Nebula Awards Showcase 2014 by Kij JohnsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Jacket Blurb: The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories in the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America® . The editor selected by SFWA's anthology committee (chaired by Mike Resnick) is American fantasy writer Kij Johnson, author of three novels and associate director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas.
This year's Nebula winners, and expected contributors, are Kim Stanley Robinson, Nancy Kress, Andy Duncan, and Aliette de Bodard, with E.C. Myers winning the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book.
February's bookgroup selection. We've been reading the Nebula Awards Showcase books for over 10 years now. I somehow blanked bringing this to book group last year, so we slid it in the rotation for the start of 2015. Several of these I read previously as Hugo Nominations. While not every story strikes a cord, the compilations tend to be consistently good.
Immersion by Aliette de Bodard -Read previously in June of 2013. Layers to this short story that, like the woman in the immersion, needs to be peeled away.
Close Encounters by Andy Duncan - Kinda a science can't explain everything story, that some things just need to be taken on faith that they happened. An arrogance of science perhaps?
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress - According to my notes, I really liked this the first time I read it in July 2013. I noted I like the feasibility of natural catastrophic events wiping out the earth. However, this time around I had problems with the whole "repopulate the earth" with 10+ people. Yeah. Not going to happen without massive inbreeding. And they needed more supplies. And why would the aliens interfere to begin with?
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - did not read the excerpt as I plan on reading the entire book one of these months.
The Bookmaking Habits of Selected Species by Ken Liu - Usually I find Ken Liu's short stories to be consistently intriguing and good. Unfortunately, I lost interest in this one. Yeah yeah, every species makes books. Short story in one sentence.
Fair Coin by E.C. Myers (excerpt) - not wild about excerpts because they leave you hanging and aren't usually enough to get me to go buy the book. I read this one because I was not familiar with the author, but it wasn't enough to keep me engaged or to want to read the full book.
Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain by Cat Rambo - different. Reminded me of Ponies by Kij Johnson actually; a bit disturbing.
Christmas Inn by Gene Wolfe - Didn't grab my fancy. I found it more perplexing than anything with too much left to speculation, and not just the ending...
Selected poems - A poem should be a poem, not a short story written with strange sentence structure. In my humble opinion.
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