(no seguimento de Nominated Novels – 2008 Preliminary Nebula Award® Ballot (1) )

Emma Bull não é estranha às nomeações, Bone Dance, o seu terceiro livro, foi nomeado para o prémio Philip K. Dick, World Fantasy Award, Hugo e Nebula. Da autora podem encontrar, online, Silver or Gold (nomeado para o Nébula em 1992) ou War for the Oaks (inscrição necessária).

Territory é daqueles livros que me desperta sentimentos contraditórios: com boas referências em todas as reviews, possui uma sinopse que me deixa reticente. A história decorre na América de 1881, no Arizona, onde veios de prata são descobertos e o poder que possuis depende da quantidade de amigos que possuis – não por teres amigos poderosos, mas por conseguires obter energia deles:

Tombstone, Arizona in 1881 is the site of one of the richest mineral strikes in American history, where veins of silver run like ley lines under the earth, a network of power that belongs to anyone who knows how to claim and defend it.

Above the ground, power is also about allegiances. A magician can drain his friends’ strength to strengthen himself, and can place them between him and danger. The one with the most friends stands to win the territory.

Daniel Abraham é o autor de A Betrayal in Winter, o segundo livro de um quarteto iniciado com A Shadow in Summer.

Para além dos livros desta série, Daniel Abraham publicou alguns contos em Antologias, sendo a mais conhecida, Flat Diane (F&SF, October/November 2004), nomeada para o prémio Nébula e vencedora do International Horror Guild Award.

De Daniel Abraham conseguem encontrar, online, Leviathan Wept, The Cambist and Lord Iron (publicado na antologia Logorrhea, nomeado para o Hugo e para o World Fantasy Award) e The Support Technician Tango (Subterreanean).

A Betrayal in Winter é outro livro cuja sinopse disponível não me atrai:

As a boy, Otah Machi was exiled from his family, Machi’s ruling house. Decades later, he has witnessed and been part of world-changing events. Yet he has never returned to Machi. Now his father–the Khai, or ruler, of Machi–is dying and his eldest brother Biitrah has been assassinated, Otah realizes that he must return to Machi, for reasons not even he understands.

Tradition dictates that the sons of a dying Khai fall upon each other until only one remains to succeed his father. But something even worse is occurring in Machi. The Galts, an expansive empire, has allied with someone in Machi to bring down the ruling house. Otah is accused, the long-missing brother with an all-too-obvious motive for murder.

One for Sorrow é o primeiro livro de Christopher Barzak, vencedor do Crawford Fantasy Award. O seu primeiro conto, A Mad Tea Party,  foi publicado em Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, e pode ser lido online.

Para além deste conto, podem ler, gratuitamente, The Language of Moths (publicado na Realms of Fantasy e nomeado para o Nebula),  The Other Angelas, The Cure, Caryatids, Plenty, Vanishing Point, The Trail of my father’s Blood, Born on the Edge of an Adjective ou The Boy Who Was Born Wrapped in Barbed Wire.

Aqui fica a sinopse do livro, One for Sorrow:

Adam McCormick had just turned fifteen when the body was found in the woods. It is the beginning of an autumn that will change his life forever. Jamie Marks was a boy a lot like Adam, a boy no one paid much attention to—a boy almost no one would truly miss. And for the first time, Adam feels he has a purpose. Now, more than ever, Jamie needs a friend.

But the longer Adam holds on to Jamie’s ghost, the longer he keeps his friend tethered to a world where he no longer belongs…and the weaker Adam’s own ties to the living become. Now, to find his way back, Adam must learn for himself what it truly means to be alive.

A nomeação de In War Times terá sido a quarta nomeação de Kathleen Ann Goonan para este prémio. A primeira terá sido pelo conto The String (disponível online). Para os que quiserem ler algo mais, existe ainda outro conto online, The Day the Dam Broke.

Segundo a sinopse, este será outro livro que roda em torno da Segunda Guerra Mundial, na qual um jovem como soldado. Com uma queda para a área das engenharias e da mecânica, Sam tem acesso aos planos de uma máquina, de funcionamento imprevisível, que irá terminar com a guerra:

Sam Dance is a young enlisted soldier in 1941 when his older brother Keenan is killed at Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, Sam promises that he will do anything he can to stop the war.

During his training, Sam begins to show that he has a knack for science and engineering, and he is plucked from the daily grunt work of twenty-mile marches by his superiors to study subjects like code breaking, electronics, and physics in particular, a science that is growing more important to the war effort. While studying, Sam is seduced by a mysterious female physicist that is teaching one of his courses, and given her plans for a device that will end the war, perhaps even end the human predilection for war forever. But the device does something less, and more, than that.

After his training, Sam is sent throughout Europe to solve both theoretical and practical problems for the Allies. He spends his free time playing jazz, and trying to construct the strange device. It’s only much later that he discovers that it worked, but in a way that he could have never imagined.

Para Jack McDevitt esta é a 13º nomeação para o Nébula, prémio que conquistou apenas com Seeker. Esta é a lista dos contos do autor que podem encontrar online:

Este é outro dos autores que, apesar de ser muito referenciado, tenho algumas reservas em ler… principalmente depois de ler a sinopse de Cauldron:

The year is 2255. The academy that trained the starfarers is long gone and veteran star pilot Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins spends her retirement supporting fund-raising efforts for The Prometheus Foundation, a privately funded organization devoted to deep space exploration.

But when a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, Hutch finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly Omega clouds that continue to haunt her.