2017 WISB Awards Long List
The long list returns! Last year, I introduced the first ever WISB Awards Long list, which represents all the things I loved in 2015 and, more or less, my Hugo Awards Ballot (some items are obviously not eligible). This year, I’m at it again. Shortly, I’ll release the winners of the 2017 WISB Awards. Presumably, there will be thunderous applause or something. As always, I do not include my own work on the long list. If you’re interested in nominating me for something, feel free to do so for the following: Best Fancast The Skiffy and Fanty Show (Shaun Duke, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, Mike Underwood, Rachael Acks, David Annandale, Jen Zink, and Trish Matson) Totally Pretentious (Shaun Duke and David Annandale) Now here’s the official 2017 WISB Awards Long List: (IMPORTANT: I am in the process of filling out the categories. New updates will go up periodically throughout the day.)
2016 WISB Awards: The Winners
Now that awards season is in full swing, it’s time to release the winners of the 2016 WISB Awards. As with every year of the award, the winners are selected from my reading and viewing experiences throughout 2015 and during my annual Hugo Awards reading binge. As such, the long list included works published decades ago. Unlike previous years, the 2016 WISB Awards included a long list, which you should check out to see all the great stuff I enjoyed. You might also check out the 2016 Hugo Awards Reading/Watching List, which includes works from my original list and works suggested by readers. As with every year of the awards, these selections are based entirely on my own tastes, which are imperfect, narrow, and weird. The winners are below the fold. Some of the categories include runners up; the categories that do not contained far fewer entries on the long list, and so including a short list would basically have included the long list anyway.
2016 WISB Awards Long List
It’s that time of year: time for me to release some kind of list of things I loved in 2015. This year is different, though. This year, I’m releasing a long list for the WISB Awards, and it is from this list that I’ll select the winners of my annual WISB awards, the jury-less, vote-less monstrosity of an award that is only of value to myself. Since I cannot include my own work on the following long list, I’ll include those works here: Best Fancast: The Skiffy and Fanty Show (Shaun Duke, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, Mike Underwood, Rachael Acks, David Annandale, and Jen Zink); Totally Pretentious (Shaun Duke and David Annandale) Best Non-Fiction Work: Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays, and Commentary edited by Renee Williams and Shaun Duke (Book Smugglers Publishing) If you feel there’s a glaring ommission, let me know in the comments. I haven’t read everything there is to read (obviously), and it’s likely I’ve missed a lot of really great work. Now here’s the official 2016 WISB Awards Long List:
The 2013 and 2014 WISB Awards
It’s been almost two years since I last posted my selections for the WISB Awards. The 2013 Awards should have gone up in January of 2014, but I got a tad overwhelmed with podcasting, Hugo stuff, and academia. Such is life! But now the awards are back like a weird plague that never really goes away, but takes brief hiatuses to make you feel safe from its wicked grasp. To make up for the absence of the awards last year, I’m going to double up this year, which makes this doubly hard, since I cannot fall to temptation by allowing myself to select best books or movies I enjoyed in 2014, even though I’m basically in love with so many things right now (new and old). First, the rules: I must have consumed the item in 2013 or 2014.[1] No more than 3 runners up per category. I can drop or add categories as necessary. I will use “genre” to mean “science fiction and fantasy” in order to distinguish categories without using 3 extra words. So, without further ado, here are the 2013 and 2014 WISB Awards: Best Novel 2014 Selection: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway Books) Bennett’s recent novel brought a delicious noir flavor to an imperialist landscape in a world where the gods have been murdered…maybe. It’s the kind of book someone like me devours because it hits all of their little interest buttons. Colonialism and empire? Check. Cultural exploration? Check. Colonial detectives? Check. Weird world-changing craziness? And check. There were a lot of great novels in 2014, but this one still haunts me, and it will probably haunt me for years to come. Runners Up: Breach Zone by Myke Cole (Ace Books), Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (Orbit Books), and The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder and Stoughton) 2013 Selection: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit Books) By now, you’ve heard so much about this book that you’re probably not surprised that it graced my WISB Awards list in some fashion. Leckie’s debut novel took the science fiction field by storm, garnering wins from just about every science fiction award. It was probably the single most talked about science fiction novel in 2013 — and possibly in the last decade. And it deserved all of that attention. Leckie’s novel took some familiar ideas and beautifully weaved them into a complex, socio-political jacket of colonialism. It’s the kind of book I would teach if ever given the opportunity, because it’s just that good. Runners Up: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (Little, Brown, and Company), Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (Orbit Books), and Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central Publishing) Best Collection or Anthology 2014 Selection: N/A For some monumentally stupid reason, I have not read enough collections or anthologies this year, which means I am a terrible person… 2013 Selection: Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee (Prime Books) I was blown away by Yoon Ha Lee’s collection of stories from Prime Books. Though I’d read some of her work before (mostly through Clarkesworld), the collection of stories in Conservation of Shadows were so refreshing that I have continued to read everything Lee has written since 2013. If you’re looking for unique, intellectual, and diverse/rich short fiction, Conservation of Shadows is the place to go. Runners Up: Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall (Rosarium Publishing) and The Love Machine and Other Contraptions by Nir Yaniv (infinity plus) Best Publisher 2014 Selection: Tor Books Tor continues to be on the forefront of science fiction and fantasy publishing. This year, they released a number of superb titles and were involved in everything from traditional sf/f fair to English translation, including Ken Liu’s translation of Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem. Tor is always high on my favorite publishers list because they always strive for greater and better publishing pastures. Runners Up: Angry Robot Books, Orbit Books, and Hodder and Stoughton 2013 Selection: Orbit Books Orbit had a good year in 2013. A really good year. They published Brian McClellan’s Promise of Blood and Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, both of which are superb works. On top of that, they continue to publish the James S.A. Corey Expanse novels. These elements alone made Orbit one of the top spots for sf/f fiction. Hopefully, they will continue to publish new and exceptional works in 2015. Runners Up: Tor Books, Angry Robot Books, and Hodder and Stoughton Best Magazine 2014 Selection: Tor.com 2014 was certainly Tor.com’s year. They published another excellent story by John Chu (“A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Proposed Trade-Offs for the Overhaul of the Barricade”), one by Ken Lieu (“Reborn”), and one by Yoon Ha Lee (“Combustion Hour”) — all writers whose work I gobble up like some kind of writerly pumpkin pie. We will see how the awards season will turn out for them, but I suspect we’ll see quite a few Tor.com stories on the Hugo ballot! Runners Up: Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons and Interzone 2013 Selection: Clarkesworld In the last few years, Clarkesworld has published some pretty extraordinary fiction. In 2013, they were on top of their game. They published “Effigy Nights” by Yoon Ha Lee, “Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew, and a ton of other amazing work, including some from Aliette de Bodard (sweet heavens yes). Clarkesworld, of course, has been consistently good for years, but for reasons that I can’t quite explain, it has been my go-to-magazine since 2013 — hence its placement on this list. Runners Up: Strange Horizons, Interzone, and Tor.com Best Cover 2014 Selection: The Pilgrims by Will Elliot (art by Kekai Kotaki) The artwork for Will Elliot’s second novel so overwhelmed me when I first saw it that I promptly forgot the name of the book. All I could remember was that gorgeous cover art. Granted, the cover art is supposed to make me remember the book, but I think there is something of value in art that explodes something in your
The 2012 WISB Awards!
The awards have come! Every year, I offer my favorites from the previous year, from movies to books and so on and so forth. This year, I’m keeping with the tradition. First, the rules: I must have consumed the chosen item in 2012, with special preference given to works released during that year. I may not have more than three runners up for any category (which means a lot of folks get left out — sorry). I have the right to drop categories if I don’t believe I can honestly assess the products contained within it (example: I can decide to drop a TV category if I only watched one show in that category because it’s really not fair for me to assess the best of the best if I haven’t actually watched more than one show). So, without further delay, here are my selections for the 2012 WISB Awards: Best Novel I loved this book so much that I almost taught it in my American dystopia class. Unfortunately, space constraints prevented me from doing so. In any case, if you want to know exactly what I thought of the book, you can read my review. The short version: simply stunning. Then again, I’ve loved Brian Francis Slattery since Spaceman Blues, and will probably keep on the love affair for as long as he lets me… Runners Up: The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers, And Blue Skies From Pain by Stina Leicht, and Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell. Best Collection or Anthology This is the only award I am giving to a work that wasn’t actually published in 2012, which I will justify by saying, “I reviewed it in 2012, which is good enough for me.” Maureen McHugh’s After the Apocalypse is more a concept collection (a la Christopher Barzak’s Birds and Birthdays) than a traditional collection. Exploring the various ways humanity responds to catastrophe, this collection quickly became one to remember, so much so that Locus put it on its 2011 recommended reading list. That’s about where I would have put it too — except I decided to give it an award! Runner Up: Near + Far by Cat Rambo Best Publisher It comes down to a numbers game this year: I reviewed more books from Tor than any other publisher. On top of that, my #1 novel selection for the year came from Tor. Let’s face it: they publish some damn good stuff, and this year happens to have been an exceptional one for them. Keep it up, Tor! Runners Up: Nightshade Books, Angry Robot Books, and Small Beer Press. Best Magazine The award might have gone to a different magazine this year, except Interzone changed up its format so much that I ended up loving it even more than before. That new format involves a tighter print size, a sturdier binding, a complete overhaul of the cover and interior designs, and the same wonderful fiction I came to love when I got my first subscription so many years ago. While other magazines were downsizing their production schedules or changing up management, TTA Press were busy turning Interzone into a better, more attractive product. Call it Interzone 2.0, if you like. Runners Up: Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Cross Genres, and Shimmer. Best Cover Min Yum’s dark illustration for And Blue Skies from Pain falls within that range of work that I honestly love looking at. If I could, I’d buy a poster of the art and put it on my wall. You’ll forgive me for having no clue what to call the style; whatever it is, I like the way the dark colors blend together, almost like someone took pastels and used a finger to delicately sync everything together. Hopefully we’ll see more of Yum’s work in the future. Runners Up: Jagannath by Karen Tidbeck (artist: Jeremy Zerfoss), Osiris by E. J. Swift (artist: Sparth), and Fate of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner (artist: Stephan Martiniere). Best Film I know. You either loved this movie or you hated it. Can you guess where I stand? To be honest, I think Cloud Atlas is perhaps one of the greatest films of the last decade, and I was surprised that it did not receive any recognition by the Academy for its various achievements. After all, Cloud Atlas isn’t a “safe” film. Everything could have gone terribly wrong right from the beginning. But it didn’t. Instead, Cloud Atlas became a thought-provoking tour de force. Screw The Matrix. This is what the Wachowskis were meant to create. Genius. Runners Up: John Carter, The Avengers, and Cabin in the Woods. Best Television Show This is such an easy choice for me. Game of Thrones pulled out all the stops this year. Unlike the first season, the newest season actually gave us one of the major battles: the siege of King’s Landing. Throw in the continued stunning performances from Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, and Maisie Williams and there’s just no contest: this is the best genre television show on air right now. Period. Runners Up: The Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, and Doctor Who. Best Non-Genre Film I had a lot of apprehensions about this film, but went to see it with my grandmother anyway. And guess what? I enjoyed it so much that I issued an ultimatum to the Academy: give Daniel Day-Lewis a bloody Oscar or else! While Tony Kushner’s script takes some liberties — for example, it has never been proven that Thaddeus Stevens had a monogamous relationship with Lydia Hamilton Smith — the adaptation of Lincoln’s battle to end of slavery is, if anything, beautifully rendered and handled with expert precision by a solid cast. I expect this one to take a lot of awards this year. It damn well deserves it. Runner Up: Skyfall Best Non-Genre Television Show Admittedly, I’m perpetually behind on non-genre TV shows. For example, I only now started watching shows like Law & Order: Criminal Intent or the first seasons of the original
The 2011 WISB Awards!
They’re finally here. Later than usual? Yeah, but you’ll all forgive me for that. I started reading some awesome stuff from 2011 in January and I didn’t want to post this before making a proper decision. Without further delay, here are my selections for the 2011 WISB Awards (note: all links in this post will go to my reviews or interviews): Best Novel Lavie Tidhar messed with my head. Really. Osama is one of the few novels I have had the pleasure to read that left me reeling at the end. The book still haunts me, like a twisted ghost creature in literary form, banging on my walls, slamming my doors, and breaking my expensive Chinese teacups. Osama is one of the most beautiful works of SF/F literature I’ve had the pleasure to read since I became an SF/F fan. It’s on my list of Masterworks, that’s for sure. Plus, I had the pleasure of interviewing him for The Skiffy and Fanty Show. Love it. Runner-ups: Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht (Night Shade Books)(a stunning debut that hits all the right emotional buttons), and Low Town by Daniel Polansky (Doubleday)(a noir romp with a fantasy twist that is well worth reading). Best Collection or Anthology I called this collection “one of the best works of SF this decade” in my review. Simply put: the collection is gorgeous (read my review to find out why; there’s also an interview here). Runner-ups: Kafkaesque edited by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelley (Tachyon Books)(a quirky collection of stories in celebration of one of the greats) and Gateways edited by Elizabeth Anne Hull (another celebratory collection, but with a markedly nostalgic feel — Brin and Haldeman have some brilliant work in here). Best Publisher This year’s award goes to a publisher who treated me rather kindly in 2011. Ever since Jen and I put out the call to improve our coverage of women authors last year (on The Skiffy and Fanty Show, mind), Pyr has been pushing authors our way, which might explain why so many of our interviews were with Pyr writers! It also helps that the books we read were, overall, quite good. You can’t go wrong with Pyr! Runner-ups: Small Beer Press (I need to read more of their books, but the one text I got to read, After the Apocalypse, was absolutely brilliant), Tor (2012 is their year, I think), Tachyon, and Angry Robot Books (a previous winner, and still one of the most innovative publishers out there). Best Magazine I have decided to temporarily leave this category blank. Adam Callaway and I are planning to do some kind of Awards Season Mega-Reading Fest. I will update this section then. Best Cover I love natural detail in artwork. I think they take extraordinary skill to master, and Kekai Kotaki definitely has the skill. A stunning work indeed! (For interested parties, I have an interview w/ Peter Orullian here.) Runner-ups: Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht (Claudia Nobles does a brilliant job with her oil-style rendition of a detention camp in Ireland) and Low Town by Daniel Polansky (Ben Wiseman’s design for the U.S. cover is gritty and perfectly placed). Best Writer You might not recognize that red-haired monstrosity of a human being (with a clock on his head, mind you), but you’ll recognize his name: Adam Callaway. He and I have been friends for a while, so it goes without saying that I’m a little biased. But I’ve never given this award to a friend before (at the time of the award); it’s simply unavoidable this year. I’ve known Adam for a while now, have read a lot of what he’s written (though not all, because I’m a terrible writing buddy who deserves to be stabbed with metaphorical pens filled with snake venom), and have watched him rise to the throne of greatness (getting ahead of myself, I know). The truth is this: Adam’s writing is fantastic. If you haven’t read anything by him, check out his bibliography page. Trust me, you will not be disappointed (and if you are, then you are reading the wrong blog). Best Film Originally, I had chosen the last of the Harry Potter movies for this award, but then I saw Hugo and knew that no other film could top the utter mastery of Martin Scorsese. Hugo is beautiful and charming all at once. The sets. The characters. The actors. The plot. It’s all so perfect. True, it’s an adaptation, but adaptations usually suck. This one doesn’t. It’s pure cinematic genius. Runner-ups: Cowboys & Aliens (good old satire), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two (see above), and Super 8 (until the last 10 minutes, when Abrams becomes Abrams). Non-2011 Runner-up: Never Let Me Go (by far the best film I happened to see last year) Best Television Show Nothing quite matches Game of Thrones in 2011. I sat on the edge of my seat waiting for each new episode. True, some episodes weren’t as good as others, but I also couldn’t help being hypercritical because I desperately wanted Game of Thrones to be good. And you know what? It was. Damned good. You can find my reviews episode-by-episode reviews starting here. Runner-ups: Doctor Who (not as good as the year before, but clever) Best Non-Genre Film As I mentioned too many times to count, I’m relatively poor (it’s either the cinema every week, or a far-too-short vacation; you can figure out which one gets sacrificed). Add to this the fact that my girlfriend lives in another country, and my distinct lack of a local movie buddy, and it’s no small wonder why the selection for this category has gone to a movie that wasn’t released last year. Munich gets this award for two reasons: first, it’s a chilling look at what violent revenge can do to a human being, and second, I remember it. When I thought back to all the movies I borrowed from the library or saw in theaters or rented with my