Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Nebula Awards Showcase 2011-Kevin J. Anderson (Editor)

The Nebula Awards Showcase 2011
Kevin J. Anderson (Editor)
Tor, May 24 2011, $17.99
ISBN: 9780765328427

This Nebula Award Showcase takes a different focus than previous collections as the six short story and six novelette nominations for the 2009 ballot are included in their entirety; while only the winning novella and a brief paragraph on the winning novel are included. Also included are SFWA Author Emeritus Award fro Neal Barrett, Jr. (and a short “Getting dark”), a SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master to Joe Haldeman includes his short “A !Tangled Web”) and Rhysling Awards to Amal El Mohtar (“Song for an Ancient City”) and Geoffrey A. Landis (“Search” and Fireflies”).

This reviewer appreciated reading all the short story and novelette finalists as voted on by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America; as this allowed me to decide whether I agreed with the winning selections of “Spar” by Kij Johnson (short story) and Eugie Foster’s “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” (novelette). I also appreciated that the novel winner “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi only had a brief description rather than a chapter or two extract; on the other hand the other novel nominees deserved a short write-up too. Finally the novella winner is fitting homage to the late Kage Baker (“The Women of Nell Gwynne’s”), but excluded the other nominees. There are also additional listings of lesser known award categories that round out a super collection especially for fans that may have missed the shorter writings.

Harriet Klausner

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