The shortlist of nominees for this year’s BSFA Awards – along with the Arthur C Clarke Awards one of the pre-eminent awards for science fiction literature in the UK – have just been announced. The nominees for best novel are China Mieville – The City and the City, Stephen Baxter – Ark, Adam Roberts – Yellow Blue Tibia and Ursula Le Guin – Lavinia. Remarkably of the four books no less than three are published by Gollancz, the exception being China’s City and the City which is MacMillan, which is a heck of a feather in the cap for the Gollancz SF team. I’m really surprised not to see any from Orbit in the running though, or from some of the quality small press SF folks who have been putting out some brilliant work recently and I’d imagine others will also be surprised.
Still, that said all four nominees are, frankly, brilliant authors; China has a deserved reputation for being one of our most innovative fantasy scribes, a clever writer who really does bring something fresh and new to the genre, Stephen is one of the best ‘hard SF’ writers around (its not for nothing he often is referred to as the ‘heir to Arthur C Clarke’), Adam consistently produces fascinting work that is too damned clever by half, with each book quite different from the preceding work and Ursula is simply Ursula, one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, elegant and wonderful writers, in any genre, I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I wouldn’t hesistate to point you to all four if you are looking for some good reading.
On the short fiction front the nominees are Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia – The Beloved Time of Their Lives – The Beloved of My Beloved, Newcon Press, Eugie Foster – Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast – Interzone, Ian Whates – The Assistant – The Solaris Book of Science Fiction Volume 3, Ian McDonald – Vishnu at the Cat Circus, Kim Lakin-Smith – Johnnie and Emmie-Lou Get Married – Interzone and Dave Hutchinson – The Push, Newcon Press. Two noms from Interzone – see, I said its a journal anyone who loves SF writing should be checking out!
(gorgeous cover art for Interzone #225 by Adam Tredowski)
Non fiction noms are Nick Lowe – Mutant Popcorn, Interzone, John Clute – Canary Fever, Beccon, Hal Duncan – Ethics and Enthusiasm, Deepa D – I didn’t Dream of Dragons and Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James – A Short History of Fantasy. Contending for the Art award are Adam Tredowski – covers of Interzone issues 220, 224 and 225, Nitzan Klamer – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Stephanie Pui-Min Law- Emerald, Stephan Martiniere – Cover of Desolation Road by Ian McDonald. As is traditional the awards will be given out at the annual Eastercon, Odyssey, which this year takes place over the weekend of April 2nd to 5th
Mon, Jan 25, 2010
Awards, Books