Tag: 2009 round-up

2009 Nebula Awards Ballot

It’s here; congratulations to all the nominees, even the ones I’m about to say I personally am not very excited about!

Now, category by category:

Best Short Story

  • “Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela,” Saladin Ahmed (Clockwork Phoenix 2, Norilana Press, Jul09)
  • “I Remember the Future,” Michael A. Burstein (I Remember the Future, Apex Press, Nov08)
  • “Non-Zero Probabilities,” N. K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld, Nov09)
  • “Spar,” Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, Oct09)
  • “Going Deep,” James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jun09)
  • “Bridesicle,” Will McIntosh (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jan09; pdf link)

Oh joy, a Michael A Burstein story to read (assuming it gets made available online EDIT: doesn’t look like it will be). Other than that, strikes me as a solid list. “Bridesicle” is probably my favourite of McIntosh’s stories to date, and if “Non-Zero Probabilities” struck me as a little thin, it’s executed well enough. “Spar” is probably the best of the ones I’ve read, although I don’t love it as others do.

Best Novelette

A very crunchy selection, although has that slightly schizophrenic can’t-decide-what-year-it-is thing going on. “The Gambler” was probably my single favourite piece of Hugo-nominated fiction last year, so I’m rooting for that. Good to see Foster’s story, which is of course also on the BSFA Award ballot, and “Divining Light”, which we discussed here. I’d have quite strongly preferred to see “Eros, Philia, Agape” on the ballot in place of “A Memory of Wind”, but the latter is by no means a bad story. Haven’t read the Bishop or Bowes.

Best Novella

  • The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean Press, Jun09)
  • “Arkfall,” Carolyn Ives Gilman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sep09)
  • “Act One,” Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Mar09; pdf link)
  • Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow (Tachyon, Feb09)
  • “Sublimation Angels,” Jason Sanford (Interzone, Oct09)
  • The God Engines, John Scalzi ( Subterranean Press, Dec09)

Eh. I like “Sublimation Angels“, but am less than whelmed by either the Kress or Gilman stories, and am sceptical of the Morrow. I’m intrigued by The God Engines, however.

Best Novel
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Nightshade, Sep09)
The Love We Share Without Knowing, Christopher Barzak (Bantam, Nov08)
Flesh and Fire, Laura Anne Gilman (Pocket, Oct09)
The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey, May09)
Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor, Sep09)
Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland Press, Oct09)

My heart says Bacigalupi, and damn the naysayers; my head thinks The City & The City is probably going to be a Hugo-and-Nebula-winner by the end of the year.

Bradbury Award for excellence in screenwriting

  • Star Trek, JJ Abrams (Paramount, May09)
  • District 9, Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (Tri-Star, Aug09)
  • Avatar, James Cameron (Fox, Dec 09)
  • Moon, Duncan Jones and Nathan Parker (Sony, Jun09)
  • Up, Bob Peterson and Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar, May09)
  • Coraline, Henry Selick (Laika/Focus Feb09)

If Abrams wins, I will cry. Actually, if pretty much anyone other than Jones/Parker wins, I will sulk, though Up would be acceptable.

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

  • Hotel Under the Sand, Kage Baker (Tachyon, Jul09)
  • Ice, Sarah Beth Durst (Simon and Schuster, Oct09)
  • Ash, Malinda Lo (Little, Brown and Company, Sep09)
  • Eyes Like Stars, Lisa Mantchev (Feiwel and Friends, Jul09)
  • Zoe’s Tale, John Scalzi (Tor Aug08)
  • When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009)
  • The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making, Catherynne M. Valente (Catherynne M. Valente, Jun09)
  • Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld (Simon, Oct09)

    Eight is pushing it for a shortlist, isn’t it? Stil, several books here I’d like to get around to reading, so I’m not complaining too much. I will say, though, that I feel a rash of tweets like this just before nominations closed, which may have been poorly worded but which as they stand look like they were just trying to drum up votes irrespective of whether the voter had read the book or not, devalue Baker’s nomination a bit. And that’s a shame.

    Draft Hugo Ballot

    A little later than advertised, here’s my working draft Hugo ballot. As with Joe Sherry’s draft, at this stage I plan to definitely nominate anything marked with asterisks (***), and am considering the other items listed. I’ll post some thoughts on each category as a comment to this post [ta-da!], and I’ll be posting further comments and probably updating the post as I read more; recommendations welcome, although I’m probably not going to get through many more eligible novels.

    Best Novel (“A science fiction or fantasy story of 40,000 words or more that appeared for the first time in 2009.”)

    ***The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)
    ***The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham (Doubleday)
    ***Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperVoyager)
    ***In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield (Del Rey/Jonathan Cape)
    Flood by Stephen Baxter (Roc)
    UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo (Chatto & Windus)
    The Ask & The Answer by Patrick Ness (Candlewick/Walker)
    White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi (Nan A Talese/Canongate)

    Best Novella (A science fiction or fantasy story between 17,500 and 40,000 words that appeared for the first time in 2009.)

    ***”Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (in Cyberabad Days, Pyr/Gollancz)
    Starfall by Stephen Baxter (PS Publishing)
    “Earth II” by Stephen Baxter (Asimov’s, July 2009)
    The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough (PS Publishing)
    “Sublimation Angels” by Jason Sanford (Interzone)

    Best Novelette (A science fiction or fantasy story between 7,500 and 17,500 words that appeared for the first time in 2009.)

    ***”Sinner, Baker, Fabulist Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 220)
    ***”A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc; or, A Lullaby” by Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons, 1 and 8 June)
    ***”Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com, March)
    ***”The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2, ed. Dozois/Strahan)
    “Problems of Light and Dark” by Deborah Biancotti (A Book of Endings)
    “It Takes Two” by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three, ed. Jonathan Strahan)
    “Seventh Fall” by Alex Irvine (Subterranean)
    “Black Swan” by Bruce Sterling (Interzone 221)

    Best Short Story (A science fiction or fantasy story of less than 7,500 words that appeared for the first time in 2009.)

    “Microcosmos” by Nina Allan (Interzone 222)
    “Turning the Apples” by Tina Connolly (Strange Horizons, 30 March)
    “All the Anne Franks” by Erik Hoel (Strange Horizons, 23 November)
    “Useless Things” by Maureen F McHugh (Eclipse Three);
    “Unexpected Outcomes” by Tim Pratt (Interzone 222)

    Best Related Work (Any work related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom appearing for the first time during 2009 or which has been substantially modified during 2009, and which is either non-fiction or, if fictional, is noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional text, and which is not eligible in any other category.)

    ***Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction ed. Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam Roberts, and Sherryl Vint (Routledge)
    ***The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr (Wesleyan, 2008 with extended eligibility)
    ***Imagination/Space: Essays and Talks on Fiction, Feminism, Technology and Politics by Gwyneth Jones (Aqueduct)
    Canary Fever: Reviews by John Clute (Beccon)
    On Joanna Russ ed. Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)

    Best Graphic Story (Any science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form appearing for the first time in 2009.)

    ***Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)

    Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (Any theatrical feature or other production, with a complete running time of more than 90 minutes, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during 2009.)

    ***Moon
    ***Up
    ***Where the Wild Things Are
    Monsters vs Aliens
    The Road
    Torchwood: Children of Earth
    The Time-Traveler’s Wife

    Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (Any television program or other production, with a complete running time of 90 minutes or less, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during 2009.)

    ***”Season Two, Episode One”, Ashes to Ashes
    ***”Epitaph One”, Dollhouse
    ***”Born to Run”, The Sarah Connor Chronicles
    “Pilot”, Caprica
    “The State of the Art” by Iain M Banks, adapted by Paul Cornell (Radio 4, 5 March 2009)

    Best Editor, Short Form (The editor of at least four (4) anthologies, collections or magazine issues (or their equivalent in other media) primarily devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy, at least one of which was published in 2009.)

    ***Susan Marie Groppi, Strange Horizons
    ***Jonathan Strahan, various anthologies
    Scott H Andrews, Beneath Ceaseless Skies
    Andy Cox et al, Interzone
    Sheila Williams, Asimov’s

    Best Editor, Long Form (The editor of at least four (4) novel-length works primarily devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy published in 2009 that do not qualify as works under Best Editor, Short Form.)

    L Timmel Duchamp
    Jo Fletcher
    Jeremy Lassen
    Betsy Mitchell
    Patrick Nielsen Hayden
    Simon Spanton
    Juliet Ulman

    Best Professional Artist (An illustrator whose work has appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy during 2009. If possible, please cite an example of the nominee’s work. Failure to provide such references will not invalidate a nomination.)

    ***Raphael Lacoste (The Windup Girl, The Caryatids)
    ***Adam Tredowski (Interzone covers)
    Stephan Martiniere (Desolation Road)

    Best Semiprozine (Any generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction or fantasy which by the close of 2009 has published four (4) or more issues (or the equivalent in other media), at least one (1) of which appeared in 2009, and which in 2009 met at least two (2) of the following criteria: Had an average press run of at least 1,000 copies per issue; Paid its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication; Provided at least half the income of any one person; Had at least 15% of its total space occupied by advertising; Announced itself to be a “semiprozine”.)

    ***The Internet Review of Science Fiction
    Ansible
    Beneath Ceaseless Skies
    Clarkesworld
    Futurismic
    Interzone
    Locus
    The New York Review of Science Fiction
    The SF Site

    Best Fanzine (Any generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects which by the close of 2009 has published four (4) or more issues (or the equivalent in other media), at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which does not qualify as a semiprozine.)

    ***Banana Wings
    ***Asking the Wrong Questions
    Coffee and Ink
    Everything is Nice
    Journey Planet
    Punkadiddle

    Best Fan Writer (Any person whose writing has appeared in semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electronic media during 2009.)

    Claire Brialey
    Karen Burnham
    Paul Kincaid
    Martin Lewis
    James Davis Nicoll
    Abigail Nussbaum
    Mark Plummer
    Adam Roberts
    Micole S

    Best Fan Artist (An artist or cartoonist whose work has appeared through publication in semiprozines or fanzines or through other public display during 2009.)

    Kate Beaton

    John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (Not a Hugo) (A writer whose first work of science fiction or fantasy appeared during 2008 or 2009 in a professional publication. For Campbell Award purposes a professional publication is one for which more than a nominal amount was paid, any publication that had an average press run of at least 10,000 copies, or any other that the Award sponsors may designate.)

    Jedidiah Berry
    Lauren Beukes
    Kristin Cashore
    Patrick Ness
    Ali Shaw
    Kari Sperring [eligibility expired]

    Recommended?

    I’m not sure whether it’s my preferences changing, or my awareness of the field broadening, or both or something else, but as time goes on I find the Locus Recommended Reading List overlaps less and less with my taste in sf and fantasy. It feels faintly absurd, having this reaction, because the list is so bloated as to make inclusion almost meaningless — there are comfortably more books on the list than I read in a year, and that’s before you start on the short fiction categories. This also means that there’s a fair number of things I like listed; yet I look at it, and think: from Interzone, you recommend “Monetized“, and not “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest…“? You recommend Ken Scholes’ A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon“, but not Helen Keeble’s “A Lullaby“? As a science fiction novel, you recommend Steal Across the Sky but not UFO in Her Eyes? In the fantasy novel category, it’s marvellous to see In Great Waters, but where on earth is The Other Lands? This is not frustrating simply because unenlightened fools disagree with me. It’s frustrating because the size of the Recommended Reading List is an indication of one of its goals — basically, canon-formation — and because that goal is not challenged elsewhere in the sf community as much as I would like. If the Locus list was more focused, or if there were other lists the same size treated as equivalent authorities, I wouldn’t be so bothered. But I know that when I want to know what was big ten years ago, the first thing I do is Google the Locus list for that year, because it aims to include everything of significance. And more and more I want to know what they missed.

    Awards Awards Awards

    1. BSFA Awards

    For anyone who didn’t see the note buried in the comments of the shortlist post, Hal Duncan has withdrawn his essay “Ethics and Enthusiasm” from consideration for the Non-Fiction Award.

    With that in mind, now, admittedly I don’t think it has a hope in hell of winning, but then I didn’t think it had a hope in hell of making the shortlist, so on the off-chance that it does… I think it would be criminal for my exploration of modes of critique to be accorded more status and attention than the exploration of issues of representation and diversity carried out by Deepa D, especially when those issues are precisely born of a disparity of status and attention. It would, I feel, be validating the very situation that requires redress if the BSFA Awards were to valorise abstractions that bear only a passing relevance to the field over a commentary that bears directly on its practical, political realities, not least because of the disparities of privilege at play here. It’s awesome to have people take note of what I say from my platform, but in this case I’m going to use that platform to say, there are other voices you should be listening to first.
    […]
    So, with the utmost gratitude to those who put it there, and more than a little reticence because of course I’d fucking love a BSFA Award for non-fiction, I’d like to respectfully withdraw “Ethics and Enthusiasm” from the running, and leave the contest to those works which bear directly on the field.

    The Guardian has noted the shortlists here — “After Booker snub, Adam Roberts in running for SF honour” — with a soundbite from me, in which I say I think it’s hard to pick a front-runner in the Best Novel category. All four books have been well received: Yellow Blue Tibia seems to have a critical mass of momentum behind it, Ark is a consecutive nomination for a previous winner of the Award, Lavinia is considered by many to be a masterwork by a multi Hugo- and Nebula-winner, and The City & The City has tremendous word-of-mouth. If you put a gun to my head I’d probably pick Mieville as the winner (I think it may be his year for a Hugo, too), but I wouldn’t want to put a lot of money on it. Nader Elhefnawy also has some thoughts on the shortlists here, and there’s an io9 post here.

    2. Hugo Awards

    Speaking of Hugo Awards, nominations are now open, until 13th March. Cheryl Morgan has a guest post at the Feminist SF Blog about “Hugo voting on the cheap” — which sadly means how to become an informed voter without having to buy a lot of books, rather than actual cheap voting memberships — with lots of recommendations for potential nominees. Joe Sherry has posted a draft of his Hugo ballot. I think this is a good idea, and will probably follow suit later this week.

    3. The David Gemmell Legend Award

    Nic Clarke reviews last year’s inaugural Legend Award shortlist for Strange Horizons. Part one of the review can be found here:

    What do they mean by “in the spirit of David Gemmell”? According to the same web page, what they are looking for is something that grabs the reader immediately, with pace (“you know, books that you’re STILL reading at three in the morning!”), characters to root for, and convincing world-building. Stories, in other words, that take hold and won’t let go until the final page—the reason we all started reading fantasy in the first place.

    Quality of prose goes unmentioned, but I’m afraid it won’t in this review; writing that makes me want to stab my own eyes out tends to interfere with my desire to still be reading at three in the morning. I’m fussy like that.

    Part two is here, and there’s a related post by Mark Charan Newton here:

    This, it seems, is one of the only actual comparisons of the fantasy titles that were shortlisted. I made noises at the time that no one was talking about the content of the books, and so here we go at last.

    I must admit to finding it bizarre that any award can have a shortlist where titles are barely compared to each other. How can you call a book the “best” without such an analysis? Getting as many people to vote online seems a spurious way to go about this, when clearly no one could have read so many titles.

    I’m not being grouchy here – please don’t misunderstand.

    This is where my arguments lie: we bitch and moan about why we – the fantasy genre – are not taken seriously. But when we’re not going to compare and contrast, and dig into the content of some of the big fantasy titles of the year, how can the fantasy genre expect to better itself year on year? How can it expect to gain more respect? (If you don’t care for respect, then I guess that’s the end to my argument.) But we all know that we posses rather self-conscious moments, we fantasy readers, if we’re honest.

    4. The William L. Crawford Award

    Press release at Locus Online:

    Jedediah Berry has been named the winner of the 2010 William L. Crawford Award for first novel The Manual of Detection. The Award, presented annually at The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, is for a new fantasy writer whose first book appeared the previous year. This year’s conference will be March 17-21, 2010 in Orlando FL.

    The award committee shortlisted Deborah Biancotti’s collection A Book of Endings, Kari Sperring’s novel Living with Ghosts, and Ali Shaw’s novel The Girl With Glass Feet, and wanted to commend two other authors whose works were ineligible this year but were highly regarded: Robert V.S. Redick, whose The Red Wolf Conspiracy appeared in 2008 and whose The Ruling Sea appears in 2010, and Michal Ajvaz, whose The Other City originally appeared in Czech in 1993 but was first translated into English by Gerald Turner in 2009.

    A good winner, and a strong shortlist, I reckon.

    2009 BSFA Awards Shortlists

    Best Novel

    Ark cover Lavinia cover
    The City & The City cover Yellow Blue Tibia cover

    Ark by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
    Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin (Gollancz)
    The City & The City by China Mieville (Macmillan)
    Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

    Best Short Fiction
    “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 220)
    The Push by Dave Hutchinson (Newcon Press)
    “Johnnie and Emmie-Lou Get Married” by Kim Lakin-Smith (Interzone 222)
    “Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (in Cyberabad Days, Gollancz)
    “The Beloved Time of Their Lives” [pdf link] by Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia (in The Beloved of My Beloved, Newcon Press)
    “The Assistant” by Ian Whates (in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction 3, ed. George Mann)

    Best Artwork
    Alternate cover art for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (art project), Nitzan Klamer
    “Emerald” by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
    Cover of Desolation Road by Ian McDonald, by Stephan Martinière, jacket design by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke
    Cover of Interzone 220, Adam Tredowski
    Cover of Interzone 224, Adam Tredowski
    Cover of Interzone 225, Adam Tredowski

    Best Non-Fiction
    Canary Fever by John Clute (Beccon)
    “I Didn’t Dream of Dragons” by Deepa D
    “Ethics and Enthusiasm” by Hal Duncan [Note: withdrawn from consideration]
    “Mutant Popcorn” by Nick Lowe (Interzone)
    A Short History of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James (Middlesex University Press)

    Congratulations to all the nominees! Note that there are only four nominees in the Best Novel category, and six nominees in the Best Short Fiction and Best Artwork categories due to ties for fifth place. The Awards will be presented at this year’s Eastercon, Odyssey.

    The Books of 2009

    This is, unfortunately, a somewhat more abbreviated account than I had originally intended. Plan A was to do a complete run-down of everything I read in 2009, trying to get some sense of how my part of the elephant felt. Plan B is a top ten list. Well, a top ten list and some stats.

    Stats first, then. I read 69 books in 2009; slightly down on the last few years. Of these, 80% were sf or sf-related non-fiction; 54% were first published in 2009, 39% were by Brits, 41% by women and 22% by people of colour (or, 45% were by white men). Of those books not published in 2009, discovery of the year was perhaps Rana Dasgupta, whose linked story suite Tokyo Cancelled (2005) I picked up somewhat on a whim, and is still lingering with me now; though the first volume of Javier Marias’ Your Face Tomorrow trilogy, Fever and Spear (2002 trans. 2005) gives it a run for its money, and the book-I-should-have-got-around-to-long-before-now award goes without question to Middlemarch. Also worth mentioning here: Lao She’s Cat Country (1932, trans. 1970), and Joanna Russ’s We Who Are About To … (1977), which, of the fiction I’ve read by Russ, is the work whose impressiveness is least caveated by the passage of time, and the one I would recommend to those not yet familiar with her. Disappointments in this group were relatively few; neither Allegra Goodman’s Intuition (2006) nor Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) quite lived up to my expectations of them, but as dispraise goes, that’s pretty mild.

    Onward! The focus of my interest, of course, is the subgroup of sf or sf-related books published in 2009. I should say that I’m using an inverted version of the Hugo Award’s definition of 2009, here: that is, if it was either first published in English in 2009, or first published in the UK in 2009, I’m considering it a 2009 book. Consequently, including one book read in 2008, and five read this year, there are 41 books in this subgroup, of which 44% are by Brits, 86% are fiction (of which, making broad assignments, 42% are sf, 58% fantasy), 52% are by women, and 17% by people of colour (leaving the white-man percentage roughly the same, at 42%). I had a good year’s reading: it’s hard to pick a top ten that leaves out such books as the first volume of Hoshruba (whether or not I will have the stamina to read further volumes); Michal Ajvaz’s The Other City (first published 1993; a book that addresses some of the same themes as China Mieville’s The City & The City, but to my mind more successfully); Chris Beckett’s Marcher (a very clever, and admirably restrained, many-worlds novel); Lauren Beukes’ Moxyland (a first novel that deserves greater praise than “very promising”, though it is); Deborah Biancotti’s A Book of Endings (a first collection of which the same can be said); Frances Hardinge’s Gullstruck Island (mild reservations about the shape of the novel aside, a delight to read); Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels (on which I have no doubt I will continue to chew for some time); Sarah Moss’s Cold Earth (an evocative wilderness novel, and a fascinating exercise in sustained uncertainty of genre: I hope to write this up in more detail at some point); Ali Shaw’s The Girl with Glass Feet (despite my reservations about it); Marcel Theroux’s Far North (under-appreciated, I think); or Jo Walton’s Lifelode (on which I agree with Walton’s afterword, which admits that the book it becomes is lesser than the book she wanted to write; but the first half of the novel, which is closest to her intentions, is extraordinary; one of those books that really should not have appeared only from a small press). Some novels, certainly, left me underwhelmed – Catherynne Valente’s Palimpsest, Adam Roberts’ Yellow Blue Tibia, The City & The City and perhaps Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold being the ones that might attract most disagreement – but only a handful stood out as genuine disappointments. Nancy Kress can do better than Steal Across the Sky; and I certainly hope that Jesse Bullington can do better than The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart. There are, of course, a great many books I didn’t get to: of those, the ones whose omission I feel most keenly are probably Stephen Baxter’s Ark (given how highly I rated Flood), Rana Dasgupta’s Solo, Robert Holdstock’s Avilion (because I haven’t yet read Mythago Wood; yes, yes, I know), and Gwyneth Jones’ Spirit (because I told myself I’d read the Aleutian trilogy first – yes, yes, I know!).

    But anyway: here are the ten books that I recommend most heartily, in alphabetical order by author.

    • The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: a first novel of great ambition and remarkable power, and a work of science fiction that feels grounded in our present like nothing else I read this year.
    • The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham: the most purely enjoyable 2009 book I’ve read, a marriage of the political and the epic that builds fruitfully on the already-solid foundation provided by The War with the Mein (2007).
    • Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin: beautiful, wise, generous, and all the other words that are so regularly applied to Le Guin’s fiction.
    • UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo: a short, relatively quiet novel that, as I said when I first read it, suggests much with its sparing narration, and provokes much in its reader; or at least in me.
    • Cyberabad Days by Ian McDonald: the opposite of Guo, in some ways: bold, vigorous stories that deepen and strengthen McDonald’s vision of a future India.
    • The Ask & The Answer by Patrick Ness: a sequel that delights in not providing more of the same; desperately uncomfortable at times, but – I’m allowed to use this once, right? – unputdownable.
    • White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi: a brilliant ghost story, but also (this is not said enough about Oyeyemi, I think) at times, brilliantly funny: serious enough to know when to be playful.
    • Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson: for all that Robinson is one of my favourite contemporary writers, I keep missing my chance to write about his work at any length. But between them Adam Roberts and John Clute have said much of what I would want to say about Galileo’s Dream: the marvellous sanity of its fictive universe, the skill with which it dissects time, memory and history, the clarity of its portraiture.
    • The Woman Who Thought She Was A Planet and Other Stories by Vandana Singh: a collection whose only real flaw is that it doesn’t collect all of Singh’s fiction: but what is here should be read.
    • In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield: surely, by this point, I don’t need to say anything else about this one. Inventive; unsentimental; captivating.

    And As Long As We’re In An Awards Mood …

    Have the nominees for the Philip K Dick Award:

    BITTER ANGELS by C. L. Anderson (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
    THE PRISONER by Carlos J. Cortes (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
    THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO by Eric Garcia (Harper)
    THE DEVIL’S ALPHABET by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
    CYBERABAD DAYS by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
    CENTURIES AGO AND VERY FAST by Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
    PROPHETS by S. Andrew Swann (DAW Books)

    Interesting-looking list, though the only one I’ve read is the McDonald.

    Interzone Poll

    Well, I got there in the end; which means I can now, for I think the first time ever, cast a fully informed vote in the annual Interzone poll. And this is how I vote:

    Stories — positive vote

    • “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (IZ220)
    • “Miles to Isengard” by Leah Bobet (IZ220)
    • “Black Swan” by Bruce Sterling (IZ221)
    • “Microcosmos” by Nina Allan (IZ222)
    • “Unexpected Outcomes” by Tim Pratt (IZ222)
    • “Glister” by Dominic Green (IZ223)
    • “No Longer You” by Katherine Sparrow and Rachel Swirsky (IZ224)
    • “Funny Pages” by Lavie Tidhar (IZ225)

    Stories — negative vote

    • “Monetized” by Jason Stoddard (IZ220)
    • “Spy vs Spy” by Neil Williamson (IZ220)
    • “Memory Dust” by Gareth L Powell (IZ220)
    • “Saving Diego” by Matthew Kressel (IZ221)
    • “Ys” by Aliette de Bodard (IZ222)
    • “Butterfly Bomb” by Dominic Green (IZ223)
    • “Silence and Roses” by Suzanne Palmer (IZ223)
    • “Bone Island” by Shannon Page and Jay Lake (IZ225)

    Artwork — positive vote

    • Cover, #220 — Adam Tredowski
    • Cover, #224 — Adam Tredowski
    • Cover, #225 — Adam Tredowski
    • “Funny Pages” — Warwick Fraser-Coombe
    • “Johnny and Emmie-Lou Get Married” — Warwick Fraser-Coombe
    • “Lady of the White-Spired City” — Martin Bland
    • “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest…” — Geoffrey Grisso

    Artwork — negative vote

    • “Sublimation Angels” — Paul Drummond
    • “The Godfall’s Chemsong” — Martin Bland
    • “Butterfly Bomb” — Daniel Bristow-Bailey
    • “A Clown Escapes from Circus Town” — Warwick Fraser-Coombe
    • “Fishermen” — Geoffrey Grisso
    • “Black Swan” — Paul Drummond
    • “Monetized” — Paul Drummond
    • “Memory Dust” — Daniel Bristow-Bailey

    And that, as they say, is that.

    BSFA Award Nominations So Far — Best Artwork

    To recap, for anyone who wasn’t reading over the weekend: the deadline for nominating for this year’s BSFA Awards is this coming Saturday, 16 January. BSFA members can nominate as many items as they like in the four categories — Best Novel, Best Short Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, and Best Artwork. The five items with the most nominations in each case go forward to the final ballot.

    As an aid to memory, I’ve been posting the nominations received so far in each category — that is, lists of everything that has received at least one nomination:

    Today, the last of the categories: Best Artwork. Any single science fictional or fantastic image that first appeared in 2009 is eligible; to add your support to any of the works listed below, or to nominate anything else, email the BSFA Awards Administrator with details of what you want to nominate, and your membership number or postcode.

    The list:

    Cover of Future Bristol, ed. Colin Harvey by Andy Bigwood
    Cover of The Push by Dave Hutchinson, by Andy Bigwood
    Cover of The Gift of Joy by Ian Whates, by Vincent Chong
    Alternate cover for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by MS Corley
    Cover of The Edge of the Country and Other Stories by Trevor Denyer
    Cover of Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, by Jon Foster
    Cover of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Three ed George Mann, by Hardy Fowler
    Alternate cover for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, art project by Nitzan Klamer
    Cover of The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling, by Raphael Lacoste, jacket design is by David Stephenson.
    “Emerald” by Stephanie Law
    Cover of Murky Depths 7, by Chris Moore
    Cover of Desolation Road by Ian McDonald, by Stephan Martinière, jacket design by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke.
    Cover of The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington, by Istan Orosz
    Cover of World’s End by Mark Chadbourn by John Picacio
    Cover of Eclipse 3 ed Jonathan Strahan by Richard Powers
    Cover of Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher by Steve Rawlings
    Cover of Twisted Metal by Tony Ballantyne, by Jon Sullivan
    Cover of Xenopath by Eric Brown by Jon Sullivan
    Cover of Interzone 220, by Adam Tredowski
    Cover of Interzone 221, by Adam Tredowski
    Cover of Interzone 224, by Adam Tredowski
    Cover of Interzone 225, by Adam Tredowski
    UK cover for The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, by Sam Green
    Cover of Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding, by Stephan Martiniere
    Cover of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, by Raphael Lacoste
    Cover of Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
    Cover of Journey Into Space by Toby Litt
    Cover of The Resistance by Muse

    Links are to the best-quality copies of each image that I could find; if you can improve on any of them (or if you know the artist details for any of the images that are missing them) do let me know.

    BSFA Award Nominations So Far — Best Short Story

    Once more, with feeling: this is a list of all works that have so far received at least one nomination for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Short Story. Why not read a couple? I’m going to try to get through as many of the ones I haven’t yet read as I can by next weekend. Send additional nominations with your membership number and/or postcode, by January 16th. After that, the five with the most nominations go forward to the final ballot.

    “The Best Monkey” by Daniel Abraham (The Solaris Book of New SF, Volume Three, ed. George Mann, Solaris)
    “After the Revolution” by Pauline J Alama (Abyss & Apex, first quarter 2009)
    “Microcosmos” by Nina Allan (Interzone 222)
    Genesis by Bernard Beckett (Quercus Publishing)
    “Atomic Truth” by Chris Beckett (Asimov’s, April/May 2009)
    “Diamond Shell” by Deborah Biancotti (request; from A Book of Endings, Twelfth Planet Press)
    “Problems of Light and Dark” by Deborah Biancotti (request; from A Book of Endings, Twelfth Planet Press)
    “Ys” by Aliette de Bodard (Interzone 222)
    “An Education of Scars” by Philip Brewer (Futurismic, March 2009)
    Starship Fall by Eric Brown (PS Publishing)
    “After the Change” by Stephanie Burgess (Future Bristol, ed Colin Harvey, Swimming Kangaroo Press)
    “The Festival of Tethselem” by Chris Butler (Interzone 224)
    “The Branding of Shu Mei Feng” by Amanda Clark (Daybreak, 29 November 2009)
    “Re-Creations” by David L Clements (Footprints)
    “Erosion” by Ian Creasey (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 2009)
    “The Certainty Principle” by Colin Davies (Asimov’s, Feb 2009)
    “Tyrannia” by Alan DeNiro (Strange Horizons, 30/11/09)
    “The Other Side of Life” by Ian R Faulkner (Murky Depths 10)
    “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 220)
    “It Takes Two” by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse 3, ed. Jonathan Strahan)
    “The Slows” by Gail Hareven (New Yorker, May)
    “Fembot” by Carlos Hernandez (Daybreak, 25/12/09)
    “Homeostasis” by Carlos Hernandez (Futurismic, July)
    “The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santiera” by Carlos Hernandez (Interfictions 2, ed. Chris Barzak and Delia Sherman)
    “All the Anne Franks” by Erik Hoel (Strange Horizons, 23/11/09)
    The Push by Dave Hutchinson (Newcon Press)
    “Seventh Fall” by Alex Irvine (Subterranean, Summer 2009)
    “Spar” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, October 2009)
    “Trembling Blue Stars” by Richard Kadrey (Flurb 7)
    “A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc; or, A Lullaby” by Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons, 1/06/09 and 8/06/09)
    “Galatea’s Stepchildren” by Sam S Kepfield (The Future Fire 16)
    “Johnnie and Emmie-Lou Get Married” by Kim Lakin-Smith (Interzone 222)
    “horrorhouse” by David D Levine (Daybreak, 30 October 2009)
    “Where the Time Goes” by Heather Lindsley (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 2009)
    “Death Knocks” by Ken MacLeod (When it Changed, ed. Geoff Ryman)
    “Moss Witch” by Sara Maitland (When it Changed, ed. Geoff Ryman)
    “Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (in Cyberabad Days)
    “A Clown Escapes from Clown-Town” by Will McIntosh (Interzone 221)
    “Mother of Champions” by Sean McMullen (Interzone 224)
    “Love in Another Language” by Eugene Mirabelli (Not One of Us 42)
    “On the Road” b Nnedi Okorafor (Eclipse 3, ed. Jonathan Strahan)
    “Silence and Roses” by Suzanne Palmer (Interzone 223)
    “By Starlight” by Rebecca Payne (Interzone 225)
    “Minya’s Astral Angels” by Jennifer Pelland (The Solaris Book of New SF, Volume Three, ed George Mann, Solaris)
    The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough (PS Publishing)
    “Troublesolving” by Tim Pratt (Subterranean, Fall 2009)
    “Unexpected Outcomes” by Tim Pratt (Interzone 222)
    “The Beloved Time of their Lives” by Roberto Quaglia and Ian Watson (The Beloved of my Beloved, Newcon Press; pdf link)
    “The Receivers” by Alastair Reynolds (Other Earths, ed. Nick Gevers and Jay Lake)
    “The Fixation” by Alastair Reynolds (The Solaris Book of New SF 3, ed. George Mann)
    “Hair” by Adam Roberts (When it Changed, ed. Geoff Ryman)
    “After Everything Woke Up” by Rudy Rucker (Interzone 220)
    “Sublimation Angels” by Jason Sanford (Interzone 224)
    “Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows” by Jason Sanford (Interzone 225)
    “Lily Glass” by Veronica Schanoes (Strange Horizons, 27/04/09)
    “Unrest” by Grace Seybold (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 12/03/09)
    “Dog-Eared Paperback of Our Lives” by Lucius Shepard (Other Earths, ed. Nick Gevers and Jay Lake)
    “The Very Difficult Diwali of Sub-Inspector Gurushankar Rajaram” by Jeff Soesbe (Daybreak, 13 October 2009)
    “Black Swan” by Bruce Sterling (Interzone 221)
    “Palimpsest” by Charles Stross (in Wireless)
    “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com, March 2009)
    “The Shangri-La Affair” by Lavie Tidhar (Strange Horizons, 19/01/09 and 26/01/09)
    “Spiders Moon” by Lavie Tidhar (Futurismic, November 2009)
    “The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew” by Catherynne M Valente (Clarkesworld, August)
    “The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2, ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, Eos; read online [select “chapter two”])
    “Out of Time” by Jack Westlake (Murky Depths 8)
    “Glitch in the System” by Ian Whates (The Gift of Joy, Newcon Press)
    “Ghosts in the Machine” by Ian Whates (The Gift of Joy, Newcon Press)
    "The Assistant" by Ian Whates (The Solaris Book of New SF Volume 3, ed. George Mann, Solaris)
    “Infected” by Lilah Ward (Not One of Us 41)

    Well, the short story club selections seem to be doing pretty well; be interesting to see if any of them make the final ballot. Surprised not to see “Vishnu at the Cat Circus” nominated yet. And I think I’ve managed to link all the stories that are online, but if I’ve missed any, let me know.