I’ve always felt weird about blogging or signal boosting myself for award nominations – something about being like “Hey, look at me!” has never sat well with me, as a writer or as a person in general. But the Nebula nomination period has opened, Hugo nominations are on the horizon, and I see a bunch of my colleagues posting not just about their own stuff, but also about fiction they’ve read and loved for people to consider nominating. That seems way more my speed, so I’ll be doing the same!
My criteria for a truly awesome novel or short story is characters that jump off the page and make me root for them (or loathe them), engaging storytelling and worldbuilding that’s fresh and interesting but also accessible. Below are my recommended reads for 2018 in novels, novellas and anthologies, followed by the short fiction I’ve written which I’d love to see nominated. I spent a good portion of the year getting caught up on books published in earlier years, so my list isn’t huge, but hopefully it’s helpful to people (I imagine I’ll add to this later when I realize I’ve left something off by mistake). Happy reading!
Novels
- Armed in Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield
- Impostor Syndrome by Mishell Baker
- Redemption’s Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
- The Quantum Magician by Derek Kunsken
- Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
- Wrath of Empire by Brian McClellan
Novellas
- Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
- Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
Anthologies
- Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, edited by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry and Dominik Parisien
- Robots vs Fairies, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe
Me!
My only award-eligible work this year is short fiction, as follows. If you’ve read either and enjoyed them, any additional signal boosting would be greatly appreciated.
- “Moments,” Daily Science Fiction (Jan 2018) – One time traveller’s memories of the moments he spent with his soul mate. https://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/time-travel/brandon-crilly/moments
- “Rainclouds,” Electric Athenaeum (Apr 2018) – On a colony world slowly dying of thirst, a young man tries to make his adopted father proud by bringing rainclouds to their homestead. http://electricathenaeum.com/2018/04/20/rainclouds/
Brandon Crilly - Writer / Teacher / Human 
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