The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The nominations shortlist for this year’s prestigious British Science Fiction Association awards (along with the Arthur C Clarke awards the pre-eminent awards in UK literary SF) have been announced:

Best Novel

Flood by Stephen Baxter
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Best Short Fiction

“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse 2)
“Crystal Nights” [pdf] by Greg Egan (Interzone 215)
“Little Lost Robot” [pdf] by Paul McAuley (Interzone 217)
“Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment” by M. Rickert (F&SF, Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Non-Fiction

“Physics for Amnesia” by John Clute
Superheroes!: Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films by Roz Kaveney (I.B. Tauris)
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)

Best Artwork

Cover of Subterfuge, ed. Ian Whates, by Andy Bigwood
Cover of Flood by Stephen Baxter, by Blacksheep
Cover of Swiftly by Adam Roberts, by Blacksheep
Cover of Murky Depths 4 by Vincent Chong
Cover of Interzone 218 by Warwick Fraser Coombe

(the cover to Interzone #218 by Warwick Fraser Coombe)

Unusually there are only four contenders in the Best Novel category, the result of multiple ties for the fifth spot according to the BSFA site. For a change I find I have only read one of the books in the novel category (well so far, Neal Stephenson is on my to-read list), Ken MacLeod’s powerful Night Sessions (one of my favourite books of 2008), although I am familiar with all of the authors on the list with the exception of Nick Harkaway, who I haven’t read yet, but will need to keep an eye out for.

In the Short Fiction category free PDF versions of two of the stories – Greg Egan’s Crystal Nights and Paul McAuley’s Little Lost Robot, both published in the excellent Interzone – have been made available. Its always been a problem with the short story categories in SF&F awards (as it is with say short films or short animations in movie awards) that, unlike the novels, if you are looking at the nominees with a view to reading them (and these lists are often a good ‘suggested reading’ list for many of us) they can be hard to find – if they appeared in a periodical then that issue has been and gone by the time you see the awards list, so I’m always pleased to see some of those short stories made available online like this when they receive nominations (especially as, in my opinion, the short fiction published by the journals is part of the backbone of science fiction writing; its where many writers first get the chance to establish a reputation that will help in that fight to get a book deal, so its vital for new talent and also a good place for established names to showcase their work to new potential readers). THE BSFAs will be given out, as is traditional, at this year’s Eastercon, which takes place this year in Bradford over the weekend of April 10th to 13th.