Nebula Award
Best Novel
2008 The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Set in a parallel past where the Jewish state has been built in Alaska instead of Israel, alcoholic detective Meyer Landsman investigates the mysterious death of an addict chess player, and discovers evidence of an American conspiracy that resulted in the plane crash death of his younger sister. His investigation is complicated by the involvement of his ex-wife, the chief of police, and also the upcoming expiration of the Alaskan Settlement Act after which the Jewish community will have to find a new home. Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Chabon continues to prove his keen ability to blend genre fiction with literature, and his exhilarating imagination is on full dizzying display. THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION won the 2008 Nebula Prize and Hugo Prize for Best Novel.
Novel
2008 Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
In the third entry in Ursula K. Le Guin's widely acclaimed Annals of the Western Shore saga (GIFTS and VOICES), Gav, a young slave, finds that he has amazing powers of recollection: he can remember a page of text after seeing it only once, and sometimes, he can even "remember" things that haven't happened yet. Gav's world is turned brutally upside-down when his sister is killed by a member of the household he has been taught to trust, and, blinded by sorrow, he runs away from the only world he has ever known, embarking on a journey of transformation and discovery.