Nebula Awards Showcase 2009

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.

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.