"In those 33 eventful years, I've won Nebula Awards and lost them (or, as this year's toastmaster, Michael Cassutt, put it, I've been 'differently victorious'). And I've read another 31 Nebula Awards collections and all the stories in them.... And you know what? I'm just as dazzled, just as awed and impressed, by the Nebula Award stories as I was that first time."
Nebula Awards 33 features Jane Yolen's Best Short Story winner, Sister Emily's Lightship, a tale of poetic inspiration from the stars; The Flowers of Aulit Prison, Nancy Kress's winner for Best Novelette, which beautifully examines the persistence of memory; the Best Novella winner, Jerry Oltion's Abandon in Place, an extraordinary space-ghost story; and an excerpt from Vonda N. McIntyre's lush historical fantasy The Moon and the Sun, which took Best Novel honors.
A terrific selection of "differently victorious" pieces rounds out this outstanding collection, along with the essays, author profiles (of Nelson Bond and Poul Anderson), and Rhysling Award winners (for science fiction poetry) we've come to expect in the Nebula series. The Nebula nominees represent some of the best science fiction and fantasy published each year, and Nebula Awards 33 is full of high-caliber writing, great ideas, and fascinating insight into the minds and hearts of the nominated authors. --Therese Littleton