The Nebula Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for outstanding fantasy and science fiction written in the past year. Winners will be announced at the 50th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend, which will be held in Chicago, Illinois from June 4 to 7. Registration costs US $70, and is open to writers, editors, agents, publishers, as well as non-professionals. You can purchase tickets here. The Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 6 and will be livestreamed on Ustream.
Without further ado, here are the nominees for the 2014 Nebula Awards!
Novel Category (40,000+ words)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Tor)
One young, naïve half-goblin heir finds himself the new emperor after an “accident” leaves his father and three half-siblings dead. Having spent most of his life in exile, he must now learn how to rule his new kingdom, all the while aware of possible attack from those who killed the former king.
Read an excerpt | Purchase
Trial by Fire by Charles E Gannon (Baen)
War ensues after Earth’s first encounter with an alien species, and diplomat and intelligence agent Caine Riordan is struggling to help his species survive. In this sequel to Fire with Fire, our hero discovers that such an invasion may have occurred before, and that the goal of this attack is not conquest, but eradication of humanity.
Read an excerpt | Purchase
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
This sequel to Ancillary Justice finds Breq, a former AI-controlled warship whose consciousness was transferred to a human body, in service of the emperor and on her way to protect the family of the lieutenant she murdered. Upon her arrival she discovers that not everything is as it seems, and threats are imminent in the form of unfriendly aliens, troubled AI, and old political factions.
Read an excerpt | Purchase
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, trans. Ken Liu (Tor)
In China, a secret government conspiracy has been sending out signals with the intention of communicating with extraterrestrial life. When an alien species on the brink of destruction hears these signals and decides to invade, factions on Earth form who are planning either to fight the invasion or welcome a new reigning species.
Read excerpt 1, excerpt 2, excerpt 3 | Purchase
Coming Home by Jack McDevitt (Ace)
Antiquities dealer Alex Benedict finds that he is torn between rescuing the Capella, a ship that has been lost for eleven years in a space warp, and solving the mystery of the Apollo Cache, a collection of early space-age artifacts that were thought to be lost forever.
Read an excerpt | Purchase
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals; Fourth Estate; HarperCollins Canada)
The first novel in the Southern Reach trilogy follows the twelfth expedition to Area X, an overgrown landscape that has been cut off from human civilization for decades. All previous expeditions have ended in various tragedies, but it is what this group has carried into Area X that will be their challenge.
Read an excerpt | Purchase
Novella Category (17,000 – 40,000 words)
We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)
Dr. Jan Sayer has sought out five seemingly insane individuals, among them a Monster Detective, victim of cannibals, and a possible arsonist. No one else believes them, and together they must learn to face the demons that haunt them.
Read an excerpt | Purchase
Yesterday’s Kin by Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
Geneticist Marianne Jenner has ten months to find a cure for a mysterious plague that has already exterminated the populations of two planets. Now that it is on its way to Earth, she must work furiously to save both the planet and her broken family.
Read an excerpt | Purchase
“The Regular” by Ken Liu (Upgraded)
One of a collection of original cyborg stories, “The Regular” introduces a device that regulates brain chemistry to ensure optimal emotional functionality.
Download in ePub | Download in Mobi | Buy the anthology
“The Mothers of Voorhisville” by Mary Rickert (Tor.com)
The mothers in Voorhisville love their children, even after those children begin to be born with tiny wings.
Read | Purchase
Calendrical Regression by Lawrence Schoen (NobleFusion)
Eighty years after Galactic First Contact, a race of aliens called the Uary has come to Earth seeking the assistance of hypnotist the Amazing Conroy. Unfortunately, another alien is set on eliminating the Uary and any humans that stand in their way.
Free Download
“Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean)
This story binds together three narratives: that of a young girl dying of cancer; her father, who is determined to save her by mapping her conscious into an artificial body; and the new self he creates for his daughter named Ruth.
Read
Novelette Category (7,500 – 17,500 words)
“Sleep Walking Now and Then” by Richard Bowes (Tor.com)
Read | Purchase
“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon” by Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld)
Read
“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado (Granta #129)
Read | Buy the issue
“We Are the Cloud” by Sam J Miller (Lightspeed)
Read | Buy the issue
“The Devil in America” by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com)
Read | Buy
Short Story Category ( less than 7,500 words)
“The Breath of War” by Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Read
“When It Ends, He Catches Her” by Eugie Foster (Daily Science Fiction)
Read
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye” by Matthew Kressel (Clarkesworld)
Read
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” by Usman T Malik (Qualia Nous)
Read
“A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide” by Sarah Pinsker (F&SF)
Buy the issue
“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon (Apex)
Read
“The Fisher Queen” by Alyssa Wong (F&SF)
Buy the issue
The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) | Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier | Screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Edge of Tomorrow | Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Guardians of the Galaxy | Written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Interstellar | Written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures)
The Lego Movie | Screenplay by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures)
The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan (Random House)
After the presumed death of her beloved, Kami must rely on the strength of her magical bond with Ash to face the evil spreading around her and save the ones she loves.
Purchase
Salvage by Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow)
Ava is a young teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated deep space salvage vessel Parastrata. Rather than face banishment and death, she escapes to an Earth ravaged by rising global temperatures and makes a home for herself on Gyre, a continent of scrap and trash in the Pacific Ocean.
Purchase
Love Is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Arthur A Levine)
In merely a few days a deadly flu begins to sweep the country, forcing quarantines and martial law, and Emily Bird may be the only one who knows how to stop it. Unfortunately, she has no memory of the past few days, and must team up an unlikely companion to uncover a government scandal.
Purchase
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by AS King (Little Brown Books)
Glory, a graduating high school student, has gained the power to see infinite pasts and futures. Bombarded by visions of tyranny and war, it is up to her to stop a terrifying future from becoming a reality.
Purchase
Dirty Wings by Sarah McCarry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
After meeting Maia, a piano prodigy imprisoned in her own home, Cass must use her wits to help free her new friend. But even after they escape their trials are not over, as it appears Cass has mistakenly awakened an ancient evil that is threatening to take away everything.
Purchase
Greenglass House by Kate Milford (Clarion)
The smuggler’s inn known as the Greenglass House is filled with mysterious occupants this winter, and it’s up to Milo, the innkeepers’ son, and Meddy, the cook’s daughter, to discover the secrets of the house, its visitors, and their families.
Purchase
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton (Candlewick)
Born with the wings of a bird, Ava Lavender desires to learn of the wider world, naïve to the motives of those who live within it. Here she meets a boy named Nathaniel Sorrows who mistakes her for an angel and subsequently becomes obsessed with her.
Purchase
