Tag: nebula finalist

Review – Jade City by Fonda Lee

Posted on by Taking One Step at a Time
This novel is described as The Godfather with magic and kungfu, which is an accurate description as far as I know.  It is set in an Asia-flavored city.  Since neither The Godfather nor Asian-flavored backgrounds really appeal to me, it doesn’t surprise me that this novel doesn’t either.
The basic story is that the families who control jade, which powers magic, also control the city.  The more jade a person wears, the more power they have.  In addition, there is a new drug, Shine, that allows magically weaker people to use more jade, with all of the advantages and disadvantages of any performance-enhancing drug.

Superficially, this novel about power, all kinds of power, what people will do to get, what they will do to keep it, and the ramifications of the above.  In reality, it is about family and loyalty, what members of a family will do to protect each other, what they will do for those who have given their loyalty, and what they will do to those who have betrayed it.

This isn’t a novel I enjoyed, but it was compelling and well-written.  If the description appeals to you, it is well worth your time.

Lee, Fonda.  Jade City.  New York: Orbit Books, 2017.  Kindle edition.  Amazon.

Review – Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Posted on by Taking One Step at a Time

On its surface, this is a story about a woman who releases a pirated copy of a productivity drug, her attempts to help those who have been hurt by the drug, the people who are helping her, and the law enforcement people who are trying to find and stop her.  On that level, it’s a decent science fiction novel.

The world in which the story is set–Earth in the mid-twenty-second century–is one in which robots are created and then, ostensibly, earn their autonomy after providing their creators with a decade of work.  In addition, people can be indentured, with technically more safeguards than the chattel slavery that was our country’s shame in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

And there are the drugs.  Just as today, the drugs of this world are patented, so that only those with enough money can afford to extend their lives, recover from infections, treat genetic ailments, enhance their performance, and get intoxicated.  There are those who try to provide those treatments for all, but they are largely blocked by the large, for-profit corporations.

Newitz has some things to say about American health care in the early twenty-first century, but that’s not really the main theme.  Her main theme is achieving autonomy, and how much of it do we truly have.  We are all the products of our upbringing, our “programming,” and the pleasures that we seek.  Do any of us have real autonomy.

This isn’t my favorite of the finalists for Best Novel, but it’s a good solid story by an author to keep an eye on.

 

Newitz, Annalee.  Autonomous.  New York: Tor Books, 2017.  Kindle edition.  Amazon.

Review – Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly

Posted on by Taking One Step at a Time

This isn’t a book that I would have picked up on my own, but I’m glad that I did.

Since this is the first of a series, the second novel is due out in May. The fact that this is a fantasy world may be more obvious in later novels, but in this one, the only indication that it is a fantasy is that the areas discussed haven’t existed in human history.

The plot follows a group of people associated with the Bumble Bee Caberet in the city of Amberlough. The plot is a spy story set in an environment much like that of pre-WWII Germany. Or maybe today. Before the election that brings the radical, homophobic One State Party, the city is accepting of, and reveling in, diverse lifestyles and identies.

Once the OSP is elected, through an election many believe to have been tampered with, the main characters, and the city as a whole, must deal with the fact that the new regime will crack down on many who were believed to be good citizens before.

Although many of the characters are unlikable, at least I found them so, Donnelly makes them engaging and compelling. There are no good guys, and even the bad guys have shades to them. It’s an interesting book; I look forward to the sequel.

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly. Tor Books (Kindle Edition, February 7, 2017). Amazon

Hugo and Nebula Award Finalists

Posted on by Taking One Step at a Time

On February 20, 2018, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) released the finalists for the Nebula awards for 2017 works.  The awards will be announced at this year’s Nebula conference on May 20, 2018.  On March 31, 2018,  the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) released the finalists for the 2018 Hugo Awards.  The awards will be presented at WorldCon 76 on August 19, 2018.  I greeted this information with delight and have been gleefully reading through the works since then.

I’ve listed the works below, with links so that you can read them.  The short stories and novelettes have links to read them online, the novellas and novels have links to where you can buy them from Amazon.

In addition, I will be posting my comments on these works.  I’m calling them reviews; however, I don’t claim that they will read like a review found in a paid magazine, newspaper or online.  I will give the basic information expected in a review, but it will be distinctly from my point of view.  I don’t claim to be able to determine the “quality” or “worthiness” of a piece; I’ll be giving my purely personal comments.  Actually, any honest reviewer will admit that they do the same.

Once everything is posted, I’ll put up a separate post to link all the reviews together.  Finally, I’ll post the winners of the two sets of awards once I know them.

Enjoy your reading!

Best Novel

Best Novella

Best Novelette

Best Short Story