Comments: With the Sad and Rabid Puppies engaged in unethical slate tactics in the nominations for Hugo Awards over the last couple of years in order to place works of inferior quality onto that award's ballot, the Nebula Awards have begun to loom larger and larger on the award scene. The simple truth of awards is that damaging the quality of one award only serves to direct people's attentions elsewhere, and should the Hugo Awards continue to be dominated by a group that is bound and determined to treat it as a crony-driven marketing opportunity, no one will pay them much mind any more. What will happen is that people will look to awards such as the BSFA Award, the Locus Awards, and the Nebula Awards.
For their part, the Nebula Award voters seem to have stepped up the the challenge, and have nominated an excellent collection of works for consideration in 2016. Up and down the ballot there are works of superior quality for a fan to choose from. There is even a book published by Baen Books - Charles Gannon's Raising Caine - a work by an author whose repeated nominations for this award puts the lie to the oft-heard claim that Baen-published authors are routinely snubbed in award honors. The truth is, no matter what the Puppies of either stripe do, they will never accomplish what they claim their objectives are for the simple fact that fans will flow away from them to venues that remember that the objective of awards is to reward quality, rather than to reward spiteful political organizations.
Best Novel
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Other Nominees:
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Raising Caine by Charles E. Gannon
Updraft by Fran Wilde
Best Novella
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Other Nominees:
The Bone Swans of Amandale by C.S.E. Cooney
The New Mother by Eugene Fischer reviewed in Asimov's Science Fiction: Vol. 39, Nos. 4 & 5 (April/May 2015)
The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn by Usman T. MalikWaters of Versailles by Kelly Robson
Wings of Sorrow and Bone by Beth Cato
Best Novelette
Our Lady of the Open Road by Sarah Pinsker
Other Nominees:
And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead by Brooke Bolander
The Deepwater Bride by Tamsyn Muir (reviewed in Fantasy & Science Fiction: Vol. 129, Nos. 1 & 2 (July/August 2015))
Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds by Rose LembergThe Ladies’ Aquatic Gardening Society by Henry Lien
Rattlesnakes and Men by Michael Bishop (reviewed in Asimov's Science Fiction: Vol. 39, No. 2 (February 2015))
Best Short Story
Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong
Other Nominees:
Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer (reviewed in Clarkesworld: Issue 100 (January 2015))
Damage by David D. LevineMadeleine by Amal El-Mohtar
Today I Am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker (reviewed in 2016 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
When Your Child Strays From God by Sam J. MillerRay Bradbury Award
Mad Max: Fury Road
Other Nominees:
Ex Machina
Inside OutJessica Jones: AKA Smile
The Martian
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Andre Norton Award
Other Nominees:
Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee
Go to previous year's nominees: 2015
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2017
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