The Arthur C Clarke Award And Me

[coalescent]

The Arthur C Clarke Award is given annually to the best science fiction novel first published in the UK in the previous year. The first recipient of the award, in 1987, was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. At the time, I didn't pay much attention; I was six.

Comments

[ninebelow]

Does Jon Courtenay Grimwood go anywhere without China Meiville to hold his hand?

I'd echo your comments about the ACCA being the most relevent and like you I would put it down to the fact it is juried. I've read precisely none of the books on the shortlist though so I can't actually say anything about this year's award.

[coalescent]

Maybe he was in disguise. In a really really good disguise.

[peake]

Passion is part of it, it always is. But it was more than that. Without revealing the secrets of the judging meeting, it was the book the judges consistently rated highest in terms of daring and ambition, novelty, relevance (everyone who simply dismisses the book as a historical romp is missing an awful lot of references that link the book directly to our modern information age). And as science fiction, yes it tests the limits of the term, but in important ways that make us question what we really mean when we talk about sf. It was a fascinating debate, and I think a worthy winner.

[itchyfidget]

And inevitably, of course, it's one of the two shortlisted titles that I haven't actually read

Inevitably of course? Tsk, Mr Harrison. Tsk.

[coalescent]

I should point out that I wrote most of the above in a burst of enthusiasm when I got home at 12:30am last night. :-p

[itchyfidget]

Yes. Yes, you should.

[swisstone]

Playing a guessing game based on how I thought the jury might go, rather than on actually what I thought of the books (not having read Bear or Stephenson, or quite finished Baxter), I wasn't too surprised at the result. I didn't think Darwin's Children would get it (there's always one book on the shortlist that you just know won't get the award, and this year it was Greg Bear). I also though Midnight Lamp was unlikely - not, perhaps, different enough from, or as good as, Bold As Love. After that, I found it very difficult to guess which out of Pattern Recognition, Maul and Quicksilver would win, with Coalescent having an outside, but definitely not negligible, chance. Maul was what I wanted to win, Pattern Recognition what I thought might just edge it, regardless of my own agreement with you that it's not sf.

I find it interesting to note (and this is meant as comment, not negative criticism) that, since Quicksilver is, AFAIK, part one of a novel spread over three volumes, not even the first in a loosely-connected series,

[coalescent]

The two I hadn't read were Quicksilver and Midnight Lamp. My thought process went something like this:

Darwin's Children won't win because I know it's rubbish. Midnight Lamp won't win because I haven't heard anyone say anything good about it. Coalescent won't win because it's not as good as Pattern Recognition or Maul. I'd prefer Maul, but I think there's a better vibe about Pattern Recognition; still, could go either way. Quicksilver I had down as a wild card, but then completely forgot about it when it came to the actual ceremony. :)

part one of a novel spread over three volumes, not even the first in a loosely-connected series, previous juries might not even have allowed it onto the shortlist.Well, four out of the six were part of a series in some way, so this jury clearly had a more flexible interpretation of the guidelines! I think in general I'm more comfortable when fully standalone novels win (and I think 2004 is shaping up to be a strong year for standalone novels, so yay for that), but I can accept books that are the start

[peake]

There are no guidelines. We don't even define 'science fiction'. It is up to each individual jury to decide what counts as sf, what counts as a novel, etc. If we ignored parts of series, in today's publishing climate, we would be hard put to find a short list each year. As it is books that are part of a series have frequently been shortlisted for the Award - and have won in the past (witness Bold As Love for example).

[swisstone]

I appreciate that there's nothing set in stone, or even ink. Nevertheless, at least one former Clarke judge has said in a public forum that there's often a notion that to make the shortlist a book should, in some ill-defined sense, 'stand alone'. My impression is that first books in a series, such as Bold As Love, tend to make the shortlists more so than later ones. And certainly, when I was discussing possible shortlist contenders with various fans towards the end of last year, the opinion was expressed that Quicksilver was unlikely to make the Clarke shortlist, because it didn't sufficiently stand alone.

I'm not saying that it was wrong for Quicksilver to be on the shortlist and win, nor am I suggesting that it would have been wrong for a differently-constituted jury to have excluded it. As you say, each individual jury has the right to determine its own terms of reference. As I say, I'm merely offering this up as interesting (to me, at any rate) cultural comment.

[forodwaith]

to my continuing shame, I still haven't gotten around to Perdido Street Station.

Me too. Bad SF reader, no biscuit!

They are all books ... that speak to your mind, not your heart

Interesting. For me (and for most mainstream reviews of it that I saw) Pattern Recognition was Gibson's "warmest," most emotionally involving book in a long time.

[espresso_addict]

They are all books ... that speak to your mind, not your heart

It's my guess that this might be an essential difference between genre sf & 'non-genre sf', such as The Handmaid's Tale.

[coalescent]

Ah, well, you see, I haven't read any og Gibson's other books. For all I know, it may be hugs and puppies compared ot Neuromancer.

Yes, I haven't even read Neuromancer. I'm actually just a big fraud.

[forodwaith]

No accusations of fraud here (see previous admission re: Mieville).

Neuromancer is a very cool - in both senses of the word - novel, and worth reading if only because of its huge influence on the genre.