Monday, May 14, 2007

Nebulas!

The winners of this year's Nebula Awards were announced on Saturday. Here's the Locus page.

Jack McDevitt's Seeker won in the novel category. I haven't read Seeker, and realized after some reflection that I couldn't remember who won last year, which eventually led me to look at the Locus list of past winners to see when I'd last read a novel that won SFFWA's most prestigious award.

What I discovered gave me a small shock: Nicola Griffith's Slow River--in 1997. Ten years ago.

So now I'm curious: How about you? What (and when) was the last Nebula Award winner you read?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read Kelly Link's "Magic for Beginners" - the entire collection - for review in Apex last Spring; great stuff and got me to thinking and talking about zombie contingency plans! I have to bow my head and admit that I've never read any Tim Powers, although I did meet him last year at HyperiCon and enjoyed some terrific conversation. Christopher Rowe and I both live in the same town; he's done a lot with and for Apex - and he and I were both in the Apex Publications Stoker nominated anthology Aegri Somnia together. I see Joss Whedon on the list; I recently purchased and watched the entirity of Firefly and Serenity - good stuff! :D

Great stuff on that list! It'd make a cool "shopping" / "must have" list. :D

Douglas Hulick said...

Speaking soley to novels:

I read "American Gods" (2003 winner), and none before that until we get back to "Doomsday Book"(1993 - which I really didn't care for).

I don't know why, but I don't tend to read the "award winning" novels (Hugo, Nebula, Tiptree, etc.) that much. It's not that I avoid them - in fact, I tend to be pretty unaware of who wins what awards. For whatever reason, the "winners" aren't the books that grab me when I am browsing the shelves.* Then again, I haven't been reading as deeply in the field in the last few years, so it's easy for me to miss any number of titles. I'm working on fixing that.


(*The fact that I hardly ever read SF certainly pares down the odds of my having read a number of past winners, too.)

Kelly McCullough said...

Let's see

2006-Valiant
2004-Coraline
2003-American Gods
1999-Forever Peace (though I only read it last week)

I've seen a bunch of the movies and probably read an average of .6 titles a year for the last decade and a half.

lydamorehouse said...

1988 - The Falling Woman is the last one I read.

Kelly Swails said...

I read half of "American Gods" before I gave up. (Sorry, Neil, if you're out there.) I've seen most of the recent movies but have read very few of the books.

Some authors (usually the ones that win the awards) say that you have to be abreast of who won what awards, when they won them, and for what if you have any hope making it in the industry and ever winning one yourself. That part about winning an award may or may not be true. However, writing a novel just to win an award is not how I roll, and I have to believe that there are plenty of people who "make it" in the industry that entertain people without any statues on their bookshelves. Of course, I suppose that depends on your definition of "making it."

Anonymous said...

I actually batted much better than I thought I would. Recently explored Haldeman, Link, Gunn, Fowler, also have read most of the scripts.

NG's "Slow River" I've read more times than any other novel, then when it gets to the mid-80's I've read most of the list, thanks to fervent, repeated recommendations from others in the last couple of years. The mid-80's novels have also scored really well as recent gifts for teenage relatives, especially Gibson, Card - no small miracle.

-CJD

Bill Henry said...

CJD, I loved Slow River too.

And oh, the mid-eighties: a special era for SF novels on the Nebula list! From 1984 to 1987, Startide Rising, Neuromancer, Ender's Game, and Speaker for the Dead -- I read them all back then, and the paperbacks are still on my shelves today. A golden age for sure.

Those were, not coincidentally, my college years. Hmm.

Kelly McCullough said...

Bill, so, what you're saying is it was the golden age of Bill's reading time? Mine too. I've got most of the 80s and some of the 70s too, now that I look back that far (at least for novels).

Unknown said...

I've read most of the Novellas, Novelettes, and short fiction, and seen all the movies since that category was added. Of the novel winners in the last decade I've only read 2003 American Gods. Prior to Sawyer's horseshit 1996 novel (my opinion is based on the Analog novella), I've read all the novels and most of the shorter work. My post 1996 disrespect for the Nebulas should in no way be connected to the fact that in that year I started to meet the sort of people who voted for the Nebulas.

Bill Henry said...

Kelly wrote: Bill, so, what you're saying is it was the golden age of Bill's reading time?

Bingo. After all, I was a literature major. Most of the books I was reading were of the extracurricular variety, though. ; )