Nebula Awards Showcase 2012

By Joseph Kessel

The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America®.

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 and Fantasy Writers of America. The editors selected by SFWA's anthology committee (chaired by Mike Resnick) are John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly, both highly acclaimed not only for their own award-winning fiction but also as coeditors of three anthologies: Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, and The Secret History of Science Fiction.

Stories and excerpts by Harlan Ellison™, Kij Johnson, Chris Barzak, Eric James Stone, Rachel Swirsky, Geoff Landis, Shweta Narayan, Adam Troy-Castro, James Tiptree Jr., Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kendall Evans and Samantha Henderson, Howard Hendrix, Ann K. Schwader, Connie Willis, Terry Pratchett, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781616146207

Joseph Kessel

Born in Argentina in 1898, Joseph Kessel's family moved to France in 1908. He studied in Nice and Paris and flew for the French air force in World War One. Kessel published his first novel in 1922, and went on to win the Grand Prix de l'Academie Francaise for Les captifs (1926). He flew again, for the Free French air force, during World War Two, after which he continued to write, to great acclaim, becoming a member of the AcadŽmie Francaise in 1962. He died in 1979.

Reviews for Nebula Awards Showcase 2012

[andreablythe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Nebula Awards Showcase 2012 presents a selection of winners and nominees for the Nebulas awards, including novel excerpts, novellas, novlettes, short stories, and poetry. Overall I enjoyed every story in this collect, from the straight scifi stories to the realms of fantasy. There are many stories to love in this collection. Kij Johnson's "Ponies" is a disturbing portrayal of popularity and exclusion in young girls. "Map of Seventeen" by Christopher Barzak is a moving story about a young girl, frustrated with the world around her. Shweta Narayan's "Pishaach" is about a girl who chooses to go mute when she learns about the mystical origins of her grandmother. She is taunted and treated as a witch, which in a way she is, as she holds sway over the local snakes with the power of her flute. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro is a delightfully disturbing tale about a future in which humanity doesn't look much like it does now (it may be for, against, or neutral on the subject of abortion, depending on your point of view, though I think it is more about the status of power in society).Rachel Swirsky's "The Woman Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" is a stunning, epic story from the point of view of a summoned spirit, spanning epochs. The woman/spirit is an all too human character, who would rather allow harm to come to others rather than sacrifice her beliefs. And there were many others. All around a really wonderful collection.

[jeremypreacher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have never followed the Nebulas, so it was interesting to read through this years' field. As might be expected, I liked some of the stories and excerpts quite a lot, and others left me completely cold. The overall quality was of course high, though, and if you like SF short stories at all, this is definitely worth a read. I prefer Dozois's Year's Best in general, but this represents a wider range of tastes.