Tomi Adeyemi, Janelle Monáe and Boots Riley among this year's Nebula Awards nominees

The finalists for the 2018 Nebula Awards, considered some of the most prestigious in science fiction and fantasy, were announced on Wednesday, with novelists Tomi Adeyemi and Justina Ireland, filmmaker Boots Riley and musician Janelle Monáe among the nominees. Adeyemi and Ireland were nominated in the young adult category, Adeyemi for "Children of Blood and Bone" and Ireland for "Dread Nation." Both books gained critical acclaim upon their release, and Adeyemi's book was the inaugural pick for Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight Show" book club. The two authors are joined in the category by Roshani Chokshi's "Aru Shah and the End of Time," A.K. DuBoff's "A Light in the Dark," Rachel Hartman's "Tess of the Road" and Henry Lien's "Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword." Finalists in the novel category included Mary Robinette Kowal's "The Calculating Stars" and R.F.