Lakeland Public Library discussion

The members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have announced the finalists for the 55th Annual Nebula Awards. Check out who made the list:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
A woman navigating the out-of-place artifacts in her caretaker’s sprawling early 20th-century mansion discovers a mysterious book that reveals impossible truths about the world and her own past.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Taking over for an ambassador who died a suspicious death, Mahit Dzmare investigates the potential murder while navigating the alien culture of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire, which is hiding a technological secret that could impact the universe.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A dark fairy tale inspired by folklore is set against the Jazz age in Mexico’s underworld, where a young dreamer is sent by the Mayan God of Death on a life-changing journey.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Raised in a hostile undead world where she would escape servitude and a zombie afterlife, a necromancer becomes a bodyguard to an emperor to secure her freedom in a solar system of swordplay and cutthroat politics.

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
In this captivating science fiction novel from an award-winning author, public gatherings are illegal making concerts impossible, except for those willing to break the law for the love of music, and for one chance at human connection.


You can check out the entire list here, which includes the finalists for the Ray Bradbury Award (for movies & TV) and the Andre Norton Award (for Young Adult sci-fi/fantasy). The awards will be presented May 30th.

The Nebula Awards recognize the best works of science fiction and fantasy published in the previous year. They are selected by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

All of those sound like stuff I would enjoy, thanks for that post!

I don't usually read science fiction. Do you think that titles from this list would be a good starting point?

I'm not familiar with any of these authors, so I couldn't say.

I read "Red Planet" recently, the first in a trilogy about settling Mars & found it fascinating. It's by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's very contemporary.

Speaking of Mars, "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Fantastic book.

I say that because some of the older SF doesn't translate well. I read "The Mote in God's Eye" a couple of years ago, a classic title, & it didn't work for me. I think kind of the same of Aasimov's "Foundation" series, but it's still pretty clever & probably worth reading, but it's very long. Vonnegut still seems relevant, even more so now.

Another one that got me reading SF again was "Earth Unaware", the prequel to "Ender's Game." It documents a first-contact event that is actually an invasion; & continues with "Earth Afire" and "Earth Awakens." There are some canon issues with these prequels, things that happened in EG but were not in the prequel stories, but these read pretty well.

Angel wrote: "I don't usually read science fiction. Do you think that titles from this list would be a good starting point?"

Any of these books would be great for a start, or if you are looking to dip your toe in, but don't want to make a big commitment, check out these Nebula finalists in the "Novella" category. All these works are under 200 pages.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, in which two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark, about a possessed tram car in an alternate 1912 Cairo.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, where the water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society.

Those look really cool! I will try to get to those soon