Nebula Awards Showcase 2014

The Nebula Awards honor the best in science fiction and fantasy, bringing to light creative, groundbreaking, illuminating, and ambitious works that represent not only where the genre is headed, but the grand tradition of sweeping tales that have preceded it.

Nebula Awards Showcase 2014 features some impressively weird, thought-provoking, and challenging reads, as well as some singularly engaging poetry and a marvelous tribute to Gene Wolfe that serves as both an introduction to unfamiliar readers and comforting reassurance to those who’ve been fans for years. While I’m an avid-enough reader of sci-fi and fantasy to have encountered most of the nominees and winners already, there were a few unexpected surprises waiting for me here, like Aliette de Bodard’s wonderful story “Immersion.”

Overall, unfortunately, the collection left me a little cold. Nancy Kress’s award-winning novella dominates nearly a third of the book (over 100 pages), and honestly, that space would’ve been better served by offering glimpses of a few more nominees in order to give a greater sense of the year’s accomplishments, trends, and aspirations.

The Nebula Awards exemplify the finest traditions of speculative fiction, but this particular showcase underwhelms.