Clarke Award shortlist - my guess

[nwhyte]

The list of 60 novels submitted for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award has been published, and we are invited to guess what the final shortlist of six will be.

As I've been doing with other awards recently, I've crunched out the numbers on members of both Goodreads and Librarything who have each book, and come up with the following table ranked

Comments

[pgmcc]

Having just finished REAMDE I would say it's not Science Fiction either. All the technology is contemporary with the exception of an imaginary MMORPG! (I think I may have gotten the acronym slightly wrong, but I'm sure you won't shoot me for that.)

Good game. As you imply, the application of objective assessment to a book award process is not necessarily appropriate.

[autopope]

Leviathan Wakes is somewhat pulpy space opera, with the minor redeeming characteristic of better-than-normal characterization for that sub-genre.

Reamde is a Stephen Bury technothriller released under the Neal Stephenson brand name: fun, if you like that kind of thing, but lightweight.

(It should be fairly obvious that I'd like your projected shortlist to be correct :)

[bibliofile]

Would Blackout & All Clear truly be ruled out by being two halves of one larger book? Because that didn't stop the pair of 'em from getting that one award last year. OTOH, I suspect that the historical errors in the books might be more of a factor (considering that the errors were in British history).

[drasecretcampus]

I couldn't possibly comment ... although I note a dream recently where I'd forgotten the shortlist. Which I suspect is actually true.

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion was nominated as single volume, so that might not rule out Connie Willis. Or both could be short listed...

Oh, I have sort of commented.

[nwhyte]

The Willis books don't seem to have been nominated as a single volume. More to the point, as I should have made clear in this post (though I made it clear enough when I read them last year), they are simply not very good.

[drasecretcampus]

Perhaps I should have said that the Hyperion books were shortlisted as a single volume - nominated isn't quite the right word. The judges might have decided to see the Willis as one book (how did it work for the Hugos?). Or the judges might have decided to shortlist either or both... But it would be inappropriate for me to comment on their/its qualities.

[ext_390408]

Just to throw more confusion into the mix, pretty sure 11.22.63 is science fiction. And Blackout is counted as a standalone.

(Your final list of six is very good though. I'd roll with it.)

[ext_390408]

Oops. Missed your response on Blackout, above. It is indeed both standalone and mediocre.