Science Fiction & Fantasy Award Winning Book Group discussion

Discussion on the Arthur C. Clarke Award; which started in 1987.

What does everyone think of the news about the Clarke Award shadow jury? It's announced at theAnglia Ruskin Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy and has been covered a bit by File 770.

I'm optimistic. When it comes to people discussing Science Fiction, I think the-more-the-merrier! And it's good that there are intelligent people on the real jury and on the shadow one. It'll be interesting to see how closely they agree with each other.

The long list of potential books has been made available by the Clarke Award at Medium. Which six do you think will make the short list?

I'm embarrassed to say that I've read so few of the works that I don't think I can offer an informed opinion. So in the spirit of wild speculation:

- I think Chris Beckett's short stories are wonderful and hope that he gets some recognition for his novel-length work.
- If A Closed and Common Orbit is as bad as it's predecessor then it doesn't deserve to win anything.
- China Mieville is excellent, but I hope he doesn't win again just because it's nice to see new writers and works.
- I've heard great things about Catherynne M. Valente, Yoon Ha Lee and Naomi Alderman, but I haven't got around to reading them yet.

Nick wrote: "What does everyone think of the news about the Clarke Award shadow jury?"

I didn't know what a shadow jury was until the Clarke Award announced theirs! I'm very interested to follow along and see how it works and what the discussion is like. Also, pretty cool that one of the shadow jury members is a Booktuber (Victoria Hoyle).

From the announced submitted list, I've read 9, and another 9 are on my TBR.

- I loved The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, but I'm not sure I see A Closed and Common Orbit as strong enough to contend with other books on this list.

- I hated All the Birds in the Sky with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, and it will make the shortlist just to spite me. (It won the Crawford Award this week, and I expect to see it everywhere now.)

- Ninefox Gambit. Not sure about any others, but it's good and unusual and tons of people love it. So did I! If it doesn't make the shortlist, I'll be shocked.

I hope to read Europe in Winter very soon. I read the first two books in the Fractured Europe series last year when the 2nd book was on the shortlist and LOVED them.

Nick wrote: "What does everyone think of the news about the Clarke Award shadow jury?"

Like Rachel, I didn't know what a shadow jury was until last week. It sounds a interesting concept and should lead to equally interesting discussion.

I've read 5 from the long list, and own but haven't read 2 of the others. I've met 10 of the authors from that list (mostly Gollancz ones). I can't comment on which books could potentially make it to the shortlist as I haven't read enough to make an informed opinion but do plan to remedy that before much longer.

I'm so far behind on modern SF&F that I've only read The Fifth Season (very much enjoyed) and heard of The Long Cosmos (gave up after The Long War) from that list. :(

It'll be interesting to see what it gets cut down to.

The Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist was announced today.

Semiosis - Sue Burke (HarperVoyager)
Revenant Gun - Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
Frankenstein in Baghdad - Ahmed Saadawi (Oneworld)
The Electric State - Simon Stalenhag (Simon and Schuster)
Rosewater - Tade Thompson (Orbit)
The Loosening Skin - Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)

The announcement and shortlist can be found at clarkeaward.com.

I've never heard of The Electric State or The Loosening Skin.

Forgot to mention - the winner will be announced Wednesday, July 17th, 2019.

I haven't heard of many of these either! Interesting to see how little overlap there is with the Hugos, now that they've come out.

I read Semiosis only a few months ago and really liked it. Revenant Gun was also really good from last year. I'd like to read Frankenstein in Baghdad and Rosewater. I'm not familiar with the other two.

This year's Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist was announced last week.

Finalists
The City in the Middle of the Night
The Light Brigade
A Memory Called Empire
The Old Drift
Cage of Souls
The Last Astronaut

There are some familiar titles on this list but also a couple that I hadn't heard of before this list.

Looks like the winner will be announced in September.

Looking forward to it - glad to see Tchaikovsky turning up again, he deserves it.

The Old Drift has won this year's 34th Arthur C Clarke Award. I have to admit that I've never heard of it and yet when I looked it up it has already won several awards and is/was on several more shortlists.

It does sound interesting to me except for the fact that it is a multi-generational story that happens over an extended period of time. Those types of stories rarely work for me.

I hadn't heard of it either, but so far Clarke winners are the one's I get on best with, so I'm looking forward to it.

It's a lovely cover!

This year's finalists for the 35th annual Arthur C. Clarke Award were recently announced.

The Infinite
The Vanished Birds
Vagabonds
Edge of Heaven
The Animals in That Country
Chilling Effect

This is the first year that the list is entirely made up of debut novels. I got this from Andrew Liptak's article over on Tor.com. I know very little about any of these but since I also seem to prefer the Clarke winners I'll be checking out at least a couple of these.

I'm having so much trouble even keeping up with past winners - I don't know that I'd have time to check out of the nominations as well.

Interesting that the cover of Edge of Heaven makes it look like the publishers are marketing more towards the crime genre than the SF.

Chilling Effect synopsis sounds like a riff on The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet but with more action.

Over all it looks like a really good range of styles of SF.

The winner of the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke award is The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay.

Similar to last year's winner I know nothing about this novel. I don't think I've heard this mentioned anywhere although I will admit that I've been paying less attention to such things this year.

The shortlist for the 2022 Arthur C. Clarke award has been announced.

Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
A River Called Time by Courttia Newland
Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D. Rivera
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley

I guess that I haven't been paying much attention to new realeases as the only one that I'm aware of is A Desolation Called Peace.

The winner will be announced on Oct 26th, 2022.

Oh wow, I hadn't realised that Ishiguro had written a new book. Shows how much attention I've been paying!

The 2022 Arthur C. Clarke award was announced in late October.

Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles

This one sounds a little different. From what I understand from reading a synopsis it's science fiction poetry written in the Orkney dialect. I could be wrong but that's what it looked like.

Sometimes I just feel so grateful that we live in a world where this kind of niche literature is possible.

The 2023 Arthur C Clarke Award shortlist was announced on June 7th.

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter
The Coral Bones by E.J. Swift
Metronome by Tom Watson

The winner will be announced on August 16th.

I've read a few of Aliette de Bodard's works but I know nothing about the rest of the list.

The winner of the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award was announced on August 16th.

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman

I read the synopsis and can't decide if it sounds very interesting or depressing as heck.

Sounds like a bit of both.

The shortlist for the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award has been announced.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility by Isabel Waidner

The only one here that I'm aware of is Some Desperate Glory and I'm hoping to pick it up soon. I need to research the rest as they're all new to me.

The winner will be announced on July 24th.

The winner of the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award was announced in July.

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

Evidently this was also longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize. Not something that I pay attention to but I know that it is a big deal for other people.

The shortlist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke award was announced on May 12th.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Extremophile by Ian Green
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf

A couple of titles here that we've seen in other awards lists and some new titles. The winner will be announced on June 25th.

I've really enjoyed all the Adrian Tchaikovsky books that I've read, and yet he always seems to be turning up on award lists with a new book that I never get around to!

The rest of these are new to me, which is always nice! Without even having looked at the blurbs, 'Extremophile' is a great name for a SF book.

This year's Arthur C Clarke award winner has been announced.

Annie Bot - Sierra Greer

A little surprised that I haven't heard of this one as it's on quite a few best book of the year lists. Synopsis makes it sound quite good.

Oh man, I think I've seen too many anime with robot girlfriends to really appreciate the trope anymore! :D

Hahahaha! I'm interested more in the emergent AI personality trope. I tend to have halfway decent luck with those.