Nebula Finalists 1992

[James Nicoll]

1992: The Imperial Family of Russia faced a succession crisis following
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich's death, the Maastricht Treaty brought
Europe closer to the utopian unity it enjoys today, and having
successfully defeated Iraq and brought the Cold War with the Soviet
Union to a close, George H. W. Bush faces an easy campaign against
scandal-plagued challenger, Bill Clinton.

Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bone Dance by Emma Bull
Orbital Resonance by John Barnes
Synners by Pat Cadigan
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

All of them! Which will be the high water mark for this entry. I
was not reading magazines and I seem to have been reading the
wrong anthologies.


Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana by Michael Bishop
Bully! by Mike Resnick
Jack by Connie Willis
Man Opening a Door by Pauline Ashwell
The Gallery of His Dreams by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Just the Willis and the Rusch.


Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?

Guide Dog by Mike Conner
Black Glass by Karen Joy Fowler
Gate of Faces by Ray Aldridge
Getting Real by Susan Shwartz
Standing in Line with Mister Jimmy by James Patrick Kelly
The All-Consuming by Robert Frazier and Lucius Shepard
The Happy Man by Jonathan Lethem

Just the Kelly and the Frazier & Shepard. I had not even heard
of the Conner and the Aldridge.


Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?

Ma Qui by Alan Brennert
Buffalo by John Kessel
Dog's Life by Martha Soukup
the button, and what you know by W. Gregory Stewart
The Dark by Karen Joy Fowler
They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

The Kessel, the Fowler, and the Bisson.

[Robert Woodward]

Post by James Nicoll
1992: The Imperial Family of Russia faced a succession crisis following
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich's death, the Maastricht Treaty brought
Europe closer to the utopian unity it enjoys today, and having
successfully defeated Iraq and brought the Cold War with the Soviet
Union to a close, George H. W. Bush faces an easy campaign against
scandal-plagued challenger, Bill Clinton.
Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bone Dance by Emma Bull
Orbital Resonance by John Barnes
Synners by Pat Cadigan
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
All of them! Which will be the high water mark for this entry. I
was not reading magazines and I seem to have been reading the
wrong anthologies.

Bujold and Bull

Post by James Nicoll
Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana by Michael Bishop
Bully! by Mike Resnick
Jack by Connie Willis
Man Opening a Door by Pauline Ashwell
The Gallery of His Dreams by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Just the Willis and the Rusch.

Ashwell only

Post by James Nicoll
Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?
Guide Dog by Mike Conner
Black Glass by Karen Joy Fowler
Gate of Faces by Ray Aldridge
Getting Real by Susan Shwartz
Standing in Line with Mister Jimmy by James Patrick Kelly
The All-Consuming by Robert Frazier and Lucius Shepard
The Happy Man by Jonathan Lethem
Just the Kelly and the Frazier & Shepard. I had not even heard
of the Conner and the Aldridge.

None

Post by James Nicoll
Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?
Ma Qui by Alan Brennert
Buffalo by John Kessel
Dog's Life by Martha Soukup
the button, and what you know by W. Gregory Stewart
The Dark by Karen Joy Fowler
They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson
The Kessel, the Fowler, and the Bisson.

None? (I have certainly heard of the Bisson, but I can't remember if I
had read it)

[Chris Buckley]

Post by James Nicoll
1992: The Imperial Family of Russia faced a succession crisis following
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich's death, the Maastricht Treaty brought
Europe closer to the utopian unity it enjoys today, and having
successfully defeated Iraq and brought the Cold War with the Soviet
Union to a close, George H. W. Bush faces an easy campaign against
scandal-plagued challenger, Bill Clinton.
Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bone Dance by Emma Bull
Orbital Resonance by John Barnes
Synners by Pat Cadigan
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
All of them! Which will be the high water mark for this entry. I
was not reading magazines and I seem to have been reading the
wrong anthologies.

All of them. The Cadigan is the only Favorite, though marginally and
probably won't survive another rereading (was still reasonably fresh ideas
when it came out.)

Bujold is an author who I feel should have a spot on my Favorite
bookcase, but no single book quite made it. I should reread them all
again and pick one or two!

Novels were definitely my high water mark. I didn't read any of
the shorter works, at least as shorter works. I did read
_Beggars in Spain_ by Kress in its novel form.

Chris

[William Hyde]

Post by James Nicoll
1992: The Imperial Family of Russia faced a succession crisis following
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich's death, the Maastricht Treaty brought
Europe closer to the utopian unity it enjoys today, and having
successfully defeated Iraq and brought the Cold War with the Soviet
Union to a close, George H. W. Bush faces an easy campaign against
scandal-plagued challenger, Bill Clinton.
Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

It took me years to get around to reading these two. Could the rest be
as rewarding?

Post by James Nicoll
Bone Dance by Emma Bull
Orbital Resonance by John Barnes
Synners by Pat Cadigan
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

William Hyde

[David Duffy]

Post by William Hyde
It took me years to get around to reading these two. Could the rest be
as rewarding?

Post by James Nicoll
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

Is pretty good. It's _real_ science fiction ;)

"...Foulke had manoeuvred his way onto the Geographical's Nominations Committee.
Foulke, whose aquatic theory of Brontosaurus had been spurned by Huxley's
Museum, had taken Mallory's arborivore hypothesis as a personal attack, with the
result that an ordinarily pleasant formality had become yet another public trial
for radical Catastrophism.

"...'The man had a bump on the side of his forehead', said Mallory.

"'Frontal plagiocephaly', the boy said.'[...] They're spoony on skulls, in Criminal
Anthropometry...'"

[James Nicoll]

Post by William Hyde

Post by James Nicoll
1992: The Imperial Family of Russia faced a succession crisis following
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich's death, the Maastricht Treaty brought
Europe closer to the utopian unity it enjoys today, and having
successfully defeated Iraq and brought the Cold War with the Soviet
Union to a close, George H. W. Bush faces an easy campaign against
scandal-plagued challenger, Bill Clinton.
Which 1992 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

It took me years to get around to reading these two. Could the rest be
as rewarding?

Post by James Nicoll
Bone Dance by Emma Bull
Orbital Resonance by John Barnes
Synners by Pat Cadigan
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

I remember liking the Bull but nothing else. The Barnes was interesting
enough I tracked down his early work. Pity he seems to have left the
field. Synner is slow to start but worth it in the end. I don't remember
much about the Gibson & Sterling but I've never reread it.

[Robert Carnegie]

James, I don't think I've read any of these stories.
But I'm going to read Pat Cadigan's _Synners_.

Last Saturday, I looked at a celebratory paperback
reprint of it in Waterstones. And I looked at some
GoodReads amateur reviews on my phone. Take that,
twentieth century! :-)

And the reviews weren't favourable... but yours,
of 2022, is.
<https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/thats-what-i-want>

You noted then that other reviews found, and
you agreed, that the story has a bewildering horde
of characters, and it takes a good while for a story
to come into view. ;-) And a lot of actual
21st century technology isn't in the story world -
which the casual GoodReads reviewers were turned
off by.

And in 2024, Elon Musk apparently is going to make
his anti-woke brain implants in lightly regulated
Texas now. Just as soon as the summer power
outages end, I suppose. But of course, he has
batteries.