I got to vote for 2019 Nebulas. One category everyone can probably vote on is movies.
Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
Titles
Avengers: Endgame, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Marvel Studios)
Captain Marvel, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck & Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Marvel Studios)
Good Omens: “Hard Times”, Neil Gaiman (Amazon Studios/BBC Studios)
The Mandalorian: “The Child”, Jon Favreau (Disney+)
Russian Doll: “The Way Out”, Allison Silverman and Leslye Headland (Netflix)
Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar”, Jeff Jensen & Damon Lindelof (HBO)
I liked Good Omens. But I don’t think it was Nebula-worthy. Avengers was a lot of fun, if a bit bloated. Captain Marvel…I just didn’t dig at all. I thought it was bland. It felt like Shazam, which got a ton of rave reviews and I’m not sure why. The people who seem to be pushing Cap Marvel have been pushing it because it’s a female lead. And that doesn’t mean it’s good writing. I had someone, one of you all, ask me how I write women characters like Garm. And I admit I generally do a sucky job writing women. Garm was originally meant to be a man. The name was directly taken from my dwarf fighter D&D character when I was 17-19 who was super greedy and money-hungry. I had misread my own notes and thought Jyen was Garm. And I was like, hey, why don’t I make Garm a woman? But I don’t write her like a woman. I mostly write her like any other guy, just with a different perspective. And if you think there’s no difference between men and women, then I encourage you to not take up a career in marketing or psychology, because you’re going to be sorely disappointed. There was a scene in Endgame where the girl heroes have a girl power moment. And it screamed out, this is a girl power moment that is entirely contrived. But it still felt better than Captain Marvel. You don’t have to beat us on the head going, “look, we’re vagina heroines, look, look!” Just tell the fucking story.
For books, I’m leaning for Arkady Martine of below choices:
Marque of Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)
Game awards are in Nebulas now. I wish it was broader and more established. It’s concentrated heavy on board games. But Disco Elysium is probably my choice.
I’m not as familiar with the whole Novella/Novellette stuff and I think those categories are antiquated. The magazine universe has all but vanished. Arbitrary word counts and a means to publish just aren’t current concepts. I can read most of that stuff for free, but I just wasn’t inclined. It’s hard keeping up with all this content as it is. I’m sure some of it I’d love.
Here, I’ll put the whole ballot so you all can see. If you’re interested in looking up the works.
Novel
Titles
Marque of Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)
Novella
Titles
“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga; Jo Fletcher)
Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, Vylar Kaftan (Tor.com Publishing)
The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
Catfish Lullaby, A.C. Wise (Broken Eye)
Novelette
Titles
“A Strange Uncertain Light”, G.V. Anderson (F&SF 7-8/19)
“For He Can Creep”, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
“His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light”, Mimi Mondal (Tor.com 1/23/19)
“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)
Carpe Glitter, Cat Rambo (Meerkat)
“The Archronology of Love”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19)
Short Story
Titles
“Give the Family My Love”, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld 2/19)
“The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power”, Karen Osborne (Uncanny 3-4/19)
“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9/9/19)
“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19)
“A Catalog of Storms”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)
“How the Trick Is Done”, A.C. Wise (Uncanny 7-8/19)
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
Titles
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion)
Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen)
Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion)
Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, Henry Lien (Holt)
Cog, Greg van Eekhout (Harper)
Riverland, Fran Wilde (Amulet)
Game Writing
Titles
Outer Wilds, Kelsey Beachum (Mobius Digital)
The Outer Worlds, Leonard Boyarsky, Kate Dollarhyde, Paul Kirsch, Chris L’Etoile, Daniel McPhee, Carrie Patel, Nitai Poddar, Marc Soskin, Megan Starks (Obsidian Entertainment)
The Magician’s Workshop, Kate Heartfield (Choice of Games)
Disco Elysium, Robert Kurvitz (ZA/UM)
Fate Accessibility Toolkit, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (Evil Hat Productions)
Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
Titles
Avengers: Endgame, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Marvel Studios)
Captain Marvel, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck & Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Marvel Studios)
Good Omens: “Hard Times”, Neil Gaiman (Amazon Studios/BBC Studios)
The Mandalorian: “The Child”, Jon Favreau (Disney+)
Russian Doll: “The Way Out”, Allison Silverman and Leslye Headland (Netflix)
Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar”, Jeff Jensen & Damon Lindelof (HBO)
