The Nebula Award nominees have been announced (click on the link for the full list).  For the novel category, this is what the SFWA members chose:

I’m less than excited by this years group of nominees.  It might have something to do with the appearance of the Gannon and the McDevitt, two books I wouldn’t normally bother with if I wasn’t partaking in the madness of reading award shortlists.  The Gannon is a sequel to last years Nebula nominated novel and clocks in at over 200,000 words.  While long novels generally don’t intimidate me – in 2014 I read both The Goldfinch and The Luminaries – 200,000 words of MilSF by a Baen author is piss your pants scary.  The McDevitt is nowhere near as long but it’s the seventh book in a series.  Though given how many times McDevitt has been nominated for a Nebula, anyone who’s been keeping up with the award has probably read the other six books.

I’m pleased to see Annihilation on the ballot because it’s a damn fine book (click the link above for my review).  And I’m genuinely looking forward to reading Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem, partly because of the praise it’s received, but also because of how intelligently Ken Liu spoke about the translation process on the Coode Street podcast.  Talking of praise, The Goblin Emperor generated its fair share as well, and so it’s no surprise to see it nominated.  I’m thinking it’s a certainty to appear on the Locus Award list for Fantasy and the World Fantasy Award.

And the Leckie, well it’s already been nominated for a BSFA.  Except it to receive a Hugo nomination.  While the sequel to Ancillary Justice has been, for the most part, critically well received, I can sense increasing resentment toward Ancillary Sword.  If it does bag a Hugo nomination I expect that resentment to spill over (though it might have to contend with some Sad Puppy action).

And finally Larry Nolen has also shared his thoughts on the nominations (with focus on the novels).  He’s less than impressed.