In recent years I have felt that the Hugo ballots have been better
than the Nebula ballots. And I admit, with the recent announcements of
the Nebula shortlist and Hugo ballot my kneejerk reaction was to think
the same was true again. Once again, to emphasize, my issue with the
Nebula ballot being mainly the good stories left off, not that the
stories on the ballot are terribly bad. (Same with the Hugo, really,
with one or two exceptions in each case.) But the other day -- well,
just yesterday, as I was enjoying myself preparing for my colonoscopy
(insert all the jokes you want right here!), I was musing on a head to
head Hugo/Nebula ballot comparison. And I came to the conclusion that,
with the exception of one category (novelette) the ballots are very
comparable in quality -- and indeed the Nebula ballot is better by a
bit in the novella category.
One thing that facilitated this comparison is that the Nebulas this
year have a very high pro****tion of stories from 2007 on the
shortlist.
Anyway, category by category:
Best Novel
BOTH:
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
HUGO:
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Halting State by Charles Stross
NEBULA:
Odyssey - McDevitt, Jack
The Accidental Time Machine - Haldeman, Joe
The New Moon's Arms - Hopkinson, Nalo
Ragamuffin - Buckell, Tobias
The best novel of the year made both ballots, so that's a good thing.
I sort of paired the other ones off: Odyssey with Rollback -- both
slightish books by perennial nominees -- edge, probably to Odyssey,
the Nebula nominee. The Accidental Time Machine with The Last Colony
-- again, both a little on the slight side. I am actually in the
middle of The Last Colony now, and enjoying it -- depending on how it
finishes, I might well rank it ahead of the Haldeman, but not by much.
Ragamuffin with Brasyl -- both definite SF novels with settings
derived from the Caribbean or South America to some extent. Brasyl is
the better of the two (and indeed it's the second best novel on either
list of those I've read) but Ragamuffin is darn fine. And finally, I
haven't yet read either Halting State or The New Moon's Arms, but both
have been generally praised in reviews. On balance -- pretty close to
a push. Perhaps a slight edge to the Hugo ballot for having Brasyl,
but then again perhaps we want to demerit the Hugo ballot for having
Rollback.
Best Novella
BOTH:
"Fountains of Age" by Nancy Kress
"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard
"Memorare" by Gene Wolfe
HUGO:
"Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis
NEBULA:
Kiosk - Sterling, Bruce
Awakening - Berman, Judith
The Helper and His Hero - Hughes, Matt
As three of these stories, including my favorite ("Memorare") are on
both ballots, we only need to compare the unique ones. I really wasn't
that impressed with either the Rusch or Willis story on the Hugo
ballot, and to my mind all three of the Nebula unique stories are
better than the two Hugo unique stories. So, I'd say this ballot is
definitely better on the Nebula side.
Best Novelette
BOTH:
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
HUGO:
"The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel
Abraham
"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan
"Glory" by Greg Egan
"Finisterra" by David Moles
NEBULA:
The Fiddler of Bayou Teche - Sherman, Delia
Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter - Ryman, Geoff
The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After
the Change
- Johnson, Kij
Safeguard - Kress, Nancy
The Children's Crusade - Bailey, Robin Wayne
Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone - Bramlett, Terry
In this case the honors go pretty clearly to the Hugo ballot. The best
story on the Nebula ballot (besides Chiang's) is the Ryman -- a very
good story, but also a 2006 story, so you can't blame the Hugo voters
for not including it: they did, on last year's ballot. The rest of the
Nebula list includes mostly pretty decent stories (as mentioned, the
one I really didn't that much like was the Bailey), but the rest of
the Hugo list is absolutely outstanding. It comes pretty close to
actually representing the best 5 novelettes of the year. (Replace
"Glory" with Kelly Link's "Light" and I'd endorse such a statement,
though there are 2 or 3 more novelettes also deserving.) Thus, the
novelette ballot on the Hugo side is, to my taste, much the superior
one.
Best Short Story
BOTH:
None
HUGO:
"Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter
"Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear
"Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod
"Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick
"A Small Room in Koboldtown" by Michael Swanwick
NEBULA:
Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse - Duncan, Andy
Titanium Mike Saves the Day - Levine, David D.
Captive Girl - Pelland, Jennifer
Always - Fowler, Karen Joy
Pride - Turzillo, Mary
The Story of Love - Nazarian, Vera
In this case there are no stories common to both ballots. The thing
is, neither ballot thrills me, but neither is full of awful stories
either. I'm reprinting one from each: "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" on
the Hugo ballot, and "Always" on the Nebula ballot. So those will get
my votes. (Well, I don't vote for the Nebulas, but you take my point.)
Beyond that, I think the ballots are pretty comparable -- a set of
generally fine stories that bother me only in that I had several
stories last year that I thought still better (most notably Ken
MacLeod's "Jesus Christ, Reanimator" and Holly Phillips's "Three Days
of Rain").
Bottom line, both ballots taken as a whole (and not considering the
additional categories) I have to rank the two ballots as pretty close,
within the margin of statistical error (if you will).
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