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Nebula Awards Showcase 60
262 pages, Paperback
Published June 9, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 30, 2025
Anthologies from different authors are always somewhat of a mixed bag, since the overall quality depends in large part on the anthology’s theme and the publisher or editor’s ability to get rights clearances. However, I had high hopes for “Nebula Awards Showcase 60.” There was little editorial discretion involved in the selections, and rights clearances were obviously no problem. Unfortunately, the results were mediocre overall and a major disappointment considering the basis for the stories’ inclusion in the anthology.
The Nebula Awards are 60 years old and celebrate the best fantasy and science fiction published in the United States each year, as selected by a vote of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Over the years, the Nebula Award winners have included such works as Frank Herbert’s “Dune” (the first winner for Best Novel), Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama,” and Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game.” The SFWA also publishes a “Showcase” each year to highlight that year’s winners. This “Showcase” has undergone several format changes. It now features the six nominated short stories (under 7,500 words) and seven nominated novelettes (between 7,500 and 17,500 words) for 2024. The anthology also includes an excerpt from the winning novella (17,500-40,000 words) and brief synopses of all nominated novels and novellas. These tales represent what the SFWA members think are the best science fiction and fantasy works published in the United States in 2024. With such an illustrious pedigree, I expected the award winners and nominees to be near-classics. Instead, I got a mix of a few outstanding stories, some decent but not exceptional tales, and several complete misfires.
The short stories were the biggest disappointment for me. Three of the six nominees were outright failures, confusing and difficult to follow. I felt that vital information had been edited out to pare down their lengths. One story, “The V*mpire,” by PH Lee, concerns a vampire who pays a visit to an unsuspecting 14-year-old after the two “meet” on Tumblr in 2012. Since I’ve never used Tumblr and wasn’t familiar with a lot of the terminology kids used on the app when communicating with each other, I was at a loss for most of the story. In another story, “Evan: the Remainder,” by Jordan Kurella, the title character literally upchucks human bones and assembles them to make a Skeleton Boyfriend. Enough said.
Fortunately, the other three nominated stories were better. “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones is a terrific piece of flash fiction about a prison planet and the fate of the prisoners sent there. To say more would spoil the surprise. “We Will Teach You How to Read—We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim is a valiant effort that ultimately doesn’t live up to its premise. Denizens of a dying planet send messages to Earth written in a manner beyond human comprehension. They try to make humans understand their complex language by repeating a simple mantra that shows how they can read multiple lines at once. I was reminded of the theme from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but the conclusion is weak.
The winning story, “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim, is based on a classic short story by Ursula K. Le Guin about the planet Omelas. For those like me who haven’t read Le Guin’s story, Omelas is a seemingly idyllic planet with a single deadly drawback. The powers-that-be choose one child as a scapegoat and imprison that child in a hole where he or she suffers unimaginable torment. Some people are upset by the whole idea and decide to end the child’s suffering quickly and permanently. Like Le Guin’s original, Kim’s story poses more philosophical and moral questions than scientific ones. I found the author’s style and additional questions raised intriguing.
The novelettes are better than the short stories. The winner, “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being,” despite its abstract title, is a humorous look at the practice of medicine in the interstellar future. A vaguely humanoid alien made of water (imagine the Michelin man) from an obscure species seeks treatment from a human doctor. Unfortunately, contact with that species has been almost nonexistent, and the doctor’s vast database can’t help her figure out how to treat her patient. “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou is another excellent tale. The central character becomes increasingly isolated from the world at large because everyone she is close to starts disappearing. She can still communicate with them through chat and text, but can’t see or hear them. The story is a pointed commentary on our social media era, in which chat and text messages become substitutes for human interaction.
Another novelette by Eugenia Triantafyllou, “Joanna’s Bodies,” is also included in the anthology. If the title sounds familiar to movie fans, it should. The story is a variation of the movie “Jennifer’s Body,” about a teenager possessed by a demon. Here, Joanna and Eleni have been friends since childhood. However, when they grow up, Joanna is killed in an accident. Eleni discovers a spell that allows Joanna to inhabit other women’s bodies for short periods of time, but eventually develops misgivings about what she’s done. One other novelette worth mentioning is “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha. This story imagines a future in which most media is digitized and periodically “improved” by publishers and authors. Even eyeglasses are equipped to change what a person sees for the “better.” The narrator stumbles across a rare thing: a “dead book” made of actual paper and ink, incapable of after-the-fact editing. The other nominated novelettes aren’t that good, and one, ”Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” by Angela Liu, is dreadful. It’s a story set in feudal Japan featuring exorcists and monsters. As with some of the other misfires in this collection, it’s much more confusing than entertaining.
In summary, “Nebula Awards Showcase 60” contains four excellent or near-excellent stories (including the Award-winning novelette), two good stories, three average stories, and four bad ones. That’s too high a percentage of mediocre material for most anthologies, let alone a collection of what are supposed to be the best works of the year. Science fiction fans will probably find value in the synopses of the nominated novels and novellas. For that reason, I’m giving this anthology a slightly higher rating than the included stories merit. However, the collection was a major disappointment for me.
NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.
The Nebula Awards are 60 years old and celebrate the best fantasy and science fiction published in the United States each year, as selected by a vote of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Over the years, the Nebula Award winners have included such works as Frank Herbert’s “Dune” (the first winner for Best Novel), Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama,” and Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game.” The SFWA also publishes a “Showcase” each year to highlight that year’s winners. This “Showcase” has undergone several format changes. It now features the six nominated short stories (under 7,500 words) and seven nominated novelettes (between 7,500 and 17,500 words) for 2024. The anthology also includes an excerpt from the winning novella (17,500-40,000 words) and brief synopses of all nominated novels and novellas. These tales represent what the SFWA members think are the best science fiction and fantasy works published in the United States in 2024. With such an illustrious pedigree, I expected the award winners and nominees to be near-classics. Instead, I got a mix of a few outstanding stories, some decent but not exceptional tales, and several complete misfires.
The short stories were the biggest disappointment for me. Three of the six nominees were outright failures, confusing and difficult to follow. I felt that vital information had been edited out to pare down their lengths. One story, “The V*mpire,” by PH Lee, concerns a vampire who pays a visit to an unsuspecting 14-year-old after the two “meet” on Tumblr in 2012. Since I’ve never used Tumblr and wasn’t familiar with a lot of the terminology kids used on the app when communicating with each other, I was at a loss for most of the story. In another story, “Evan: the Remainder,” by Jordan Kurella, the title character literally upchucks human bones and assembles them to make a Skeleton Boyfriend. Enough said.
Fortunately, the other three nominated stories were better. “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones is a terrific piece of flash fiction about a prison planet and the fate of the prisoners sent there. To say more would spoil the surprise. “We Will Teach You How to Read—We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim is a valiant effort that ultimately doesn’t live up to its premise. Denizens of a dying planet send messages to Earth written in a manner beyond human comprehension. They try to make humans understand their complex language by repeating a simple mantra that shows how they can read multiple lines at once. I was reminded of the theme from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but the conclusion is weak.
The winning story, “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim, is based on a classic short story by Ursula K. Le Guin about the planet Omelas. For those like me who haven’t read Le Guin’s story, Omelas is a seemingly idyllic planet with a single deadly drawback. The powers-that-be choose one child as a scapegoat and imprison that child in a hole where he or she suffers unimaginable torment. Some people are upset by the whole idea and decide to end the child’s suffering quickly and permanently. Like Le Guin’s original, Kim’s story poses more philosophical and moral questions than scientific ones. I found the author’s style and additional questions raised intriguing.
The novelettes are better than the short stories. The winner, “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being,” despite its abstract title, is a humorous look at the practice of medicine in the interstellar future. A vaguely humanoid alien made of water (imagine the Michelin man) from an obscure species seeks treatment from a human doctor. Unfortunately, contact with that species has been almost nonexistent, and the doctor’s vast database can’t help her figure out how to treat her patient. “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou is another excellent tale. The central character becomes increasingly isolated from the world at large because everyone she is close to starts disappearing. She can still communicate with them through chat and text, but can’t see or hear them. The story is a pointed commentary on our social media era, in which chat and text messages become substitutes for human interaction.
Another novelette by Eugenia Triantafyllou, “Joanna’s Bodies,” is also included in the anthology. If the title sounds familiar to movie fans, it should. The story is a variation of the movie “Jennifer’s Body,” about a teenager possessed by a demon. Here, Joanna and Eleni have been friends since childhood. However, when they grow up, Joanna is killed in an accident. Eleni discovers a spell that allows Joanna to inhabit other women’s bodies for short periods of time, but eventually develops misgivings about what she’s done. One other novelette worth mentioning is “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha. This story imagines a future in which most media is digitized and periodically “improved” by publishers and authors. Even eyeglasses are equipped to change what a person sees for the “better.” The narrator stumbles across a rare thing: a “dead book” made of actual paper and ink, incapable of after-the-fact editing. The other nominated novelettes aren’t that good, and one, ”Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” by Angela Liu, is dreadful. It’s a story set in feudal Japan featuring exorcists and monsters. As with some of the other misfires in this collection, it’s much more confusing than entertaining.
In summary, “Nebula Awards Showcase 60” contains four excellent or near-excellent stories (including the Award-winning novelette), two good stories, three average stories, and four bad ones. That’s too high a percentage of mediocre material for most anthologies, let alone a collection of what are supposed to be the best works of the year. Science fiction fans will probably find value in the synopses of the nominated novels and novellas. For that reason, I’m giving this anthology a slightly higher rating than the included stories merit. However, the collection was a major disappointment for me.
NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.
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May 10, 20262026 HUGO SHORT STORIES
I cheated… I needed a place to contain information for myself on for this year’s HUGO nominees. This is my first year having voting privileges. I know this book is actually from 2025s nominees; but until such a time as there is somewhere for me to move my notes elsewhere I will keep them here. Forgive me for cheating.
First, all 6 of this year’s stories are wonderful. Each with a different message; and yet all similar in one way. Our world is hard, ugly, and sometimes unbearable. Yet what makes it ours and unique is being human. And thus I have to pick to vote first place for Wire Mother by Isabel J. Kim.
Wire Mother is this year’s story that pushes me closer to a topic I’ve been dreading and yet I know I must come to terms with sooner rather than later...
Just this year I started using AI a bit for work. I refuse to type to it like a person. I am analytical, factual, and never say thank you to it. Why? Because it’s not a real person.
Being polite to AI will not change its sentiment or answers to me. And yet… sometimes I’m so grateful for the help AI gives me in debugging code at my day job that I feel compelled to say thanks. It’s a weird, bizarre struggle.
Thus, Wire Mother spoke to me in a way the other stories did not. In a way that made me realize if I had the choice, given to our teen in this story; I’d make the same one as her. I cannot tell you what that is as it’s a spoiler. All I can say is go and read this amazing little futuristic story. Be impressed by the narrative and detail put into so few words; and be shocked by the ending that is absolutely perfect to me.
Wire Mother is easily my pick for this year’s Short story entry for the Hugo Awards.
Each of the other stories is excellent in its own way. And as the Hugo’s does ranked voting I am torn to pick the next best or even a ‘worst ’ as there is no such thing here. However, as I must, I ranking will be as follows:
1) Wire Mother
2) Six People to Revise You
3) 10 Visions of the Future
4) Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything
5) Missing Helen
6) In My Country
I cheated… I needed a place to contain information for myself on for this year’s HUGO nominees. This is my first year having voting privileges. I know this book is actually from 2025s nominees; but until such a time as there is somewhere for me to move my notes elsewhere I will keep them here. Forgive me for cheating.
First, all 6 of this year’s stories are wonderful. Each with a different message; and yet all similar in one way. Our world is hard, ugly, and sometimes unbearable. Yet what makes it ours and unique is being human. And thus I have to pick to vote first place for Wire Mother by Isabel J. Kim.
Wire Mother is this year’s story that pushes me closer to a topic I’ve been dreading and yet I know I must come to terms with sooner rather than later...
Just this year I started using AI a bit for work. I refuse to type to it like a person. I am analytical, factual, and never say thank you to it. Why? Because it’s not a real person.
Being polite to AI will not change its sentiment or answers to me. And yet… sometimes I’m so grateful for the help AI gives me in debugging code at my day job that I feel compelled to say thanks. It’s a weird, bizarre struggle.
Thus, Wire Mother spoke to me in a way the other stories did not. In a way that made me realize if I had the choice, given to our teen in this story; I’d make the same one as her. I cannot tell you what that is as it’s a spoiler. All I can say is go and read this amazing little futuristic story. Be impressed by the narrative and detail put into so few words; and be shocked by the ending that is absolutely perfect to me.
Wire Mother is easily my pick for this year’s Short story entry for the Hugo Awards.
Each of the other stories is excellent in its own way. And as the Hugo’s does ranked voting I am torn to pick the next best or even a ‘worst ’ as there is no such thing here. However, as I must, I ranking will be as follows:
1) Wire Mother
2) Six People to Revise You
3) 10 Visions of the Future
4) Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything
5) Missing Helen
6) In My Country
November 14, 2025
Really, really strong collection. Every single story either has compelling ideas, beautiful writing, or both. All of them are worth your time, but if I were to point out two standouts, "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole" continues Isabel J. Kim's trademark deconstructive type of technosocial commentary, and "The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video" depicts the soft fondness and caring that Thomas Ha can capture so effectively in these silent, washed-out horror near-future environments.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews