Tuesday, March 3, 2009

But where's the science fiction?

All right, so my last post trumpeted the announcement of the Norton category of the 2009 Nebula nominations.

Notice anything odd about that list?

All right, I'll tell you. It was mostly fantasy. There was only one SF title on it - The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Now, the full title of this award is "The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book" so obviously fantasy is fine. But heck, when when you hear the word "nebula," don't you think about outer space? It's telling that the Norton award has turned into a fantasy fest.

It just so happens that Farah Mendlesohn has written an excellent piece for Horn Book on the state of science fiction for young people, and she includes a terrific bibliography. I wrote about this myself recently, science fiction being a deeply-cherished love of mine.
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3 comments:

  1. CharlotteMarch 4, 2009 at 7:57 AM

    Yeah, I was just noticing that myself! So many more fantasy books are being published, sci fic dosen't stand a chance. I decided to try to make a list of all the 2009 science fiction books, and am only up to ten...

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  2. CharlotteMarch 4, 2009 at 8:07 AM

    Here's the link, btw, to my list: http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/2009/03/science-fiction-for-teens-what-new.html

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  3. Eva MMarch 4, 2009 at 11:58 AM

    Thanks for the link! Let's hope we can add more than usual to our Fab SF Books for Kids and Teens lists this year...I'll be scouting out the books you mentioned.

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