March/April 2025 Reading Wrap Up

30 Apr 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Somehow March flew past and I now find myself sitting at the end of April, but with many fewer books read that I would have liked. This is not truly a surprise, as I always start off my year of reading strongly, then falter as other responsibilities turn up. I’m hoping to have cleared out some of those tasks though and perhaps May will be a better month for me in terms of reading and writing.

I did finish three books in March and April. These were Sistersong by Lucy Holland, A Court of Mist and Fury (book #2 in the ACOTAR series) by Sarah J. Maas, and A Crown of Swords (book #7 in The Wheel of Time series) by Robert Jordan (paid links). The one that got me bogged down was A Crown of Swords, coming in at 880 pages, but now I can say that I’m halfway through The Wheel of Time. I never made it past book #8 in the past.

I’m still slowly working my way through the Outlander series with book #5 – The Fiery Cross (paid links). When I last checked, I had about 20 hours of the audiobook left to go. I need to be better about putting this on when I’m doing mindless housework or cooking. When I leave it only for times I am driving, I’m not making much progress.

I just started Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher and Sunrise on the Reaping, the new Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins, and I think these will both be quick reads (paid links).

What else might I read in May? This is my list, in rough order. First up will be Verdant Divided (Empathic Humanity #2) by Doc Honour and Inverse by Margot Conor, both novels written by authors in my critique group. Then I’m excited to turn back to Mark Lawrence’s Library series with #2 – The Book That Broke the World (paid links).

I may need to take a break from Outlander once I finish book #5, and Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day by Craig Alanson is a space opera series that was recommended to me by my brother. I picked this up on audiobook and it certainly looks different than Outlander. If the month is going well, then I might get to the other books on my list: The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson, Traitor of Redwinter (The Redwinter Chronicles #2) by Ed McDonald, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon (paid links).

Somehow with all of these books that I haven’t read yet, I still picked up some new books in the past few months. My recent acquisitions through the monthly subscription box, Fairy Loot, include Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan, The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao, Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake, and This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara (paid links).

I also received The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence, an ARC of The Feeding by Anthony Ryan (through NetGalley), Quicksilver by Callie Hart, and Vault’s Promise by Cameron Coral (paid links). I’ll have to fit these into my reading plans somehow!

What have you read lately and enjoyed? What books are on your to-be-read list that you can’t wait to start? Let me know in the comments.

February 2025 Reading Wrap Up

05 Mar 2025 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Another month has passed and it’s time to look back at what I’ve read before delving forward into more of my unrealistic reading goals! I didn’t complete as many books this month as I did in January, but I was also busier in general, leaving me less time to read.

These are the books I read in February:

House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau was one I reviewed for Net Galley and you can find that review here. The rest of these are in my queue to still review, so you can look for those soon. Of the books I read in February, I think my favorite was The Teller of Small Fortunes, a cozy fantasy story by Julie Leong, even though I didn’t think I’d like it from the description. Knife Children is a novella by Lois McMaster Bujold (one of my favorite authors) and was from my backlog of Net Galley books, so I’ll be getting that review up soon too (paid links).

Here are the books I’m currently reading as March has begun:

I’m back to reading the Outlander series with the audiobook of The Fiery Cross, number five in the series. I started to read Sistersong by Lucy Holland a few days ago, but was struggling to get into it (probably no fault of the book – I was tired). In an attempt to find an easy read, I spontaneously grabbed the second book in Sarah J. Maas’s ACOTAR series, A Court of Mist and Fury (paid links). Of course, I’m now realizing that it is 600+ pages and while it may be an easy read, it isn’t going to be quick.

These are some of the books I had planned to read in February, but didn’t get to:

I’ll probably take The Space Between Worlds off my list for now. The second book in this series was selected for a book club, but I already missed the discussion. I’m trying not to start new series, so I’ll wait on this one. The Wheel of Time continues to haunt me and I’m planning to start book #7 – A Crown of Swords after I finish Sistersong and ACOMAF. I would love to read Inverse and Verdant Divided because they were written by some of my critique partners, but I’ll have to see how long it takes me to get through A Crown of Swords (paid links). I don’t think I’ll actually get to the sixth Outlander book in March because they are so long that it takes me a couple of months to finish one of the audiobooks.

Here is my unrealistic list of other books I’d like to read in March:

I listed these in order of priority for me. I’m hoping to read The Book That Broke the World so I’ll be ready to start the third book when it is released on April 8. I’ve been meaning to read something by T. Kingfisher for a while and I think that Nettle & Bone is a novella. Then I want to keep going on Ed McDonald’s Redwinter series while the first book is fresh in my mind (paid links). As for the rest – they are really just wishful thinking… at least for March.

How are your reading goals going for the year so far? Are there any books that you’ve found surprising? Let’s chat in the comments.

January 2025 Reading Wrap-Up

31 Jan 2025 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

While having the flu in January was unfortunate for many reasons, it did give me more down time to do a lot of reading. I finished 8 books for the month, and although they weren’t quite the ones I had initially planned to read, I still completed the number I had aimed for.

Most of the books that I read in January were physical copies (actually all but Daughter of Redwinter). I have too many books on my shelves that I haven’t read, so reading some of the beautiful hardcovers that I own was a goal for me. Here is what I completed in January:

One of my goals for the early part of 2025 was to catch up on a few book reviews for Net Galley. Daughter of Redwinter was one of these books, and this review will be posting the week after next. Ancillary Justice was a book that I’ve wanted to read for a while and was chosen for one of my book clubs. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the discussion, but I’ll have a review of that one up soon also. Recursion is the pick for the next meeting of this same book club and I’m excited to discuss this one in a few days (paid links).

Of course I had to pick up Onyx Storm when it was released, and as I’m writing this post, I have a couple hundred pages left to go in it (paid link). But I’m assuming I’ll finish it by the end of January. The Art of Tommie Soule is a niche book I had been slowly working through as I have been relearning how to paint fantasy miniatures. I had put it back on my shelf, but picked it up and finished it this week.

I am also in the middle of two audiobooks, but did not finish either one in January.

I have less than ten hours to go in Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. I had taken a break from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon to listen to some other books. Each one is so long, but I have been making steady progress on these. I will resume book #5 – The Fiery Cross as soon as I finish Great Circle (paid links).

Other books that had been on my list for January that I didn’t get to were House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau (an advance copy for Net Galley) and The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (paid links). These will be the first ones I read in early February.

Looking ahead here are the other books that I have in my queue for February:

I plan to resume my read-through of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. Book #7 (A Crown of Swords) is next. I have one more Net Galley book to review (Knife Children) that is short, and then a few stand-alones planned. Two of the books for the month are ones written by a couple of my writing critique partners (Inverse by Margot Conor and Verdant Divided by Doc Honour), and I’m excited to see the results of all their hard work. Lastly, The Space Between Worlds is for an upcoming book club discussion of the second book in this series (paid links).

Here’s hoping to a lot of time to read (but without the flu) for February!

What books are you looking forward to for the next month? Let me know in the comments.

Books to Read in 2025

17 Jan 2025 4 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Each year, I take the books that I didn’t have time to read and roll them over onto my to-be-read list for the next year. This results in a constantly growing list of books for each successive year, so some judicious trimming is always needed. I also set myself a number of books to read for the year and note that in my Goodreads Challenge.

For 2025, I had to pare down my initial list of books to read (no surprise, there). I decided to aim to read two books a week which is eight a month, multiplied out for the year equals 96 books. While I might be able to maintain that pace for one month, I know that it isn’t a realistic goal for the year. Several factors contribute to my reading speed, mainly the length of some of the fantasy books that I like. I try to space these epics out, but when I’m trying to finish something like The Wheel of Time series, I have to keep going back to these long works frequently.

After cutting several dozen out, here is my current list of 94 books I plan to read in 2025:

I know that this list will change as the year goes on. I was able to account for some upcoming releases I’m already aware of, and some book club picks, but I can’t know all of those yet. I intentionally cut out new series as much as I could manage, trying instead to focus on reading those I’ve already started.

Looking back at this same post from 2024, I had 113 books on that list and read 24 of those (and 36 books total), so I generally stick with my initial to-be-read list for 2/3 of what I read throughout the year.

I want to make sure I read a couple of “classics” this year, so I’ve included Frankenstein and The Lord of the Flies. My graphic also fails to include a few books that I already finished this year pictured below:

How do you choose which books you’re going to read? What books are you most excited about reading in 2024? Let me know in the comments (above)!

2024 Reading Year in Review

14 Jan 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I’m a bit late with this post, but I still wanted to write up my annual look back at what I read for the year. First off, here is a nice graphic from Goodreads to summarize:

A few other stats that Goodreads provided were that the shortest book I read was The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente at 155 pages, while the longest was Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6) by Robert Jordan at 1,011 pages.

The average book length that I read was 481 pages, although I think this is not a terribly accurate statistic, because I don’t always put the correct edition of what I’ve read into Goodreads.

My total number of books read in 2024 is down a little compared to recent years as you can see below:

  • 2023 = 48
  • 2022 = 39
  • 2021 = 43
  • 2020 = 39
  • 2019 = 43

So what did I read in 2024? Here is a graphic of all 36 books (not quite in reverse chronological order that I read them):

Here are a few more interesting statistics about what I read in 2024:

  • Science fiction or fantasy genre = 28
  • Historical fiction = 4
  • Mainstream = 2
  • Genre fiction with some romance = 14
  • Non-fiction = 2
  • Classics = none
  • Audiobooks = 6
  • Graphic novels = 1
  • Part of a series = 25*
  • Stand-alones (or could be read as one) = 13
  • Completed reading of a series OR kept up with the series as each book was published = 5*

* I counted individual books here.

I’m counting The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo as fantasy and NOT historical fiction, because magic is a significant component of the story. The Outlander series fills out the historical fiction because although these books contain time travel, the plot mostly concerns other aspects.

I made a note that some of these books contained an element of romance, but none were pure romance novels. I often make an effort to read something considered a classic, but I think that the closest I came in 2024 was God Emperor of Dune, and that only fits under classic science fiction by its proximity to the original Dune novel.

What were the BEST books I read in 2024? Here are my top three:

You can find my reviews of each of these, as well as (paid) links if you want to pick up your own copy:

  • Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: review here, link to purchase here
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune: review here, link to purchase here
  • Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: review here, link to purchase here

Some of my other favorites from the year are below, also with links where applicable:

  • Starter Villain by John Scalzi: review here, link to purchase here
  • Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon: reviews (Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn), link to purchase (series) here
  • Starling House by Alix E. Harrow: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Core by Peter V. Brett: review here, link to purchase (series) here
  • Dawn by Octavia E. Butler: review coming soon, link to purchase here
  • Ever the Night Road by Michael Breen: review here, link to purchase here

Up next will be my look ahead at my reading for 2025: too many books, unrealistic goals, starting more series than I can finish, and much more!

If you are on Instagram, remember to take a look at my bookstagram account there and follow me: @ihazabookproblem

November/December 2024 Reading Wrap Up

22 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

December isn’t quite over yet, but I want to leave some time to get an end-of-the-year post done. I also never got around to a November reading post, so I’m combining both months in this post for today. As with my other posts, the paid links here go to support this blog, so please click on any you’re interested in.

I’m continuing to be more distracted than I would like and have been taking longer than usual to finish what I’m reading. My Goodreads Challenge tells me that I could still make by 2024 goal if I would just read 5 books a DAY, LOL.

Books I Finished: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart, Dawn by Octavia Butler (audiobook) (paid links). I’m still working on reviews for these – the internet ate the one I had nearly finished for The Gods Below, and I was so disheartened by that that I have yet to rewrite it.

Books I’m Still Reading But Should Finish This Month: The Boys Vol. 1 Omnibus, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence, The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness (audiobook) (paid links). I should finish The Boys today and I’m really enjoying The Book That Wouldn’t Burn. The Black Bird Oracle is a disappointment and I’ve been strugging to get through the last few hours of the audiobook.

Books I’m Reading But Won’t Finish This Month: The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (audiobook), Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald. I took a break in my Outlander listening to get through a couple of other books. I have one more I want to read before I pick The Fiery Cross back up. I hadn’t intended to read Daughter of Redwinter until the new year, but I was stuck out of the house without a book! This was one that I received courtesy of NetGalley some time ago, the e-book was already in my Kindle app, and I had planned to start it in a few weeks anyway.

Next Up: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy (paid links). I think I’m supposed to have Ancillary Justice read by next week for a book club, so I should start that one soon! Great Circle is NOT science fiction or fantasy and is that other audiobook that I’m planning to listen to before I get back to the Outlander series. Sorcery and Small Magics looks like a lighter read than the books I’ve been consuming lately, so I’m looking forward to that.

New Books:

Oh boy – I received an email from the Science Fiction Book Club several weeks ago that made it sound like they were going to be out of business in the coming months. I had 2 credits sitting on my account and went shopping, only to find several other books also at steep discounts. Here are the ones I picked up:

I also had a few books arrive from subscription box services:

I used a couple of Audible credits to pick up Columbus Day, book #1 of the Expeditionary Force series on my brother’s recommendations. I enjoyed Alexander Darwin’s first book, The Combat Codes (review here), and want to continue the series. I usually try to stick with the same format, but I have too many books and this was available in audio, so I’ll switch it up for book #2 – Grievar’s Blood (paid links).

A Look at January: I’m starting to put together my reading plans for 2025, and like always, it’s chaos, with way too many books that I want to read, new releases, books I said I’d review, book club picks, and spur of the moment reads that sow disorder throughout my year.

I decided that for January, I’d try to focus on a few NetGalley reviews that have sat for too long. This is why Daughter of Redwinter was on my radar. I also have Knife Children by one of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold on that same list. I don’t know why I haven’t read this yet since I love all her books and already read the core series on which this story is based. House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau isn’t out until April and is another NetGalley pick, but one I only recently received. I’ve read one of her earlier books, Kingdom of Exiles and you can find that review here (paid links).

I’m also anticipating the January 21 release of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, the third and final book in her ridiculously popular Empyrean series. You still have a little time to catch up with the earlier books, Fourth Wing (review here) and Iron Flame (review here) (paid links).

If I have any time left in January, I’m also going to try to read The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong and Perfectly Wicked by Lindsay Lovice, which I already mentioned earlier in this post (paid links).

Now it’s time for me to get back to reading!

Book Review – Somewhere Beyond the Sea

09 Nov 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , ,

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the newest book by T.J. Klune, and is book #2 in the Cerulean Chronicles. I enjoyed book #1 – The House in the Cerulean Sea – a lot and you can find my review of it here (paid links).

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.

The ending of the first book made it obvious that there would be a sequel, but did not leave any significant hints of how that story would go. The plot in the second book tells a new story, but it is thematically a continuation of the first book. Not much time is spent on re-introducing the characters, so if you’re interested in reading this series, go back to start with the first book.

While I have to say that I didn’t like this second book as much as the first, I don’t want that to really detract from my review at all. Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a wonderful book, but the first one is truly a tough act to follow.

Linus is no longer the main driver of the story in this book, but remains pivotal as support for Arthur as he navigates the more public role he has chosen to take on. The children at Marsyas grow up a bit in this sequel, while still engaging in their endearing shenanigans.

So why didn’t this book quite live up to the expectations I had from the first one? I felt like the plot was too loosely constructed and rather unfocused. The characters on Marsyas also never felt like they were in enough danger to me. I didn’t believe that DICOMY would take the children away from Arthur and Linus, so the story lacked the tension and conflict that I wanted to see. However, this was still a book that I enjoyed, and I think that my negative nitpicking is truly a reflection of how GOOD the first book was.

I have put all of TJ Klune’s other books on my to-be-read list. Which one should I start next? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

June & July 2024 Reading Wrap Up

20 Aug 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

For some reason, my blog always suffers a slump in the middle of the year. I think that I become overly distracted by the variety of summer activities. My reading also suffers, with my Goodreads reading challenge showing that I’m 37 books behind schedule (not that I ever set a realistic goal, but that’s a separate issue).

For June and July, I continued to read some long books, finishing these below:

The House in the Cerulean Sea was the shortest of the group at 394 pages. The others came in at 1011 pages for Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6), 640 pages for Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2), and 43 hours and 46 minutes for the audiobook edition of Voyager (Outlander #3) (paid links). I should be putting reviews up soon.

I’ve also been working on some writing projects over the summer. I’ll have a flash fiction story appearing in a holiday issue of Abyss & Apex in December. I have a couple of short stories that I need to revise and submit to magazines. The larger project is that I’ve been outlining a 5-book epic fantasy series that’s been in my head for a long time. I have a rough outline of the first book for some of the characters, but I can’t start writing until I have done more of the planning. I’m also toying with writing a proposal for a non-fiction academic book (in case I don’t have enough to keep me busy).

Going forward with my reading plans, I just finished reading The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. I’m currently reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander book #4) as an audiobook and Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton on my Kindle (paid links).

After that, these are some of the books that I might read next:

How have your reading plans been going for the summer? Do you have any must-read books that you would suggest? Let me know in the comments (above).

May 2024 Reading Wrap Up

05 Jun 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

May was not a great reading month for me. I had a lot of other things going on, as well as some travel. You’d think that I’d have more time to read while traveling, but it doesn’t always work out that way. I lose focus while reading on a plane and then at my destination, I’m often too tired to stay up reading. And while I bring my headphones, I find that I never put on my audiobook in these situations.

The month of May didn’t quite go according to plan. I only finished one book, The Fires of Heaven (Book 5 in The Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan. I’ll have a review of this one up soon (paid links).

I read two short stories for one of my book clubs. We have pivoted to a short story format for a few months to see if we can get more people attending the discussions. These are the two stories that we recently read, and you can find them for free at these links:

I’m still listening to the audiobook of Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gabaldon, and I should finish this in the next two weeks (14 hours to go). I also started to read Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, the second book in the Empyrean series. You can find my review of the first book, Fourth Wing, here. Since I was traveling and had my Kindle with me, I started on the 6th Wheel of Time book immediately after finishing the 5th with Lord of Chaos (paid links).

For June, here are some of the books that I’m planning to read after I finish the ones above.

Let’s see how much I can read as the summer starts!

What are you planning to read next? Let me know in the comments (above).

Musing on the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus Awards

16 May 2024 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

With the announcement of the finalists for the Locus Awards earlier this month, I thought I’d take some time to muse on why we pick out certain stories for recognition and to also relate some information on the awards that I follow (Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus).

I recently read some of the nominees for the Nebula Awards so that I could vote for these (my pick for short story was The Sound of Children Screaming, which can be found here). I’ve also been reading some of the short stories that won Hugos and/or Nebulas in the past couple of years (Rabbit Test, If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You).

So what’s with all these awards? What does each one mean? Who votes for them? And why does anyone care?

First of all, I think that it is important to provide recognition for outstanding talent and achievements in any field. The nomination and awards process also highlights a set of work and helps readers find stories that they might not have been otherwise aware of. Let’s go through each of these major awards and talk about the nomination process, categories, and other information about each one.

Hugo Awards.org media download site, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60413579

Hugo Awards

The Hugo Awards have been awarded since 1953 and are named for Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the first classic magazine of science fiction, Amazing Stories. The current categories awarded include Best Novel (>40,000 words), Best Novella (17,500 to 40,000 words), Best Novelette (7,500 to 17,500 words), Best Short Story (<7500 words), Best Series, Best Related Work, Best Graphic Story, Best Dramatic Presentation (long and short forms), Best Semiprozine, Best Fanzine, Best Professional Editor, Best Professional Artist, Best Fan Artist, Best Fan Writer, Best Fancast, and Best Game or Interactive Work.

The Hugos are one of the most prestigious awards for the science fiction and fantasy genre. A list of nominees and winners can be found here. The Hugo Awards are presided over by the World Science Fiction Society. Attending and supporting members of the World Science Fiction Convention can nominate and vote on the awards. Even if you can’t attend the convention physically, you can purchase a supporting membership for voting privileges. The physical awards are announced and presented at that year’s World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), which is held generally around September and moves to a different city each year (2024 = Glasgow).

The Hugo Awards have been associated with some recent controversies. The Sad Puppies ran a campaign to nominate slates of works in reaction to the recent success of BIPOC authors and overall diversification in the genre. This led to several nominated authors declining to have their works considered (when included on the Sad Puppy slate), and No Award being selected in several categories where the Sad Puppy nominees dominated. The World Science Fiction Society made changes to the nomination and voting process in 2017.

More recently, the 2023 Hugo Awards became the source of another controversy when the voting statistics from the recent Worldcon held in Chengdu, China were released (scroll down to page 20 on the linked .pdf). Authors whose work may have been considered too political for Chinese censorship laws had received nominating votes, but were declared ineligible. Other votes from Chinese citizens were thrown out because they were considered to be following a slate suggested by a magazine (despite the rules not permitting this). Going forward, the Hugo administration has vowed to improve transparency in the process. You can find more details about what happened here.

The logo is from the following website: http://www.sfwa.org/ Nebula Awards official website, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35826707

Nebula Awards

The Nebula Awards follow a similar process, with the main difference being that those who nominate and vote for these awards must be members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA). This is the professional organization for authors, artists, and editors in the science fiction and fantasy genres.

Categories for the Nebula Awards currently include Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette, Best Short Story, and Best Game Writing (same word count requirements as for the Hugos). Other awards that are not technically Nebula Awards are also included in the Nebula process. These recently have included the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction of Fantasy Book, the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award (for lifetime achievement), Author Emeritus (awarded posthumously for lifetime achievement), the Kevin O’Donnell Award for service to SFWA, and the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award for significant impact on speculative fiction.

The Nebula Awards go through a similar round of nominations followed by voting, with the announcement and presentation of the winners at the SFWA Nebula Conference. This is usually in the spring and is held in the United States (2024 = Pasadena, California).

World Fantasy Awards

By Statuette design: Vincent Villafranca – Original publication: http://www.arctera.com/wfa/wfadmin-award-announcement.htmImmediate source: http://www.arctera.com/wfa/wfadmin-award-announcement.htm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53804878

The World Fantasy Awards are a favorite of mine, I think because I lean more toward fantasy in my reading overall. These are administered by the World Fantasy Convention, which occurs annually in a different location around the world (2024 = Niagara Falls, New York). While the World Science Fiction Convention is a larger event with plenty for fans of the genre, the World Fantasy Convention is a professional event for authors, artists, editors, agents, and publishers. It can be a great place to meet people in the field for an upcoming author.

The World Fantasy Award nominees are partly selected by the attendees of the World Fantasy Convention, but also by a panel of judges who are professionals in the field. The categories for awards are Best Novel (>40,000 words), Best Novella (10,000 to 40,000 words), Best Short Fiction (<10,000 words), Best Collection (single author), Best Anthology (multiple authors), Best Artist, Special Award–Professional, Special Award–Non-Professional, Convention Award, and Life Achievement Award.

Controversy about the physical award arose in recent years. It had formerly been a bust of H.P. Lovecraft who has been criticized for his outspoken racism. The new award was changed to the one pictured in 2016.

Locus Awards

Designed by Francesca Myman, with art by Shaun Tan and presented by Locus Magazine. Source: Locus. – Original publication: Locus Magazine Immediate source: https://locusmag.com/2020/06/locus-awards-winners-2020/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68857244

The Locus Awards are put together by Locus Magazine, which is a monthly trade publication for the science fiction and fantasy genre. The awards are open for nomination by the public and the votes of subscribers to the magazine count twice. You can find the recent top 10 nominees here.

Categories for the Locus Awards include Best Science Fiction Novel, Best Fantasy Novel, Best Horror Novel, Best Young Adult Novel, Best First Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette, Best Short Story, Best Anthology, Best Collection, Best Magazine, Best Publisher, Best Editor, Best Artist, Best Non-Fiction, and Best Illustrated and Art Book.

The winners are announced during an awards presentation that is associated with a weekend of readings and panels held in Oakland, California this year.

This has turned out to be a longer post than I thought it would be, but I hope it was helpful to explain some of the honors awarded in the science fiction and fantasy genres.

Have you voted for any of the awards? Which books have you read that won one of these awards? Let me know in the comments (above).

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