The shortlist of nominees for the prestigious Arthur C Clarke award (along with the BSFAs, which announced their shortlist recently, the UK’s most important awards for science fiction literature) isn’t usually announced for a few weeks, but this year, in a break with tradition the organisers have announced a longlist for the first time, with some forty six books in total which will be whittled down to a final shortlist come the middle of March. Niall at Torque Control has them up already and has even arranged them alphabetically:
The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J Anderson (Simon & Schuster)
The Line War by Neal Asher (Tor)
The Heritage by Will Ashon (Faber & Faber)
Man in the Dark by Paul Auster (Faber & Faber)
Neuropath by Scott Bakker (Gollancz)
Matter by Iain M Banks (Orbit)
Flood by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
Weaver by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear (Gollancz)
Kethani by Eric Brown (Solaris)
Necropath by Eric Brown (Solaris)
Sputnik Caledonia by Andrew Crumey (Picador)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (HarperCollins)
Incandescence by Greg Egan (Gollancz)
Infoquake by David Louis Edelman (Solaris)
The Broken World by Tim Etchells (William Heinemann)
Omega by Christopher Evans (PS Publishing)
Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton)
Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)
Eve: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales (Gollancz)
The Temporal Void by Peter F Hamilton (Macmillan)
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann)
Template by Matthew Hughes (PS Publishing)
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt (Harvill Secker)
Song of Time by Ian R MacLeod (PS Publishing)
The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann (Snowbooks)
The Quiet War by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
Dark Blood by John Meaney (Gollancz)
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan (Gollancz)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker)
Debatable Space by Philip Palmer (Orbit)
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
Swiftly by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Going Under by Justina Robson (Gollancz)
The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor)
DogFellow’s Ghost by Gavin Smith (Macmillan)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
The Dog of the North by Tim Stretton (Macmillan)
Halting State by Charles Stross (Orbit)
Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Orbit)
The Margarets by Sheri S Tepper (Gollancz)
Blue War by Jeffrey Thomas (Solaris)
Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber (Tor)
Martin Martin’s on the Other Side by Mark Wernham (Jonathan Cape)
Winterstrike by Liz Williams (Tor)
So why the introduction of publishing the longlist (which is a common practise in many other literary awards)? Organiser Tom Hunter explained “Speculation and active debate have always surrounded the announcements of the shortlists and the eventual winner. By announcing the full longlist of eligible books for the first time I hope we can also highlight the strength and diversity of current science fiction, create more conversation and debate and show the awesome challenge that faces the judging panel every year.”
Well there’s certainly plenty of diversity on offer in this list – hard edged, dark (and often bloody) tales from Neal Asher and Richard Morgan, theological/political intrigue from Ken MacLeod, dark comedy detective fun from Charlie Stross (who has two on the longlist, such is his prolific output and yes, I read both this year and they are brilliant), historically-based SF with the far-too-damned-clever Adam Roberts in his Gulliver’s Travels ‘sort-of’ sequel Swiftly, space action from John Scalzi (I haven’t read Last Colony yet but I have read the first two in this series and they were a real delight; several folks in my boo group are now picking them up) and even a book for young adults (but perfectly good reading for adults too), Cory Doctorow’s riposte to the ever-increasing surveillance society, Little Brother. And I’m also pleased to see entries from the independent SF presses like Solaris and PS Publishing on the longlist too.
Sadly I can only claim to have read eight of the longlist books, although there are several mentioned there which were already on my must have a read list (and as usual I’d say to anyone looking for suggested good SF&F reading this list is a damned good starting point) and I’m pleased to see several that were on my personal Best of the Year list appearing on here. As is often the case there is some crossover with the BSFA’s (short)list, with Ken MacLeod’s Night Session, Stephen Baxter’s Flood, The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway and Neal Stephenson’s Anathem appearing on both lists. Thanks to SF Awards Watch for the original linkl SF Awards Watch also points out that the SFWA have announced a new award, the Solstice Award.The Clarkes ceremony will take place on April 29th at Sci-Fi London.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Hi Joe, thanks for the link. Just a quick note on terminology, if I may — I don’t think it’s quite right to refer to this as a “longlist”. That implies that some sort of value judgement has been made about these titles, which is not the case. It’s simply a list of everything that was submitted for consideration by the Clarke judges. I think its value lies in the fact that, in theory, it’s a good approximation of what was published in the UK in 2008. (In practice, of course, there are a couple of mainstream-published novels I can think of that could have been considered but seem to have slipped through the net; and Solaris didn’t submit all the books they published that were eligible; and I’m sure there are some more YA novels that aren’t being considered.) By that measure, I tend to agree with you that it’s a strong list of books — which is to say it was a pretty good year — and I don’t envy the judges having to whittle it down to six.
I also think it’s significant because most other awards *don’t* do this. The Booker prize, for example, does not publish a list of what was submitted, despite the fact that they limit the number of books a publisher can submit (whereas in principle, the Clarke is open to ever original sf novel published in the UK). I applaud the Clarke for doing this, because I think literary awards are strengthened if they allow a clear understanding of what was considered and what was not.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Hi, Niall, when I said other awards often do this, I meant a traditional longlist (since that’s what I thought it was until you explained it) but thanks for the update and yep, I don’t envy whittling that down to six final nominees either!
February 12th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I don’t envy anyone having to read the whole list in order to whittle it down to six. Every year when they announce the Booker judging panel, there’s always a couple of gimmicky picks on it I’d reckon would never read the entire shortlist, let alone the longlist.