The Nebula shortlist has just been released! Let’s take a look at the relevant categories:

Short story

* Her Husband’s Hands by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed)
* Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son by Tom Crosshill (Lightspeed)
* Movement by Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s)
* Shipbirth by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s)
* The Axiom of Choice by David W. Goldman (New Haven Review)
* The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld)
* The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu (F&SF)

I’ve reviewed the stories by Crosshill, de Bodard, Yu and Liu; links point to my reviews, which also contain links to the full text. I hope that’s not too confusing!

I’m especially pleased to see Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son on the shortlist, as it read like an “Eastern European” story – I’m not only referring to the setting here, but the general style -, and I was worried Americans would not appreciate it. I got the impression that growing up, the author read the same SF as I did! As he is from Latvia, that’s quite possible…

(Strangely enough, Expanded Horizons just got a story which I would also characterize as having that particular Eastern European flavor – except the author was Indian-American!)

Ken Liu’s nomination was a given, but I’m surprised by the lack of work by Yoon Ha Lee, there was a lot of buzz about her recent stories in the blogosphere, and for good reason.

I’m pleased to say that all shortlisted stories this year are available for free. This means I’m going to review the missing stories soon, G-d willing, and then I’ll be able to make recommendations to my readers who are SFWA members. (Based on the incoming links, I wonder if most of my readers are SFWA members.)

Yu’s story didn’t really grab me, but the others I’ve reviewed were great. I’m also happy to see a quite diverse lineup!

Novelette

* Fields of Gold by Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse 4)
* Ray of Light by Brad R. Torgersen (Analog)
* Sauerkraut Station by Ferrett Steinmetz (GigaNotoSaurus)
* Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)
* The Migratory Pattern of Dancers by Katherine Sparrow (GigaNotoSaurus)
* The Old Equations by Jake Kerr (Lightspeed)
* What We Found by Geoff Ryman (F&SF)

Not much luck here, I haven’t read any of these yet. I would’ve gotten to several of them if I started reviewing works earlier – I was making my way through the GigaNotoSaurus and Tor.com novelettes -, but it’s too late now!

Four of the seven novelettes are available for free; The Mary Sue has a list.

Novella

* Kiss Me Twice by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s)
* Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld)
* The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF)
* The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s)
* The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu (Panverse 3)
* With Unclean Hands by Adam-Troy Castro (Analog)

I’ve only reviewed three novellas so far – it hasn’t been my main focus – so I’m surprised to see two of them on the shortlist. Unfortunately, the third was my favorite: Shtetl Days by Harry Turtledove. Maybe we can AAALLL nominate it for the Hugo!

This also means I’ll have to review parts 2 and 3 of Silently and Very Fast. I’m not really looking forward to that… if there was one work this year whose appeal I failed to see, it was that one.

Of the rest, Kiss Me Twice is available for free; The Man Who Bridged the Mist looks free, but it’s actually not the complete text. I hate it when Asimov’s does the “read the conclusion in our current issue” thing. Grmbl!