The Incomparable, number 301, May 2016.

Welcome back, everybody to The Incomparable.

This is that episode that I enjoy every year where I get to read a lot of books that are on a list of awards.

It's the Nebula Awards.

There were seven nominees for Best Novel.

And unlike last year where we recorded just before the award was handed out,

we're actually recording after the award was handed out.

So we will talk about the novels in turn chosen randomly in an order that leads to the winner randomly,

which is kind of funny.

Joining me to talk about these seven books that somebody thought were worth putting on a list

of award nominees are members of my book club, Scott McNulty.

Hello.

I was going to predict the winner, but now you've ruined the prediction.

Yes, that's the problem about not having this be last.

See, last year when we did this, I just read all the names as if they were the winner

and then edited out all the losers.

So it seemed as if I knew what I was talking about.

But this year, we already know the winner.

Anyway, it's good to have you here, Scott. It's a pleasure. Erica Ensign is here. Hello.

I am here. I did my homework very early this time and now have forgotten a lot. So good thing I took some notes.

How many of them did you read? I started all of them. You attempted all seven. That's good. Good enough. Good, good answer. And I finished six. Okay, fair enough. Aline Sims is here. Hi, Aline. How are you? I'm okay. How are you? I'm good. I read seven books. How many books did you read? I read five. I attempted six, but I could not get through one of them. And then one of them was, well, two of them were third in a series and I hadn't read the beginning of the series. So I didn't. Interesting. Didn't do it. Fair enough. That's, that's completely fair. And joining us again, as he has actually the last couple of years from the Skiffy and Fanti podcast. It is Sean Duke. Sean, welcome back.

Thank you for having me. I will be your resident curmudgeon this episode. So expect joy.

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