Beyond Reality discussion

The Nebula finalists have been announced and I thought it might be fun to discuss with the group what we think of the nominees.

Here's the link! https://www.sfwa.org/2019/02/nebula-a...

Other categories at the link but for convenience, here are there novels and novellas.

Novel

The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)

Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)

Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan)

Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)

Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)



Novella

Fire Ant, Jonathan P. Brazee (Semper Fi)

The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)

The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)

Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)

Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

My personal favorite among novels is Blackfish City for Nebula as the most literary. All nominees (I currently finish the last of them, Trail of Lightning) have their merits.

It is interesting to note that 4/6 of novels are first novels by authors, namely, only The Calculating Stars and Spinning Silver are from established authors

I have to shamefully admit I've not read any of these yet, although a few are on my TBR.

In novels, I've had my eye on Trail of Lightning because I used to love urban fantasy and haven't read a good one in a while, Spinning Silver because I loved Uprooted, and The Poppy War sounds intriguing but I've hesitated because I've heard it's really graphic and I'm a bit squeamish. I'll have to add the other novels on there and start reading soon--Blackfish City especially sounds right up my alley.

In novellas, the only one I've seen before is Artificial Condition because I've read the first two in the series and loved them, but I'll definitely have to look into the others and see what I want to give a try.

So obviously, I have no thoughts yet on what should win but am definitely interested to read what others have to say.