Nebula Finalists 1999

[James Nicoll]

1999: The Mars Polar Lander more than succeeds at landing on Mars,
Liberty Bell 7 is retrieved after a slight delay from the Atlantic,
and across the world programmers work hard to prevent a calamity,
efforts that will late prove politically inconvenient to acknowledge.

Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?

Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

All but the Asaro.


Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?

Reading the Bones by Sheila Finch
Aurora in Four Voices by Catherine Asaro
Ecopoiesis by Geoffrey A. Landis
Izzy and the Father of Terror by Eliot Fintushel
Jumping Off the Planet by David Gerrold
The Boss in the Wall by Avram Davidson and Grania Davis

Only the Asaro and the Landis. Not a great year for me and short SFF.


Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?

Lost Girls by Jane Yolen
Echea by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Lethe by Walter Jon Williams
The Mercy Gate by Mark J. McGarry
The Truest Chill by Gregory Feeley
Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages

Only the Williams and the Klages.


Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?

Thirteen Ways to Water by Bruce Holland Rogers
Fortune and Misfortune by Lisa Goldstein
Standing Room Only by Karen Joy Fowler
Tall One by K. D. Wentworth
When the Bow Breaks by Steven Brust
Winter Fire by Geoffrey A. Landis

None what so ever. 2000 is likely to be as bad, then Andrew Wheeler
started force-feeding me fiction of all lengths.

[Robert Woodward]

Post by James Nicoll
1999: The Mars Polar Lander more than succeeds at landing on Mars,
Liberty Bell 7 is retrieved after a slight delay from the Atlantic,
and across the world programmers work hard to prevent a calamity,
efforts that will late prove politically inconvenient to acknowledge.
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
All but the Asaro.

None

Post by James Nicoll
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?
Reading the Bones by Sheila Finch
Aurora in Four Voices by Catherine Asaro
Ecopoiesis by Geoffrey A. Landis
Izzy and the Father of Terror by Eliot Fintushel
Jumping Off the Planet by David Gerrold
The Boss in the Wall by Avram Davidson and Grania Davis
Only the Asaro and the Landis. Not a great year for me and short SFF.

I think I have read the Asaro, the Landis, and Gerrold.

Post by James Nicoll
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?
Lost Girls by Jane Yolen
Echea by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Lethe by Walter Jon Williams
The Mercy Gate by Mark J. McGarry
The Truest Chill by Gregory Feeley
Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages
Only the Williams and the Klages.

None

Post by James Nicoll
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?
Thirteen Ways to Water by Bruce Holland Rogers
Fortune and Misfortune by Lisa Goldstein
Standing Room Only by Karen Joy Fowler
Tall One by K. D. Wentworth
When the Bow Breaks by Steven Brust
Winter Fire by Geoffrey A. Landis
None what so ever. 2000 is likely to be as bad, then Andrew Wheeler
started force-feeding me fiction of all lengths.

None for me as well. Since nobody was force-feeding me fiction of all
lengths the last 25 years, I suspect that none will be a frequent reply
from me for the next 25 installments.

[Chris Buckley]

Post by James Nicoll
1999: The Mars Polar Lander more than succeeds at landing on Mars,
Liberty Bell 7 is retrieved after a slight delay from the Atlantic,
and across the world programmers work hard to prevent a calamity,
efforts that will late prove politically inconvenient to acknowledge.
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
All but the Asaro.

I missed the Turtledove (I don't regret that), and the McDevett
(I do regret that). None of the others are Favorites.

Asaro remains an enigma to me. She was a hard scientist (PhD in
chemical physics from Harvard), nominated numerous times (9?) for
Hugo and Nebula awards (won two Nebulas), president of the SFWA
for two terms, has written about 40 novels, but she's remarkably unknown.
I don't remember the last time she was discussed here (mentioned a couple
of times but not discussed). Her works are generally on the lighter
space opera side, but that's true of a lot of authors, especially now.

Chris

[Tony Nance]

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by James Nicoll
1999: The Mars Polar Lander more than succeeds at landing on Mars,
Liberty Bell 7 is retrieved after a slight delay from the Atlantic,
and across the world programmers work hard to prevent a calamity,
efforts that will late prove politically inconvenient to acknowledge.
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
All but the Asaro.

I missed the Turtledove (I don't regret that), and the McDevett
(I do regret that). None of the others are Favorites.
Asaro remains an enigma to me. She was a hard scientist (PhD in
chemical physics from Harvard), nominated numerous times (9?) for
Hugo and Nebula awards (won two Nebulas), president of the SFWA
for two terms, has written about 40 novels, but she's remarkably unknown.
I don't remember the last time she was discussed here (mentioned a couple
of times but not discussed). Her works are generally on the lighter
space opera side, but that's true of a lot of authors, especially now.

Huh - now that you mention it, I don't think I've read anything by
Asaro. What would you recommend?

Tony

[Chris Buckley]

Post by Tony Nance

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by James Nicoll
1999: The Mars Polar Lander more than succeeds at landing on Mars,
Liberty Bell 7 is retrieved after a slight delay from the Atlantic,
and across the world programmers work hard to prevent a calamity,
efforts that will late prove politically inconvenient to acknowledge.
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
All but the Asaro.

I missed the Turtledove (I don't regret that), and the McDevett
(I do regret that). None of the others are Favorites.
Asaro remains an enigma to me. She was a hard scientist (PhD in
chemical physics from Harvard), nominated numerous times (9?) for
Hugo and Nebula awards (won two Nebulas), president of the SFWA
for two terms, has written about 40 novels, but she's remarkably unknown.
I don't remember the last time she was discussed here (mentioned a couple
of times but not discussed). Her works are generally on the lighter
space opera side, but that's true of a lot of authors, especially now.

Huh - now that you mention it, I don't think I've read anything by
Asaro. What would you recommend?

If you read Asaro, you pretty much have to read her Skolian Empire
series; it comprises over half of her writing and all of her Hugo/Nebula
nominations come from it. It's a big, sprawling saga that I've read less
than half of, so I'm not the best recommender.

I read Asaro's first dozen or so novels as they came out, enjoying
them all as light reading (well, one romantasy non-Skolian novel
I remember not appreciating as much). But the problem for me was that
her universe sprawled: pairs of novels might be going on at the same
time almost completely unconnected for now, and the novels were not
totally chronological. Since I was light reading once a year as they
came out, I couldn't keep track of all the empire and personal
relationships (heavy on romance) well enough without re-reading.
Ordinary series I'm perfectly fine re-reading the previous novel when
a new one comes but this sprawls so much I was having to re-read all
the novels since I didn't know what it covered! I decided to wait (in
2004) until she finished it, but I don't believe that has happened
yet.

To get a good taste of her writing, I would recommend reading
4 out of her first 6 novels in publication order:
1 Primary Inversion - her first novel, unsurprisingly weaker but has been
rewritten (I haven't read the rewritten version)
3 The Last Hawk - nominee Nebula award (this thread)
4 The Radiant Seas
6 The Quantum Rose - Winner Nebula award

(Novel 2: Wikipedia tells me is the chronological end of the Saga.
Novel 5: takes place at the same time as Novel 6 but was published a
few months earlier, with 6 being the stronger novel.)

All that being said, it may be hard to read them; not all are in print.
I see _The Radiant Seas_ is only available used (or as Audiobook).

Chris

[Tony Nance]

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by Tony Nance

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by James Nicoll
1999: The Mars Polar Lander more than succeeds at landing on Mars,
Liberty Bell 7 is retrieved after a slight delay from the Atlantic,
and across the world programmers work hard to prevent a calamity,
efforts that will late prove politically inconvenient to acknowledge.
Which 1999 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
All but the Asaro.

I missed the Turtledove (I don't regret that), and the McDevett
(I do regret that). None of the others are Favorites.
Asaro remains an enigma to me. She was a hard scientist (PhD in
chemical physics from Harvard), nominated numerous times (9?) for
Hugo and Nebula awards (won two Nebulas), president of the SFWA
for two terms, has written about 40 novels, but she's remarkably unknown.
I don't remember the last time she was discussed here (mentioned a couple
of times but not discussed). Her works are generally on the lighter
space opera side, but that's true of a lot of authors, especially now.

Huh - now that you mention it, I don't think I've read anything by
Asaro. What would you recommend?

If you read Asaro, you pretty much have to read her Skolian Empire
series; it comprises over half of her writing and all of her Hugo/Nebula
nominations come from it. It's a big, sprawling saga that I've read less
than half of, so I'm not the best recommender.
I read Asaro's first dozen or so novels as they came out, enjoying
them all as light reading (well, one romantasy non-Skolian novel
I remember not appreciating as much). But the problem for me was that
her universe sprawled: pairs of novels might be going on at the same
time almost completely unconnected for now, and the novels were not
totally chronological. Since I was light reading once a year as they
came out, I couldn't keep track of all the empire and personal
relationships (heavy on romance) well enough without re-reading.
Ordinary series I'm perfectly fine re-reading the previous novel when
a new one comes but this sprawls so much I was having to re-read all
the novels since I didn't know what it covered! I decided to wait (in
2004) until she finished it, but I don't believe that has happened
yet.
To get a good taste of her writing, I would recommend reading
1 Primary Inversion - her first novel, unsurprisingly weaker but has been
rewritten (I haven't read the rewritten version)
3 The Last Hawk - nominee Nebula award (this thread)
4 The Radiant Seas
6 The Quantum Rose - Winner Nebula award
(Novel 2: Wikipedia tells me is the chronological end of the Saga.
Novel 5: takes place at the same time as Novel 6 but was published a
few months earlier, with 6 being the stronger novel.)
All that being said, it may be hard to read them; not all are in print.
I see _The Radiant Seas_ is only available used (or as Audiobook).

Very helpful Chris - thanks for taking the time to pass all that along.
If/when I give Asaro a try, I'll post something here.

Tony

[Joy Beeson]

Post by Chris Buckley
Asaro remains an enigma to me. She was a hard scientist (PhD in
chemical physics from Harvard), nominated numerous times (9?) for
Hugo and Nebula awards (won two Nebulas), president of the SFWA
for two terms, has written about 40 novels, but she's remarkably unknown.
I don't remember the last time she was discussed here (mentioned a couple
of times but not discussed). Her works are generally on the lighter
space opera side, but that's true of a lot of authors, especially now.

Asaro's SF scratches my fantasy itch much better than her fantasy
does.

Her "shape magic" struck me, at first, as trying really, really hard.
I became adjusted to it because of my interest in the characters, but
don't seek out new stories as I do with the Major Bhahjan series.

But I'd *really* like to see Bhaajan solve a problem with consequences
that are confined to a single planet. Saving the entire universe gets
a little old.

And I think that the Majdas should give her an assignment that keeps
her out of fights long enough to heal up from the previous story.