The Arthur C. Clarke Award and me
I am very happy to be able to say that I will be one of the judges of the Arthur C. Clarke Award next year, nominated by the British Science Fiction Association. The award is given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom in the last year (ie next year's award is for books published this year). There are five judges, plus Andrew Butler as Chair and Tom Hunter as Director, and novels are already being submitted to us. It's very exciting.
Arthur C. Clarke was one of those writers who dragged me into sf, through Of Time And Stars, A Fall of Moondust, Imperial Earth, Earthlight, Rendezvous with Rama, The City and the Stars, The Fountains of Paradise, Childhood's End, 2001, 2010, and the various other short stories around the place. His writing style is lucid, ironic, occasionally passionate, usually infused with sensawunda. I'm really honoured to be part of the award that celebrates his legacy.
This will mean some reduction in book-blogging here (which is anyway a couple of weeks behind). The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that I've been coding some recent sf reads by Greek letters rather than writing them up; those represnt books which have been, or might be, submitted for the award. I shall be a bit quieter (though not absolutely quiet) about next year's nominees for other SF awards as well, consistent with the rules. However, that still leaves plenty of other books to write about.
Arthur C. Clarke was one of those writers who dragged me into sf, through Of Time And Stars, A Fall of Moondust, Imperial Earth, Earthlight, Rendezvous with Rama, The City and the Stars, The Fountains of Paradise, Childhood's End, 2001, 2010, and the various other short stories around the place. His writing style is lucid, ironic, occasionally passionate, usually infused with sensawunda. I'm really honoured to be part of the award that celebrates his legacy.
This will mean some reduction in book-blogging here (which is anyway a couple of weeks behind). The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that I've been coding some recent sf reads by Greek letters rather than writing them up; those represnt books which have been, or might be, submitted for the award. I shall be a bit quieter (though not absolutely quiet) about next year's nominees for other SF awards as well, consistent with the rules. However, that still leaves plenty of other books to write about.