The Nebulas were announced last week, and yet it’s only now that I’ve decided to apply my keen insight on the novel and novella categories on the ballot.  Thank God you don’t rely on this farshtunken website for your literary and genre award news.

Seven works were nominated for best novel; here they are:

• Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor)
• The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss (Saga)
• Spoonbenders, Daryl Gregory (Knopf; Riverrun)
• The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty (Orbit US)
• Jade City, Fonda Lee (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Autonomous, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK 2018)

My first impression, when I viewed this last week, was a resounding ‘meh’.  I’ve refined that opinion since, no, really, I have.

That ‘meh’ partly stems from the appearance of Amberlough and Autonomous on the ballot.  I can understand why both are there; they received widespread and critical acclaim when they were published, I was less enamoured.  I couldn’t finish Amberlough, and while Autonomous has a number of strengths, it also has deficiencies which I spoke at length about on Facebook but never published on this blog (I may rectify that).  Also, while I’m aware of both Jade City and Six Wakes, I never felt the inclination to read them last year, and I’m still not feeling the urge.  This isn’t the fault of the books or the authors but more a reflection of my changing tastes and a gradual move away from core science fiction writers and titles.

That leaves The Stone Sky, Spoonbenders and The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter.  I’ve read Stone Sky and thought it was a terrific end to an important and significant fantasy / SF series.  At the time of writing this post, I’m three-quarters of the way through The Strange Case, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely – both fun and erudite.  I’ve not read the Gregory but I’ve always rated his work, and I intend to get to Spoonbenders at some point.

Therefore, of the seven novels the SFWA members nominated, I can fully support two of the titles… possibly a third… but not the other four.

That’s why the meh.

So who should be on the list?  I am genuinely surprised that New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson didn’t get a guernsey.  This might have something to do with the changing demographics of SFWA which has seen a move away from the usual suspects (i.e. white, male, older authors who have won their fair share of awards).  Still, 2140 for all its flaws is an important book, one that’s been written for the Trump-age, a novel that with a naive sort of confidence speculates how we might bail ourselves out of the mess called climate change and capitalism.  It should be on the ballot.  But then frankly, so should Victor Lavalle’s The Changeling, Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing and Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West.  Three very political, very important genre novels that, yes, were mostly aimed at a literary audience.

(I could also throw in The Rift by Nina Allan or my favourite book of last year, From The Wreck by Jane Rawson, but neither of those novels has been published in the US, so their chances of featuring on a Nebula ballot are buckley’s and none.  Same goes for Paul McAuley’s Austral etc.).

It would be too easy for me to get into an elitist argument about how the SFWA membership thumb their noses at works that aren’t in their comfort zone.  I have no evidence – well, aside from the ballot above – to back this up and I’m not sure what I would achieve other than coming off as a snobby prick (that might be a tautology).  It’s not like the Nebulas have ever played in this space aside from the odd anomaly (Pynchon in 1974).  Still, as the literary and genre spaces further converge and blur I’m hoping the ballot will begin to look less parochial.

As for the novellas, here are the nominees:

• River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
• Passing Strange, Ellen Klages (Tor.com Publishing)
• “And Then There Were (N-One)”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/17)
• Barry’s Deal, Lawrence M. Schoen (NobleFusion Press)
• All Systems Red, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Black Tides of Heaven, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

I’ve read Passing Strange and thought it was marvellous.  I’m surprised that Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti: Home didn’t make it on the list, or, for that matter, Tade Thompson’s The Murders of Molly Southbourne and Caitlin R Kiernan’s Agents of Dreamland.  That may be suggestive of a solid list of nominees.  I can’t say because I’ve only read Passing Strange though I keep meaning to pick-up All Systems Red.

Overall, though, not a Nebula novel or novella shortlist that gets me all a tingle, or even points me in the direction of books I wasn’t aware of, but now I want to read.  What are you gonna do…