2013 Clarke Award Shortlist

[james_davis_nicoll]

The six shortlisted books for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year 2013 are:

Nod by Adrian Barnes (Bluemoose)
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (Corvus)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann)
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (Headline)
Intrusion by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

Total  Female  Male  f/t
   6      0    6     0

Congratulations to the Clarkes for resisting the deadly temptation to produce a more diverse nominee list, especially given the outrageous - by what appear to the current standards of British SF - presence of women, persons of colour and Muslims on the submissions list. In particular I'd like to praise you for snubbing Alif the Unseen, which could have only embolden those people into further creativity in the field of SF and for picking KSR's proud tribute to colonialism and American Exceptionalism IN SPACE! over, say, Blue Remembered Earth, whose author fell into the dark error of actually paying attention to recent trends in Africa.

Total  Female   Male   f/t
 83     17.5    65.5   .21

The Submissions List for 2013:

The Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian (Grant)
Crewel by Gennifer Albin (Faber & Faber)
vN by Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot)
Zero Point by Neal Asher (Tor UK)
The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (Atom)
Pure by Juliana Baggott (Headline)
Juggernaut by Adam Baker (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks (Orbit)
Nod by Adrian Barnes (Bluemoose)
Turbulence by Samit Basu (Titan Books)
Iron Winter by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman (Sceptre)
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (Corvus)
Exit Kingdom by Alden Bell (Tor UK)
The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
The Dream Killer of Paris by Fabrice Bourland (Gallic Fiction)
Existence by David Brin (Orbit)
alt.human by Keith Brooke (Solaris)
Helix Wars by Eric Brown (Solaris)
The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington (Orbit)
Empire State by Adam Christopher (Angry Robot)
Celebrant by Michael Cisco (Chomu Press)
The Lost Men by David A. Colón (Elsewhen Press)
Caliban’s War by James SA Corey (Orbit)
London Falling by Paul Cornell (Tor UK)
The Twelve by Justin Cronin (Orion)
Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan (Canongate)
Earth Girl by Janet Edwards (HarperVoyager)
The Eternal Flame by Greg Egan (Gollancz)
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Stranger’s Magic by Max Frei (Gollancz)
Blue Friday by Mike French (Elsewhen Press)
The Thousand Emperors by Gary Gibson (Tor UK)
EVE: Templar One by Tony Gonzales (Gollancz)
Blackout by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Ward by S.L. Grey (Corvus)
Champion of Mars by Guy Haley (Solaris)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann)
Empty Space by M. John Harrison (Gollancz)
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (Headline)
Wool by Hugh Howey (Century)
Worth Their Weight in Blood by Carole Jahme (Mira Books)
Insignia by S.J. Kincaid (Hot Key Books)
The Games by Ted Kosmatka (Titan Books)
The Company of the Dead by David J. Kowaski (Titan Books)
Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove (Solaris)
Intrusion by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
The Killables by Gemma Malley (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus (Granta)
In the Mouth of the Whale by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
Chimera by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit)
Transmission by John Meaney (Gollancz)
The Glimpse by Claire Merle (Faber & Faber)
Railsea by China Miéville (Macmillan)
Kimberly’s Capital Punishment by Richard Milward (Faber & Faber)
Thy Kingdom Come by Simon Morden (Jurassic London)
LiGa by Sanem Ozdural (Elsewhen Press)
The Chosen Seed by Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (Doubleday)
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor UK)
The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz)
Pulse by Tricia Rayburn (Faber & Faber)
The Demi-Monde: Spring by Rod Rees (Jo Fletcher Books)
Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
Jack Glass by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
Triggers by Robert Sawyer (Gollancz)
Redshirts by John Scalzi (Gollancz)
The Fury by Alexander Gordon Smith (Faber & Faber)
The Explorer by James Smythe (HarperVoyager)
The Testimony by James Smythe (Blue Door)
Crandolin by Anna Tambour (Chomu Press)
Deadfall Hotel by Steve Rasnic Tem (Solaris)
Entanglement by Douglas Thompson (Elsewhen Press)
Communion Town by Sam Thompson (4th Estate)
Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis (Orbit)
Ecko Rising by Danie Ware (Titan Books)
The Outcast and the Little One by Andy West (NewCon Press)
Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson (Corvus)
Place of Dead Kings by Geoffrey Wilson (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Method by Juli Zeh (Harvill Secker)
The Return Man by VM Zito (Hodder & Stoughton)

Comments

[mcbadger.livejournal.com]

But it's ok, because at least one of the judges was a woman who's willing to stand up and explain it all:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/apr/04/feminist-all-male-clarke-prize-shortlist


I'll be over there -> pretending I'm Belgian or something.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

What would you have them do? Choose books they thought were less-good, just because they were written by women?

Female somewhat anti-feminist friend of mine says she has struggled her whole life proving she was a "real" whatever (in various contexts where most are male) and hadn't just gotten in via affirmative action, and it seems to rather annoy her.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Who had 'two comments' in the Quota pool?

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

I can't seem to find that book on Amazon.com. Can you give more info?

Ah, it's Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson, I presume. I note that the author is using the telltale "initial for a first name" thing, presumably to disguise the presence of girl cooties?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to find that book on Amazon.com.

Gee, I wonder why--

Ah, it's Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson, I presume.

--Well, there you go. It's unseen!

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I deleted my comment to replace it with a corrected version.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

I wasn't trying to be rude, I was genuinely confused. I blame a mutual lack of caffination.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

All the best book by a woman would have to clear to make the top six is 2312, which is less a bar and more a deep trench. Alif the Unseen easily manages the task and I am sure there were others.

[(Anonymous)]

It's been a generation, almost, since I've been able to finish a book by KSR, whose work for a while I quite liked. It's not his politics, sexual attitudes, ethnic sterotyping, et cetera, that stops me, I think, as I rarely get far enough into one of his books for that to matter. He just bores me. Which is a pity because on occasion the type of thing he is writing about (e.g. the Mars trilogy) is very much to my taste.

However, he's won a number of awards since I gave up on him, and I have to recognize that many people not only finish, but greatly enjoy his more recent works. Persistance is a lot in this world, I expect him to continue to be nominated, and possibly win awards. But I don't expect him ever again to write a book I will like.

Instead I imagine "Blue Mars", "Antarctica", etc as these wonderful books out there - I even think I know the plots - which I will somehow never read, as I will probably never read "Coriolanus".

William Hyde

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Damn. I had "one comment".

[dovekie.livejournal.com]

An all-male list shows that they're already judging by something other than quality.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

This leads us into the wider conversation as to why, despite having a significantly enlarged entry this year (a 36 per cent increase on the 60 books submitted in 2012) we received disproportionately fewer from women, of which many were technically fantasy.

And the annual Award for Recognition of Great Achievements in China Meiville can't sully itself with fantasy.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Oh. Her again.

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently four out of the five judges are women. I suspect this year's judges might have applied a very strict "it has to be Science Fiction" filter. Which would have tended to exclude women from consideration due to the UK's small amount of published Science Fiction by women.

Also, is it me or has the last week being incredibly busy SF newswise? Between the Hugos, the Clarkes, the Dick, the BSFAs and the Banks news it seems chocabloc.

Stephen Shevlin