Nebula Award Novels 2012 Nominees

The Nebula Awards are selected by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) every year and constitute the one of the two most recognizable awards in science fiction and fantasy (the other being the Hugo Awards). There are many others to pay attention to including the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards and the World Fantasy Awards, but the Hugo and Nebula are basically the big ones.

While the categories for all these awards are wide ranging, I primarily care about the novels category. The Nebulas also have a YA category which I'm conflicted about. On one hand, it highlights the excellent work of more novelists, but on the other hand, I'm not sure that I'd be giving works like Railsea by China Miéville to anyone not capable of reading most of the things on the novel nominees list.

So the nominees for the 2012 Nebula Award (given in 2013 for works published in 2012) for best science fiction and fantasy novel are:

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed as I said in the Alif the Unseen post, I felt that this was an excellent fantasy book based in an ancient Arabian setting. The three main characters are equally fascinating, with an ancient sage and ghul hunter Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, a painfully young holy warrior Raseed bas Raseed and the young female tribeswoman Zamia who is a lion shape-changer. These three characters and an interesting supporting cast take on magic, murder and revolution in the well-realized city of Dhamsawaat.

Ironskin by Tina Connolly which I haven't read, but is now high on my to-read list. From what I've seen in reviews this book is a re-imagining of Jane Eyre in an alternate England in the aftermath of a war with the Fae. There are victims of the war who must wear iron covering Fae curses that scar their skin. The main character is a young woman who must wear an iron mask for the rest of her life for this reason. It sounds brilliant, but I'm wondering if it would be better with ninjas and vampires. I'll let you know when I read it.

The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin which is another book I really enjoyed from a brilliant author. Her Inheritance Trilogy were some of my favorite books in my 2011 reading. This is the first book in the Dreamblood series, with the second, The Shadowed Sun also published last year. One of the best things about Jemisin's series is that each book is a discreet story with mostly new characters but in much the same setting. This series is set in an analogue of ancient Egypt and centered around a religion/magic tradition based around dreaming, death and life force. It's really complicated, but this is one of the more nuanced approaches to dying and euthanasia that I've seen all wrapped in the trappings of a fantasy story.

The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan which I wrote about in my post on writing these book reviews. The book is written in the first person by the main character, Imp, a schizophrenic artist. She's not a little schizophrenic either; I'd describe her as barely functional, even in the saner parts of the narrative and it gets deeply weird in one part where she goes off her meds. The story also goes deep into gender/sexual identity issues as well as Imp is a lesbian, the other main character is transgender and the central figure of the mystery/ghost story/dark fantasy/whatever-the-hell-this-is story is bisexual. The whole thing rings very true as the author is transgender and is a mental illness sufferer. I heard her say in an interview that the book was harrowing and difficult to write. I get that; it's just as harrowing and difficult to read. Inarguably brilliant, but arguably enjoyable.

Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal. This is the other book on this list that I haven't read. It's the second book in the the Glamourist Histories with the first book, Shades of Milk and Honey nominated for the Nebula last year. The third book Without a Summer, will be out in April. This is very similar to Ironskin, set in an alternate magical historical England, but it's doing Jane Austen rather than Charlotte Bronte. Very weird that such similar books got nominated, but I guess I wouldn't have blinked if Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey had been nominated along with 2312 (below) and those two are just as similar.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. This is the only item on the nominee list for an award given by a science fiction writers group that is actually science fiction. I guess it's a reflection on book shelves and modern reading habits as well. The action starts with the city of Terminator on Mercury, a city that moves on rails around the entire planet, always moving to keep on the nightside of the planet. The story picks up with Swan Er Hong a typical citizen of the solar system in 2312, a hermaphrodite (as most people are) and over a century old but still quite young by the standards of the day. It just gets weirder and more imaginative from there. The plot is almost irrelevant; the point is to soak in the staggeringly complex world-building that the author has come up with here. Definitely my pick of the year and the novel I think most likely to win the award.

One more point - I feel like I'm living in 2013 when the nominee list includes four women (one of whom is African American, another of whom is transgender) and two men.

Currently Reading: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente (It's taking me ages).

Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

I've had the Song of Scarabaeus by Australian author Sara Creasy on my to read list for a long time. Long enough for her to have written the sequel which is now also on my to read list. It's billed as a science fiction romance novel, but I'm not sure I'd categorize it as such. More science fiction adventure with romantic elements.

Edie Sha'nim is a cypherteck, a programmer of advanced biotechnology  and the most accomplished expert in a particular type of biotech used for terraforming planets. She works for the Crib, a corpocratic organization which ruthlessly represses colonies on terraformed worlds by charging exorbitant license fees for the terraforming technology. If the colonies stop paying the fees, the terraforming stops and the local ecology crashes.

The book starts with Edie being kidnapped from Crib control by a group of rovers, essentially space pirates, who have supposed high ideals around supplying terraforming technology to the colonies without the Crib being involved. They're a grubby lot though, and there is a lot of interesting story around the balance between getting Edie's co-operation and keeping her under control. There's also a major theme of control of people with the presence of Serfs, indentured prisoners kept under control by the use of implanted punishment devices and drugs. One of these Serfs, Finn, an ex-special forces type and the other main character, gets "tethered" to Edie early on. The tether takes the form of an explosive in Finn's head that goes off if Edie dies or gets separated by too far from Finn.

There's plenty of action with the various groups trying to get control over Edie and her abilities, as well as eco-radicals who attempt to kill cyphertecks on sight and the fascinating setting of Scarabaeus with which Edie has strong ties. I felt it lost its way a little about two thirds in, particularly the plot points around the rovers after they visit Scarabaeus.

There's not a lot of romance in this one (as it should be - the characters are usually either fighting for their lives and freedom or half-dead; romance would be shoe-horned in at best), but you can see the framework being setup for the next novel. It also goes in strong with hard science fictions concepts and jargon very early on. Concepts like biotechnology, terraforming, cypherteck, whole-ecology engineering via programmable viruses. I was strongly reminded of Ann Aguirre's Sirantha Jax books, but in my opinion Sara does a better job. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Currently Reading: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson is the story of a young hacker living in a modern unspecified Arab emirate. He spends his time as a "grey hat" hacker protecting the internet presence of dissident groups from the increasingly scary State Security, and also wooing his upper class girlfriend.

When Alif's girlfriend breaks up with him he comes into possession of an ancient text which appears to have been written by the jinn of the Qur'an. With the State Security closing in with almost supernatural efficiency, Alif and his friends embark on a difficult adventure to try and escape them and links unfold between the jinn, the book, Islam and Alif's hacker work.

It's been a good year for fantasy and science fiction with Islamic settings/themes. The last novel in Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha series came out this year completing a brilliant trilogy with one of the most compelling main characters you'll ever read. That one is set in a far-future world settled by Muslim-descended people with a dependence on advanced biotechnology. Bugs basically. Their whole civilization is based on bugs, and not bacteria bugs, crawly ones ... and that includes medical technology. Sutures and bandages and medicines that are live insects. I know people that can't read this one beyond the first chapter. There was also the excellent Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed which is more of an Arabian Nights ancient setting with magic, but again in a Islam-based world.

I found Alif the Unseen to be a thought-provoking read for several reasons. The author is an American convert to Islam (she has written a memoir of conversion, moving to Egypt and marrying a Muslim) and her experiences shine through in this novel. The main character is a non-observing Muslim but his friend Dina is munaqaba (wears the niqab) even though her parents and friend object to her going veiled. She is essentially the perfectly devout Muslim woman against whom Alif's faith and actions are constantly measured. Of course, she is deeply devoted and deferential to Alif as well. Wilson also seems to inject herself into the book with one of the main incidental characters being a female American convert whose reasons for conversion seem to mirror the author's.

From a personal point of view much of the novel made me very uncomfortable. The explicit sexism, racism and class hierarchies presented as ordinary society in the emirate bothered me. They are presented without comment and I realize they're probably accurate representations of much of the modern Islamic world. For the characters it is just the milieu in which they move. Two of the female incidental characters in the book don't even get names; they are simply "the maid" and "the convert" in Alif's thinking. When Dina says something clever in the first part of the book he expresses admiration that she is "as smart as a man". And this is a smart well-educated boy who is active on the internet.

I can't work out whether she just wants to portray the main character as an immature sexist little s*** (which he certainly is) or whether she actually believes these are reasonable ways for a Muslim man to think about women. One of the central themes in the book is Alif's coming into wisdom through a renewal of his Faith, but none of his other attitudes see much movement despite him being saved time and again by other female characters and Dina handily outclassing him at everything but programming. It feels authentic; we're told in the media that this is the sort of behavior to be expected of Muslim men and quite frankly, that's my only meaningful exposure to them, but I was hoping that from a convert to this religion and culture that I'd see a different side of things. The book abounds with strong female characters though, and there's a difference between Alif being sexist and the book being sexist.

Then there's the religion issue. I am an atheist and my early education was as a scientist and I find big-F Faith troublesome at best. I get people who were born into a religion, I really do. I struggle to shed many of the prejudices that I was brought up with and that's without everyone in my family and community telling me not to question those beliefs. But to choose a religion, and to knowingly choose one that reduces your status simply because of your gender ... it seems like insanity to me. I saw a fascinating quote from Wilson, that choosing this religion for her was to choose interdependence over independence. Perhaps it's all a matter of degree, but I don't get that sentiment.

The discussion on religion is relevant, because this book is steeped in it. The fantasy elements are all directly out of the Qu'ran and both Islam and the concept of a holy text are key to the whole thing. The author's melding of coding with Islamic numerology is certainly in theme as well. So, given my point of view on religion, I had some problems here. To be frank, I have problems with books where the fantasy is overtly Christian as well; Passage by Connie Willis was one of these despite being a brilliant book. The issue for me is that one of the main elements of Fantasy is "What if this were true?" and I'm just not particularly comfortable playing that thought game in a world where, for billions of people, the response is "What are you talking about?! This is true!"

Even then, it's still a well-written interesting book, and one that deals with many things that don't normally get much time on  my reading list. I guess now I'd better put The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel on there for some equal time.

Currently Reading: Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

The To Read List

Being the sort of reader I am and being an IT geek as well, of course my to read list is a database. It's also ... long. Long enough that I can do some statistics on it which I thought might be useful sharing on the blog.

Total: 91

Yes, 91 books. I even have a separate list of books that are in a queue to get on my to read list. There's nearly 400 books on that list.

Genres:

Science Fiction: 31

Fantasy: 31

Urban/Contemporary Fantasy: 23

Steampunk: 4

Other (Non-Fiction, Crime, Romance, Thriller): 7

The first thing I'd notice about that list is that it doesn't add up to 91. There's obviously some genre crossover. It's also got to be considered best-guess and subjective, particularly in the Urban Fantasy category as there is considerable crossover with Paranormal Romance.

A slippery slope

The second thing you'd probably notice is that I've got Romance in my to read list. I blame the Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance crossover problem. Basically it got me reading the odd Paranormal Romance book, by mistake initially, but now I'll make a conscious decision to read one now and then and sometimes that choice will skip the Paranormal part and just go to a straight Romance book. That actually feels like a confession of sorts, which I think deserves unpacking a bit in a later post.

Also on the Urban Fantasy category, why do I distinguish it from Fantasy? I don't have a category for Medieval/Epic Fantasy and that's at least as separate a category. I make the distinction because booksellers often do and also because reviewers also seem to make that distinction, and in my opinion, are being snobby while doing so.

You'll also note that I don't have Young Adult as a genre.  I count 9 books in the 91 that I've seen referred to as YA, but it's not a separation I tend to agree with. I'll have a chat about YA as a categorization in a later post as well.

Authors:

This one's a hard one; I only know so much about most of these people and crossing genders in pseudonyms is common in certain genres. For example, I really enjoy Daniel Abraham books, but he uses the gender-neutral M. L. N. Hanover for his Urban Fantasy series because apparently male-written Urban Fantasies don't sell as well.

Australians: 5 books, 2 male and 2 female, 1 of the males twice

Women: 59 books

Men: 32 books

The high numbers of women reflect that I like to read Urban Fantasy. Only two of the books I have identified as Urban Fantasy have male writers. Fantasy's split is 10 male writers and 21 female. Science Fiction is the only genre in my to read list where males dominate with 19 male writers to 12 female writers.

My to read list tends to fluctuate as well, so I'll probably revisit this in 6 months or so. Another post I'll do is a breakdown on what I have been reading, because that's all in a database too.

Currently Reading: Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds

I have been reading Alastair Reynolds for many years, mostly with his Revelation Space series. He writes space opera that operates on grand scales but with incredibly powerful characterizations. Thematically he's interested in humanity by exploring edge conditions, either with characters at the edge of humanity themselves or dealing with aliens and alien works. Post-humans and alien interactions are common in his fiction.

Blue Remembered Earth is the first novel in his new series, Poseidon's Children. It's a solar system medium-future story, sometimes referred to as "small" space opera. This sub-genre has been seeing a renaissance lately with some good authors writing substantial stuff including the Expanse series by James S. A. Corey, The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi, 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson and Saturn's Children by Charles Stross. Less well reviewed, but still quite enjoyable have been Only Superhuman by Chris L. Bennett and Up Against It by M. J. Locke and all published in the last couple of years.

I'm a Reynolds fan, but I'm not the sort to rush out and read his books the week they are published. I kind of have to be pushed. The problem is that all of his stuff is brilliantly imagined and written, but it's unrelentingly grim. Grim, grim, grim. Some of it, I'm thinking Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, I would describe as straddling the science fiction and horror genres, and I'm not a fan of horror at all.

The push to read this one came in the form of the Hugo award nomination season as I've heard this book referred to in the same sentence as the excellent 2312. I thought that book was a dead certainty for not only being nominated but winning it, so a book that gets a comparison to it seems worthwhile. After reading it, I don't think Blue Remembered Earth is anywhere near as interesting a book as 2312 and I doubt that it will make it onto the short list, if only because I think 2012 was a really strong year for novels.

The story follows a biologist named Geoffrey Akinya who is a sort of black sheep of an important family who own Akinya Space, one of the dominant corporations in the solar system of 2161. Despite his best efforts he becomes involved in investigating the legacy of the just-deceased matriarch of the family. From there the plot takes a back-seat to a tour of interesting locales through the solar system. And it's not grim. Reynolds actually makes this world seem like an attractive place to live. A world which has Mandatory Enhancement (neural nano-tech installed as a child that ensures that you don't deviate too far from the norm developmentally) and the Mechanism (real-time monitoring of your mental state that literally disables you if attempt to commit a crime). Geoffrey's arc through the book is interesting and his path at the end of the book makes sense to me.

There's plenty of room to continue the story in later books. In fact, I think that a valid criticism of the book is that the whole thing is just setup for the next book. It's also really long and frustratingly so as a major arc in the second part of the book just seems to fizzle to nothing.

Currently Reading: Sealed with a Curse by Cecy Robson (After long books I like to read something quick and light as a palate cleanser; I won't be reviewing it).

On Reviewing

I'm about half way through Blue Remembered Earth and about half way through writing a blog post about it and I'm frustrated. I tend to be hyper-critical of my own writing and at the same time I'm a regular reader of blogs with really brilliant reviewers like Alex Pierce from Galactic Suburbia and the tor.com crowd and it's really hard to measure up. So I'm not really going to try.

I'm just going to get really subjective. Quite frankly, I'm not an English major, I'm an IT guy. What I'm going to do here is to try and explain why I'm reading the book, lay out my preconceptions and then give an opinion. I'll try and give an informed opinion, but bear in mind where I'm coming from.

For a case in point, the Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan was well reviewed last year. The guys over at the Coode Street podcast rave about it every couple of weeks and I think it made it onto more than half the other guys from Locus magazine's top recommendations for 2012. Personally, I thought it was beautifully written, deeply personal to the writer, but harrowing and confusing. I get that that was the point, but only one of the reasons why I read is to appreciate the craftsmanship and story-telling of the writer. I also want to enjoy it. This one was like having a root canal.

Another case in point is Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, which I thought was brilliant and one of the best urban fantasies I've read, but got luke-warm reviews from most critics. I feel a little redeemed that the later books in the series have had better reviews. (It also could be that some of the reviewers couldn't tell their arse from their elbow - I read one that compared Aaronovitch to Pratchett for goodness sake. I guess they're both British ...)

This one introduces Peter Grant, a police constable who asks a few too many fanciful questions for his own good (and not enough smart ones) and winds up as an apprentice to the last wizard in England. A good thing too, because over the next few books London really needs more help in the magic department. This book and its sequels are action-packed, fun but never losing sight of the serious consequences when things go wrong. I found the denouement of the first book is particularly shocking.

So that's where I'm coming from.

So I'm a bit of a reader ...

I read a lot. Not as much as some, but more than most. I usually tell people about a book per day, but it's not quite that. I'm usually about 20 to 50 books per year shy of that, and that's going to vary drastically depending on the day of the week, how busy I am at work and whether I'm reading a typical 100K-word novel or Peter Hamilton's latest attempt at deforestation via publishing.

I'm also mildly insomniac. Always have been, pretty much since I was a teenager. For me this means that around once or twice per week I'll wake up after about three or four hours of sleep and I'll be Awake. If I'm lucky I can get a small nap before I have to get up, but most times I'll just reach for my e-reader and wait for my alarm to go off. So, I read a lot.

I'm also very visible in my reading. If I'm walking down the street to get lunch, it's typically with e-reader in hand. I use my main e-reader to take notes in meetings or presentations as well so there's that as well. I read on the way from my car park to my desk. People see me read a lot.

With all this I get a lot of questions about what I'm reading and what I recommend. So that's one of the reasons for writing this blog. The other main reason is to help organize my thoughts on what I'm reading, because that's sometimes necessary when you read a lot.

Currently Reading: Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds