Praise and gripes about the 2008 Nebula Awards Ballot

Even though there's nothing on the SFWA website--after all, why would they want to promote the best SF/F to the readers of the world?--John Scalzi has posted the 2008 Nebula Award Ballot. I'd like to do a little crowing at this point, as a number of the novels and stories I highlighted on the preliminary ballot have made this final ballot. Among these are the novels Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell and The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon; the novellas "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress and "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe; the novelette "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang; and the short stories "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler and "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" by David D. Levine.

I'm shocked that a few items didn't make the ballot, including Blindsight by Peter Watts (possibly the best science fiction novel of the year) and "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" by Mike Resnick. At least with Resnick's story I can understand that there were technical issues with the nomination since the story was published in early 2008--too late for this year's ballot--but I can see no reason why Blindsight didn't make the ballot.