{"id":1902,"date":"2012-02-27T17:39:33","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T17:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2015-05-09T19:10:17","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T18:10:17","slug":"clarke-award-submissions-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=1902","title":{"rendered":"CLARKE AWARD SUBMISSIONS ANNOUNCED"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, the 60 novels submitted to the judges for consideration for this year\u2019s Arthur C Clarke Award have been revealed over on Torque Control<\/a>. There\u2019s also a competition to pick the likely shortlist<\/a>, which I\u2019m not eligible to enter as I\u2019m on the BSFA Committee \u2013 although I should make clear before going any further that this doesn\u2019t mean I have any clue what the actual shortlist will include.<\/p>\n

Looking through the list, I\u2019ve read at least part of 16 of the novels that were submitted this year:<\/p>\n

Embedded<\/em> by Dan Abnett (Angry Robot)
\nBronze Summer<\/em> by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
\nThe Fallen Blade<\/em> by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Orbit)
\nDead Water<\/em> by Simon Ings (Corvus)
\nCyber Circus<\/em> by Kim Lakin-Smith (NewconPress)
\nGermline<\/em> by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit)
\nEmbassytown<\/em> by China Mi\u00e9ville (Macmillan)
\nThe Recollection<\/em> by Gareth L. Powell (Solaris)
\nThe Islanders<\/em> by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
\nBy Light Alone<\/em> by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
\nThe Testament of Jessie Lamb<\/em> by Jane Rogers (Sandstone)
\nReamde<\/em> by Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
\nRule 34<\/em> by Charles Stross (Orbit)
\nOsama<\/em> by Lavie Tidhar (PS)
\nThe Noise Revealed<\/em> by Ian Whates (Solaris)
\nZone One<\/em> by Colson Whitehead (Harvill Secker)<\/p>\n

Of the remaining 44, I have five more novels waiting on my \u201crealistically-might-get-read\u201d pile[i]<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Novahead<\/em> by Steve Aylett (Scar Garden)
\nRandom Walk<\/em> by Alexandra Claire
\nThe Clockwork Rocket<\/em> by Greg Egan (Gollancz)
\nLeviathan Wakes<\/em> by James S.A. Corey (Orbit)
\nThe Godless Boys<\/em> by Naomi Wood<\/p>\n

So that means I\u2019ve got some idea about the quality of around a third of the books eligible for consideration. And that all means I have absolutely no chance of picking the likely shortlist, especially given the Clarke\u2019s proud and honourable tradition of picking stuff from out on the edges of genre.<\/p>\n

Picking from those I\u2019ve already read, the shortlist I\u2019d nominate is:<\/p>\n

Dead Water<\/em> by Simon Ings (Corvus)
\nEmbassytown<\/em> by China Mi\u00e9ville (Macmillan)
\nThe Islanders<\/em> by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
\nBy Light Alone<\/em> by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
\nThe Testament of Jessie Lamb<\/em> by Jane Rogers (Sandstone)
\nOsama<\/em> by Lavie Tidhar (PS)<\/p>\n

Which is, I think, is a pretty high-quality set of novels…<\/p>\n

However, I don\u2019t think it will be the one that the judges pick. Not least because, given the debates that have gone on this year and the people on the judging panel, I expect to see more women on the final list. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see one or more of Random Walk<\/em> by Alexandra Claire, Mr Fox<\/em> by Helen Oyeyemi or The Godless Boys <\/em>by Naomi Wood on the list.<\/p>\n

Of the other books by women, I liked Kim Lakin-Smith\u2019s Cyber Circus<\/em>, but don\u2019t think it is the sort of thing the Clarke judges will go for. The Taylor, Tepper and Turner don\u2019t look particularly strong or to have a profile that matches the Clarke Award \u2013 but that might just be my prejudices showing. The two Connie Willis books have divided opinion (mostly between US and British fans, it seems\u2026) while the Fenn, McDougall, Pinborough and Robson books are all later instalments in series, which might make them harder to sell to judges.<\/p>\n

Even though I haven\u2019t got round to Novahead<\/em> yet, I wouldn\u2019t be upset to see Steve Aylett get a nomination just for his career contribution to sheer bloody-mindedness in literature. Zone One<\/em> by Colson Whitehead has the mix of literary style and genre content that might appeal to the Clarke judges, but the further I get from reading it, the less substantial I feel it was.<\/p>\n

Looking at the other novels on the list, and picking stuff more-or-less at random, The Great Lover<\/em> by Michael Cisco, Sequence<\/em> by Adrian Dawson, Echo City<\/em> by Tim Lebbon, Wake Up and Dream<\/em> by Ian R. MacLeod, Here Comes The Nice<\/em> by Jeremy Reed and Son of Heaven<\/em> by David Wingrove all look like the kind of things that might tickle a Clarke jury\u2019s fancy.<\/p>\n

In other words, I have no idea what is going to get picked.<\/p>\n

Of the books that aren\u2019t on the list of nominated stories, I\u2019ve said before that City of Bohane<\/em> by Kevin Barry is an excellent novel. I understand that the judges tried to call it in from the publisher but got no response. Barry is appearing at the Dublin-based sf convention PCon<\/a> this weekend, on a panel with director Connor Horgan (One Hundred Mornings<\/em> \u2013 which I saw at last year\u2019s Sci Fi London<\/a>). They will, apparently, be discussing their surprise at discovering that their work was \u201cscience fiction\u201d. One reason why I wish I could go to PCon is to ask Barry what he thinks about his publisher\u2019s decision not to submit\u2026 perhaps if anyone going along could put the question for me? And I still think Nina Allan’s The Silver Wind<\/em> should count as a novel!<\/p>\n

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[i]<\/a> As opposed to the \u201cnot-likely-to-be-read\u201d pile or the \u201cseemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time\u201d pile and the \u201cwhy did I buy that?!\u201d pile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, the 60 novels submitted to the judges for consideration for this year\u2019s Arthur C Clarke Award have been revealed over on Torque Control. There\u2019s also a competition to pick the likely shortlist, which I\u2019m not eligible to enter as I\u2019m on the BSFA Committee \u2013 although I should make clear before going any further […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[20],"tags":[69,105,63,46],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-uG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2736,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions\/2736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}