Nebula finalists 2010

[James Nicoll]

2010! Travellers learn how to pronounce "Eyjafjallajokull", Britain's
Liberal Democrats secure their position in history by forming a
coalition with the Conservatives, and the International Space Station
sets a record for the longest continuous human occupation of space.

Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak

I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville


Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?

The Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker
Act One by Nancy Kress
Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow
Sublimation Angels by Jason Sanford
The God Engines by John Scalzi

The Kress, the Gilman, and the Morrow.


Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?

Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman,
Beast by Eugie Foster
A Memory of Wind by Rachel Swirsky
Divining Light by Ted Kosmatka
I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said by Richard Bowes
The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi
Vinegar Peace, or, The Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage by Michael Bishop

The Foster, the Swirsky, and because god is dead, the Bacigalupi.


Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?

Spar by Kij Johnson
Bridesicle by Will McIntosh
Going Deep by James Patrick Kelly
Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela by Saladin Ahmed
I Remember the Future by Michael A. Burstein
Non-Zero Probabilities by N. K. Jemisin

Just the Johnson and the Jemisin.

[Chris Buckley]

Post by James Nicoll
2010! Travellers learn how to pronounce "Eyjafjallajokull", Britain's
Liberal Democrats secure their position in history by forming a
coalition with the Conservatives, and the International Space Station
sets a record for the longest continuous human occupation of space.
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

I read the Mieville (quite good) and the Bacigalupi, which is a
Favorite! Different strokes for different folks (I regard it as
excellent magic realism and James regards it as bad hard sf - both
are at least somewhat true, IMO).

Nothing shorter once again.
Chris

[James Nicoll]

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by James Nicoll
2010! Travellers learn how to pronounce "Eyjafjallajokull", Britain's
Liberal Democrats secure their position in history by forming a
coalition with the Conservatives, and the International Space Station
sets a record for the longest continuous human occupation of space.
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

I read the Mieville (quite good) and the Bacigalupi, which is a
Favorite! Different strokes for different folks (I regard it as
excellent magic realism and James regards it as bad hard sf - both
are at least somewhat true, IMO).
Nothing shorter once again.
Chris

Bad, racist, and sexist SF.

[Paul S Person]

Post by James Nicoll

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by James Nicoll
2010! Travellers learn how to pronounce "Eyjafjallajokull", Britain's
Liberal Democrats secure their position in history by forming a
coalition with the Conservatives, and the International Space Station
sets a record for the longest continuous human occupation of space.
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

I read the Mieville (quite good) and the Bacigalupi, which is a
Favorite! Different strokes for different folks (I regard it as
excellent magic realism and James regards it as bad hard sf - both
are at least somewhat true, IMO).
Nothing shorter once again.
Chris

Bad, racist, and sexist SF.

I think the only thing I have read in the "magic realism" category is
/Terra Nostra/, which I found amazing.

But then I also liked /Gravity's Rainbow/.

[Robert Woodward]

Post by James Nicoll
2010! Travellers learn how to pronounce "Eyjafjallajokull", Britain's
Liberal Democrats secure their position in history by forming a
coalition with the Conservatives, and the International Space Station
sets a record for the longest continuous human occupation of space.

<SNIP of all finalists>

The best I can tell, this is a complete wipeout (which will repeat for
future lists).

[Titus G]

Post by James Nicoll
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

Both the Bacigalupi and the Mieville novels were a solid four stars for me.
Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" was less than mediocre and I just discovered
that I have "The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is. The
high-impact chapters from a variety of perspectives are short making it
difficult to put down. His "Pump Six and Other Stories was a mixed bag
but four stars for "The People of Sand and Slag".
Mieville's imagination and writing skills are just brilliant. "The City
& The City" is a great example of how he can make a ridiculous idea seem
plausible and seriously entertaining.

[William Hyde]

Post by Titus G

Post by James Nicoll
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

Both the Bacigalupi and the Mieville novels were a solid four stars for me.
Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" was less than mediocre and I just discovered
that I have "The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is.

I'm not likely to read the book any time soon so, how does Texas turn
into a desert?

William Hyde

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by William Hyde

Post by Titus G

Post by James Nicoll
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

Both the Bacigalupi and the Mieville novels were a solid four stars for me.
Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" was less than mediocre and I just discovered
that I have "The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is.

I'm not likely to read the book any time soon so, how does Texas turn
into a desert?
William Hyde

Texas becomes a desert through ongoing floods and droughts. Plus
restrictive medical policies drove a lot of people out of the state
before it became a desert. Basically the Climate Denialists won and the
Global Warming went on and on with less and less predictable weather.

When the ground beneath your feet is washed away how long will
you stay?

bliss

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by William Hyde

Post by Titus G

Post by James Nicoll
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

Both the Bacigalupi and the Mieville novels were a solid four stars for me.
Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" was less than mediocre and I just discovered
that I have "The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is.

I'm not likely to read the book any time soon so, how does Texas turn
into a desert?

Much of Texas already is a desert.

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by Dimensional Traveler

Post by William Hyde

Post by Titus G

Post by James Nicoll
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

Both the Bacigalupi and the Mieville novels were a solid four stars for me.
Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" was less than mediocre and I just discovered
that I have "The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is.

I'm not likely to read the book any time soon so, how does Texas turn
into a desert?

Much of Texas already is a desert.

Yup. Everything west of I-35.

The Houston metropolitan area gets 60 to 65 inches of rain a year. Or
in the case of Hurricane Harvey, 65 inches of rain in 4 days.

My parents live in Lavaca County (Port Lavaca), 110 miles from my house
in Fort Bend County outside Houston. They get 10 to 15 inches of rain a
year.

Lynn

[Jay E. Morris]

Post by Dimensional Traveler

Post by William Hyde

Post by Titus G

Post by James Nicoll
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

Both the Bacigalupi and the Mieville novels were a solid four stars for me.
Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" was less than mediocre and I just discovered
that I have "The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is.

I'm not likely to read the book any time soon so, how does Texas turn
into a desert?

Much of Texas already is a desert.

Yup.  Everything west of I-35.
The Houston metropolitan area gets 60 to 65 inches of rain a year.  Or
in the case of Hurricane Harvey, 65 inches of rain in 4 days.
My parents live in Lavaca County (Port Lavaca), 110 miles from my house
in Fort Bend County outside Houston.  They get 10 to 15 inches of rain a
year.
Lynn

Admittedly I haven't been to Fort Worth much or in a long time but I
don't remember it being desert.

According to this Nations Online Project map I'd say maybe 20% is desert.

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/USA/texas_map.htm

Scroll down a bit.

[Paul S Person]

On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:14:44 -0600, "Jay E. Morris"
<***@epsilon3.comcon> wrote:

<is Texas a desert?>

Post by Jay E. Morris
Admittedly I haven't been to Fort Worth much or in a long time but I
don't remember it being desert.
According to this Nations Online Project map I'd say maybe 20% is desert.
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/USA/texas_map.htm
Scroll down a bit.

I clicked on it.

I was greeted with all sorts of ... stuff.

And more stuff I had to ignore when I tried to leave.

Well, one thing can be said for it: it's persistant.

Hopefully, my Full Virus Scan tomorrow won't find any surprises.

The land-form list seems to feature a lot of dry parts, some actually
containing areas with "desert" in their name.

But, IIRC, East Texas may be soggier than the rest of the State.
Something about "piney woods thinning out as you move West onto the
plains".

Of course, if we define, say, any County with less that a given
population density as "desert" (using an older sense where the focus
was on a lack of people living there and not on sand and heat), there
would (I suppose) be a /lot/ of deserts.

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Post by Paul S Person
On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:14:44 -0600, "Jay E. Morris"
<is Texas a desert?>

Post by Jay E. Morris
Admittedly I haven't been to Fort Worth much or in a long time but I
don't remember it being desert.
According to this Nations Online Project map I'd say maybe 20% is desert.
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/USA/texas_map.htm
Scroll down a bit.

I clicked on it.
I was greeted with all sorts of ... stuff.
And more stuff I had to ignore when I tried to leave.
Well, one thing can be said for it: it's persistant.
Hopefully, my Full Virus Scan tomorrow won't find any surprises.
The land-form list seems to feature a lot of dry parts, some actually
containing areas with "desert" in their name.
But, IIRC, East Texas may be soggier than the rest of the State.
Something about "piney woods thinning out as you move West onto the
plains".
Of course, if we define, say, any County with less that a given
population density as "desert" (using an older sense where the focus
was on a lack of people living there and not on sand and heat), there
would (I suppose) be a /lot/ of deserts.
--

By that standard, Alaska is a desert, but Baked Alaska is a dessert!

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>

Post by Paul S Person
On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:14:44 -0600, "Jay E. Morris"
<is Texas a desert?>

Post by Jay E. Morris
Admittedly I haven't been to Fort Worth much or in a long time but I
don't remember it being desert.
According to this Nations Online Project map I'd say maybe 20% is desert.
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/USA/texas_map.htm
Scroll down a bit.

I clicked on it.
I was greeted with all sorts of ... stuff.
And more stuff I had to ignore when I tried to leave.
Well, one thing can be said for it: it's persistant.
Hopefully, my Full Virus Scan tomorrow won't find any surprises.
The land-form list seems to feature a lot of dry parts, some actually
containing areas with "desert" in their name.
But, IIRC, East Texas may be soggier than the rest of the State.
Something about "piney woods thinning out as you move West onto the
plains".
Of course, if we define, say, any County with less that a given
population density as "desert" (using an older sense where the focus
was on a lack of people living there and not on sand and heat), there
would (I suppose) be a /lot/ of deserts.
--

By that standard, Alaska is a desert, but Baked Alaska is a dessert!

Antarctica is mostly desert. Serious, its based on average annual
precipitation.

[Paul S Person]

On Thu, 21 Nov 2024 22:11:00 -0800, Dimensional Traveler

Post by Dimensional Traveler

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>

Post by Paul S Person
On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:14:44 -0600, "Jay E. Morris"
<is Texas a desert?>

Post by Jay E. Morris
Admittedly I haven't been to Fort Worth much or in a long time but I
don't remember it being desert.
According to this Nations Online Project map I'd say maybe 20% is desert.
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/USA/texas_map.htm
Scroll down a bit.

I clicked on it.
I was greeted with all sorts of ... stuff.
And more stuff I had to ignore when I tried to leave.
Well, one thing can be said for it: it's persistant.
Hopefully, my Full Virus Scan tomorrow won't find any surprises.
The land-form list seems to feature a lot of dry parts, some actually
containing areas with "desert" in their name.
But, IIRC, East Texas may be soggier than the rest of the State.
Something about "piney woods thinning out as you move West onto the
plains".
Of course, if we define, say, any County with less that a given
population density as "desert" (using an older sense where the focus
was on a lack of people living there and not on sand and heat), there
would (I suppose) be a /lot/ of deserts.
--

By that standard, Alaska is a desert, but Baked Alaska is a dessert!

Antarctica is mostly desert. Serious, its based on average annual
precipitation.

Another fine definition. But would it work for "desert" areas in, say,
England? Or are the Moors populated now?

Complicating matters, of course, is the effect of Man. Thus, Eastern
Washington is a desert -- but, thanks to the Grand Coulee dam on the
Columbia generating electricity and providing irrigation, it grows a
lot of crops. This gives us an area that generally votes Republican,
but which depends for its economy on a massive expenditure of Federal
funds.

[Default User]

Post by Paul S Person
On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:14:44 -0600, "Jay E. Morris"
<is Texas a desert?>

Post by Jay E. Morris
Admittedly I haven't been to Fort Worth much or in a long time but
I don't remember it being desert.
According to this Nations Online Project map I'd say maybe 20% is desert.
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/USA/texas_map.htm
Scroll down a bit.

I clicked on it.
I was greeted with all sorts of ... stuff.
And more stuff I had to ignore when I tried to leave.
Well, one thing can be said for it: it's persistant.

It looks much better if your browser support Reader View.


Brian

[Titus G]

Post by William Hyde

Post by Titus G

Post by James Nicoll
Which 2010 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
I read the Bacigalupi (which I hated and which kept its publisher
afloat for years), the Priest and the Mieville

Both the Bacigalupi and the Mieville novels were a solid four stars for me.
Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" was less than mediocre and I just discovered
that I have "The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is.

I'm not likely to read the book any time soon so, how does Texas turn
into a desert?

At the commencement of the book far in the future, Texas is already a
desert with its refugees in Arizona where the Nevada 'Water Knife' is
operating to 'cut' Arizona's meagre water supplies to divert them to
Nevada which already basically controls the Colorado River with drones,
private militia, black helicopters and lawyers, subject to Federal
oversight, The rich live in arcologies or have fled to California or
Canada prior to borders being more tightly controlled than the current
US/Mexico border. The summary provided in the reply by "bliss" is not
specifically stated but I think it is accurate though I don't recall the
restrictive medical policies claim. There is no scientific
explanation, nor proselytising about Climate Change. The places are
real. I used the atlas to see the path of the Colorado and find features
like Lake Mead which the book stated was seriously low back in the 1920's.

The following is perhaps the only relevant quotation to your question.
"Thanks to the centrifugal pump, places like Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma,
and Texas had thrown on the garments of fertility for a century,
pretending to greenery and growth as they mined glacial water from
ten-thousand-year-old aquifers. They’d played dress-up-in-green and
pretended it could last forever. They’d pumped up the Ice Age and spread
it across the land, and for a while they’d turned their dry lands lush.
Cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans—vast green acreages, all because someone
could get a pump going. Those places had dreamed of being different from
what they were. They’d had aspirations. And then the water ran out, and
they fell back, realizing too late that their prosperity was borrowed,
and there would be no more coming."

It may be because of the contrast to my recent reading, but this was one
of the most realistically violent stories I have read. Mainly action
adventure and there were some silly instances where mutilated people
performed impossible physical movement, e.g. being shot in the kneecap
but walking with a limp the next day with no treatment. The Science
Fiction aspect was also fascinating in an age of arcologies where
architectural firms are biotectural firms.
I enjoyed "The Water Knife" so much that I now plan to reread "the
Windup Girl" which I have mainly forgotten.

[William Hyde]

Post by Titus G
The following is perhaps the only relevant quotation to your question.
"Thanks to the centrifugal pump, places like Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma,
and Texas had thrown on the garments of fertility for a century,
pretending to greenery and growth as they mined glacial water from
ten-thousand-year-old aquifers.

This certainly is a problem.

But most of Texas gets a fair amount of rain. As I recall Deaf Smith
county, well away from the coast, gets 20 inches of rain per year.
That's not much less than Toronto, and the farmlands around here are
very rich - or were until we paved them over.

There seems to be this illusion, perhaps from movies, that Texas is a
dry western state. But much of it is a wet southern state. One local
geographer told me that about ten percent of the state qualifies as
being in the west.

When I first arrived in Texas, some local students were making
submissions to Penthouse letters which began:

"As I was driving through the desert 65 miles northwest of Houston ..."

I was told that one was published.


They’d played dress-up-in-green and

Post by Titus G
pretended it could last forever. They’d pumped up the Ice Age and spread
it across the land, and for a while they’d turned their dry lands lush.
Cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans—vast green acreages, all because someone
could get a pump going. Those places had dreamed of being different from
what they were. They’d had aspirations. And then the water ran out, and
they fell back, realizing too late that their prosperity was borrowed,
and there would be no more coming."

Something similar happened on a smaller scale in the Texas hill country,
which went from being one of the richest parts of the state to one of
the poorest in a generation as cattle destroyed the local grasses. But
it wasn't owing to a water shortage.


William Hyde

[Titus G]

snip Paolo Bacigalupi.

Post by William Hyde

Post by Titus G
"The Water Knife" so began reading it today. So far it is a
dark but a brilliant corrupt dystopia of a future of dust storms and
water shortage where Nevada controls the water from the Colorado and
Arizona is turning into a deserted desert like Texas already is.

I'm not likely to read the book any time soon so, how does Texas turn
into a desert?

snip
Not Texas but Spain.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/nov/23/spanish-villages-people-forced-to-buy-back-own-drinking-water-drought-flood

This relevant story, prompted by the floods in Valencia, from The
Guardian today, discusses the issue of water shortage in Spain as well
as the problems of private ownership of water and whether access to
water should depend purely on the power of money, to be owned by the
worst of the cut-throat capitalists, as dramatised in The Water Knife.
An interesting real life example is the multi-billionaire Resnicks'
ownership of California's largest underground water storage facility and
control of most of California's water. (Duckduckgo is your friend.)
There is also a documentary named "Pistachio Wars" with reviews online.