Nebula Award Winners for Short Fiction

Last night the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) held its 60th Nebula Awards® Ceremony. The winners in the short fiction categories follow. Congratulations to the authors and to Clarkesworld magazine where both were originally published!

Best Novelette

Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A.W. Prihandita (2024) — 8,730 words (about 35 minutes for the average reader)
Originally published in Clarkesworld magazine issue #218, November 2024.

Best Short Story

Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole”by Isabel J. Kim (2024) — 3,190 words (about 13 minutes for the average reader)
Originally published in Clarkesworld magazine issue #209, February 2024.

Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler

I’ve become a big Ray Nayler fan. I’ve read his other two books (The Mountain in the Sea and Tusks of Extinction) and thoroughly enjoyed them. So when this latest novel came out recently, I quickly put in on my list. And late last week, I finished reading it.

The story takes place in a near future where two main forms of government exist. The Federation is a totalitarian surveillance state. Everyone is watched all the time. They use a social credit system to keep everyone in line. Violence and fear are pervasive and everpresent. The president changes regularly but it is always the same person whose consciousness is transferred to a new body each time. The West is governed by a system run by AI Prime Ministers who are meant to be objectively more efficient and peaceful. Naturally there is resistance in the Federation. And in the West, a new Republic that just received its first AI PM, struggles with the adjustment.

This is exactly my kind of human/AI story! Most stories about AI are about how it becomes smarter than humans and subjugates them in some way. This is much more complicated than that. And that complication is what makes me appreciate this novel. In general, there are no straightforward answers. Like real life, things are messy. Human emotion interferes with logic. The author does with this book what all good science fiction authors do: he explores today’s issues by exploring them in made-up future. This is not prediction. It is exploration. And what a thought provoking exploration it is!

My rating: 5/5

Nebula Award Nominees for Short Fiction, Part 6 of 6

The last one! Tomorrow the winners will be announced!

Nominee for Best Novelette

Katya Vasilievna and the Second Drowning of Baba Rechka” by Christine Hanolsy (2024) — 9,884 words (about 40 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine issue #405, 18 April 2024.

Nominee for Best Short Story

We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim (2024) — 2,832 words (about 12 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Lightspeed magazine issue #168, May 2024.

Nebula Award Nominees for Short Fiction, Part 5 of 6

Almost there!

Nominee for Best Novelette

The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha (2024) — 8,370 words (about 34 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Clarkesworld magazine issue #212, May 2024.

Nominee for Best Short Story

V*mpire” by P.H. Lee (2024) — 5,320 words (about 22 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Reactor magazine, 23 October 2024.

Nebula Award Nominees for Short Fiction, Part 4 of 6

My continuation of nominees that can be read online for free.

Nominee for Best Novelette

Joanna’s Bodies” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (2024) — 11,100 words (about 45 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Psychopomp magazine, 1 July 2024.

Nominee for Best Short Story

Evan: A Remainder” by Jordan Kurella (2024) — 4,483 words (about 18 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Reactor magazine, 31 January 2024.

Nebula Award Nominees for Short Fiction, Part 3 of 6

Here are the next two nominees that can be read online for free.

Nominee for Best Novelette

Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A.W. Prihandita (2024) — 8,730 words (about 35 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Clarkesworld magazine issue #218, November 2024.

Nominee for Best Short Story

Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachel K. Jones (2024) — 549 words (about 3 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Lightspeed magazine issue #164, January 2024.

Nebula Award Nominees for Short Fiction, Part 2 of 6

Two more nominees that can be read online for free.

Nominee for Best Novelette

What Any Dead Thing Wants” by Aimee Ogden (2024) — 16,300words (about 66 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Psychopomp magazine online, February 2024.

Nominee for Best Short Story

The Witch Trap” by Jennifer Hudak (2024) — 3,080 words (about 13 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet magazine issue #48, September 2024.

Nebula Award Nominees for Short Fiction, Part 1 of 6

The Nebula Conference starts this week on June 5. The awards ceremony is on Saturday, June 7. The Nebula Awards® are voted on and presented by full, senior, and associate members of the  Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. There are two short fiction categories that are less than book length. These are the awards for best novelette (at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words) and best short story (less than 7,500 words).

In the run up to the awards ceremony on Saturday, I will be publishing links to the six stories in each category, one story in each of these categories each day for a week! Happy reading!

Nominee for Best Novelette

Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (2024) — 8,173 words (about 33 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Uncanny magazine issue #58, May/June 2024.

Nominee for Best Short Story

Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole”by Isabel J. Kim (2024) — 3,190 words (about 13 minutes for the average reader)

Originally published in Clarkesworld magazine issue #209, February 2024.