Some Comments on the 2024 Nebula Finalists

The finalists for the 2024 Nebula Awards were announced today. The video of the live announcement may be found here.

Once again, I didn’t get to read nearly as much as I wanted to last year for personal reasons, so there are a lot of finalists here that I haven’t yet read and can’t say a lot about.

Nonetheless, let’s delve right into the individual categories:

Best Novel:

This category is a mix of novels that got a lot of buzz and a few more surprising choices.

T. Kingfisher is a perennial Hugo and Nebula favourite and A Sorceress Comes to Call got a lot of attention last year. It’s also a very good book.

John Wiswell burst onto the SFF scene five years ago (Wow, has it really been that long?) and quickly established a name for himself with his quirky works which use common horror tropes to tell very different stories. Someone You Can Build a Nest In is his novel-length debut. It’s a good book and I’m not surprised to see it here.

The Book of Love by Kelly Link is also a debut novel, even though Kelly Link sold her first story thirty years ago. However, until last year, Kelly Link was purely a short fiction writer. The Book of Love got a lot of attention upon release, including from mainstream outlets that don’t normally cover SFF, probably because Kelly Link’s blend of magical realism is a very mainstream friendly type of speculative fiction. As a result, I’m not surprised to see The Book of Love nominated, though I’m afraid I haven’t read it yet.

Vajra Chandrasekera is another writer who burst onto the scene in recent years and quickly made a name for himself. Rakesfall got a lot of buzz and is not a surprising finalist. Coincidentally, his novel The Saint of Bright Doors also won the Nebula Award in this category last year. Unfortunately, The Saint of Bright Doors didn’t work for me, so I haven’t yet read Rakesfall. Maybe I will enjoy this one more.

The nomination for Asunder by Kerstin Hall is something of a surprise to me, for while I was aware of the novel, it didn’t really appear on my radar as a potential awards finalist. I haven’t read the book, though I’m looking forward to checking it out.

The nomination for Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov also came as a surprise to me, because I wasn’t aware of the book at all. It’s also published by a small press, whereas all the other finalists for published by Big Five imprints. Though Yaroslav Barsukov has been a Nebula finalist before in the novella category.

Diversity count: 3 women, 3 men, 1 writer of colour, 2 international writers

Best Novella:

This category has the fewest surprises for me and also the most overlap with my personal Hugo ballot.

Premee Mohamed has been getting a lot of attention in recent years. The Butcher of the Forest is a great novella and I’m glad to see it nominated. This one was also on my personal Hugo ballot.

Countess by Suzan Palumbo is a gender-flipped queer retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo in space with a bonus critique of colonialism. It’s also a really great story and I’m thrilled to see it nominated. This novella was also on my personal Hugo ballot.

Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa was on my Hugo longlist, but didn’t quite make my shortlist. Nonetheless, I’m happy to see it nominated.

Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea made a big splash (pun intended) two years ago and The Tusks of Extinction also got a lot of positive attention, so it’s not a surprising finalist at all. Though for some reason, I thought this was a novel. I haven’t yet read it.

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar is an Omelas type tale (not the only one on this Nebula ballot) about a kid from the deprived undercaste of a starship suddenly taken out of his environment to be educated among the elite. It’s a good and thought-provoking story and was on my Hugo longlist, but didn’t make my ballot in the end.

The Dragonfly Gambit by A.D. Sui is the only finalist in this category I’m not familiar with, though it sounds like a book I would enjoy.

The novella category at the Hugos or Nebulas is often a Tordotcom sweep due to their popular novella program, which is largely responsible for the novella resurgence we’re currently seeing. However, this year ECW and Neon Hemlock both managed to break through the Tordotcom dominance.

Diversity count: 4 women, 2 men, 4 writers of colour, 4 international writers

Best Novelette:

I have read only one of the finalists in this category – at least as far as I recall – and there is zero overlap with my personal Hugo ballot, so I can’t say much about the individual stories.

Eugenia Triantafyllou has made a name for herself with her short fiction in the past couple of years and is represented on the Nebula ballot with not one but two stories.

Angela Liu is another short fiction author who burst onto the scene in the past couple of years. Her story “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” is the only novelette on the Nebula ballot I’ve read.

I have enjoyed stories by Aimee Ogden in the past, but her nominated novelette “What Any Dead Thing Wants” passed me by.

Thomas Ha’s work has appeared on several awards ballots in the past, though I haven’t read his nominated story “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”.

Christine Hanolsy is a writer who’s new to me. That said, I’m surprised I didn’t read her nominated novelette “Katya Vasilievna and the Second Drowning of Baba Rechka”, because it was published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, a magazine I normally read. However, the story came out on my birthday, which may be why it passed me by.

A.W. Prihandita is another author who’s new to me, though her nominated novelette “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” sounds like something I will enjoy.

We have a nice range of venues in this category with two stories from Uncanny, two from Clarkesworld, one from Beneath Ceaseless Skies and two stories from Psychopomp, publisher of The Deadlands and the revived Fantasy Magazine which also publishes standalone fiction. The fact that Psychopomp managed to place two novelettes (out of a total three they published) on the Nebula ballot is certainly interesting.

Diversity count: 5 women, 1 man, 3 writers of colour, 2 international writers

Best Short Story:

Once again, this category has hardly any little overlap with my personal Hugo ballot and I’ve only read one of the stories.

That story is “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones, a chilling tale – more flash fiction than short story – of the fiendish punishment meted out by a space empire. This one is also on my personal Hugo ballot.

I haven’t read “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim, though I enjoyed other stories by the author. Coincidentally, this is the second “Omelas” response tale on this ballot, but then “Omelas” response stories are as common as “Cold Equations” response stories.

Caroline M. Yoachim has been a frequent presence on Hugo and Nebula ballots in recent years, though I haven’t read her story “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” yet.

P.H. Lee is another author we’ve seen on awards ballots in recent years before, though again I haven’t read their nominated story “The V*mpire”.

Jordan Kurella has been a Nebula finalist before, though I haven’t read his nominated story “Evan: A Remainder”

I also haven’t read  “The Witch Trap” by Jennifer Hudak, because I don’t read the magazine it appeared in.

Once again, we have a nice range of venues in this category with two stories from Lightspeed, two from Reactor (the former Tor.com), one from Clarkesworld and one from Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, a magazine about which I haven’t heard a lot in recent years, though it got a lot of buzz some fifteen years ago or so. Coincidentally, it’s also the only print zine to get a story on the Nebula ballot.

Diversity Count: 4 women, 1 man, 1 non-binary, 2 writers of colour

Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction:

This is another category where I haven’t read any of the finalists, but then I’m not the target audience for middle great and young adult books.

The said, José Pablo Iriarte has been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula before, though I haven’t read Benny Ramírez and the Nearly Departed.

Yoon Ha Lee is another author who’s been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Award multiple times, including in this category. I have enjoyed some of his earlier books for younger readers, but again I haven’t read Moonstorm yet.

Leah Cypess has also been nominated for the Nebula before, including in this category, but once again I haven’t read Braided.

Jenn Reese has also been nominated in this category before, though again I haven’t read Puzzleheart.

Daydreamer by Rob Cameron is a debut novel, which actually sounds like something I will enjoy, even though it is a book for younger readers.

The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts by Vanessa Ricci-Thode is a self-published book, something we haven’t seen on the Nebula ballot since 2019 and the 20BooksTo50K debacle. Considering the Nebulas were the first genre award to have a self-published finalist – before SFWA even opened membership to purely self-published writers – I’m glad to see another indie book get a Nebula nod.

Diversity count: 3 women, 2 men, 1 non-binary, 3 writers of colour, 1 international writer

Nebula Award for Game Writing:

As usual, I can’t say very much about this category, because I’m not a gamer. Elden Ring is the only finalist in this category I’ve even heard of.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make games.

Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation:

The nomination for Dune, Part 2 was probably as close to a sure thing as you can get and I strongly expect it to make the Hugo ballot as well. Even sixty after its first publication, Dune is still beloved by the SFF community (and was the first ever Nebula winner for Best Novel) and Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation is actually good – unlike the Sci-Fi Channel version from the 2000s – though I do have a soft spot for the David Lynch version as well, which was my introduction to Dune and prompted me to buy the book.

The nomination for Wicked was also pretty much a given and it will very likely make the Hugo ballot as well. After all, the movie was a massive success, based on the beloved musical adaptation of a popular novel. This is unfortunate for me, because I have never read the book, have never seen the musical and have zero interest in the film. If Wicked makes the Hugo ballot, I will force myself to watch it, but this one really isn’t for me.

Doctor Who has been a nigh constant presence on the Hugo ballot since its return almost twenty years ago, though its appearances on the Nebula ballot have been less common. That said, I have enjoyed Ncuti Gatwa’s and Jodie Whittaker’s takes on the character much more than Matt Smith’s and Peter Capaldi’s takes, which I only ever saw, when they were nominated for the Hugo and which I often found a chore to watch. That said, “Dot and Bubble” isn’t really the episode of Gatwa’s first season I expected to make the ballot and I recall it being one of the less well received episodes.

The animated Star Trek: Lower Decks has established itself as being more popular than the various recent live action Star Trek series released since the dawn of the third age of Star Trek in 2017, probably because the show is funny, well written and acted and not afraid to play with Star Trek tropes in a way the live action shows often don’t. The Nebula nomination for its fifth and final season is well deserved. Plus, I’m always happy to see animated films and shows recognised by the big SFF awards, because we have so many great animated works out there which are often ignored due to their medium.

I Saw the TV Glow is a beautiful movie about two outsiders finding connection via a TV show they’re both obsessed with. I was too old for the 1990s teen shows that inspired the fictional TV-show The Pink Opaque, but I completely sympathise with the two lead characters and their TV-inspired bond. I had similar friendships and I certainly had similar TV obsessions. This film was also on my personal Hugo ballot and I’m thrilled to see it nominated here.

Kaos, which reimagines the Greek Gods as a Dallas/Dynasty type family saga, got very positive reviews upon release, but sank like a stone with viewers and was cancelled after only a single season. I have to admit I was a bit surprised to see it nominated here, though those who actually watched Kaos really seemed to like it. Plus, you can’t go wrong with Jeff Goldblum as Zeus. I haven’t yet watched it, but I probably should.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make movies and TV shows.

***

There are a few trends among the finalists this year. Retellings continue to do well with not one but two Omelas riffs, plus retellings of The Count of Monte Cristo, The Wizard of Oz, Greek mythology and fairytales (and possibly others in the stories I haven’t read). We also have several stories with horror elements, at least two magical realist works and several works dealing with colonialism, slavery and crime and punishment. I don’t see any SFF mysteries this time around and also no robot/AI POV stories.

All in all, this is a very good and diverse Nebula ballot. It’s great to once again see so many international writer and creators on the ballot. The usual suspects will probably complain, but then they always do.