The time has come again for me to make my nominations for the Planetary Awards for 2016 and oh boy am I ready!
For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are granted to Science-Fiction and Fantasy writing, nominated and voted for by book bloggers, podcasters, and booktubers. Last year has some great winners and nominees. You can check out more about the awards and 2015’s results on the Planetary Awards website.
Things have been simplified this year and there are two categories:
- Shorter story (under 40,000 words/160 paperback pages)
- Longer story (novels)
I’m super pleased to announce my novella nominee for Shorter story:
SUNBOLT by Intisar Khanani
An awesome and utterly unique Fantasy story, I can’t rave about it enough (although I’ve tried). You can read my review here or for the link lazy, here’s the synopsis:
The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.
When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.
This novella is currently FREE on InstaFreebie if you want to pick up a copy. You can read more about that here
The sequel, Memories of Ash (a full length novel), came out in 2016. Seriously, get started on these books if you haven’t already!
On to my nominee for best novel:
The Legacy Human (The Singularity Series) by Susan Kaye Quinn
Really, the whole series is amazing, each one it’s own fully realized section of the story without pulling a devastating cliffhanger on its readers. This Sci-Fi story is unlike anything I’ve read and should be on the radar for any fan of the genre. Here is my full review of the series and below is the synopsis:
What would you give to live forever? Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.
I actually had a hard time deciding which shorter story/novel to nominate this year as I’ve been fortunate to have had some fantastic reads. Excited to see what worlds and universes await my reading eyes in 2017!
UPDATE 1/13/17: Okay, because I’m an idiot I nominated books not published in 2016 but that I’ve read in 2016 (obviously not the same thing, duh me). The sequels to the books of this post were also spectacular though both are novels, which leaves me with a little problem since I’m supposed to nominate one in that category. But then, huzzah! solution!, the Singularity series also has short stories in its universe that I adore, one of which was published in 2016, woooooo!
So, here are my new nominations, though I still heartily recommend with full tilt enthusiasm the books above.
For the novel category:
Memories of Ash (The Sunbolt Chronicles Book 2) by Intisar Khanani
I’m not including the synopsis to avoid spoilers but if you’ve read Sunbolt you can find my review of its sequel here
For the short work category:
Awakening (Stories of Singularity #5) by Susan Kaye Quinn
Sister Amara prays she won’t be the last of the twelve sisters to reach her awakening—after all, the salvation of their Masters depends on them. But with the interrogations growing more deadly, being last may be best… especially when you’ve been created to touch the face of God.
Awakening is a standalone novella that provides a glimpse into a dark corner of the Singularity novel series.
The Stories of Singularity can be read independently from the Singularity novel series.
There you have it and thanks for bearing with me and my blunders!
Author of speculative fiction 