{"id":2532,"date":"2014-01-13T20:27:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T19:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=2532"},"modified":"2020-04-22T02:42:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T01:42:56","slug":"twas-the-night-before-the-bsfa-nomination-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=2532","title":{"rendered":"‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BSFA NOMINATION DEADLINE…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, so, if I wanted this to be any use to anyone I’d have done it weeks ago, but I didn’t and there was always just one more book<\/em> to try and squeeze in… And if I wanted this to be remotely interesting to anyone, I’d probably have written a long explanation as to why some of these books didn’t make my nominations – I have long and tedious explanations for the absence of both The Adjacent and Ancillary Justice from my nominations – but I didn’t have time.<\/p>\n

The deadline for the British Science Fiction Awards nominations is tomorrow. If you can but haven’t nominated your favourites:\u00a0DO IT NOW!<\/a><\/p>\n

If anyone cares, here’s what I’ve nominated for the BSFA Awards this year:<\/p>\n

BEST NOVELS<\/h3>\n

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)
\nEvening\u2019s Empires by Paul Macauley (Gollancz) (If I was picking just one book, it would probably be this one)
\nGemsigns by Stephanie Saulter (Jo Fletcher Books)
\nThe Machine by James Smythe (Blue Door)
\nMartian Sands\u00a0by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
\nDream London by Tony Ballantyne (Solaris)
\nStrange Bodies\u00a0by Marcel Theroux (Faber & Faber)
\nOsiris by EJ Swift (Del Ray)<\/p>\n

SHORT STORY BSFA NOMINATIONS<\/h3>\n

The Angel At The Heart of the Rain by Aliette de Bodard\u00a0(Interzone 246)
\nA Bridge of Words\u00a0by\u00a0Dinesh Rao (We See a Different Frontier, Futurefire)
\nThe Curious Case of the Werewolf\u00a0that Wasn’t, Mummy that Was And\u00a0the Cat in the Jar\u00a0by\u00a0Gail Carriger (Undead, Pandemonium)
\nThe Eye With Which the Universe\u00a0Beholds Itself\u00a0by\u00a0Ian Sales (Whippleshield Books)
\nThe Gist\u00a0by\u00a0Michael Marshall Smith, Benoit Domis and Nicholas Royle (Subterranean Press)
\nThe Jupiter Files\u00a0by\u00a0Jon Courtenay Grimwood (The Lowest Heaven, Pandemonium)
\nThe Last Illusion\u00a0by\u00a0Damien Walters Grintalis\u00a0(Interzone 245)
\nMeet The President\u00a0by\u00a0Zadie Smith (The New Yorker)
\nOld Domes\u00a0by\u00a0JY Yang\u00a0(We See A Different Frontier, Futurefire)
\nSaga\u2019s Children\u00a0by\u00a0EJ Swift (The Lowest Heaven, Pandemonium)
\nSpin\u00a0by\u00a0Nina Allan (TTA Press)
\nStardust\u00a0by\u00a0Nina Allan (Stardust, PS Publishing)
\nWhatever Skin You Wear\u00a0by\u00a0Eugie Foster\u00a0(Solaris Rising 2, Solaris)
\nWith Fate Conspire \u00a0by\u00a0Vandana Singh\u00a0(Solaris Rising 2, Solaris)<\/p>\n

ART
\nCover of Kim Lakin-Smith’s Autodrome<\/a>\u00a0(Snowbooks)
\nThe Angel At The Heart of the Rain<\/a>\u00a0by Richard Wagner (Interzone 246)
\nCover of Astonishing X-Men 67<\/a>\u00a0by Phil Noto\u00a0(Marvel)
\nCover of Captain Midnight 1<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0by Paolo Rivera\u00a0\u00a0(Dark Horse)
\nThe cover of Dream London<\/a>\u00a0by Joey HiFi (Solaris)
\nCover of Hell to Pay\u00a0by\u00a0<\/a>Tom Gauld (Angry Robot Books)
\nFatale: Death Chases Me Book 1<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0by\u00a0Sean Philips (Image)
\nCover of Paprika<\/a>\u00a0(Vintage)<\/p>\n

NON-FICTION<\/h3>\n

Afrofuturism\u00a0by\u00a0Ytasha L. Womack \u00a0(Lawrence Hill Books)
\nThe Future of the Past \u00a0by Pawel Frelik\u00a0(Parabolas of Science Fiction, Ed Attebery and Hollinger)
\nParabolas of Science Fiction\u00a0eds Atterbery & Hollinger\u00a0(Wesleyan University Press)
\nProjecting Tomorrow eds James Chapman & Nicholas J. Cull \u00a0 (I. B. Tauris)
\nSpeculative Fiction 2012\u00a0eds Landon & Shurin\u00a0\u00a0(Jurassic London)<\/p>\n

So that’s the end of my BSFA nominations. The rest is probably of even less interest to anyone, but here’s some other thoughts on some of the things I’ve read this year.<\/p>\n

2013 SF NOVELS THAT I’VE READ BUT HAVEN\u2019T NOMINATED<\/h3>\n

2121\u00a0by\u00a0Susan Greenfield
\n(The worst book I read this year)
\nAck Ack Macaque\u00a0by\u00a0Gareth L Powell
\n(Very entertaining)
\nThe Adjacent\u00a0by\u00a0Christopher Priest
\n(Look, it’s a Priest novel so it’s very good. But I have a number of ideological problems with it, particularly the way it contrasts modern England and the past.)
\nAncilliary Justice\u00a0by\u00a0Ann Leckie
\n(One third of this is brilliant, the other two-thirds is a bit of a let down with wild improbabilities and supposedly all-powerful, super-smart bad guys who behave like imbeciles)
\nArctic Rising\u00a0by\u00a0Tobias Buckell
\n(Fair adventure story. Silly politics)
\nThe Best of All Possible Worlds\u00a0by\u00a0Karen Lord
\n(Strange mix of sf and romance novel that doesn’t really work.)
\nThe Curve of the Earth<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0by Simon Morden
\nThe Curiosity <\/a>\u00a0by Stephen Kiernan
\nThe Eidolon by Libby McGugan
\n(Not bad, promising debut but slight)
\nThe Explorer by James Smythe
\n(Smythe is a very good writer, I really admired The Machine, but this series – including the forthcoming The Echo – drive me to distraction with the silly mistakes)
\nGod’s War by Kameron Hurley
\n(I don’t understand this book’s popularity, it’s a story driven by violence with supposedly experienced soldiers whose grasp of tactics doesn’t extend beyond standing in a line and shooting at each other.)
\nGun Machine\u00a0by Warren Ellis
\n(Less gonzo than his previous novel, Crooked Little Vein, and probably better for it.)
\nLife on the Preservation by Jack Skillingstead
\n(Review forthcoming in Vector. Not very good.)
\nThe Office of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian
\n(Didn’t get on with this at all.)
\nOn The Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds
\n(Review forthcoming in Vector. I liked it but it’s the second book in a trilogy and suffers from slightly stodgy plotting but it made me feel very guilty for not nominating Blue Remembered Earth, which is a novel that gets better the more I think about it.)
\nProxima\u00a0by Stephen Baxter
\n(Also reviewing for Vector – a proper page-turning sf adventure.)
\nRed Light: First Light by Linda Nagata
\n(An interesting liberal modern take on mil-sf in which the real enemy are corporations. I’ll be reading the next book)
\nThe Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
\n(I was disappointed with this – I don’t think it works particularly well as a novel and the message seemed, to me, to be a bit odd and unnecessarily forced.)
\nTerra\u00a0by Mitch Benn
\n(Funny in parts but a bit cloying by the end.)
\nWhat Lot’s Wife Saw by Ionna Bourzopoulou
\n(If this had been written after the financial crises of 2008 it might have passed as an interesting statement on the destruction of southern Europe but it was first published in 2007. It all felt a bit fiddly and the further I get from the Keyser Soze ending, the less I like it. As a former crossword editor, the puzzle element bugged me too.)
\nWhen We Wake by Karen Healey
\n(Made almost no impression on me at all.)
\nThe Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar
\n(I enjoyed this but it didn’t feel like a particularly essential addition to the superhero canon – I’m not sure it does anything new – and the politics of it felt oddly restrained for Tidhar. I enjoyed the more energetic and angrier Martian Sands in which Tidhar channels his alternate persona as a Jewish Dick.)<\/p>\n

BEST OF THE NEW NON-SF NOVELS I READ THIS YEAR<\/h3>\n

Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon
\nKonstantin by Tom Bullough
\nThe Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (My favourite novel of the year of any kind. Touching, cleverly structured and reflecting post-crash realities.)
\nTransAtlantic by Colum McCann
\nThe Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin<\/p>\n

FAVOURITE SF SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS<\/h3>\n

Adam Robots\u00a0by \u00a0Adam Robots
\nEverything You Need by Michael Marshal Smith
\nMicrocosm by Nina Allan
\nThe Peacock Cloak\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0by Chris Beckett
\nStardust\u00a0by Nina Allan
\nTales from The Quiet War by Paul Macauley
\nThe Woman Who Thought She Was A Planet\u00a0by Vandana Singh<\/p>\n

FAVOURITE SF ANTHOLOGIES<\/h3>\n

End of the Road\u00a0(Solaris)
\nThe Lowest Heaven (Pandemonium)
\nSolaris Rising 2 (Solaris – my story “The First Dance” is in this, so I’m probably biased)
\nWe See A Different Frontier by Futurefire.net<\/p>\n

SOME OF THE SF NOVELS THAT I DIDN’T GET TO READ THIS YEAR BUT THAT ARE STILL ON MY TO BE READ<\/em> PILE…<\/h3>\n

Shaman\u00a0by Kim Stanley Robinson
\nLove Minus Eighty \u00a0by Will McIntosh
\niD\u00a0by\u00a0Madeline Ashby
\nThe Golem and the Jinni \u00a0by\u00a0Helen Wecker
\nThe Prophet of Bones \u00a0by\u00a0Ted Kosmatka
\nNexus\u00a0by\u00a0Ramez Naam
\nLives of Tao \u00a0by\u00a0Wesley Chu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, so, if I wanted this to be any use to anyone I’d have done it weeks ago, but I didn’t and there was always just one more book to try and squeeze in… And if I wanted this to be remotely interesting to anyone, I’d probably have written a long explanation as to why […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22],"tags":[69,73,46],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-EQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532"}],"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=2532"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2543,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions\/2543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}