SCKA 2019 - The nominations

Back in 2018, we had a crazy idea: some Kind of Awards, with some readers and/or book bloggers as jurors, determining Subjectively and in a merry Chaos what we had liked.

Having had tremendous fun doing it, we had to do it again in 2019.
Our nominations are in, so click read more to see which SFF stories made it to the first round!

Like last year, we have five categories: Best Fantasy novel, Best Scifi novel, Best novella, Best Blurred Boundary story, Best series.
All works should have been published in 2018 (or republished if it included significant changes, or if it went from indie to traditional publishing).

And, behold! Here are what we have liked best in 2018!

Fantasy

The Poppy War by RF Kuang
The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley
The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty
Someone Like Me by MR Carey
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Science Fiction

I Still Dream by James Smythe
Semiosis by Sue Burke
Embers of War by Gareth L Powell
The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
84k by Claire North
Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente

Blurred Boundary

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley
The Pyschology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar
Trail of Lightening by Rebecca Roanhorse

Novella

The Tea Master And the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Black God’s Drums by P Djeli Clark
Beneath The Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
Chlorophryll and Gasoline by SJ Fleming

Series

The Wounded Kingdom by RJ Barker
Machineries of War by Yoon Ha Lee
Fractured Europe by Dave Hutchinson
Vengeful by VE Schwab
Every Day by David Levithan

Chaos has obviously already descended upon us, particularly when we had to do some shuffling around, to say nothing of Rosewater which ended up in Blurred Boundary despite being initially in the Scifi category.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm really looking forward to get into these, especially since I haven't read much of what has been published in the second half of 2018.
Nonetheless, I won't take part in the first round for the series category because there are some stories I've really tried to get into, repeatedly, and didn't like. So I really have no intention of trying again!
But you can expect reviews for much of the rest to follow vvery soon.

This year's jurors are David from BlueBookBalloon, Imyril from x+1, Runalong Womble from Runalong the Shelves, Hammard from Cloaked Creators, Hedwig, Eowyn and I.

You can follow the news on Twitter using #SCKA or #SubjectiveChaos.
Next post: when we have finished reading them all and we will have decided on which book goes to the second round!

... Oh wait! We haven't settled a date for that yet!
*grumbles* *grumbles* Bleeding chaos this award thingy!

Last year's winners are here.