Nebula Awards Showcase 2009 [Paperback]

This collection of offerings from the 2009 Nebula Awards speaks well of both the health of the genre and the judgment of the science fiction and fantasy writers who voted for them. The essays are interesting, but demonstrate by comparison the value of selecting good writing by the popular acclaim of other writers. The fiction is the real showcase of this collection. My three favorites use science fiction as a backdrop to tell compelling personal stories. The science fiction flavors human stories that would still be strong in traditional settings.

Lucius Shepard's novella "Stars Seen Through Stone" tells interwoven stories of characters in a small town's music business. The science fiction elements are necessary to the story, but take a back seat to changes, both strange and ordinary, in the lives of the characters.

Kij Johnson's awkwardly-titled novelette, "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" evokes the same bemusement as Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire." The protagonist plays an almost-anthropologist role as she observes gradual changes in relationships between dogs who are learning to talk and their owners.

The Nancy Kress novella "Fountain of Age" tells the life story of Max Feder, surrounded by his family, friends and associates. Like us, he would go to great lengths for someone he loves. Unlike us, he has great wealth and power at his disposal. This one is hands-down my favorite. I am grateful to Nancy for letting me spend part of an afternoon with Max.

The few that don't work so well are exceptions. The excerpt from Michael Chabon's novel "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" both intrigued and mildly irritated. I left it wanting to read the novel, not only because characters and setting piqued my interest, but to give it a more fair chance to please me as a reader than the except did. I originally assumed this to be an effect of the editorial hand, but received a gentle protest from the editor that this was not so. Perhaps it is the purpose of an excerpt to nag at our minds for closure in this way.

I am not much bothered by formatting issues, but readers who find these problems distracting are advised to purchase the paper rather than the Kindle version. The latter's block capital titles, inter-paragraph double-spacing, and intrusive reminders that an important editing event happened in the wee hours of "1/23/09" are annoying. It would be worth a second release to clean the copy up a bit.

The stories themselves are all very good and some are excellent. Reading them is worth your time.

Just finished reading this book on my Kindle 2, and it is pretty darn good, as expected. The book is a collection of some of the nominations for the Nebula Awards for 2009. There are one or two stories which you wonder why the hell did they end up in a supposed showcase for Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards nomination?

However the rest are good. And when they are good, they are REALLY, REALLY good, the kind of stories that will give you goosebumps after reading them.

Which is exactly why I am partial to these types of books when it comes to Sci-Fi and Fantasy: You are ensured to get the best stories available, and to get an immense satisfaction after reading them. Highly recommended.

The stories included in this Nebula Awards Showcase volume left me wondering about the current state of sci-fi. I found most of the stories weak, long and just plain boring. Essays and poems are not my cup of tea, so I don't take them into account in the review. If you're interested in those 2 writing styles, you may find this book more interesting than I did.

-The merchant and the alchemist's gate : this is the best story in the book, a very interesting and well written story about time travel in an 1001 nights style.

-Always : a story about some religious cult that promises immortality to its members, not sci-fi, not fantasy, dull and weak ending.

-Titanium Mike saves the day: charming and simple story about how stories and legends can take a life of its own and impact people's lives. It's not that good, but in here it stands like a master piece.

-Pol Pot's beautiful daughter: a story about pol pot's daughter being haunted by ghosts from the past, it was too long to keep my interest, since most of the story seems like filler, only the final 10% has a little merit.

-The yiddish policemen's union: a novel excerpt, which is bad in my opinion, since it's reading something that won't have an ending or closure. It's a detective story set in an alternate history, doesn't seem very sci-fi-y to me, couldn't even finish reading it.

-Stars seen through stone: Some lights or stars are seen through the walls of a library in some town. This idea is buried in pages and pages going on about a music producer, his wife and a new music he's discovered. It's all about the changes in the town's people's lives, but again it's too long to be interesting.

-The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of north park after the change: interesting and weird story about dogs getting the ability to speak, the changes this brings in their relationship in humans and some sort of folkore stories they develop. It's unusual and different enough to be fun to read.

-The pleasure garden of Felipe Sagittarius: some sort of time cop or detective goes on a murder investigation in a world or dimension where several historical figures reside. It would be interesting if we had more information about what this dimension is, or how the "Metatemporal Investigators" work, but according to the author's note, he thinks not explaining a story is a good thing.

-Captive girl: this is the second best story, it's interesting and slightly disturbing. It's about a space colony that was attacked by aliens and then devised a surveillance system that includes 3 girls who have been modified to watch the skies. They give up a lot, even parts of themselves to do that. It's also a love story.

-Unique chicken goes in reverse: some priest hears about a chicken that walks backwards, goes to meet it and finds Jesus. Yes, that's what it's about, and no, it doesn't make sense after you've read it.

-Fountain of age: good story about a future society that's found a way to stay young for years, but not eternally, told from the memories of an old man who's lived through it all.

So we have 3 good stories, 1 so-so story and 7 bad ones. Sadly, most of the bad ones are really long, so they feel like you've read even more than 7. The 3 good stories are not enough to make this book good or worth buying. If these are the stories that did well in the Nebula Awards, I wouldn't want to imagine the ones that didn't make the cut.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  2.8 out of 5 stars