2009 Nebula Winners
Posted on April 26, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 17 Comments
In case you were wondering:
Novel: Powers – Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt, Sept. 2007)
Novella: “The Spacetime Pool” – Catherine Asaro (Analog, March 2008)
Novelette: “Pride and Prometheus” – John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan. 2008)
Short Story: “Trophy Wives” – Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fellowship Fantastic, Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, eds., DAW Books, January 2008)
Script: WALL-E – Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon. Original story by Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter (Pixar, June 2008)
Andre Norton Award: Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) – Ysabeau S. Wilce, (Harcourt, Sept. 2008)
Harry Harrison was honored as Damon Knight Grand Master, while M.J. Engh was honored as Author Emerita. Joss Whedon was named recipient of the Bradbury Award for excellence in screenwriting and Victoria Strauss was honored with 2009 SFWA Service Award for her work with Writer Beware. Additionally, SFWA inaugurated the new Solstice Award, bestowed upon individuals who have made a significant impact on the science fiction or fantasy landscape, and is particularly intended for those who have consistently made a major, positive difference within the speculative fiction field. Honorees for 2009 were Kate Wilhelm, Martin H. Greenberg and the late Algis Budrys.
Congrats to the winners and honorees!
Any chance Wilce’s work also won the award for Title Where You End Up In a Completely Different Place Than the One You Started Out In (Despite Attempts to Read Through It Several Times)? Yikes.
Congrats to Nina! It’s kinda fun to be in an anthology with a Nebula-winning story.
I still want Tim Powers to publish a novel entitled Le Guin.
Le Guin’s award is totally deserved. ^^
As do we all, PNH. As do we all.
Congratulations to all the winners. Wil Wheaton was pressed into service to present the Nebula for Script.
I haven’t read Powers yet, and it’s on my list (after I finish all the Hugo noms), but, I was sort of hoping Doctorow would win both the Nebula and the Hugo. I didn’t think it would happen, but, it would have been awesome. (Zoe’s Tale winning will be awesome as well.)
As far as the Hugos go, I’ve read Little Brother and Zoe’s Tale, and am a little over halfway through Graveyard Book, and, I must say, I’m glad I’m not voting because I have no idea how I’d pick between those three. I’m sure I’ll feel similar when I read Saturn’s Children later this week. Anathem… it’ll take me a bit longer than the other four.
not to take away from any of the other award winners, but go, ursula k. le guin, and GO, joss whedon ! ! ! !
Josh’s acceptance Speech
Posted by MRK.
Doh. I wanted James Patrick Kelly for short story, but congrats to Nina, she deserves it. All the nominees were REALLY good this year!
Figures, the winner would be the one book on the list where there’s evidently no electronic edition available.
(grumbles)
Congratulations to all the winners – the LeGuin series sounds interesting, I’ll definitely have to read it if the publisher ever decides to enter the 21st century…
OK, I’m really beginning to worry about the condition of my brain.
How did I manage to miss the publication of a new Le Guin novel?!?!?!?!!? Jesusmaria, as my mother would say. Also “doopayash,” but let’s not go there.
*runs out to buy yummy booky bookiness*
I feel like the Nebulas have a much more old guard mindset than the Hugos. Haldeman, Le Guin, and other SF legends are winning Nebulas with fairly inferior novels. I thought they were both very poor efforts and I don’t remember seeing anything online to suggest other people disagreed. Then these novels manage to get nominated AND win.
I give a lot more credit to the Hugos. Nebulas = Fail
I was really excited to see Flora’s Dare as the Norton winner. I’ve thought this was an excellent YA fantasy series since it debuted in 2006 (Flora Segunda) and one that hasn’t (until now!) gotten the recognition it deserves. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes fantasy with tough girls and lots of adventure.
Tiptree awards are in too.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness and Filter House by Nisi Shawl
OK, I generally don’t have strong disagreements with award winners, even when they’re not the stories I’d have voted for, but…
…Catherine Asaro’s “The Spacetime Pool” won a Nebula? Is this a JOKE?
If I didn’t have a long-time bad habit of reading the SF magazines cover-to-cover, I wouldn’t have read more than the first few pages of that story.
It read as if it were a deliberate attempt to copy the worst excesses and cliches of bad sf/fantasy romances. The writing, especially the dialogue, was some of the stiffest and clunkiest I’ve ever read.
That story was almost physically painful to read.
What was especially disappointing was that Catherine Asaro has written stories combining sf or fantasy with strong romance elements before, and has done it well. “The Spacetime Pool” was spectacularly worse than her other work that I’ve read.
I was amazed that she wrote it. I was astounded that Stan Schmidt published it. I was astonished that it was nominated for a Nebula. And I’m utterly flabbergasted that it won.
From YetiStomper: “Haldeman, Le Guin, and other SF legends are winning Nebulas with fairly inferior novels. I thought they were both very poor efforts and I don’t remember seeing anything online to suggest other people disagreed.”
Let me register my disagreement, then! I thought Powers was spectacular, and that Le Guin’s writing is only getting more deft and honest and human with time.
Congratulations to the other winners, as well.