Recs if you like When We Were Real...

sometimes they're running to something, sometimes they're running from something, sometimes they're just running.

Finalists for the 2026 Nebula Award for BEST NOVEL and BEST NOVELLA, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA).

Not included in this list is Best Novella finalist "Descent" by Wole Talabi, published in the May 2025 issue of Clarkesworld.

Works published in 2025.

Best Novel Nominees: When We Were Real • 🏆 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter • Katabasis • Death of the Author • The Incandescent • Sour Cherry • Wearing the Lion

Best Novella Nominees: Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle • 🏆🚀 The River Has Roots • The Death of Mountains • Automatic Noodle • But Not Too Bold • Descent*

Legend: 🏆 Winner • 🚀 Hugo Award Winner

*Published in Clarkesworld Magazine #224, May 2025

Books with pronouns in the title. Suggestions welcome!

Books featuring a plot element that ruins society or science.

Pulled from Reactor Magazine's (Tor.com) announcement. See the article for a list of short stories as well.

Works not in database: We Begin Where Infinity Ends - Somto Ihezue The Tin Man's Ghost - Ray Nayler The Millay Illusion - Sarah Pinsker When He Calls Your Name - Catherynne M. Valente The Twenty-One Second God - Peter Watts Night & Day - ed. Ellen Datlow Starling House - Alix E. Harrow (ILLUSTRATED EDITION, ILLUS. BY ROVINA CAI) Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene Volumes 1-3 (graphic adaptation)

Note: The Revelation Space Collection by Alastair Reynolds is actually for volumes 1 & 2