Noticed this post at tor.com: Here Are the Winners of the 2022 Nebula Awards
Yes, I totally lost track, was not paying attention, have no clue who was nominated for what. Still, sure, I’m mildly interested. Let’s take a look:
Novel
- Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree
- Spear, Nicola Griffith
- Nettle and Bone, T. Kingfisher
- Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution, R.F. Kuang
- Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
- The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler
Oh, look, something by Nicola Griffith! What is that? Oh, it’s her Arthurian retelling. I knew about that, but wasn’t interested enough to pick it up.
She grows up in the wild wood, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake drift to her on the spring breeze, scented with promise. And when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she decides her future lies at his court. So, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and sets out on her bony gelding for Caer Leon. With her stolen hunting spear and mended armour, she is an unlikely hero, not a chosen one, but one who forges her own bright path. Aflame with determination, she begins a journey of magic and mystery, love, lust and fights to death. On her adventures, she will steal the hearts of beautiful women, fight warriors and sorcerers, and make a place to call home.
I’m sure it’s good, but I’m so firmly waiting for the sequel to HILD that I haven’t been inclined to pick it up. Perhaps that’s not fair. Probably I should at least get a sample. It’s just my TBR pile is brimming over already, plus I sort of feel that Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy, the Merlin trilogy, hit the sweet spot for me. Other Arthurian retellings just don’t appeal to me that much, as a rule. I see there’s no Kindle edition. That’s a shame.
I haven’t read any of these, not even Nettle and Bone, and I actually do have that one. I think. I definitely have something by Kingfisher I haven’t read yet. I think it’s this one, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
I think the winner, Babel and the rest of it, has a remarkably unwieldy title. But it does sound interesting.
Okay, the next novel category:
Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
- Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, K. Tempest Bradford
- The Scratch Daughters, H. A. Clarke
- The Mirrorwood, Deva Fagan
- The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, Maya MacGregor
- Every Bird a Prince, Jenn Reese
Oh, Jenn Reese had a nominated novel! Good for her. I haven’t heard of any of these. I’ve just been so severely out of touch with upcoming and just-released titles, it’s not even funny.
If any of you have read any of these, what did you think?
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There should be a Kindle edition for SPEAR, because that’s how I read it (and I gave my sister a copy for Christmas)—it’s not at all like Mary Stewart’s version, which is also my favorite, but it helped for me that it was grounded in Celtic Britain, not Roman Britain—lots of Irish and Welsh mythology, and Nimue is interesting even if Merlin is rather blandly Evil. Also a cool nature-based magic. I enjoyed recognizing bits of the Percival myth, like in McKillip’s KINGFISHER—I read those two back to back, which was a fun exercise in wildly different retellings.
I don’t think you will like BABEL at all. I read 1/3 and then put it down—I’ll pick it up later but it’s very heavy going, partly because RF Kuang likes to take a theme and bludgeon the reader with it. Colonialism is very very very bad!! Yes, I agree, but oof.
I thought Legends and Lattes was adorable – cozy and feel-good, with great characters. Nettle and Bone was not my favorite T. Kingfisher, but, honestly, she can do no wrong. Babel is on my virtual TBR pile. I haven’t gotten around to it and probably won’t. I mean, it seemed interesting but somehow not enough to start it. Haven’t read any of the middle grade/YA titles.
I loved Nettle and Bone – highly recommend, really beautiful. Great characters
Let’s see. Legends & Lattes was good fun but wouldn’t give it an award. Wasn’t crazy about Nettle & Bone, but largely due to T. Kingfisher’s darker stuff being at my limit. It’s well written. Haven’t liked any Tamsyn Muir since the first one in that series. Not interested in another Arthurian retelling but Mary Beth’s comment that it’s more Celtic piques my interest. DNFed Babel.
Legends and lattes is an unusually good D&D derivative–and is not horrible LitRPG–but it’s certainly not what I’d call Nebula quality. I suspect a large bump from RPG fans in the voting. As a story, it is a lighter-than-air cozy.
I’ve read all of those novels except two. They are so different! I enjoyed Legends (soothingly low conflict even if not deathless prose as Pete mentioned) And Nettle and Bone (although horror adjacent, it ends on a positive note).
Well, I agree that Mary Beth’s comment that SPEAR focuses on Celtic Britain does make me feel more interested. And taken as a whole, all your comments about Nettle and Bone make me feel pretty sure I’ll like that one!