Lambda Award Finalist: Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente

Authors getting nominated for awards is just cool to me.
As one of my author friends says all of the time, he just wants to be read and that is far more important than winning an award. While I agree with him to a certain extent, I think it can be a good thing to be nominated for an award. Readers pay attention to these nominations and may take a chance on an author that they normally would not. I think that is powerful. So when I run across a nominated book that sounds intriguing, I try to inform people about it who may also be interested.
It just happened.
Catherynne M. Valente has been nominated for the Lambda Award in the category of LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror for her novel, Palimpsest.
This gives you an idea of what Palimpsest is about:

In the Cities of Coin and Spice and In the Night Garden introduced readers to the unique and intoxicating imagination of Catherynne M. Valente. Now she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger’s kiss…
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse–a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They’ve each lost something important–a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life–and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.

Here is also a cool book trailer that I found on Catherynne’s website:

Based on what I’ve read and seen so far, I think Palimpsest will be embraced by readers who love Jacqueline Carey.
Congratulations, Catherynne, on your Lambda Award nomination!