The finalists for Asimov’s 30th Annual Readers’ Award Poll have been posted online, with links allowing nearly all the stories to be read free. Asimov’s will announce the winners in May.
NOVELETTES
- Lock Up Your Chickens and Daughters –H’ard and Andy Are Come to Town!, Michael Swanwick & Gregory Frost – April/May 2015
- The Great Pan American Airship Mystery, Or, Why I Murdered Robert Benchley, David Gerrold – July 2015
- The Molenstraat Music Festival, Sean Monaghan – September 2015
- Our Lady of the Open Road, Sarah Pinsker – June 2015
- The End of War, Django Wexler – June 2015
NOVELLAS
- The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred, Greg Egan – December 2015
- The New Mother, Eugene Fischer – April/May 2015
- A Thousand Nights Till Morning, Will McIntosh – August 2015
- Inhuman Garbage, Kristine Kathryn Rusch – March 2015
- The Long Wait, Allen M Steele – January 2015
- On the Night of the Robo-Bulls and Zombie Dancers, Nick Wolven – February 2015
SHORT STORIES
- My Time on Earth, Ian Creasey – October/November 2015
- Calved, Sam J Miller – September 2015
- Tuesdays, Suzanne Palmer – March 2015
- The First Step, Kristine Kathryn Rusch – August 2015
- Ninety-five Percent Save, Caroline M Yoachim – January 2015
- What I Intend, Robert Reed – April/May 2015
POETRY
- 1,230 Grams of Einstein, Robert Frazier
- Basement Refrigerator—after Thomas Lux, Joshua Gage
- Love and the Moon, Geoffrey A. Landis
- October Leaves, Suzanne Palmer
- The Circulatory Man, James Valvis
There also is a magazine cover category, and the art can be seen here.
[Thanks to Gregory N. Hullender for the story.]
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You get to nominate three.
Novelette: All three of my choices (Pinsker, Gerrold, Wexler) made the top 5.
Novella: Only one (Egan).
Short Story: Only one (Palmer)
Poetry: None
It’s in keeping in previous years where there isn’t a huge overlap between my favourites & the ones the Asimov readers collectively prefer. A bit like the Hugos really.
What a pity that the Egan novella isn’t available, free or at Amazon; I’d really like to read it. 😐
If you’re open to reading the Egan novella on a tablet besides a Kindle, the digital issue is available from three e-bookstores at this link. It’s a good story.
http://www.rocketstackrank.com/p/2015-magazines.html#Asimovs12
Eric Wong: If you’re open to reading the Egan novella on a tablet besides a Kindle, the digital issue is available from three e-bookstores at this link. It’s a good story.
Thanks, Eric.
The Egan’s on my Hugo longlist.
Mine, too.
There’s one INCREDIBLY BAD story on there.
Asimov’s readers, I am disappoint.
The surprising (to me) omission is The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard. From the actual list I particularly liked The End of The War by Django Wexler and On the Night of the Robo-Bulls and Zombie Dancers by Nick Wolven, but there’s several other strong ones on there – Pinsker, Egan, Fischer. I never got round to reading the Kristine Kathryn Rusch story despite hearing good things about it, so I’ll correct that now.
@JJ
I’m not sure the Egan will make my top 5, but it’s hovering around the boundaries and worth a read of itself. Not sure why it’s missing – maybe he’d already sold a reprint?
@Mike
Typo – The End of The War is missing a The.
Mark: Not sure why it’s missing – maybe he’d already sold a reprint?
I’m a huge fan of Egan’s stories. I’m going to wait a bit — it may be that he’ll negotiate temporary posting rights, and it will magically appear, as sometimes happens with Nebula nominees. If it doesn’t, I’ll buy the issue prior to the nomination deadline and read it then.
@Mark-kitteh: I agree; I read it twice to make sure “Citadel” didn’t appear. It was a cover story, it has favorable buzz in many other circles (incl. here and IIRC Nebulas), and yet there it isn’t. The Rusch stuff is good, solid work but not mind-blowing. Definitely worth reading, though. And whither Egan? They had the beginning of it up when the issue was new, but never the whole. I liked the part I read, but then… It must be a rights thing.
“The Citadel of Weeping Pearls” by Aliette de Bodard was my favourite of the Asimov’s Novellas.
*shakes fist at Asimov’s readers*
Soon Lee: “The Citadel of Weeping Pearls” by Aliette de Bodard was my favourite of the Asimov’s Novellas.
That’s one I’ve been wanting to read, too. There was an excerpt posted when it was the current issue, but that’s been replaced by an excerpt from the now current issue, and it didn’t make it into the Wayback Machine.
I’ve only read the Rusch and the Fischer novellas this far. I liked “Inhuman Garbage” (I freely admit I’m a big Retrieval Artist fan).
I’m a bit surprised at “The New Mother’s” inclusion, though. I really thought it missed the mark.
According to a post by Kris Rusch, the Egan story is not available because the author did not give permission. Considering that it’s not available for purchase in any way except as a back issue of Asimov’s, I suspect that it’s because it has indeed been resold elsewhere.
Given that Rusch’s story has been picked up for all three of the major 2015 Year’s Best anthologies but has still been made available, it will interesting to see where Egan’s story shows up.
Dropping by because was pointed to thread–feel free to delete if inappropriate.
Thank you for the kind words on Citadel of Weeping Pearls!
@JJ: if you’re reading for awards would be quite happy to email you a copy–go through the contact form on my website?