Tuesday, August 22, 2017

2017 WSFA Small Press Award Nominees

Location: CapClave in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Comments: Just like last year, there are nine WSFA Small Press Award nominees. Just like last year, the overall field of nominees is quite strong, with numerous stories deserving of the honor. On the other hand, 2017 is the first year out of the last couple of years in which the WSFA Small Press Award nominees were not, when taken as a group, better than short fiction Hugo Award finalists taken as a group. This isn't because the WSFA Small Press Award nominees became any worse, but rather because the Hugo Finalists this year were a lot better than they were in 2015 and 2016. There was one cross-over between this set of nominees and the list of Hugo finalist - The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon - and there is more than one other story on this list that would not have looked at all out of place as Hugo Finalists.

As usual for the WSFA Small Press Award, there are several outstanding nominees in the mix, a couple of pretty good ones, and a few that make me scratch my head and wonder why they made the list. Overall, this is a pretty good group of stories with a couple of real gems in the front, an impressive peloton just on their heels, and only a few laggards dragging along in the back.

WSFA Small Press Award
(My Votes)

Winner:
The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

Other Nominees:
Foxfire, Foxfire by Yoon Ha Lee (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
Jupiter or Bust by Brad R. Torgersen (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
The Mytilenian Delay by Neil James Hudson (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left by Fran Wilde (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
Radio Silence by Walter H. Hunt (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
A Salvaging of Ghosts by Aliette de Bodard (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
Vengeance Sewn With a Fey Cord by Christine Lucas (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)
The Witch’s Knives by Margaret Ronald (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

Go to previous year's nominees: 2016
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2018

Book Award Reviews     Home

No comments:

Post a Comment