2009 World Fantasy Award winners announced

Taken from Science Fiction Awards Watch:

• Lifetime Achievement: Ellen Asher & Jane Yolen
• Best Novel (tie): The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow) & Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)
• Best Novella: “If Angels Fight”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
• Best Short Story: “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
• Best Anthology: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, Ekaterina Sedia, ed. (Senses Five Press)
• Best Collection: The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
• Best Artist: Shaun Tan
• Special Award – Professional: Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House)
• Special Award – Non-Professional: Michael Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)

The judges for 2009 were: Jenny Blackford, Peter Heck, Ellen Klages, Chris Roberson & Delia Sherman.


Very deserving winners.  I thought it'd be between Ford and Lanagan and it's nice that both of them get the honor, as they had written some of the best fiction that I read in 2008.  Same goes for Ford for the collection and Shaun Tan for Best Artist.  In the anthology category, any of the works nominated would have been a good choice, but congrats to Kathy Sedia for Paper Cities winning!

Interesting how the winners in the Best Novel category didn't correspond with the poll I ran huh?

Kage Baker, The House of the Stag	6 (5%)
Jeffrey Ford, The Shadow Year	8 (7%)
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book	31 (29%)
Daryl Gregory, Pandemonium	4 (3%)
Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels	7 (6%)
Don't care about any of them, to be honest	48 (46%)

2009 Hugo Award winners

I'm snipping this from Fábio Fernandes's Facebook updates that he was receiving via Convention Reporter:

Best Novel: Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

Best Novella: Nancy Kress, "The Erdmann Nexus"

Best Novelette: Elizabeth Bear, "Shoggoths in Bloom"

Best Short Story: Ted Chiang, "Exhalation"

Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola

Best Graphic Story: Kaja and Phil Foglio, Girl Genius

Best Editor, Long Form: David Hartwell

Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Wall-E

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Joss Whedon, "Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog"

Best Related Book: John Scalzi, Your Hate Mail will be Graded

Best Semiprozine: Ann VanderMeer and Stephen Seagal, Weird Tales

Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan

Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima

Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu

And related, but not officially a Hugo Award:

Campbell Award for Best New Writer: David Anthony Durham


Congrats to all the winners! Will say more on this later, but this is the time for congratulating those who worked hard and were rewarded for this hard work.

2009 World Fantasy Award finalists announced

Novel

The House of the Stag, Kage Baker (Tor) - Have book, but haven't yet read it
The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow) - Have book, one of my Best of 2008 Fictions
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury) - Read it a few months ago; good, but not as good as the Ford or Lanagan.
Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey) - Have book, haven't yet read it (but I'll probably read it and the Baker before the WFAs are announced)
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf) - Have book, one of my Best of 2008 Fictions. Will have to flip a coin between it and the Ford perhaps, as both are outstanding and well-deserving of this award.

Novella

“Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel,” Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
“If Angels Fight,” Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
“The Overseer,” Albert Cowdrey (F&SF 3/08)
“Odd and the Frost Giants,” Neil Gaiman (Bloomsbury; HarperCollins)
“Good Boy,” Nisi Shawl (Filter House) - Only one on the list I've read so far. Quite good.

Short Story - Need to catch up with my short fiction, as I haven't read any of these.

“Caverns of Mystery,” Kage Baker (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy)
“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
“Pride and Prometheus,” John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)
“Our Man in the Sudan,” Sarah Pinborough (The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories)
“A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica,” Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 5/08)

Anthology

The Living Dead, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Night Shade Books) - Have, but haven't finished it. Very good, the little I have read so far.
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Del Rey) - Excellent, one of the two best on this list, in my opinion.
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-First Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, & Gavin J. Grant, eds. (St. Martin’s) - Don't own.
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, Ekaterina Sedia, ed. (Senses Five Press) - Read and enjoyed it, but slightly less than the other two I've read.
Steampunk, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Tachyon Publications) - Very, very good. If they were to divide this category into original and reprint, this would easily get the nod for reprint. But since there's an original on this list that I liked equally as much, it's hard for me to decide which I think is the absolute best on this list.

Collection

Strange Roads, Peter S. Beagle (DreamHaven Books) - Don't own. My fault, as I fully expect this one is great.
The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial) - Excellent. My favorite on this...by a very slim margin.
Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link (Viking) - Very good. Very near the top in my opinion.
Filter House, Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct Press) - Weakest of the four I've read. But that's like saying Wilt Chamberlain is weak compared to Kareem, Michael, Bird, or Magic.
Tales from Outer Suburbia, Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic ‘09) - Up there with the others. This is like a Murderer's Row for me to choose one from, since all are worthy of the award.

Artist - Each of these are outstanding. Nice to see Janet Chui get recognition for her artwork in A Field Guide to Surreal Botany.

Kinuko Y. Craft
Janet Chui
Stephan Martinière
John Picacio
Shaun Tan

Special Award—Professional - Quite a few cool people on this list, having had the pleasure of having some contact with three of them. Congrats to all.

Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House)
Farah Mendlesohn (for The Rhetorics of Fantasy)
Stephen H. Segal & Ann VanderMeer (for Weird Tales)
Jerad Walters (for A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft)
Jacob Weisman (for Tachyon Publications)

Special Award—Non-professional - See what I said above, just with slightly fewer people I've chatted with at least once.

Edith L. Crowe (for her work with The Mythopoeic Society)
John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)
Elise Matthesen (for setting out to inspire and for serving as inspiration for works of poetry, fantasy, and SF over the last decade through her jewelry-making and her “artist’s challenges.”)
Sean Wallace, Neil Clarke, & Nick Mamatas (for Clarkesworld)
Michael Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)

My thoughts on this finalist list? Nice, fairly strong list. Easily my favorite out of the three major American-oriented SF/F awards. What do you think about this slate?

Jeff Ford wins 2009 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel

Just saw this posted on his blog, but haven't yet found out who won in the other categories. This is very cool, as The Shadow Year was one of my favorite 2008 novels. For those curious about the shortlist, here it is:

• Alive in Necropolis, Doug Dorst (Riverhead Hardcover)
• The Man on the Ceiling, Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem (Wizards of the Coast Discoveries)
• Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
• The Resurrectionist, Jack O’Connell (Algonquin Books)
• The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow)
• Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

I've read and enjoyed the Lanagan and the Tems as well (and will read the others eventually), so it appears to have been chosen from a nice group of finalists.

I'll edit this later when I find out the results for the other categories.

Edit: Thanks to Charles Tan pointing me the way, here are the other winners. Congrats to all!

Short Story: "The Pile" by Michael Bishop (Subterranean Online, Winter 2008)
Single Author Collection: The Diving Pool, Yoko Ogawa (Picador)
Anthology: The New Uncanny, edited by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page (Comma Press)
Novella: Disquiet, Julia Leigh (Penguin/Hamish Hamilton)
Novelette: "Pride and Prometheus", John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 2008)

2009 Locus Award winners announced

Taken from the Locus Online site, with commentary to follow:

Science Fiction Novel: Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)

Solid, unsurprising choice. I enjoyed reading this back in January, although it wasn't Stephenson's strongest work, in my opinion.

Fantasy Novel: Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)

One of my favorite 2008 reads and a novel that I gave up trying to write a review of, due to how many layers of connection and interpretation there are between this and Vergil's epic poem.

First Novel: Singularity's Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)

Have this book, but for some reason, never got around to reading it.

Young-Adult Book: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)

Enjoyed it when I read it earlier this year, but it wasn't as good as several other YA novels from 2008 that I've read so far.

Novella: "Pretty Monsters", Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)

Fitting win. Enjoy almost all of Link's writings.

Novelette: "Pump Six", Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories)

Not surprised it won, as it was a strong story.

Short Story: "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)

See above. It's Chiang. Anyone surprised?

Anthology: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)

Haven't read.

Collection: Pump Six and Other Stories, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)

Good, strong collection. Trying to think of any that would be a strong alternate, but failing at the moment.

Non-Fiction/Art Book: P. Craig Russell, Coraline: The Graphic Novel, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins)

Haven't read yet.

Editor: Ellen Datlow

Good.

Artist: Michael Whelan

Also good.

Magazine: F&SF

Good, when I read print mags, that is...

Publisher: Tor

And in the David Langford territory for wins...

Apparently Andrzej Sapkowski has won the first Gemmell Award

Or at least that's what Ken from Neth Space is reporting, as he received word via twitter from people who apparently are in the know.

This makes me rather happy, as out of the finalists, his Geralt novel, Blood of the Elves, is the only one that I liked without reservations. Nice timing on learning about this, as I received my copy of his second series, the Hussite Wars trilogy-opening Narrenturm, yesterday afternoon. While it'll have to be a while before I review it (I have another Spanish-language book I'm reading and reviewing, as well as me being in the midst of translating a recent interview with that second author), I do plan on reading it this weekend and early next week.

But still, it's good to know that this work of "heroic" fantasy was chosen to be the winner. I guess the millions in Europe and the thousands in the Anglo-American sphere have spoken, huh?

2009 Locus Award Finalists

It seems April is the awards season, as this time, the Locus Award finalists are named. Pretty good selection here, as I've read a good percentage of books and stories in these categories. Winners will be announced the weekend of June 26-27. Books/stories that I've read are bolded. Books I own but haven't read are italicized.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

* Matter, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK)
* City at the End of Time, Greg Bear (Gollancz, Del Rey)
* Marsbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
* Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)
* Saturn's Children, Charles Stross (Orbit, Ace)

FANTASY NOVEL

* The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
* Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
* The Bell at Sealey Head, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
* The Dragons of Babel, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
* An Evil Guest, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

FIRST NOVEL

* Thunderer, Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra)
* Black Ships, Jo Graham (Orbit US)
* Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey)
* The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann, Knopf)
* Singularity's Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)

YOUNG-ADULT NOVEL

* Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
* The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)
* Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
* Nation, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins)
* Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi (Tor)

NOVELLA

* "The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 10-11/08)
* "Pretty Monsters", Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)
* "The Tear", Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
* Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman (Knopf)
* "True Names", Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)

NOVELETTE

* "Pump Six", Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories)
* "The Ice War", Stephen Baxter (Asimov’s 9/08)
* "Shoggoths in Bloom"Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 3/08)
* "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away", Cory Doctorow (Tor.com 8/08)
* "Pride and Prometheus", John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)

SHORT STORY

* "King Pelles the Sure", Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
* "Boojum", Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
* "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
* "The Kindness of Strangers", Nancy Kress (Fast Forward 2)
* "After the Coup", John Scalzi (Tor.com 7/08)

MAGAZINE

* Analog
* Asimov's
* F&SF
* Realms of Fantasy
* Subterranean

PUBLISHER

* Ace
* Baen
* Night Shade Books
* Subterranean Press
* Tor

ANTHOLOGY

* The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin)
* Galactic Empires, Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC)
* The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)
* Eclipse Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)
* The Starry Rift, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Viking)

COLLECTION

* Pump Six and Other Stories, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)
* The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
* Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link (Viking)
* The Best of Lucius Shepard, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press)
* The Best of Michael Swanwick, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean Press)

EDITOR

* Ellen Datlow
* Gardner Dozois
* David G. Hartwell
* Jonathan Strahan
* Gordon Van Gelder

ARTIST

* Bob Eggleton
* John Picacio
* Shaun Tan
* Charles Vess
* Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION/ART BOOK

* Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
* What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
* Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press)
* P. Craig Russell, Coraline: The Graphic Novel, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins)
* Shaun Tan, Tales From Outer Suburbia (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic '09)

If I have time, in a month or so, I'll weigh in on this (wish I had had the time to do the same with the Nebula Awards, but Joe Sherry did a very good job with it at his blog, Adventures in Reading).

2008 Tiptree Award winners

Forgot to post this the other day, but the Tiptree Award winners for 2008 releases were announced this weekend as well, along with their Honor List.  The two winners:

Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go 

Nisi Shawl, Filter House

I believe I have made at least a few passing comments over the past few months praising both books (the Shawl is a short fiction collection), and each is very deserving of this award.  The Honor List contains another six books that I have read (Sedia, Barzak, Frost, Lanagan, Le Guin, Park) and one that I ordered (the Wilce) and I would recommend each of those as well to readers here, for different reasons.  In fact, the Sedia and Le Guin need revisiting, since those were the two novels I most wanted to review last year yet could not organize my thoughts adequately at the time (summer 2008 had very few reviews, if memory serves, due to work issues and personal life stuff).  I really ought to revisit them in the next month or so.

Anyone else here read any of the winners or the Honor List?

2008 Nebula Award winners announced

I followed the live feed from SF Awards Watch and the final results are now in for the major award categories. Sadly, I haven't read a one of these works, although I just placed orders for the Wilce and Le Guin books, in part because I want to cover more YA fiction on this blog and I'm curious to see if their works, from 2007/8 will compare favorably with my favorites from 2008.

Andre Norton Award (YA Fiction): Ysabeau S. Wilce, Flora's Dare

Bradbury Award: Joss Whedon

Grand Master Award: Harry Harrison

Short Story: Nina Kiriki Hoffman, "Trophy Wives"

Script: Wall-E

Novella: Catherine Asaro, The Spacetime Pool

Novelette: John Kessel, "Pride and Prometheus"

Novel: Ursula Le Guin, Powers


What are your thoughts on the winners? Did the "right" stories win? Are there stories that you are going to purchase/read now that the winners have been named? How much complaining do you think will take place now? Curious to know what others thought of these selections.

Shirley Jackson Award finalists

From the official site:

NOVEL

• Alive in Necropolis, Doug Dorst (Riverhead Hardcover)
• The Man on the Ceiling, Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem (Wizards of the Coast Discoveries)
• Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
• The Resurrectionist, Jack O’Connell (Algonquin Books)
• The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow)
• Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

NOVELLA

• Disquiet, Julia Leigh (Penguin/Hamish Hamilton)
• "Dormitory," Yoko Ogawa (The Diving Pool, Picador)
• Living With the Dead, Darrell Schweitzer (PS Publishing)
• The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, Stephen Graham Jones (Chiasmus Press)
• "N,", Stephen King (Just After Sunset, Scribner)

NOVELETTE

• "Hunger Moon," Deborah Noyes (The Ghosts of Kerfol, Candlewick Press)
• "The Lagerstatte," Laird Barron (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Ballantine Books/Del Rey)
• "Penguins of the Apocalypse," William Browning Spencer (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, Subterranean Press)
• "Pride and Prometheus," John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 2008)
• The Situation, Jeff Vandermeer (PS Publishing)

SHORT STORY

• "68° 07’ 15"N, 31° 36’ 44"W," Conrad Williams (Fast Ships, Black Sails, Night Shade Books)
• "The Dinner Party," Joshua Ferris (The New Yorker, August 11, 2008)
• "Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter’s Personal Account," M. Rickert (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct/Nov 2008)
• "The Inner City," Karen Heuler (Cemetery Dance #58, 2008)
• "Intertropical Convergence Zone," Nadia Bulkin (ChiZine, Issue 37, 2008)
• "The Pile," Michael Bishop (Subterranean Online, Winter 2008)

COLLECTION

• A Better Angel, Chris Adrian (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
• Dangerous Laughter, Steven Millhauser (Knopf)
• The Diving Pool, Yoko Ogawa (Picador)
• The Girl on the Fridge, Etgar Keret (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
• Just After Sunset, Stephen King (Scribner)
• Wild Nights!, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)

ANTHOLOGY

• Bound for Evil, edited by Tom English (Dead Letter Press)
• Exotic Gothic 2: New Tales of Taboo, edited by Danel Olson (Ash-Tree Press)
• Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer (Night Shade Books)
• The New Uncanny, edited by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page (Comma Press)
• Shades of Darkness, edited by Barbara and Christopher Roden (Ash-Tree Press)

This award, now in its second year, tends to be (along with the World Fantasy Awards, most of the time) closer to my preferred genre reading tastes than other spec fic awards. This is, I believe, a juried award (like the WFAs) so maybe that says something about me as well? Regardless, I have read three of the Best Novel finalists (Ford, Lanagan, and the Tems), will read the Gregory soon, should have bought the O'Connell but for some reason delayed, and will now look into the Dorst. Also, I have read Jeff VanderMeer's The Situation in the Novelette category, as well as Laird Barron's story there as well. Very pleased to see Etgar Keret's collection, The Girl on the Fridge (translated from Hebrew), be a finalist in the Collection category, while Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's original pirate-themed anthology, Fast Ships, Black Sails is the only one in the Anthology category that I've read to date.

What are your thoughts regarding these finalists?

Inaugural Gemmell Award finalists announced

Taken from here:

ABERCROMBIE, Joe – Last Argument of Kings (Gollancz)
MARILLIER, Juliet – Heir to Sevenwaters (Tor UK)
SANDERSON, Brandon - The Hero of Ages (Tor US)
SAPKOWSKI, Andrzej - Blood of Elves (Gollancz)
WEEKS, Brent - The Way of Shadows (Orbit)

The winner from this list will be determined by online voting, from what I understand. Registration and all that (I believe it's free) can be done at the site I linked to above.

As for these finalists? Well, they are all certainly fantasies that (mostly) fit the epic/secondary-world mode. I've read all of three (Abercrombie, Sanderson, Sapkowski) and the first 200 pages of another (Weeks). I have the Marillier but haven't read it.

Which one would I select out of this list? Well...I reviewed the Abercrombie book for Strange Horizons last year and while there were certainly strong points about it, there were also many deficiencies in the prose and characterizations. Sanderson's book was pretty good, but I still have problems with his prose and characterizations as well. Sapkowski's first book in The Saga of Geralt contains some of the better stories in this bunch and was the one that I enjoyed the most. I stopped after 200 pages in Weeks' first book because I wasn't in the mood then to read epic fantasies. It wasn't bad, but rather something I wasn't in the mood to read at the time. Might return to it later, but it certainly wouldn't be the one that I'd support, if I were to vote on this.

So out of this bunch, Sapkowski would get my vote, followed by Sanderson and Abercrombie in that order. Not that I'm particularly enthused about this shortlist, as only the Sapkowski has made either one of my 2007 or 2008 End of Year lists. But it certainly is a book (collection of novellas, really) that I would recommend for those who are both new to and are experienced in the epic fantasy genre. It and the Weeks are the only entrants remaining which are first volumes, making it harder for some to read and judge the remaining three without being familiar with that author's writing and setting.

Nebula Award finalists announced

Filched from Locus Online, with commentary:

SFWA has released the final ballot for the 2008 Nebula Awards, to be announced during the 2009 Nebula Awards Weekend, April 24-26, 2009 in Los Angeles CA.

Novels: Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor); Powers, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt); Cauldron, Jack McDevitt (Ace); Brasyl, Ian McDonald (Pyr); Making Money, Terry Pratchett (Harper); Superpowers, David J. Schwartz (Three Rivers).

I've read Doctorow's book (which I placed in my favorite YA fiction for 2008) and McDonald's book, which I believe ought to be a strong contender for this award. Need to get around to reading Le Guin's series here. Interesting how 1/3 of the finalists here were marketed as YA novels, but neither one appears on the Norton Award shortlist below.

Novellas: "The Spacetime Pool", Catherine Asaro (Analog 3/08); "Dark Heaven", Gregory Benford (Alien Crimes); Dangerous Space, Kelley Eskridge (Dangerous Space); "The Political Prisoner", Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF 8/08); The Duke in His Castle, Vera Nazarian (Norilana).

Haven't read any of these yet, although the Eskridge is tempting...

Novelettes: "If Angels Fight", Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08); "Dark Rooms", Lisa Goldstein (Asimov’s 10-11/07); "Pride and Prometheus", John Kessel (F&SF 1/08); "Night Wind", Mary Rosenblum (Lace and Blade); "Baby Doll", Johanna Sinisalo, David Hackston, trans. (The SFWA European Hall of Fame); "Kaleidoscope", K.D. Wentworth (F&SF 5/07).

"Baby Doll" is the only novelette that I've read. I seem to recall it being good, but not my favorite from the Morrow collection. Might have to re-read it shortly.

Stories: "The Button Bin", Mike Allen (Helix 10/07); "The Dreaming Wind", Jeffrey Ford (The Coyote Road); "Trophy Wives", Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fellowship Fantastic); "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss", Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08); "The Tomb Wife", Gwyneth Jones (F&SF 8/07); "Don’t Stop", James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 6/07).

I've only read "The Dreaming Wind," but it was a very fine story...or par for the course for Jeffrey Ford. Will consider the others later, time permitting (Spring Break?)

Scripts: The Dark Knight, Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer (Warner Bros.); "The Shrine", Brad Wright (Stargate Atlantis); WALL-E, Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Peter Docter (Pixar).

Not interested in film-related stuff, to be honest.

Andre Norton Award: Graceling, Kristin Cashore (Harcourt); Lamplighter, D.M. Cornish; Savvy, Ingrid Law (Dial); The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E. Pearson (Holt); Flora's Dare, Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt).

Loved both the Cashore and Cornish efforts (both made my year-end list for YA fiction). Will have to look into the others, but choosing between Cashore and Cornish here would be tough for me, as both were outstanding stories.

BSFA Award Finalists announced

I've been mostly out of the SF loop the past few days, so I missed this (along with a few other things that I'll do in the morning Saturday) announcement that Niall Harrison posted:

Best Novel

Flood by Stephen Baxter
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Best Short Fiction

"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang (Eclipse 2)
"Crystal Nights" by Greg Egan (Interzone 215)
"Little Lost Robot" by Paul McAuley (Interzone 217)
"Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment" by M. Rickert (F&SF, Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Non-Fiction

"Physics for Amnesia" by John Clute (talk given at the Gresham College Symposium "Science Fiction as a Literary Genre")
Superheroes!: Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films by Roz Kaveney (I.B. Tauris)
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)

Best Artwork

Cover of Subterfuge, ed. Ian Whates, by Andy Bigwood
Cover of Flood by Stephen Baxter, by Blacksheep
Cover of Swiftly by Adam Roberts, by Blacksheep
Cover of Murky Depths 4, by Vincent Chong
Cover of Interzone 218, by Warwick Fraser Coombe

I have read/partially read (and will finish reading in the near future) two of the Novel finalists (Stephenson, Harkaway), as well as Chiang's story (typical for Chiang, meaning it is great stuff), plus the Kincaid and Mendlesohn non-fiction books that I reviewed last summer (and which I talked about in my year-end wrapups as being excellent books for those more interested in SF criticism). Based on what I've heard of most of the others (and the point is, I have heard of virtually all these authors/stories before now), this finalist list isn't that bad. In fact, some of it I couldn't argue with (plus I think the Harkaway novel is one of those polarizing novels that hints, from what I've read so, that it isn't going to fit easily into a pre-fab cubbyhole) being there. Shall be interesting to read the reaction from other quarters this weekend.

Daryl Gregory wins Crawford Award for debut novel

From Locus Online:

Daryl Gregory's Pandemonium (Del Rey) is the winner of the 2009 Crawford Award for best first fantasy. Other titles on this year's shortlist are Alive in Necropolis, Doug Dorst (Riverhead); Superpowers, David Schwartz (Three Rivers); Thunderer, Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra); and Last Dragon, J.M. McDermott (Wizards of the Coast). The award will be presented at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, March 18-22, in Orlando, Florida. Details of the conference are at http://www.iafa.org/.

While I haven't yet gotten around to reading Gregory's book, I do have a copy, plus I have read Gilman and McDermott's efforts and thought highly enough of each to include them in my roundup of the best debut novels of 2008 that I had read. Might have to read the Schwartz and Dorst sometime, once I start buying more books again (I'm putting a 2-3 near-moratorium on purchases to make sure I have enough money for doctor's bills in case I elect to have left knee surgery in February or March).