Arrival now has a Nebula Award (and you now have a reading list)

There’s little better than the Nebula Award winners and the nominees to catch up on the past year in science fiction and fantasy, including Arrival.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America may very well have the coolest award name ever. Really, it doesn’t get much better than the Nebula Awards. Sure, the Oscars may be more well-known, and they may have golden-plated statuettes, but the Nebulas take a look at the previous year in, well, science fiction and fantasy.

Last night, the SWFA announced the latest crop of winners:

"NovelAll the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)NovellaEvery Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)Novelette‘‘The Long Fall Up’’ by William Ledbetter (F&SF 5-6/16)Short Story“Seasons of Glass and Iron’’ by Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood)Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic PresentationArrival, Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Screenplay by Eric Heisserer, 21 Laps Entertainment/FilmNation Entertainment/Lava Bear Films/XenolinguisticsAndre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and FantasyArabella of Mars by David D. Levine (Tor)"

However, should you want to go a little further and look at some of the nominees, here are some picks. In novels, take a look at Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee and The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin, two books we suggested as reads from this past summer.

And as for the “Outstanding Dramatic Presentations,” the list includes Zootopia (don’t judge it because it’s Disney), an episode of Westworld (“The Bicameral Mind”, otherwise known as the first season finale), Kubo and the Two Strings (which is now on Netflix, which means you could watch it and Zootopia back to back), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and finally, Doctor Strange.

Helpfully, the short stories and novelettes (including the nominees) all list where you can find them, and heading into those magazines may reveal some new authors for you to discover and enjoy.

Finally, in the young adult novel category, we practically have to recommend The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi, when we’ve recommended the sequel and also want to see the first novel itself turned into a movie or show. But I’m definitely adding Lindsay Ribar’s Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies to my list, just based on the title alone. Sometimes those kinds of books end up being the most entertaining of all.

However, ultimately, it’s tough to go wrong with heading into the nominees after you’ve devoured all of the winners. It might not keep you until next year’s award winners, but it could get you into this summer.

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Any Nebula nominees you’d like to recommend?