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2013 Book Review #124: Nebula Awards Showcase 2013
Title: Nebula Awards Showcase 2013
Editor:Catherine Asaro
Genre: SF/F anthology
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: A collection of stories and excerpts of 2013 Nebula Award winners.
Thoughts: This is an excellent way of getting caught up on some of the big works from a given year, and exposure to some excellent writing. It's kind of a dissatisfying reading experience, though, in that while the short stories lend themselves well to the anthology format, I'm not a huge fan of novel excerpts and the nonfiction piece was very hard to read in isolation. They're trying to include every category, and some just don't work well in a collection.
That said, the work here is (predictably) uniformly excellent. “The Axciom of Choice” is a fascinating meditation on fate via a choose-your-own-adventure format about a crippled musician. “The Ice Owl” mixes adolescent righteousness with a futuristic version of a Nazi collaborator hunt. Two different stories about dance, “Movement” and “The Migratory Pattern of Dancers” explore the ecstatic expression of dance and the cost to the dancer. The poem “The Sea King' Second Bride” is a joy to read not only for the story told but for the bouncy pleasure of the language itself. “Saurkraut Station” and “Ray of Light”both feature teenage survivors of extraordinary circumstances, and both end with surprising sweetness. In short, everything here that appears in its entirety is delightful. Among Others, which I have read in full elsewhere, is a great book but not a very satisfying excerpt. I suspect this indicates that the other pieces I didn't enjoy here would be better off sought out on their own.
Editor:Catherine Asaro
Genre: SF/F anthology
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: A collection of stories and excerpts of 2013 Nebula Award winners.
Thoughts: This is an excellent way of getting caught up on some of the big works from a given year, and exposure to some excellent writing. It's kind of a dissatisfying reading experience, though, in that while the short stories lend themselves well to the anthology format, I'm not a huge fan of novel excerpts and the nonfiction piece was very hard to read in isolation. They're trying to include every category, and some just don't work well in a collection.
That said, the work here is (predictably) uniformly excellent. “The Axciom of Choice” is a fascinating meditation on fate via a choose-your-own-adventure format about a crippled musician. “The Ice Owl” mixes adolescent righteousness with a futuristic version of a Nazi collaborator hunt. Two different stories about dance, “Movement” and “The Migratory Pattern of Dancers” explore the ecstatic expression of dance and the cost to the dancer. The poem “The Sea King' Second Bride” is a joy to read not only for the story told but for the bouncy pleasure of the language itself. “Saurkraut Station” and “Ray of Light”both feature teenage survivors of extraordinary circumstances, and both end with surprising sweetness. In short, everything here that appears in its entirety is delightful. Among Others, which I have read in full elsewhere, is a great book but not a very satisfying excerpt. I suspect this indicates that the other pieces I didn't enjoy here would be better off sought out on their own.