• (Nebula) Nebula Finalists 1981

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Mon Apr 29 14:07:36 2024
    This week's Which Nebula Finalists Have You Read features 1981. I remember
    it as a good year for SF but it's obvious I'd stopped following magazines
    as voraciously as I did in the 1970s.

    (Also, was never an F&SF fan for some reason)

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?

    Timescape by Gregory Benford
    Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl
    Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
    The Orphan by Robert Stallman
    The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
    The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

    All but the Tevis.

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?

    Unicorn Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
    Dangerous Games by Marta Randall
    Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson
    The Autopsy by Michael Shea
    The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch
    There Beneath the Silky-Trees and Whelmed in Deeper Gulphs Than
    Me by Avram Davidson

    Only the Charnas (in a fix-up) and the Dickson.

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?

    The Ugly Chickens by Howard Waldrop
    Beatnik Bayou by John Varley
    Ginungagap by Michael Swanwick
    Strata by Edward Bryant
    The Feast of Saint Janis by Michael Swanwick
    The Way Station by Stephen King

    Oddly, all of them. Albeit, I read the Swanwicks over a decade later.

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?

    Grotto of the Dancing Deer by Clifford D. Simak
    Secrets of the Heart by Charles L. Grant
    The War Beneath the Tree by Gene Wolfe
    Window by Bob Leman

    Just the Simak and the Wolfe. I'm surprisingly well read in Wolfe,
    given that I don't think of myself as a Wolfe reader.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
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    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
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  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Mon Apr 29 21:18:22 2024
    On 2024-04-29, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
    This week's Which Nebula Finalists Have You Read features 1981. I remember
    it as a good year for SF but it's obvious I'd stopped following magazines
    as voraciously as I did in the 1970s.

    (Also, was never an F&SF fan for some reason)

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?

    Timescape by Gregory Benford
    Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl
    Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
    The Orphan by Robert Stallman
    The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
    The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

    All but the Tevis.

    A good year. The Wolfe is one of my absolute top Favorites, and the Vinge and Benford are Favorites. The Pohl is good (sequel to _Gateway_, a Favorite.)

    I would have said I read the Tevis, but this was a time when I bought
    anything I read, and the only Tevis I have on my bookshelves is the
    much earlier _The Man Who Fell to Earth_ (a much better movie than book IMO.)

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?

    Unicorn Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
    Dangerous Games by Marta Randall
    Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson
    The Autopsy by Michael Shea
    The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch
    There Beneath the Silky-Trees and Whelmed in Deeper Gulphs Than
    Me by Avram Davidson

    Only the Charnas (in a fix-up) and the Dickson.

    The Randall in its (much) expanded form, the Dickson and the Disch
    (I'm surprised you haven't read the Randall novel, James. A good book by
    an early female author, from what I remember of it)

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novelettes Have You Read?

    The Ugly Chickens by Howard Waldrop
    Beatnik Bayou by John Varley
    Ginungagap by Michael Swanwick
    Strata by Edward Bryant
    The Feast of Saint Janis by Michael Swanwick
    The Way Station by Stephen King

    Oddly, all of them. Albeit, I read the Swanwicks over a decade later.

    Just the Varley.

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Short Stories Have You Read?

    Grotto of the Dancing Deer by Clifford D. Simak
    Secrets of the Heart by Charles L. Grant
    The War Beneath the Tree by Gene Wolfe
    Window by Bob Leman

    Just the Simak and the Wolfe. I'm surprisingly well read in Wolfe,
    given that I don't think of myself as a Wolfe reader.

    Just the Wolfe. I've read a lot of Wolfe, but the amount I
    adequately understand is much less.

    Chris

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  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to Michael F. Stemper on Tue Apr 30 00:40:19 2024
    In article <v0p2fi$1vcvf$1@dont-email.me>,
    Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 29/04/2024 09.07, James Nicoll wrote:
    This week's Which Nebula Finalists Have You Read features 1981. I remember >> it as a good year for SF but it's obvious I'd stopped following magazines
    as voraciously as I did in the 1970s.

    (Also, was never an F&SF fan for some reason)

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?

    Timescape by Gregory Benford
    Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl
    Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
    The Orphan by Robert Stallman
    The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
    The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge>
    All but the Tevis.

    For me, all but Tevis or Stallman. I'm surprised that I'm that current, >although the Vinge is the only one that I read in the second millennium.

    Which 1981 Nebula Finalist Novellas Have You Read?

    Unicorn Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
    Dangerous Games by Marta Randall
    Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson
    The Autopsy by Michael Shea
    The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch
    There Beneath the Silky-Trees and Whelmed in Deeper Gulphs Than
    Me by Avram Davidson

    Only the Dickson. I didn't realize that it was a novella, but looking
    at my shelves, I see that my copy was one of the Ace MMPBs padded out
    with "over 50 illustrations".

    See, I knew it was a novella because I read it in Destinies.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From David Duffy@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Tue Apr 30 02:59:43 2024
    James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
    This week's Which Nebula Finalists Have You Read features 1981. I remember

    I had never heard of _The Orphan_, but I see a pdf at the archive.org -
    "I want very much to slip out and grab a late rabbit" right now.

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