. For a long time Martha Wells had it available on-line.
Ooh, EOF is still available on line!
http://www.marthawells.com/eof1-8.htm
Yes, and while it was fine, I definitely prefer the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. I like Kade Carrion a lot, though.