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Clarke Shortlist Thoughts
Jan. 19th, 2003 05:52 pmThe shortlist for this year's Arthur C Clarke award has been announced. The nominees (in alphabetical order) are:
Of those, I own two, am intending to buy another, and have read, um, one. Whoops. I'm surprised Engine City didn't make the cut (especially since Cosmonaut Keep did, a couple of years back), and disappointed about the absence of Baxter's Evolution. Greg Egan has also been overlooked again - will he ever get nominated? Genre-wise, the stories break down as two weighty alternate histories (the Robinson and the Priest), one weighty fantasy (Mieville), and three science fiction novels of varying hardness (Brin, Harrison and Moon). I'm intrigued that the Brin and the Moon made the list; I don't much rate Brin, and I know nothing about Moon besides the fact that we have half of a shelf of an ongoing space opera series by her.
My prediction for the winner has to be Light. The amount of fuss made about this book has been phenomenal (best quote on the inside cover: "Finally, M. John Harrison tackles quantum physics!" - Stephen Baxter), and everyone I know who's actually read the thing speaks highly of it. Besides, the past two years have gone to fantasy novels, and Paul McAuley's one of the judges this year. It all adds up!
(The Prestige is probably the other main contender; Priest has been nominated three or four times by now, and never won. I don't see Mieville winning twice in two novels, and whilst The Years Of Rice And Salt is good, it's not up there with the Mars books.)
- Kil'n People, by David Brin
- Light, by M John Harrison
- The Scar, by China Mieville
- The Separation, by Christopher Priest
- Speed Of Dark, by Elizabeth Moon
- The Years Of Rice And Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Of those, I own two, am intending to buy another, and have read, um, one. Whoops. I'm surprised Engine City didn't make the cut (especially since Cosmonaut Keep did, a couple of years back), and disappointed about the absence of Baxter's Evolution. Greg Egan has also been overlooked again - will he ever get nominated? Genre-wise, the stories break down as two weighty alternate histories (the Robinson and the Priest), one weighty fantasy (Mieville), and three science fiction novels of varying hardness (Brin, Harrison and Moon). I'm intrigued that the Brin and the Moon made the list; I don't much rate Brin, and I know nothing about Moon besides the fact that we have half of a shelf of an ongoing space opera series by her.
My prediction for the winner has to be Light. The amount of fuss made about this book has been phenomenal (best quote on the inside cover: "Finally, M. John Harrison tackles quantum physics!" - Stephen Baxter), and everyone I know who's actually read the thing speaks highly of it. Besides, the past two years have gone to fantasy novels, and Paul McAuley's one of the judges this year. It all adds up!
(The Prestige is probably the other main contender; Priest has been nominated three or four times by now, and never won. I don't see Mieville winning twice in two novels, and whilst The Years Of Rice And Salt is good, it's not up there with the Mars books.)
