Nebula Awards 2023

By Abe Ziesing

The 58th Annual Nebula Awards ceremony will take place on May 14th, during the 2023 SFWA Nebula Conference in Anaheim, CA. With this year's crop of nominated works having been announced several weeks ago, I decided to read all of the best novel nominees, as I have for the past few years. It can sometimes be painful attempting to complete a reading challenge like this, especially if you're fully committed to finishing each work in it's entirety, regardless of how well you enjoy it; but, overall it has been worth it to discover recent literary gems and new authors that go on to be added to the list of favorites.

This year was a particularly enjoyable reading experience, with five out of the six best novel nominees being excellent. Unfortunately, the one dud for me was also by far the longest! Overall, it was a lot of fun this time around. I discovered a new favorite author in Ray Nayler, reinvigorated my love for Tamsyn Muir, and was proven wrong, big-time, about the novel that I thought that I was going to hate (LEGENDS & LATTES).

Here's how I ranked and rated the best novel nominees. Click on each book title to go to the review blog post for that book:

THE MOUNTAIN IN THE SEA by Ray Nayler 9/10
NETTLE & BONE by T. Kingfisher 8/10
NONA THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir 8/10
LEGENDS & LATTES by Travis Baldree 8/10
SPEAR by Nicola Griffith 7/10
BABEL by R. F. Kuang 4/10

Here are this year's nominees from some of the other Nebula Award categories:

Best Novella

A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN-SHY by Becky Chambers
BISHOP'S OPENING by R. S. A. Garcia
I NEVER LIKE YOU ANYWAY by Jordan Kurella
EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE END by C. L. Polk
HIGH TIMES IN THE LOW PARLIAMENT by Kelly Robson

Best Novelette:

IF YOU FIND YOURSELF SPEAKING TO GOD, ADDRESS GOD WITH THE FORMAL YOU by John Chu
TWO HANDS, WRAPPED IN GOLD by S. B. Divya
MURDER BY PIXEL; CRIME AND RESPONSIBILITY IN THE DIGITAL DARKNESS by S. L. Huang
A DREAM OF ELECTRIC MOTHERS by Wole Talibi
THE PRINCE OF SALT AND THE OCEAN'S BARGAIN by Natalia Theodoridou
WE BUILT THIS CITY by Maria Vibbert

Best Short Story:

DESTINY DELAYED by Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald
GIVE ME ENGLISH by Ai Jiang
RABBIT TEST by Samantha Mills
DICK PIG by Ian Muneshwar
DOUEN by Suzan Palumbo
D.I.Y. by John Wiswell