The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2018 Nebula Awards, including the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book, and for the first time, the Nebula Award for Game Writing.
The winners will be announced at SFWA’s 54th annual Nebula Conference in Los Angeles, CA, which takes place from Thursday, May 16th through Sunday, May 19th at the Marriott Warner Center in Woodland Hills, CA.
The finalists are as follows:
Novel
- The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
- The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
- Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)
- Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan)
- Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)
- Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
Novella
- Fire Ant, Jonathan P. Brazee (Semper Fi)
- The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
- Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
- Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)
- Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
Novelette
- The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)
- “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections”, Tina Connolly (Tor.com 7/11/18)
- “An Agent of Utopia”, Andy Duncan (An Agent of Utopia)
- “The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births”, José Pablo Iriarte (Lightspeed 1/18)
- “The Rule of Three”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Future Science Fiction Digest 12/18)
- “Messenger”, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R.R. Virdi (Expanding Universe, Volume 4)
Short Story
- “Interview for the End of the World”, Rhett C. Bruno (Bridge Across the Stars)
- “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”, Phenderson Djèlí Clark (Fireside 2/18)
- “Going Dark”, Richard Fox (Backblast Area Clear)
- “And Yet”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 3-4/18)
- “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/6/18)
- “The Court Magician”, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed 1/18)
Game Writing
- Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker (House of Tomorrow & Netflix)
- The Road to Canterbury, Kate Heartfield (Choice of Games)
- God of War, Matt Sophos, Richard Zangrande Gaubert, Cory Barlog, Orion Walker, and Adam Dolin (Santa Monica Studio/Sony/Interactive Entertainment)
- Rent-A-Vice, Natalia Theodoridou (Choice of Games)
- The Martian Job, M. Darusha Wehm (Choice of Games)
The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
- The Good Place: “Jeremy Bearimy” (Written by Megan Amram)
- Black Panther (Written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole)
- A Quiet Place (Screenplay by John Krasinski, Bryan Woods, and Scott Beck)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman)
- Dirty Computer (Written by Janelle Monáe and Chuck Lightning)
- Sorry to Bother You (Written by Boots Riley)
The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book
- Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt; Macmillan)
- Aru Shah and the End of Time, Roshani Chokshi (Rick Riordan Presents)
- A Light in the Dark, A.K. DuBoff (BDL)
- Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (Random House)
- Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
- Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword, Henry Lien (Henry Holt)
What an excellent slate. And that list of game finalists is reminding me it’s time to go pick up some more IF out there; it’s very nice to be able to do choice-based fiction on my phone a few minutes at a time while waiting for the next bus.
Congratulations to all the nominees!
I loved, loved, loved The Calculating Stars. I’m glad it’s receiving the success it deserves! I also enjoyed Spinning Silver.
The Poppy War, on the other hand, didn’t resonate with me. I felt it was derivative, and the depiction of violence seemed unnecessarily graphic.
Martha Wells in novella and Brooke Bollander in novelette for me. Haven’t read any of the novels yet, but just got Witchmark (free e-book from Tor.com). Blackfish City is also on my list.
Game writing is an interesting addition.
Black Panther is turning out to be significant in various ways. A Quit Place was good, but more for the performances than the writing. The Good Place continues to underwhelm me. It’s not bad by any means, but reminds me a bit of how overhyped Community was. The nominated episode especially pointed out how close to nonsense the show operates. It throws in a lot of Philosophy 101, but simply invents whimsical things like Jeremy Bearimy (think wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey) when it needs to move plot forward.
Did something weird go on in the short fiction categories? There’s a select handful of nominees that weren’t on the Locus recommended reading lists. Of course that’s not totally shocking, and I’m making no value judgments whatsoever because I haven’t read any of it. But a lot of the stuff that isn’t on the Locus list is from authors who have never been featured in major publications or up for any of the well-known awards and work which was originally printed in the type of anthology that doesn’t usually produce nominees for major awards.
I don’t know what criteria was used for game writing, but these choices are pretty awful looking at what came out this year. This was always going to be a hard category (do you prioritize author voice over player choice, or do you look at how the writing properly enables choice in a meaningful way). This category is in danger of being considered a joke if not treated carefully.
Lots of finalists from tor.com. Impressive! Make me wonder if I should find a way to subscribe to the novella line.
Happy to see Dread Nation on here. What an amazing book!