And so it begins: via Jeff Vandermeer, the shortlist for the 2006 Philip K. Dick Award “for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States”:
Mindscape by Andrea Hairston (Aqueduct Press)
Carnival by Elizabeth Bear (Bantam Spectra)
Spin Control by Chris Moriarty (Bantam Spectra)
Catalyst by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Tachyon Publications)
Recursion by Tony Ballantyne (Bantam Spectra)
Idolon by Mark Budz (Bantam Spectra)
Living Next-Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson (Bantam Spectra)
I’ve read three — the Ballantyne, the Budz, and the Robson — all of which are fun, but of which Living Next-Door to the God of Love is the best by a country mile. I’ve heard mixed things about the Bear, the Hairston and the Hoffman, although Carnival is already on my TBR-pile and I’d like to give Mindscape a go. Pointing out omissions is trickier, since (from this side of the pond) I don’t always have a good sense of what was published as a paperback and what wasn’t; but I’m a bit surprised to see nothing at all from Pyr.
vector-bsfa.com 
“…a bit surprised to see nothing at all from Pyr.”
Pyr is, obviously, the very acme of sf publishing excellence. But does it publish paperbacks? I thought it was a hardback only operation.
Looking at the catalogue there are a few paperbacks — but you’re right, it’s fewer than I thought.
No. Judging from this list Bantam is the pinnacle of sf publishing, followed by Aqueduct and Tachyon. Unless somebody who’s actually read all the works in question cares to way in. The PKD Award is not intended as a popularity contest, but to otherwise shed light on books that may have been overlooked.
Miguel: I wasn’t suggesting the shortlist should go in for some kind of proportional representation, or anything; just observing that Pyr has published a number of well-received paperback originals (although, as it turns out, not as many as I thought).
The PKD Award is not intended as a popularity contest, but to otherwise shed light on books that may have been overlooked.
Funny, I thought it was just intended to identify the best paperback sf novel published in the US. Are books like the Robson, the Budz and the Bear really in danger of being overlooked, do you think?
Niall:
Yes, they are (although the books I enjoyed most this year from this list were actually the ones by Andrea Hairston and Nina Kiriki Hoffman, but that’s just my taste).
The Philip K. Dick Award was setup to honor paperback originals because that’s the market Philip K. Dick wrote for and because paperback originals are seldom reviewed and rarely achieve critical success. They are never bought by libraries and fall apart much quicker than hardcover books. The PKD was intended as an award to honor works that might otherwise vanish into obscurity.
There are many reasons why Pyr’s books may not be considered. Most of their books are published in hardcover. Some of their books are published simultaneously in trade paperback and hardcover; sometimes just a few hundred hardcover are produced for the library market. Any hardcover edition makes them ineligle for the award (including any sort of limited edition). Also, many of their best books are British or American reprints that although deserving don’t fall under the pervue of this award.
For my money, the best publishers doing paperback originals are Tachyon, Aqueduct, and Nightshade among the indies, and Bantam and Ace among the majors.
Thanks, Miguel. Sorry if my earlier comment came across as a bit tetchy; I’m having that sort of day.
I know about the general purpose and rationale of the PKD, but I’m still a bit sceptical of the idea that this is a list of overlooked titles. (I would expect, for instance, that many of them will appear on the Locus recommended reading list.) But we may be working from different definitions of “overlooked”.
As I said to Adam, Pyr clearly publishes more hardbacks than I thought they did when I made the original post. Though I’m not sure about the reprint clause you cite — Justina Robson’s now had three of her first four novels (two from Bantam, one from Pyr) shortlisted for the PKD, for example, even though their first US publication has been years after their first UK publication. I certainly agree about Aqueduct — when Life won the PKD a couple of years ago, I thought a UK publisher to pick the book up, but alas not so far.
Niall:
I was going to write a post about how none of the preliminary Nebula picks announced yesterday were books on the Philip K. Dick Award and how that proved my point that the PKD books were overlooked. Then I noticed that Wil McCarthy’s To Crush the Moon was a paperback original on the Nebula List (also from Bantam/Spectra), but not on the PKD list. Further checking revealed that Jeffrey Ford’s The Girl in the Glass (Dark Alley) and Mark W. Tiedemann’s Remains (BenBella) are also paperback originals on the Neb list and missing from PKD. This suggests that there are a lot of great books by a lot of great publishers (Tachyon, Pyr, Aqueduct, BenBella, Nightshade, etc., etc.) but that the there may, in fact, be too many good books out there for any of us to successfully track in a given year. An embarrassment of riches.
Just a quick observation to Miggy’s comments. The PKD is based on books published in a calendary year, and the current shortlist is for ’06. All three of the books you mentioned that made the Nebula ballot (including mine) were published in ’05.
Thanks for setting me straight, Mark. And congratulations on your nomination. I bought Remains after it was shortlisted for the Tiptree, but regrettably have yet to read it. I’ll have to rectify that shortly.