Subjective Kind of Chaos Awards 2021

This is a bit of a special post. I’m very very excited to be part of the judging team for the Subjective Kind of Chaos Awards for 2021. These are blogger awards, focused on speculative fiction. This is the fourth year running – see this announcement of 2020’s winners here. This year’s judging team is consisting of Anna (@Imyril/There is always room for one more), Adri (@adrijjy/Nerds of a Feather), Arina (@voyagerarina/The Bookwyrm’s Guide to the Galaxy), Jonny (@SFFjonbob/Parsecs & Parchment), Kris (@hammard_1987/Cloaked Creators), L.A. (Aquavenatus), Lisa (@deargeekplace/Dear Geek Place), Womble (@runalongwomble/Runalongtheshelves), Noria (@noriathereader/Chronicles of Noria), Sean (@DowieSean/Nerds of a Feather) and Sun (@suncani1). They’re all wonderful people and bloggers, and I highly recommend you check them all out!

But now, WE HAVE NOMINEES. This is not a false alert, we have actually decided on a fantastic roster of nominees for our various categories. As I am a glutton for punishment, I’ll be judging in all of them except for Sci-Fi. But luckily I have a while to read/reread all of these wonderful books. If there’s a link, it means I have reviewed the book before, and you can click to read it!

BEST FANTASY

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• The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
• The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso
• The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
• Comet Weather by Liz Williams
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

BEST SCIENCE FICTION

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• Goldilocks by Laura Lam
• The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
• Deal With the Devil by Kit Rocha
• Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen
• Repo Virtual by Corey J. White
• The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

BEST BLURRED BOUNDARIES

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• Mexican Gothic – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Bone Shard Daughter – Andrea Stewart
• The City We Became – NK Jemisin
• Interior Chinatown – Charles Yu
• Harrow the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir

BEST DEBUT

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• Legendborn – Tracey Deonn
• Cemetery Boys – Aiden Thomas
• Year of the Witching – Alexis Henderson
• A Song of Wraiths and Ruin – Roseanne A Brown
• Raybearer – Jordan Ifueko
• The Scapegracers – Hannah Abigail Clarke

BEST NOVELLA

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• The Four Profound Weaves – RB Lemberg
• Upright Women Wanted – Sarah Gailey
• Riot Baby – Tochi Onyebuchi
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune – Nghi Vo
• Ring Shout – P Djèlí Clark
• Sweet Harmony – Claire North

BEST SERIES

• Dominion of the Fallen – Aliette de Bodard
• Islands of Blood and Storm – Kacen Callender (Review of King of the Rising)
• Sweet Black Waves – Kristina Pérez (Review of Wild Savage Stars and Bright Raven Skies)
• The Poppy War – RF Kuang (Review of The Burning God)
• Daevabad – S.A. Chakraborty
• Witches of Lychford – Paul Cornell

BEST SHORT FICTION

• “Tiger Lawyer Gets It Right” by Sarah Gailey (from the Escape Pod anthology)
• “Convergence in Chorus Architecture” by Dare Segun Falowo (from the Dominion anthology)
• “In Kind” by Kayla Whaley (from the Vampires Never Get Old anthology)
• “Volumes” by Laura Duerr (Cast of Wonders, online here)
• “You Perfect, Broken Thing” by C.L. Clark (Uncanny Magazine, online here)
• “Yellow and the Perception of Reality” by Maureen McHugh (Tor.com, online here)
• “Juice Like Wounds” by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com, online here)

And that’s all of them. Lots of reading to do, and I hope you’ll check out some of our choices!