sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ammonite (novel), Bold As Love (novel), Colin Greenland, Geoff Ryman, Gwyneth Jones (novelist), Iron Council

The Drink Tank Issue 248

The Arthur C. Clarke Award Issue [email protected] The Drink Tank Issue 249 - Chris Garcia & James Bacon: Editors <- Chris’ Editorial James’ Editorial -> There are a couple of Clarke Awards, one for The Clarkes. promotion of space interests or some such, but this is the Clarke that is given to the best Chris and myself decided to do an issue about novel published for the first time in Britain over the the Clarkes. The awards without doubt are a very previous year. Despite being just twenty-three years good thing, they definitely exercise many minds within old, less than half the age of the Hugos, it has risen to fandom, and if nothing else, it gives many fans something a powerful place among all the awards in the science to discuss, argue and get damnably angry about. They are UK centric, restricted to works fiction universe. published in the UK, but they make up another of the It’s interesting to think about the Clarkes. It’s an key discussion points in any one UK science fictional award for a single novel. One work. Only one category, year, along with the BSFA awards and the Hugo’s. in one genre, science fiction. Well, that’s arguable, as it This year’s shortlist is very good. I have now has been over the years that many of the novels that read four of the novels and so far have failed to be have won haven’t really been SF (I heard a couple of disappointed, they are all good, whether they are folks make that point about this year’s winner, The City excellent remains to be seen, but as I type now, just after the awards, I have to say I am incredibly happy and & The City) but that’s besides the point. It is a targeted pleased that China Mieville has been recognised for award, specific and fully aware of it. writing, what is a superb book. When I think about the Clarke, I think of Niall We are really very grateful to all the people Harrison. Yes, I fully aware of the Clarkes before who, at very short notice gave us permission to use I ever heard of Niall, but it would seem to me that their work, or wrote for us. Many thanks to Roz the Clarke awards that were designed for the serious Keveany, Cheryl Morgan, Claire Brialey, Tommy Wallach reader of science fiction, and when I picture a serious for allowing us to use their words, also especial thanks reader of science fiction, I picture Niall. Also, he was to Niall Harrison and Paul Kincaid for their insightful responses to our questions, and all those E-mail once a judge, so there’s that, too. I’m also so pleased correspondents who wondered what the hell they that he answered a few questions for us! were saying yes and no too, also many thanks. Coming from a family of librarians, I have to say We hope, if nothing else, you read the winning that Awards have a certain power. It’s not always a posi- book, and we also hope some of you readers, let us tive power, but they do something. They attract. They know your thoughts, which we welcome, and, if all goes are a showing. They bring us to judgement, in a way. to plan, we hope to do something similar about the A Scenario- you go to a bookstore, see a book Hugo awards Novels, close to the time. with a sticker saying ‘Winner: The Drink Tank’s Book of the Year’ and you think ‘well, it must be good...maybe.’ So you buy the book. You then form an opinion, as you always do, but you weigh it against what you think of the award. You come to make a decision as to whether or not it deserved an award, and that leads you to make a call on the value of that award. Now, you pick up a bunch of books with the ‘Winner: The Drink Tank’s Book of the Year’ sticker, you put them into a matrix in your head that assigns that sticker and the award it represents weight with the other stickers representing awards. You come up with what that award means to you- either positive or nega- tive. As I went over the books which had won the Clarke, the matrix I went into in my head set them at a peak position. And so, the issue! The Arthur C. Clarke Award From the Beginning: By a The Handmaid’s Tale is Science Fiction. Without Complete Outsider named Chris Garcia question. No matter what Atwood says (and let’s face it, you make a lot more money and get a lot more I’ve always liked the Clarkes. They seem to be respect if you say you’re not an SF writer *coughMic more along the lines of my tastes in novels, at times, haelChaboncough* than if you do fess up to it. I don’t and they make some interesting choices that are often really think it matters. What does matter is that the arguable, but seldom flat-out wrong. first panel chose THT and that set the table for the So, as a part of this special issue, I’ve taken a future of the award. look at the entire list of winners and nominees and Of the other nominees, the only one I know here are my thoughts on them. I’ve read is Stars in my Pockets like Grains of Sand, which is a great novel. I’ve tried Eon a couple of times, and 1987- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood never made it through. Other Nominees- The Ragged Astronauts by Bob Shaw (Runner-up) 1988- The Sea and Summer by George Turner Eon by Greg Bear Other Nominees- Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand by Samuel Delany Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem Escape Plans by Ancient of Days by The Memory of Whiteness by Aegypt by John Crowley Queen of the States by Josephine Saxton Replay by Ken Grimwood Green Eyes by Grainne by I will say this, The Handmaid’s Tale is a ballsy Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint choice for the first year of an award dedicated to I read most of The Sea and Summer in 1995, as science fiction. Ballsy, and oddly prescient. There are a part of my SF Literature class. I didn’t finish it. It felt few SF novels of the 1980s that are as important like reading War & Peace at 1⁄2 the page count. Still, this and influential. comes to mind, but The is one of the best pieces of economic SF ever written. Handmaid’s Tale has so much influence across every The story of how financial ruination can propagate boundary that it has to be considered probably the and what it means is central to the story, and how the most important SF novel of Greenhouse Effect has basically the 1980s. Hell, Unwoman, one started flooding the world. of my favorite musicians, took Much of Melbourne, where the her name, and much of the story takes place, is underwater. inspiration for her songs, from The world here is awesome. The Handmaid’s Tale. The story? Meh. Is it a great book? I read Like I said, it was a it back in high school, probably novel that felt like it dragged, 1991 or 92, and I remember and I stopped, partly because I struggling through it, though thought I had read enough of it I’ve struggled through many to write a decent paper, which I amazing books. I do remember then did. The thing is I didn’t feel that I loved the social structures like I had to go on. There were Atwood created, the darkness all these tacked-on elements of the world. I remember not that I remember thinking ‘Man, at all caring for Offred, but these are just weighing the loving Moira. The ideas were whole thing down’ but at the the king in the book, less so same time, without them, it’s the actual plot or characters. just this description of a bad It was also a very obvious time in the past (and that plays allegory, which bugged me to into the concept for the book, a point. There was this sense too) of ‘CONCEPT’ over story, Of the other nominees, which always bugs me. It’s one I loved Fiasco and worked of the reasons I can’t get into with Aegypt a bit. This was someone like Liz Williams and the first time I can specifically some of the works of Charlie remember being interested in a Stross. On the other hand, I am book because it was a Clarke all over China Mieville, so take winner. from that what you will. one of the few Shepard novels I’ve really enjoyed. Empire of Fear is a great one too. I’m not sure when I read it (probably that period between my college graduation and my return to Boston in late 1998) but I remember referencing it a lot when I first started doing panels at BayCon. Would I say this was a bad year? No, the shortlist was far-stronger than any other they’d had up to that point, but it was also the first winner where it felt like they were off. If you look at the other winners, PKDIDA is a much better match with previous winners that UF, though writing style-wise, I’d go with Pollack.

1990- - Other Nominees- A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll (Runner-up) A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein Desolation Road by Ian McDonald Soldiers of Paradise by Paul Park Ivory by Mike Resnick Neverness by David Zindell I’ve never read The Child Garden. I went to pick it up on Amazon the other day, and most copies were out of my price-range. From what I’ve found about it, it sounds like the kind of novel I’d enjoy. I mean, a kiddie Hive-mind, an actress trying to do a Holographic Opera, England as a tropical vacation spot? What’s not to like. I also only read a couple of the short-listed piece, notably Desolation Road, which I really liked (and I’ve always liked McDonald’s stuff) and Ivory, another 1989- Unquenchable Fire by Resnick novel that I can just not get into. I would say Other Nominees- this is the weakest of the short lists, though I can’t Empire of Fear by Brian Stableford (Runner-up) comment on the winner at all. Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas by Michael Bishop Rumours of Spring by Richard Grant Kairos by Gwyneth Jones 1991- - Life During Wartime by Lucius Shepard Other Nominees- Whores of Babylon by Ian Watson Rats & Gargoyles by Mary Gentle (Runner-up) This one makes me scratch my head. I love Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks the setting of Unquenchable Fire, an America which is Red Spider, White by Web Mischa basically a magical 1980s in the suburbs that I grew up Farewell Horizontal by K.W. Jeter in, but it’s also a story that’s basically ‘Heavy is the Head The City, Not Long After by that Wears the Crown’. It’s not a bad story, and Pollack I will say this about my attempt to read Take does some majestic writing in it, but it also didn’t over- Back Plenty in the hallowed year of 2005: it just wasn’t whelm me like three of the novels on the shortlist. going to work. Seriously, this is a book that annoyed Phillip K. Dick is Dead, Alas is one of the greatest me, but I pressed on because the main character was novels of any period I have ever read. It’s the kind of really interesting (think Han Solo, only a woman and story Dick would have written if he ever could have no ties to a mystical order or folks in power) and it’s admitted his own mortality! I read it the first time the , which I was big into at the time. I finished year it came out, and then again in the late 1990s. It’s it, I think on a plane flight, and haven’t thought about it the kind of book that Being John Malkovich looks at much since. through darkly-tinted glasses. On the other hand, I loved and often think Life During Wartime is another classic, and it about Jeter’s Farewell Horizontal, and Use of Weapons certainly holds up better than Unquenchable Fire. It’s is one of my three fave Banks books. Sadly, I’ve never read The City, Not Long After, and I doubt I will any time soon, though I’ve had it recommended to me by folks Lost Futures by on both sides of the Atlantic. by This one’s an easy one. Doomsday Book and Stations of the Tide were both far better books than Body 1992- Synners - Pat Cadigan of Glass, and I’m betting Red Mars is as well, though I’ve Other Nominees- never actually read it. It’s not that Body of Glass is a bad Eternal by Paul J. McAuley (Runner-up) book, far from it. It’s just not that kind of book where Raft by you finish it and go ‘well, that was good’ and then don’t White Queen by Gwyneth Jones think about it when it’s time for nominations and such. Subterranean Gallery by Richard Paul Russo Body of Glass is a piece of Feminist SF, or at The Cantos by least that’s what they say in many of the reviews I have a copy I’ve been over. I don’t of Synners on my shelf, remember it quite that staring at me, waiting, way. I remember it more wondering when I’m going as a Golem/Frankenstein to pick it up and read it. I novel in a world of picked it up based on the Kabbalah and funky fact that it partly involves futuristic sites. True, I the production of music read it in 1996 or so, videos (I had worked on but I also don’t have it a couple of them at the nearly as pinned down time, back in the late as I did Doomsday Book 1990s) and this sounded or Station of the Tide, cool. A company that both of which I can recall came up with a way to some specific passages of jack you in and deliver as my faves. content straight to the Red Mars is the brain! How awesome! one that gets a lot of Still, I’ve never read it, but mention, and along with I should and most likely the Swanwick and the will. Willis are the ones that On the other are talked about most. hand, I have read Raft I think I started Lost and consider it one of my Futures but never finished favorite Stephen Baxter it. That happens to me novels. Here, he’s at his with a lot of Tuttle. best, writing about an alternate universe where gravity is THE essential 1994- by Jeff force of the Universe. It’s Noon. strange, and it’s his first Other Nominees- novel and a great one. A Million Open Doors by Until I got into Anti-Ice, John Barnes Raft was the one that I by Nicola defined Baxter by! Griffith I’ve not read anything on the list other than Raft, by but the names alone make me think this is a powerful The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by list. The Broken God by David Zindell There are only two winners of the Clarke Award that are also in the collection of the Computer 1993- Body of Glass by Marge Piercy History Museum. The first is Vurt by . I read Other Nominees- it in my earliest days here at the museum, along with Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (Runner-Up) The , also by Noon. It’s the kind of novel Hearts, Hands and Voices by Ian McDonald you talk about with SF-loving friends. Half will love it, Destroying Angel by Richard Paul Russo half will hate it. It’s the kind of novel that makes you Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick think that Phillip K. Dick and Timothy Leary teamed Correspondence by Sue Thomas up with Tom Wolfe and David Foster Wallace. It’s post- modernist, structurally weird (partly because, when should have won if you like at long-term impact. The you boil it down, it’s really Shakespearean) and then it’s Time Ships was also a great novel and I might be reading got this whole roil underneath that is so bizarre that that again soon, especially if I do a tribute to Baxter, it takes a world of adjustment. I enjoyed it, certainly I which I am tempted to do this Fall. enjoyed getting paid to read it in the warehouse, and I think it’s the kind of work that helps define the Clarke as an award. I’ve read parts of Snow Crash, was never much of a fan beyond the opening line. I read part of Ammonite and all of The Iron Dragon’s Daughter. None of them moved me much. I kinda see this as a bad year with almost 20 years hindsight, but at the time, it probably looked like one of the better lists. Some stuff just don’t age good.

1995- Fools - Pat Cadigan Other Nominees- Mother of Storms by John Barnes North Wind by Gwyneth Jones Pasquale’s Angel by Paul J. McAuley Towing Jehovah by James Morrow Alien Influences by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Fools is another Cadigan I’ve never read. That said, it sounds like a novel that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the list. I mean Brain Police should be enough to get me to read it! Still, I doubt it could hook me as deeply as my favorite on the list: Pasquale’s Angel. It’s pretty much the best novel of that period. I remember waiting for it to come out and when it did, I ate it up! It’s a detective story…kinda. It’s a adventure story…kinda. It’s an absolute most-read, won the first Sidewise Award, and might be my favorite outside of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. It’s an amazing novel, and I failed to make the connection between McAuley and the Paul McAuley who sent us articles for Journey Planet. 1997- - I also read Towering Jehovah, though I don’t Other Nominees- remember loving it. Voyage by Stephen Baxter Engines of God by Jack McDevitt Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson 1996- Fairyland - Paul J. McAuley Gibbon’s Decline and Fall by Sheri S. Tepper Other Nominees- Looking for the Mahdi by N. Lee Wood The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod (Runner-up) I’ve not read The Calcutta Chromosome, but part Happy Policeman by Patricia Anthony of that was not easy to find ‘round here back in 1997 by Stephen Baxter and I promptly let it fall off of my list. It’s described as The Prestige by Christopher Priest a detective novel that just happens to be a biological The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson initiative book, too. I’m interested in reading it, and I’ve never read Fairyland. The story again sounds recently found a cheap copy on eBay. like the kind of thing that I would enjoy (A virus As for the rest of the short-list, it’s pretty damn designer who has to deal with the cops, a ‘kid’ and so good if you ask me. There’s Engines of God, which is the many other problems) and goes about designing the last McDevitt novel I can remember actually building ‘Toy of the Future’. Sounds like fun. up enough steam to finish. There’s Voyage, perhaps the Of course, this is the best ballot up to this Baxter work that is best to introduce new folks to the point, without question. The Prestige is the kind of master’s work. Blue Mars is a big fave of many folks, but novel that begs to be adapted (which it was, and highly I’ve never actually read it, and there’s a Sherri Tepper successfully). The Diamond Age is a classic, and probably work which I haven’t read but have at least one friend who loves it. In fact, I believe it was M’s favorite SF book 2000- Distraction - Bruce Sterling up until she read Bug Jack Barron. Other Nominees- Time by Stephen Baxter The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan 1998- - Silver Screen by Justina Robson Other Nominees- by Neal Stephenson by Stephen Baxter by Glimmering by This is the first year where I’ve read every book Days by James Lovegrove on the short-list. It is also the first time I can say that by Jeff Noon I was not at all moved by the winner. It was a dense The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper book, hard for me to hook on to. I’m not a big guy into Let me say that I tried to read The Sparrow in the whole “The Government is Evil!” thing, and that is 1999 or so, then again in 2003. I wasn’t having any of sorta what it felt like when I was reading it. It was not it! It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting, but I just couldn’t a favorite of mine at all. find a foothold. I like SF that deals with music, and On the other hand, neither was Time. I like apparently this does. Baxter, but this didn’t feel like him on his best stuff. I On the other hand, this is a set of books that is finally readA Deepness in the Sky and enjoyed it, though highlighted by Titan, though I understand that Days is a I liked some of his other stuff better. Cryptonomicon has fantastic novel too. I think I read The Family Tree, though problems. I read it, looked into the various things he I get Tepper’s stuff confused all the time. brings up, and it’s just so long and so heavy and goes I’d like to say that Glimmering is one of the into so many corners that somehow never end. It’s three next books I’ll be reading. I might read some of it amazing that I could make it through it, but I did. Silver tonight while wrestling is on. I do that a lot. Screen was a fun novel, one of the best things I’ve ever read from Jusina Robson, but my easy favorite is The Bones of Time. Kathleen Ann Goonan manages to make 1999- Dreaming In Smoke - Tricia Sullivan a Hawaiian -ish story into something very Other Nominees- enjoyable, and after about 200 pages, it’s absolutely Earth Made Of Glass by John Barnes unputdownable. There’s nothing better than Goonan at Time On My Hands by Peter Delacorte the height of her powers. I wish she would have won The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod for this one, but alas, it was not meant to be. by Christopher Priest Cavalcade by Alison Sinclair The judges this year were four folks that I 2001- - China Miéville know at least a little: Claire Brialey, Tanya Brown, John Other Nominees- Clute and Farah Mendlesohn. The Parable Of The Talents by Octavia E. short list is very interesting, but the Butler winner is a great choice that I can Ash: A Secret History by Mary not argue with. An EcoAdventure, Gentle in a way, obviously influenced by Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod pieces like The Word For World Revelation Space by Alastair is Forest and the early 1980s Reynolds Cyberpunk stuff. I thought it was a Salt by Adam Roberts really good novel, but I would have This is the year that the to say that the MacLeod novel is the Clarkes got it 100% right. Yes, I one that has stood the test of time. know that Revelation Space is a great The Cassini Division I read in 2007 novel, but Perdido Street Station will and enjoyed the hell out of it. I like be thought of as the defining novel the way MacLeod writes characters, of the first decade of the twenty- and I’d say this was an upset, but I’ve first century when it comes to that got to say that it could have gone rarely traveled cross-roads between any way and been given to a great fantsy, SF and horror. Mieville walks novel. the line so perfectly in PSS that This is an odd year when there’s no question that it should you look at the names. You’ve got have won the Clarke, and the fact Alison Sinclair, Peter Delacorte that it failed to win the Hugo really and John Barnes, all of whom have annoyed me. From the first page, underwhelmed me at times. you could tell that this was a novel that was going to not only turn heads, but start a by Elizabeth Moon massive wave; a wave we are now feeling from folks like The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson Jeff VanderMeer. Mieville’s work has always been top- Leaving Kiln People aside, this was a very good notch, but in PSS, he is unstoppable. He perfectly mixed list. The Separation was a fantastic novel that I only got Lovecraft with Stevenson, Powers and Herbert. around to reading in the last year or so. was I’ve read Ash, and was somewhat impressed, harder than Perdido for me to get into, but it was still and Salt is a novel that feels as if it simmered for a long, a 95 on the Mieville scale. The Separation is a non-trivial long time before finally becoming a near-masterpiece. look at the Second World War and a damn tricky I would have been happy if it won any other year, but novel. The way Priest treats his audience is appalling. Perdido is so far beyond anything else on this list that Unreliable narrators are fine as long as there is some there could be no other choice. sort of truth you can latch onto, but there’s none here. Perdido Street Station is the defining winner of This suits me fine, but I know others have problems the last decade. Just as The Handmaid’s Tale defined the with it. first ten years or so, Perdido does the same. I think this I hated Kiln People. I just did. I didn’t make it is the best pick since Vurt. In fact, I’d say that it might be 100 pages in. The Years of Rice and Salt’s not a bad book the best winner when you consider the quality of the either, though I’m only about half-way through with it others on the short list and the fact that this was the as we speak. best novel on there, the one that has best held-up, the one that has shown the most impact across the ensuing time. might end up with the distinction of 2004- Quicksilver – Neal Stephenson being hugely impactful, but I’m thinking that we’ll be Other Nominees- seeing the ripples of Perdido for decades. Coalescent by Stephen Baxter Darwin’s Children by Greg Bear Pattern Recognition by Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth 2002- - Gwyneth Jones Jones Other Nominees- Maul by Tricia Sullivan Pashazade by Jon Courtenay Quicksilver is a great Grimwood book that I’ve never read. Life’s Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton too short for 900 page novels The Secret of Life by Paul McAuley that confound you from the Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson very beginning. It is also the by Connie Willis second of the Clarke winners in I was tempted to skip this year the collection of the Computer in my review because other than Mappa History Museum. I cannot deny Mundi, a book I did not finish, I’ve not that has read any of the list. Bold as Love seems become a hugely important an interesting choice for a number of part of SF history, so I can’t reasons. First off, Jones tried to push it fault them for the choice, but I as a , which would make sense if couldn’t dig it. I mean, it’s tough it weren’t a near-future novel. It’s been to say that Quicksilver hasn’t hit said to be a story of a possible King with a massive audience. Arthur, only updated and rock-n-rolled. There was some heavy Who knows? I think it sounds like a competition. Coalescent is an good book, but again, I haven’t read it. impressive novel that I have to I wasn’t a big fan of what I read read again. Darwin’s Children? of Mappa Mundi, but I wouldn’t say it I wasn’t a huge fan. but Greg was bad writing, merely not the most Bear is hard to part with when exciting of what I was reading in the years between he’s on his game. I hated Pattern Recognition. It’s just not 2002 and 2005. my thing.

2003- The Separation - Christopher Priest 2005- – China Miéville Other nominees- Other Nominees- Kil’n People by by Ian McDonald Light by M. John Harrison Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell The Scar by China Miéville Market Forces by Richard Morgan The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 2006- – Geoff Ryman The System of the World by Neal Stephenson Other Nominees- This one done started fights. I have never Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro finished Iron Council, though I’ve tried. It’s a good book, Learning The World by Ken MacLeod but it is very dense, even for Mieville. This, in some Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds ways, is an economics text. I finally read River of Gods by and though I liked it less than , it was a good read. Banner Of Souls by Liz Williams There are lots of arguments for each, and I would still Air is a novel that I’ve bought twice, read once. stack up Mieville’s world of Bas-Lag against McDonald’s ‘It’s not my thing’ was what I thought at first. It’s a story created futuristic India. Mieville, even here when it about what happens when thoughts get out. It’s a first seems like he went a little too far with the wordiness, story, in a way, but also a story of what we need is still one of the best out there. McDonald’s incredibly to keep within and without. I rather enjoyed it when I talented too, but it seems like he comes up against finally started to chew on it, get at the marrow. It was juggernauts whenever he’s nominated for an award. a surprisingly smart and sweet book. The only other one on here that I even tried That can not be said for Banner of Souls. A was the Time Traveler’s Wife, which I didn’t really get into feminist SF warrior saga that just annoyed the hell out and put it down with no hopes of picking it up again. of me. I love Accelrando, and Pushing Ice was very good. It’s just not my thing. I did see the film based on it and I liked this list, save for the Williams, but it wasn’t my it wasn’t any better. thing. I think Air sort of epitomizes the choices of the This was also the year of the Greatest Hugos last decade. It has a message, a powerful English feel, Short List ever, which included River of Gods, Iron and it’s smart. Council, Iron Sunrise, The Algebraist and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The lists over-lap in two places, but honestly, this ballot was nowhere near the same level. There are 2007- - M. John Harrison few times when I can say that, the time previous to this Other Nominees- would be 2000. End of the World Blues by Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet Hav by Jan Morris Gradisil by Adam Roberts Streaking by Brian Stableford I have to say, if you wrote a novel directly for me, it’d be something like Nova Swing. Noir science fiction. It’s freakin’ good stuff. I haven’t read anything else by M. John Harrison, but if it’s anything like Nova Swing, he might become my favorite writer. I’ve read nothing else on the list. Thinking back to the books I read that year, and not knowing if they were also out in the UK, I’d say this was not a great list. I mean, I don’t think a novel on the Hugos list was on this list. I’m not sure about the Nebulas, but there’s nothing here that I feel is immediately awesome. I mean, this would include quite a few great novels.

2008- Black Man - Richard Morgan Other Nominees- The Red Men by Matthew de Abaitua The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod I’ve read only one of these, The H-Bomb Girl, and read a preview of Black Man, which seemed like it would be good, and The Raw Shark Texts, which I’ve recently ordered from Amazon. From what I read, I really should read Black Man. It seems like it’s a smash-bang book about a bounty hunter, more or less. I love the concept, and I’m going to get my hands on a copy and read the thing. thing I’ve read from Robinson in ages. I thought that I liked H-Bomb Girl quite a bit. I started reading it, Mieville was on his way to becoming the first three went back to my favorite Cuban Missile Crisis film, Matinee, time winner, though from a lot of the folks I’ve talked to, and then went back to reading it. It’s got a great chapter there’s a thought that it’ll be Robinson finally winning about the bombing of Liverpool. I mean it’s just great. The one after being nominated so many times. Interesting, entire book would have made a wonderful winner, but I’ve the second time I read The City & The City convinced heard folks say it was a little lighter than Baxter’s normal me that it wasthe best thing I’ve read in ages. work, which is a shame as I think he’s a genius, and I’ve told him so.

Numbers to think about 2009- Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod Most Wins- China Mieville with 3 (2001, 2005 and Other Nominees- 2010) The Quiet War by Paul McAuley House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds Multiple Winners- Pat Cadigan - 2 (1993 and 1995), by Neal Stephenson Geoff Ryman - 2 (1990 and 2006) The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper Martin Martin’s on the Other Side by Mark Wernham Most Nominations- Stephen Baxter (7, 0 wins) and OK, this is a weird year. I read Song of Time and Gwyneth Jones (7 Nominations, 1 Win) I enjoyed MacLeod’s storytelling characters, especially when it came to the fact that this is another novel with Longest Winning Novel- Quicksilver (900+ pages) music at its heart. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t say that it was the best novel on the short list. My Personal Five Favorite Non-Winners- The Bones That would be Anathem. of Time, River of Gods, Accelerando, Voyage, Pasquale’s It was robbed of the Hugo by a crappy Neil Angel Gaiman novel, and here it was robbed by a pretty good Ian MacLeod novel. Anathem was, without question, my My Least Favorite Winners- Distraction, Take Back favorite Stephenson, and one of my favorite novels of Plenty, Body of Glass the decade. There’s so much there, so much world to explore, so many questions that are raised, answered, Number of Winners who won on their only short list challenged and then re-proven. It’s amazing how good it appearance- 10 (Atwood, Turner, Pollack, Greenland, was. I couldn’t read it. I had to listen to the unabridged Piercy, Ghosh, Russell, Sterling, Harrison, Morgan). audiobook, but it was so good. I think that Stephenson was playing with the idea that science fiction is stuck Number to win on their first short list appearance- with the ‘Plot, then long-winded explanation, then back 15 (the Ten Above, plus Sullivan, Ryman, Cadigan, Noon to plot!’ pacing. Here, he drags us down to a point and Mieville) where time seems to stand still, and then keeps going and going and you hardly realize that he’s pushed you Longest period between nominations- 17 Years by into the mud because it’s all so damned fascinating! A Greg Bear (1987 – 2004) great novel. I also read part of The Quiet War, and some of Longest Period between Wins- 16 years by Geoff Martin Martin’s on the Other Side, and both are books Ryman (1990 – 2006). I’m interested in working through. Most Consecutive Years on the Short List- Stephen 2010- The City & The City - China Mieville Baxter (1996 – 1998) Other Nominees- Spirit by Gwyneth Jones Number of Clarke Award Short Listers who have Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts written for Journey Planet- 2 (Jon Courtenay Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson Grimwood and Paul McAuley) Far North by Marcel Theroux Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding Number of Nominees who have had words in The This is a year where I can speak to a couple of Drink Tank- 4 (David Brin, Michael Swanwick, Bruce the novels very strongly, and a couple not at all. Yellow Sterling and Greg Bear) Blue Tibia is a great novel. The City & The City is a great detective story that does have some serious sticking Most Notable Thing About 2008 List- All the Novels points. I haven’t read Gallileo’s Dream, but I’ve taken a on the Short List started with the word ‘The’ look at the preview chapter and it looks like the best because it’s a franchise. The Clarkes, Twenty Three Years by James Bacon In a similar vein, I expect books that I really like, but The strange thing I personally find about the Clarke which may not seem like SF are just never contemplated, or awards, and it has been put into sharp personal perspective considered (by Judges or Publishers) horror writer James by Chris’ piece, is that my whole SF reading has occurred Herbert produced an alternative history science fiction within those 23 years of its existence. Unlike some though, story with ’48 (1996) and its incredibly good. Not very I have never really been massively influenced by the awards horror at all, but then many horror works are more science although I have found them both fascinating and infuriating. fictional than their black covers would belie. I wasn’t reading SF books until around 1990 and I had a I was stunned by the sudden arrival of Naomi lot of catching up to do. Even so with the advice of many Novik, and her Temeraire series. Three books blasted onto friends, I was soon immersed in a world of SF books, the scene in 2006, and since then there have been two recommendations and opinions. more. I totally rate the first one, and felt that just like Anne When one comes upon a genre, like SF and grasps McCafery’s Pern series, despite the dragons, this was SF. at recommendations, many of these will be the best works The Difference Engine (1990) is an alternate history from the genre, regardless of the time, so I was reading steampunk novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and books from every decade, yearning for more. Initially I was despite the literary angle of Phillip Roth, his story The Plot fed on sure things, like James White and and Against America (2003) is definitely speculative, alternative Robert Heinlein, but I did fall among a bad lot of SF fans, who history and a really good read. were well aware of what was current, and so many of my When I think of British authors, another three who favourite books do exist from within this time. come straight to mind are Paul McAuley, I really enjoyed I knew I loved SF when I was finished with Iain M Cowboy Angels (2007) and also Quiet War (2008), Jon Banks book Consider Phlebas (1987) which was required Courtenay Grimwood who is an inspiring author, I still reading among members of the ISFA and then onto The Player of Games (1988) and Use of Weapons (1990), this was my sort of stuff. I adored the Wasp factory which remains my favourite Non M book to this day, but Consider Phlebas was still brand new and bloody awesome. I suppose I always found it a bit weird, living in Dublin and being involved with Octocon, that the Clarkes didn’t seem to be featuring the books I loved. Michael Marshall Smith is a fine example, I just adored Only Forward (1994) thought Spares (1996), was incredible and again enjoyed One of Us (1998), but these just don’t even get mentioned. Like that’s Michael Marshall Smith, definitely in my top 20 authors ever. Whether works are SF of course, mean that some books, and here I think if Gaiman’s Neverwhere (1996) and (2001) spring to mind, as these maybe are considered fantasy, but then is that debateable. I don’t have the full submitted list, so I cannot tell. In the last ten years, I have come to recognise that one of Britain’s finest female authors of Military SF has been hanging out in the Franchise ghetto. Karen Travis is a superb writer, and she has written a heap of Star Wars books, but my favourite five would be from her Republic Commando series, Hard Contact (2004),Triple Zero (2006),True Colours (2007) ,Order 66 (2008) and Imperial Commando 501st (2009). Published in the UK by Arrow, I expect that none of the Judges warrant a franchise as worth including and the publisher, must have some perception, to not submit them. They feel like SF, they may be in the world of Star Wars, which has a lot of fantasy going for it, but its cracking stuff and I find it hard to contemplate that Travis is discriminated against think my favourite two books of his are ReMix (1999) and although there are a few books on the shortlist that I have Red Robe (2000), which had an incredible detailed and read and enjoyed, they do not represent what I consider to interesting alternative future set up, and his more recent be the best SF of the last 20 years. Stamping Butterflies (2004) and 9 Tail Fox (2005) were also Of another fine Irish writer, Bob Shaw, came a very damn fine reads, also Stephen Baxter, and I must say that I close second, with The Ragged Astronauts (1986) and it still really loved Voyage (1996) I also liked the BBC version of remains a firm favourite, but then, I haven’t and won’t read this book and The Time Ships (1995) is another that really The Handmaids tale, and I don’t intend to. Any person who makes me smile with its ideas and clever extrapolation of a denigrates the genre of science fiction, and who insults the well known idea. readers with her statements, doesn’t endear me to read Despite being from The Republic of Ireland, I have their work. always found Northern Ireland authors (that’s the bit in the Is Science fiction when you have rockets and chemicals UK) to be of the highest calibre. Ian McDonald blew me away and talking squids in outer space? when I came to read Desolation Road (1988) trains speak to me, and I really enjoyed both the River of Gods (2004) and Brasyl (2007). James Whites books were not published by a UK publisher, so The Silent Stars Go By (1991) arguably one of the best SF books to come out of the UK and just not well enough known, is just not valid. Similarly, two of the last three Sector General Novels are very good, Final Diagnosis (1997) is quite a good read, but the penultimate book in the series, Mind Changer (1998) is just outstanding. It is possible the best of the whole series, it’s a wonderful completion to the series, and answered so many questions, that readers would never even have contemplated. Despite bying them both here in the UK, they were not published here.. I enjoy military SF and I reckoned that (1997), although not exactly a sequel to Forever War, had such a lot to say, and is still a very thoughtful look at humanity. I found Louis McMaster Bujoid, who has written some 16 books in the world of the Vorkosigan’s is a firm favourite. Strangely, I always found that it was a bit weird that I would enjoy one of her books and the next one would not satisfy, and then I would come back and love the next. So of those books, there are about ten which I just think are I understand the commercial requirement to pander to incredible. Sticking with the Mil SF theme, another author I some mainstream market, to ensure there is no connection have been pleased with is , Old Man’s War (2005), to SF, for sales and marketing purposes, such must be The Ghost Brigades (2006) and The Last Colony ( 2007) the fickle nature of that authours readers and reviewers are fine SF and rank highly out of his oeuvre. obviously, unable to determine a decent book, without the A person’s favourites is subjective, and when I went emotional crutch of having it branded in a manner they can to look at my selves, I realised that I had left off Hyperion deal with. (1989) and Fall of Hyperion (1990) by Dan Simmons. I am just a reader, a customer, and therefore, I can Hyperion fell into that trap of being raved about by many vote with my pound, my hard earned pound and not bother. people, and I initially found it not as wonderful as expected, Of course, if I displayed a similar element of continued and but later then I found that when I re read it, to read the Fall sustained obstinacy, irrationality, and animosity towards it was a damn fine book. say a different group of people, let’s say not science fiction Continuing that subjective viewpoint right up to date, readers, but say the Irish, then that would make me a bigot. in my mind eye shelf of favourite books, Moxyland (2009) by How I reconcile that feeling is beyond me, perhaps reading from South Africa and Days of Dredd (2006) the book some time. Regardless, as much as I understand and 69(2008) by British black writer Anton Marx whom I there is great merit to the ACCA and of course people work with, are also there, and of course, Robert Rankin who make a great effort for it, the judges choices, do not reflect has sold millions of science fiction books, has never ever my own choices of the best books in the genre in the last been listed. 20 years. I would be happy to argue the merit, strength and Do they reflect anyone’s? brilliance of all the books I have listed here. It’s hard to just select even a few, but all of them i consider to be in my favourites list, and yet for some reason, a rule or a decision they are not even on the short list. I also have to admit, that Kincaid and Harrison On the Clarkes

James- We decided to ask Paul Kincaid and Niall Do you read the short list yourself? Do you Harrison some questions. Between them they are always read it, and have you always read it? without doubt two of the biggest proponents of NH: Yes, these days yes, and no, of course not. I wasn’t the Clarke award. We are grateful to them both. born with an sf novel in my hand, you know. (I’ve tried to read the entire shortlist every year since 2004, I Did you read this years short list yourself, think.) and can you share any opinions with us?

PK: One of the advantages of no longer being award administrator is that I no longer have Over the years were there any losers, or books to read all the shortlist; and I have seized on that failed to make the short list that you that advantage happily over the last few years. secretly thought should have been on/won? But I have read four of the shortlist this year. Spirit is Gwyneth Jones rewriting The Count of PK: Yes. Monte Cristo, and doing a fairly good job of it. Except that I felt the book rather fell apart towards the end, where it most diverged from Dumas’ original. The City and the City is one of the most Was it annoying when authors or intellectually stimulating novels I’ve read in a publishers refuse to submit a book? good while, but the crime plot is rather routine. Were there any books, you wish were submitted? Yellow Blue Tibia is by Adam Roberts, and I have PK: Yes. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road should certainly a blind spot about his fiction, so I’m no real judge. have been submitted, for instance. There are publishers But I thought an interesting idea was rather spoiled who seem too ready to believe an sf award is wrong for by unconvincing characters, poor dialogue, and an them, but I persuaded Picador to submit The Calcutta urge to be too knowing and too ironic all the time. Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh, and it went on to win, Galileo’s Dream is the best thing Kim Stanley and authors like David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro Robinson has done since the , a wonderfully have been happy to see their work submitted, Ishiguro evocative portrait of Galileo and his time. But the sf even turned up for the award ceremony. element was very thin in comparison to the historical stuff. As a reader do you find it annoying when I don’t know the other two. And no, I’m authors or publishers refuse to submit a book? not going to make any prediction (over the years, most of my predictions have been wrong anyway). NH: Yes, of course. I’d like the Clarke to be able to consider as wide a definition of science fiction as possible.

Are there any books, you secretly wish were submitted, this year and in the last few and why?

NH: A couple that I think would have been shortlist contenders, yes: Xiaolu Guo’s UFO in Her Eyes (Chatto & Windus) in particular, and also ’ The Ask & The Answer (Walker). Ones I think it would have been nice for the judges to be able to consider: Conrad Williams’ One (Virgin) and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (Scholastic)

Were there any losers, or books that failed to make the short list that you secretly thought should have won? NH: Of course, inevitably so; the two decisions that stick out in my mind as being a bit funny are Red Mars’ loss to Body of Glass, and River of Gods’ loss to Iron Council. On the other hand, it’s not like anyone is going to doubt the canonical status of those two losers any time soon. It also feels like Stephen Baxter should have won one of these things at some point, but he keeps *just* missing out: Voyage was up against The Calcutta Chromosome, The Time Ships against Fairyland, and Evolution, god help it -- and it’s probably his best novel was up against Light, The Separation, and The Scar.

What sort of approach do y’all take towards the SF-or-Not question that’s often applied to the winners/short-listers.?

PK: When I chaired the jury I made the judges decide at the shortlist meeting whether they believed the book qualified as sf or not. After that, as far as we were concerned, it was sf. In fact I’ve never had any problem seeing any of the books shortlisted for the Clarke as sf. But then, I don’t really see this as a problem. If people want to argue the toss, that’s probably a good thing. Is it SF or Not? Does that question bother you at all, or do you have a very broad and open approach?

NH: I think the question is meaningful, if you like. I’m glad the award forces it to be asked so regularly.

Generally, do you feel that awards are a good thing?, Or do you think every award has its own merits?

PK: Yes every award has its own merits. Awards in their own right are not automatically a good thing. There was a time when so many books were being held back for later editions in the Nebulas that I felt the whole award was devalued. But in general, if an award generates debate and interest, if it makes people read the books, if it acts as a stimulus to promote the genre, then yes, I think it is a good thing.

NH: Its obvious merit is its process: a panel of judges encourages books to be considered in depth, and a broadly inclusive submissions policy allows books to be found that might otherwise have passed the sf community by. Now, what we need is a UK award that does the same for fantasy ... The Arthur C Clarke Award: A Critical Anthology Edited by Paul Kincaid with Andrew M Butler (Serendip , 2006; 243p, £15) Reviewed by Claire Brialey

It’s something of a truism that there is no such Award. thing as a “typical” winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award. Nicholas Ruddick’s opening essay takes the Since 1987, the Award has been presented annually to opportunity to explore The Handmaid’s Tale two the best SF novel published in Britain for the first time decades on, taking in the 1990 film version of the story in the previous calendar year. It is judged by a panel as well as the original novel to examine the book’s now drawn from the British Science Fiction Association, established status as a classic, its themes and strengths, the Science Fiction Foundation and, usually, a partner and its contribution to the genre of which it has been organisation – originally the International Science argued it is not fully a part. This retrospective view Policy Foundation, and most recently the Science claims The Handmaid’s Tale persuasively for science Museum. The results have sometimes been surprising. fiction and demonstrates the value of its status as the They have sometimes been controversial. But they have first recipient of the Award. always been interesting. Or, as contends in Whether it’s a sign of editorial and authorial his preface to this volume, the Clarke Award has always strategy or simply (if you can forgive the pun) been weird. The diversity of approaches taken in this serendipity, the order of the early winners and the anthology of critical essays to examining the winning styles in which it seemed appropriate to the relevant books from the first 18 years of the Award helps to critics to reconsider them provides an engaging array demonstrate the diversity of the winners themselves. of connections and contrasts and builds to an early First, some background. The anthology is edited crescendo in the anthology. Thus Edward James follows by Paul Kincaid with Andrew M Butler. Kincaid was a Ruddick’s 360-degree re-examination of The Handmaid’s member of the first two juries but is rather better Tale with an equally thorough exploration of The Sea known, now, for his 11-year stint as administrator of and Summer by George Turner, placed in the context of the Award (the 2007 shortlist is the first under his science fictional dystopias and other cautionary tales successor in the role of chairman of the judges, Paul but taking time to shed light on the internal themes, Billinger – also a former judge and a contributor to this stories and messages of the novel. Elizabeth A Billinger volume). Butler is also a former judge of the Award, then focuses directly on the theme of story in Rachel and a full-time academic and critic. Both were among Pollack’s Unquenchable Fire. Her essay is a critical the founding members of the Serendip Foundation, the teasing-out of truths and contradictions embedded organisation established in 2003 to raise funds for and within an overarching fiction, which both captures awareness of the Award, of which this publication is one the essence of the novel and demonstrates how the endeavour. (The Award was originally established with questions it poses spill out beyond this particular story. a grant from Arthur C Clarke, and the prize money is Joan Gordon’s essay on The Child Garden by Geoff still provided by Rocket Publishing, the Clarke family Ryman advances another step into critical process, first business.) setting up a thesis of utopia to test the novel against, Sir Arthur’s intention in establishing the Award and then exploring how the novel tests and extends is said to be the promotion of science fiction in Britain. the idea of utopia itself. But another common perception about the Clarke The crescendo is Justina Robson’s piece on Award is that juries tend to favour novels which can Colin Greenland’s Take Back Plenty. This anthology has pass as proper books for grown-ups, rather than that quickly attracted a truism of its own, that the Robson crazy Buck Rogers stuff – particularly those published essay is awesome, and I’m not here to challenge that as mainstream by non-genre writers – and, indeed, view. The energy of Robson’s essay conveys brilliantly that the Award has an underlying agenda to do so. In what it felt like to read this novel at the right time; part this shows how the Award has been dogged by more objectively, she also puts down a firm marker the initial decision to honour The Handmaid’s Tale by for its influence on the field, charting a trajectory from Margaret Atwood rather than Bob Shaw’s The Ragged the New Space Opera to the British Boom. But the Astronauts. Yet, looking again at the shortlists helpfully novel, and its unconventional heroine Tabitha Jute, is appended in this anthology, the perception is not borne demonstrably a joy in itself as much as a prophecy of out by the evidence. Although nearly half the shortlists science fiction yet to come; and thus Robson also goes have featured at least one such novel (including the a long way towards convincing the reader that the right shortlist for the 2006 Award, which is not covered in time to read Take Back Plenty is always now. After this, this volume), most of the time they have not won the the pace resets, and the book takes a more leisurely journey through the 1990s into the British resurgence of the twenty-first century. In that context, there is a second peak at L J Hurst’s brilliantly contextualised discussion of The Separation, Christopher Priest’s elaborate construction of reality and duality in the strands of history, which won the Award in 2003. Like the Award and its shortlists, this anthology provides scope for discussion and debate – not, generally, with the quality of the analysis or its expression, but in what the critics writing here have chosen to explore in each of these novels compared with what individual readers may have found in them. Farah Mendlesohn’s piece on Dreaming in Smoke by Tricia Sullivan (the winner in 1999) strikes me as an excellent example of a reading in science fiction; there are undoubtedly many ways to read this novel, but Mendlesohn’s identification of a key science fictional theme, colonisation, as a specific key to its ideas and messages is richly rewarding. Some essays consider novels as a whole, sometimes with the perspective described by Paul Kincaid in his introduction to the volume as a tendency of Clarke Award juries: ‘not looking in towards the heart of the genre, but outwards from the genre.’ Some essays examine key themes, either setting out the novel’s particular contribution to SF or – looking outwards again – re-examining the novel as SF. Some consider the novels in the context of the author’s wider work, some within the wider genre. What none of them do, rightly, is to attempt to refight the judging meeting. None of the essays are considered in the context of their shortlists, which makes the editorial There are plenty more common perceptions decision to allow five contributors to write about about the Arthur C Clarke Award: for instance, that books in whose win they were complicit – including, it’s easy – especially for former judges – to decode indeed, one of the editors – less problematic. However, the shortlist, but it’s virtually impossible to predict it does mean that an opportunity is lost to share one the decision. Cynics mutter darkly, having denounced valuable element of the judging experience with the a particular ornament of the shortlist, that it will anthology’s readers: none of the pieces consider the probably win; those of us who prefer to hedge our novel within the detailed context of its publishing bets have in some years resorted to a sealed envelope history. Reading a year’s output of science fiction, prediction of what we think deserves to win, what we particularly when it’s fresh, provides a fascinating would nonetheless like to win, and what we expect will insight into the common concerns of SF writers of the win – often three different books. Moreover, there is a time. Social, economic, and environmental events and general belief that juries usually produce a pretty good trends – scientific research, popular culture, scandals, shortlist – usually with a right of reserve for the world disasters, mass movements – emerge as themes in outside the jury on one title – and then get the final science fiction and become the business of the genre. decision wrong. Only in two years I can remember – The Some essays nonetheless go part of the way Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (the 1998 winner, here by recognising and exploring a novel as a product of considered as a story of the senses and emotions by its time. Graham Sleight’s perceptive piece on Bruce Andrew M Butler) and the 2006 winner, Geoff Ryman’s Sterling’s Distraction (the winner in 2000) considers Air, which is not featured in the book – did the judges’ the story and its characters in the context of late decision seem to chime with the broad consensus of 1990s US politics, which proved to be a path not taken. the wider SF community. (Another measure is that Edward James and Joan Gordon both note the political only four Clarke Award winners – Air and The Sparrow context in which their subjects were shaped. Tony Keen again, together with Take Back Plenty and The Separation successfully locates Vurt, Jeff Noon’s first novel not only – also won the popular-vote annual novel award from in time but also in space: the Manchester of the early the British Science Fiction Association.) 1990s. All that said, within our community there are formidable canon for the last two decades.) always determined mavericks who make it a point of I’ve mentioned several times what’s missing principle to sidestep any consensus they see heading from this anthology. Inevitably, with the Award still their way. More often than not such free-thinking going strong, this had to be a snapshot – but in the individuals end up involved with the Clarke Award, but age of digital images on demand, the time lag in this this is by no means the only reason for the perennial book’s production seems anachronistic. In some ways surprise of the outcome. By tradition, judges aim for this is an unfair criticism of a worthwhile and useful reasoned consensus, although on numerous occasions publication, and my awareness of the reasons for the juries have agreed to reach at least part of their delays also make me feel churlish for dwelling on it. But decision on both the shortlist and the winner through the high quality of the book in other respects, from the a majority vote. Books that arouse strong emotions, criticism and background data through to the cover and which therefore seem to some readers outside the image by Elizabeth A Billinger, is also why the absence jury as well as to some of the judges to be obvious and of the most recent chapters of the Clarke Award story incontestable winners, are as likely to provoke at least is particularly to be regretted. one judge’s determination that this novel should not Originally intended for publication in 2005, the win. book was commissioned after the presentation of the Such novels find their way onto the shortlist 2004 Award and thus features essays on the first 18 partly because even judges who wouldn’t want to winners. Following various delays, it eventually appeared see them win can agree that they are interesting and in autumn 2006, by which time two more presentations challenging and should be part of a shortlist which had been made (the winner, shortlist and judges for seeks to showcase the best of the year. Partly, however, the 2005 award are included in the anthology’s it comes down to the special treatment usually allotted appendix). And although it would be foolhardy to to the shortlisted novels by the judges and by very few look for meaningful trends in the decisions of juries other readers: a second critical reading shortly before which change annually, the winners often do convey the final judging meeting. Novels that win the Clarke something of the field as a whole. Both the 2005 and Award are ones which all the judges can agree are 2006 winners (China Miéville and Geoff Ryman) had both deserving and, in effect, inoffensive. They are ones won the Award before – a distinction previously held which can withstand a process that argues in favour of only by Pat Cadigan, although with the additionally books to compose a shortlist, but against them to pick intriguing distinction that Cadigan’s wins came two a winner. And they are ones whose quality is sustained, years apart, Miéville’s three and Ryman’s fifteen. As or enhanced, by a second reading. mentioned, Air achieved that rare consensus of popular This can lead to some genuine surprises: for and critical opinion. Both Air and Iron Council won out instance, when The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav over the stereotypically ‘inevitable’ mainstream novels Ghosh won in 1997, there was unusually little argument which joined them on the shortlist. You may draw your or affirmation since few members of the SF community own conclusions. at the presentation had yet read the novel. Yet Paul N Instead the story pauses, in this book, in a Billinger, writing about it here, takes issue at the outset different place. Another occasional perception about with the author he quotes at the end; whatever Ghosh’s the Clarke Award is that, as well as favouring novels qualms that it’s not really a genre novel, Billinger is in not published as science fiction, juries wilfully shortlist no doubt that it is science fiction and goes on – with books they like which aren’t SF at all. And this is one a demonstration of the story’s ambiguity, mutations, view of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, of which and journeys towards questions that may never be the third volume was shortlisted in 2006 and the answered – to prove it. first part, Quicksilver, won the Award in 2004. A casual One of the really valuable contributions this commentator might think this indicative of the end of anthology makes to the Arthur C Clarke Award is the British Boom – assuming they believe in the British to demonstrate repeatedly that winners agreed by Boom. China Miéville’s win the next year could be consensus are neither bland nor undeserving novels. taken either to belie this or to provide a much more Most of these essays provoke a desire to re-read the conclusive headstone. primary text. Many – although some, being critical pieces What is, in the event, Iain Emsley’s concluding rather than reviews, reveal key plot points – provide an essay on Quicksilver instead identifies it as a diffferent equal stimulus to read for the first time those novels milestone, if not a turning point: “a book that challenges which have so far eluded the science fiction enthusiast. how we think of SF and its future.” Emsley argues quite (The book also, of course, supports one of my own persuasively that Quicksilver is a novel set in the past ongoing projects: to read all of the novels shortlisted which is really about the present and where we go for the Clarke Award. Currently standing at 133 titles from here, in much the same way that much science including the 2007 shortlist, of which the 121 from the fiction set in the future is these days also focused on first 19 years are listed in this volume, it represents a the contemporary reader. And there is a narrative neatness in concluding this volume with a winner seen demonstrate an inherent unreliability in the novels to be dancing as much around the margins of genre they are examining: unreliable narrators, unreliable boundaries as the first, begging the question of how environments, deceptions and false perceptions and this, too, will seem from the vantage point of twenty the instability of what anyone, including the reader, may years in the future. It is probably not serendipity but choose to believe. But all of those things are arguably the critic’s own awareness of his place in time – and common to modern science fiction, not only to this thus in this volume – that enables the last words of highly-regarded set within – or around – the genre. this anthology to stand not only for the novel under In that context Gaiman was arguably right all along – discussion but the whole Award: “it should make the although, given the nature of opinions about the Clarke reader think about the very genre which they are Award, it remains important that it remains arguable. reading.” I’m certainly not going to extrapolate future So, does this anthology now help us to draw trends, not with the shortlist for the 2007 award out any universal tendencies in a Clarke Award winner? imminent as I write. All I will predict is that this year’s Neil Gaiman asserts in the preface that “The perfect judges are bound to surprise and inspire and, if they’re Arthur C Clarke Award winner has little in common really trying, at least temporarily outrage me. Arthur with any of the other winners except, perhaps, that C. Clarke’s aim of promoting SF in Britain seems to be in the places where people gather to argue, a Clarke going strong. And I still strongly recommend that you shortlist and a Clarke winner will give them plenty to read the novels on this year’s shortlist. And that you talk about.” It’s possible, of course, to pick out sub-sets read all the previous winners. And, to explain why in within these novels: stories about what it takes to be a both cases, that you read this book. person and stories about what it takes to become the machine; stories of social progress and its cost; stories of social oppression; stories of colonisation; stories Claire Brialey was a judge for the Arthur C Clarke with spaceships (no squid, although Justina Robson Award for the awards presented in 1999 and 2000 reminds us that Colin Greenland got to play with (Dreaming in Smoke and Distraction, since you ask), and alien caterpillars and stick insects); and many, many administered the BSFA awards from 2003 to 2006 and dystopias. Many of the contributors to this volume in 2007-08. The 2010 Arthur C Clarke Awards: A Survey by James Bacon

It’s hard to know what people think, so I asked How the hell could I have an opinion if I’d not people I know to be either readers, writers or involved read it? Liking the advertising? Opinion offered because in literary science fiction fandom in one way or another : ‘Coz I’m a bit of a fan of Veracity. what they thought. I decided to E-mail seventy five people, and ask them If I hadn’t read any of them I’d say The City & some questions. Forty Two responded. 56%. My brother The City. Because that’s where the weight of critical is s statistician, worked for Mori and advised me to stick to driving trains. I rounded percentages. opinion seems to lie. Answers were received before the results of the award. My comments in italics. Perhaps, Yellow Blue Tibia. I’ve heard nothing I presented this year’s shortlist. but raves, but wasn’t able to pick this up in the States so far. Spirit - Gwyneth Jones (Gollancz) The City & The City - China Miéville (Macmillan) The City & The City - China Miéville Yellow Blue Tibia - Adam Roberts (Gollancz) (Macmillan) I haven’t read it yet,but will read it. Galileo’s Dream - Kim Stanley Robinson Judges love China because he is such an accomplished (HarperCollins) Far North - Marcel Theroux (Faber & Faber) writer, and his previous novels are so good, and this Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding (Gollancz) one seems on the basis of reviews (which are not any good basis of judgement) seems to be a forward step The following are the percentages based on for him in terms of novel writing those that responded to each question. Kim Stanley Robinson’s supposed to be good, I Which one that you have read should win? think? And “Galileo’s Dream” is a great title. I’ll vote 70% said City and the City, 15% said Spirit and 15% said for that one! None.

Which one that you have an opinion on, but have not read should win? Spirit by Gwyneth Jones because I’ve loved everything else she’s written and it sounds excellent. None of the other authors are on my must read everything they’ve ever written list although China, Adam, Kim and Chris are all on my reading pile at the moment.

Roberts is underrated. I suspect Miéville to be overrated & feel Jones is very much so. I have read various Robertses and thought them pretty damned good. Weird, sometimes bleak, but good.

Miéville, I suspect, not actually having read any of his stuff at all, writes fantasy, not SF. I also suspect people value it chiefly for style, and for his personal attractiveness.

I have never read a Gywneth Jones book I liked; I think she’s terrible, myself. Wonderful, interesting woman, dreadful novelist. Mieville or Theroux. Quality of comments received on the books so far. Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding based Do you read the ACCA shortlist every year? on reviews of all of them, including this one: 90% said NO and 10% said Yes http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/04/review- retribution-falls-by-chris.html Do you read some of the ACCA Shortlist most years? Galileo’s Dream, There’s not too much buzz 60% said Yes and 40% said No about it, but what there is appears favourable. Do you ignore the shortlist, but end up reading There be ten opinions. Fans are good for opinions I find, some of the Novels listed anyhow? even when they feel they shouldn’t have one. 55% said Yes and 45% said No.

Which one will the bunch of Judges choose as Do you ignore/not worry about the shortlist? the winner do you predict? 50/50 here, total split down the middle. 46% said City and The City, 15% Yellow Blue Tibia, 15% Galileo’s Dream, 15% Spirit, 9% Far North. Is the ACCA award the most important SF award in the year? Good predictions there, with China being Favourite. And I 60 said NO and 40% said yes. Some interesting comments liked the following comment. below on this one. I don’t know. I sort of assume the Hugo for Best I’m going for Yellow Blue Tibia based on the Novel is, but I guess ACCA is seen as more ‘literary’. cover. This strategy has about a 25% success rate when applied to jockey’s jersey’s in the national. Yes (in the UK; Hugos are bigger)

How many of these books have you read? Yes, as far as the UK is concerned. And I live in 36% read 1, 28% read None, 14% read 2, 14% read 2 the UK, so.. and 8% read them all. I think that the Hugo still wins out on that Have you read any of the 2010 ACCA count. The ACCA is important, but on a national level shortlist books? rather than an international level 60% said Yes. 40% said No No (though I suppose it is the most important Have you read the Full ACCA Shortlist this in the UK) year? 95% said NO. 5% said Yes. For me personally, probably YES, although more for its shortlist rather than necessarily its winner. Why? Because I think the judges give reasonably consideration to the field and, I believe, select books on merit. Generally, I’ll favour a juried award as an informed decision over a popular vote award and the ACCA over other juried awards because it’s focussed on sf published in Britain and that’s the field I personally know best.

Yes - as a juried award it is the one (in the UK at any rate) that has the most thought put into it No. But it is the most important UK Award and it is one of the top half-dozen internationally.

I think So

Do you find your book purchases are influenced by the ACCA shortlist 55% said No, and 45% said yes.

Do awards make a difference in general to your book buying choices? 55% said Yes and 45% said No. 80% of responders to this question said Yes. Are you a Voracious reader, who swears by the values and strengths of YES -- although not so secretly. I mean, genuinely, the Award? I do wish I could keep up more but the simple fact is 100% here, as only folks who agreed said yes and some that there aren’t enough hours in the day unless I want interesting comments. to keep up with contemporary sf to the exclusion of all else. (Assuming I count as a ‘voracious’ reader) Yes - the strengths are the fact that the judges have read I read about the right amount of SF. There’s *everything*, and therefore have a wider perspective other stuff I wish I could concentrate on properly. on the year’s SF than anyone, with the result that the award can unearth and recognise works that might Yes (but “read more” would work too) have otherwise been overlooked I am a voracious reader who swears by the I wouldn’t say that.. There’s so much interesting values and strengths of book awards in general. literature out there that I wait and see what other Yes - I don’t necessarily go after books on people enjoy before I jump in myself. Part of the the shortlist, but the Clarke Award raises the public problem is that I don’t really read reviews so it’s more consciousness re sf, in a good way of a case of hearing what other people are talking about, lending each other. And, of course, seeing what Are you a Voracious reader who just ignores our local library has got in. I tend to get the Clarke awards? books about six months later than everyone else. 50/50 split here on this one, and I liked the below comment, which is as much about the survey as anything. And what does this say? I’ve never not got a book on the go, does this make me a voracious reader? I don’t know. But as I said, Well not a lot really. I really enjoyed what people had to awards give me a starter reading list. I then tend to read say, some correspondents wrote massive amounts, which I more from the authors I’ve enjoyed on that list. I don’t poured over in great detail, but which were private remarks. know a great deal about the awards themselves but I I should note that a similar survey at say the BSFA AGM generally assume the books should be worth trying. may give a totally different result, but I expect I would need to bribe The Brother to do a proper one. I was surprised by who and who wasn’t reading what. I was very impressed You secretly wish, you could read more SF, but that so many people reckoned on City and The City. just never get to it? Spirit by Gwyneth Jones Reviewed by Cheryl Morgan My first thought on seeing the back cover blurb That’s not really accurate. A book written for young explain that the new Gwyneth Jones novel, Spirit, is a people can have just as good a plot, description and science fiction re-working of The Count of Monte Cristo characterization as a book written for adults. But was that this might give too much away. “Oh noez,” I books written for young people are rarely deeply could hear people say, “spoilerz!” Well yes, it is. But you sophisticated, and sophistication is something that know there are only so many stories in the universe, Spirit has in spades. and endless ways of re-telling them. Many supposedly I’ve now gone to check dictionary definitions “new” books actually telegraph much of the plot, of “sophisticated”, because I’m sure some people and in many cases that is exactly what readers want. will read it as meaning “snobbish”. I was pleased to Predictability has market value in genre fiction. I find find this: “altered by education, experience, etc., so the whole spoiler panic scene a bit ridiculous. In what as to be worldly-wise,” which is exactly what I mean. follows I am going to assume that all of you are familiar (Literally, of course, it means “with added wisdom.”) with the basic plot of Dumas’ classic novel. Because, Young people have all sorts of good qualities, but two you know, you really should be by now. things that they tend to be short on are education and Our heroine is Gwibiwr, known as Bibi. She experience. You get those by living a long time. Just as comes from a place called White Rock, which I a trivial example, I can’t imagine Jones quoting from a suspect may be Maengwyn, the place that the English Kinks song in a book that she writes as Ann Hallam, but called Wrexham. Her parents were rebels who she has no qualms about doing so here. made themselves such a pain that the Government There is, of course, much more to the book eventually had to wipe them out. Bibi got adopted, and than that, and one area you will all be expecting is was raised by the high status family of General Yu and gender. After all, the original Aleutian series was a Lady Nef. Not in England, of course. We are in a world fascinating exploration of gender issues. Actually there somewhere in the far future of the Aleutian Trilogy. The isn’t a lot new in Spirit, but you are doubtless expecting aliens have come and gone, and me to highlight what there is so the dominant culture on Earth is let’s get it out of the way. now Chinese. There is political As I said, the story conflict between Reformers and is set many years after the Traditionalists, between those events of the Aleutian Trilogy. who believe in a republic and Earth is apparently still reeling those who believe in empire. It is, from the effects of the Gender you may note, a clever parallel to Wars. These are not explained. the world of the Dumas novel, in Possibly Jones has written some which France is divided between short fiction about them. If she supporters of the Revolution has, I’d be grateful if someone and supporters of Napoleon. would point me at it, because At some point or I’d love to read it. By the time other I expect to see academic of Spirit, however, things are papers that study how Jones more or less back to normal. has adapted her source work Traditionalist families still treat to her purpose. There is plenty young women appallingly, and to study, and that’s the main Jones has a good go at them on issue I want to highlight in this that count. That’s something we review. I’m currently reading a can all agree on. YA novel. People occasionally The one change to the claim that books intended for world is the presence of the young people are not as “good” “Undecided” – people who as books intended for adults. choose not to have a gender. Here’s one of them: monsters. It’s a difficult position, but one learns to put up Navigator T’zi, Reformer by birth and conviction, with it.’ explained the validity of the undecided gender to Lady Nef That could be simply a disillusioned reaction to – who had always thought that there must be a better New Labour, but I think it is more generally applicable. term. Remember that The Count of Monte Cristo is set in ‘You want to call us a third sex,’ said T’zi. ‘But France after the fall of Napoleon. Undecided means what it says: fluctuation, drift, mosaic Which brings us back to the plot: Bibi, as I said, sexuality that never “settles”. It is the will of God: In time is raised in the household of General Yu and Lady Nef. all Blues will pass beyond the either/or. A process which the She proves bright, and has a promising career ahead of Fundamentalists of your party are trying to reverse by force- her. But there is politics, and betrayal, and a long period ’ in prison. That part of the book moves fairly slowly, but It is an age-old battle. Those without an attachment eventually Bibi escapes, armed with a secret that will to any particular gender are always in conflict with make her fabulously wealthy. Instead of the Count of those who firmly believe that there should be two, Monte Cristo we have the Princess of Bois Dormant and only two, into which all humans should fit. Some — the princess of the sleeping wood, or Sleeping Traditionalists (for example the current Iranian Beauty. Yes, it is a fairy tale reference. And at one point government) are quite happy with transsexuals, as in the story we get a little bit of Celtic mythology. long as they confirm to their desired gender, but There are almost elves. There are lots of things in this Traditionalists always hate the Undecided. book. What about transsexuals? Does the book have Before that there is the Princess. Earth society them? Of course it does. Many of them are half-castes, is dazzled by her wealth and charm (Bibi learned a lot and as usual they end up earning a living on the wrong from Lady Nef during their incarceration). Oh, but side of the law because they can’t get jobs in polite where do you go to, my lovely, when you’re alone in society. Our heroes meet some. your bed? You dream of revenge, of course. Those who They moved around the square, politely accosting put you away are currently on top of the political pile, illegal sex-workers – presenting as women, but actually and can’t believe that they are on the eve of destruction. male: for some reason this was the arrangement that half- But they are. castes preferred. Bibi and honesty kept making the ‘he’ Sorry about the music references, but the book mistake, they couldn’t help it. Mahmood never did. has quite a few. Think of them as Easter eggs. They are What is this supposed to mean? Well, it is fun to spot. fairly vague, but the way I read it is as follows: “men Music, however, is not the only thing that the are clueless creatures who go by appearances, but real book references. We are, after all, reading a science women can always tell a fake.” I may be misjudging fiction novel that is based on a classic of world literature, Jones here, but this is fairly typical of the arrogant written by one of the cleverest science fiction writers despite with which many feminists view transsexuals. around. Is this book part of the ongoing conversation That was the gender part of the book. Those that is science fiction? You bet it is. It touches on a two quotes pretty much summed it up. The politics whole range of issues, from the origins of intelligent life is much more interesting. I’ve already written about in the universe to the future of humanity, and some of one passage in which Jones talks about how ineffective the best aliens ever written (the Aleutians). people who are clueless about politics can be. What she So despite a little annoyance on the gender is saying is that to people who are older and perhaps front, I really enjoyed this book. Possibly you have wiser, rebels are an annoying pain in the butt, even if to be fairly well read, especially in science fiction, to their politics are correct. This is a lesson that a lot of appreciate it fully, but the story works as well. The people could do with taking on board, especially those prison section is a bit slow, but the second half of the who are determined to continue the fight until no one book moves along very smoothly and the ending is is even slightly Wrong on the Internet, and they have thoroughly satisfying. I’m hoping that someone in the no friends left. Jones, however, is equally wary about US decides to publish it. reformers. Here’s Lady Nef (who is a Traditionalist): ‘I believe that the Reformers are right, and that By Cheryl Morgan, reprinted from her bog, with they must always be defeated, because in power they are thanks. www.cheryl-morgan.com Three Views of The City & The City by China Mieville

From the Mind of James Bacon explanation, some parallel world shift, some quantum I really liked this book, it was quick, neatly chaos physics explanation, and big time bomb experiment, written, had a nice main character, and an incredibly a extra terrestrial event around the time of the cleave, brilliant idea, which is the concept of 2 cities occupying but none was forth coming, and figuring out the the same geographical space yet not actually, due to structure and existence of the two cities is still with me. some mystery the answer to which remains infuriatingly I liked the protagonist and the support illusive. characters, although the cities are just as important, Each city is totally distinct, their own history, as is the third space, the place between the cities that society, race, language and some sort of metaphysical keeps everything in order, known as Breach. separation that means they are on separate planes - Breach seemed nearly supernatural, as were separate worlds perhaps but both there and not there, the enforcers of breach known as Breach. Yet at a to outsiders. later stage in the book, when one comes to see in Well, that was my perception. Initially I felt it sharp detail the what Breach is, I found it too simple, was two parallel Earths apparent in one city, where one, to straight forward. Breach suddenly not as scary or was slipping in through a failing of some parallel universe powerful, as it had been, it didn’t wash so easy, but it system. Yet as the book progresses I found that these was still very good, and the ending had enough twists, cities actually have distinct sovereign authorities within and an element of simplicity that was satisfying. our known world, two countries, approachable by the What makes this book SF of course, is a same routes but different services, and sometimes the bigger question, the use of an invented setting, that barrier between the cities is weak. One can Pass from then puts pressure on the characters has been one city to the other through illegal and legal means. the bread and butter of SF for decades, but the I loved the two Alternative histories of these setting has been science fictional, be it space with invented cities. Meanwhile the story reminded me why I like Police procedural and detective novels, harking back to my green penguin days, of Dashel Hammett and Ed McBain, yet also reminding me why detective books, with that added bit of weirdness, or complexity would be on the top end of my list, such Sfnal detectives as, Do Androids, Fatherland, SS-GB, Hartigan in Sin City: That Yellow Basterd, even my favourite Batman stories - feature the detective side of the character. Really SF can add that flavour, to a great crime story, so it gets complicated with political intrigue and complexity that my green penguins perhaps lacked. Back to China’s book, I am completely intrigued by the two societies - their inspiration and what the influences were on them. The fascinating history shared but also so very different. I wondered if there was a Christian and Muslim undertone to both cities. I wondered about the war between the cities and the world wars. The countries – where they set or based on - Austria - Hungry – somewhere within the Austria Hungarian Empire? Somewhere in the Balkans perhaps, or maybe further east, Romania. A few predictions came a little too easy, for me, I am usually a bit too dim with picking up the subtle to predict a surprise, so when I worked aspects out, it was not so much a disappointment, rather a desire to have more occlusion.

Although understanding the cities did not come easily and I may understand them not as intended or not as others perceive them, I had expected an SFnal with their opinion or detailed and explained explanation of vision. I still would have liked it. I am still fascinated and interested in the construction of these cities, what allows them to be in the same place but on two planes, and how these planes then break down or weaken at points of cross hatch or shared spaces. I want a map of the place. I want answers... Is Breach really Orciny! Can there be two places in one? Is all fiction Fantasy? Is this Science Fiction?

From Christopher Hsiang (Gray_Area) on io9.com

Nine years ago, China Miéville dazzled readers with his ferociously inventive second novel, Perdido Street Station. Now he’s turning the ideas of fantasy literature and the New Weird on their ear again, with the very original tale of The City & The City. Spoilers below! In his seminal Perdido Street Station, Miéville introduced us to the bizarre metropolis of New Crobuzon, a rich tapestry alive with chimeric mon- sters, clockwork robots, warped magical science, and shadowy politics. These days, the New Weird Atlas is crowded with entries from dozens of authors, but few can match Miéville’s gift at making even the most sur- real cities appear lifelike. Now he again defies our ex- pectations changing not just setting but his very writing style. The City & The City is a classic police procedural set in a world almost exactly like our own. The modern city-states of Besz’el and Ul Qoma might seem familiar All Judgement Fled, or say future societies, such as to a traveler in Eastern Europe or Turkey, but they’re Forever War. This book feels science fictional, in that just as weird as any old marching band of steam-driven it refuses to answer some pigeon holing questions. gorilla crabs. I prefer to ponder - what be these cities? Is this The streets of Besz’el have seen better days. a metaphysical construct, is it an extrapolation of the The old-fashioned architecture left quaint decades ‘manyworlds’ interpretation of quantum mechanics, or ago and now sits squarely in shabby — attractive only is it a good old Parallel world concept, or as simple as a compared to the brutal concrete housing projects. The between the worlds fantasy idea. Breach does somewhat alleys are stalked by packs of actual wolves, scrawny seem like a between the worlds place. Yet, the cities critters fighting over trash. There are few jobs and less occupy places that are actually there and between the 2 hope. The Besz’ citizens might describe themselves as cities there is something else. It’s a little wonderful really. saturnine or defeatist, but would probably settle for a I had hoped to seek out what China has to corner of the mouth “feh”. say on the novel, as the author, viewpoint could be An unidentified woman has been found bru- decisive. Then Dave Mansfield piped up regarding tally murdered at a skateboard park. Inspector Tyador China’s response to being asked about the book: Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad has been called in I saw China asked this question at the to investigate. Borlú has been around and around the SFXweekender. His answer was along the lines of “I’m sorry block more times than he cares to remember. More re- to disappoint, but I put everything I wanted you to know in served and a bit less corrupt than some of his policzai the text. I have my own ideas about how this worked, but colleagues, he’s a world-weary cop cut from the same I’m not going to say them, as an author’s word has an unfair cloth as Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander or perhaps weight. However you think it works, is how it works for you”. Georges Simenon’s Commissaire Maigret. We follow That is such an awesome response from the investigation through Borlú’s eyes, seeing the clues China, annoyingly brilliant and only adds to the and his city as he does. The characters show only what whole question of how it works and what he had moods and motivations they choose to reveal. Miéville in mind. He is absolutely right, of course, an author totally nails the stripped-down voice of a great police can upset a person’s visualisation of a scenario, procedural – “Just the facts, ma’am.” – a far cry from the abundantly verdant prose of the Bas-Lag novels troversial research into the distant past when the two or King Rat. When the victim’s identity is discovered, cities may have been one. The Besz’ and Ul Qomans Borlú must continue his hunt for the girl’s murderer have great difficulty with subjects like these. It’s hard in foreign Ul Qoma, Besz’el’s ancient rival and uneasy to have a conversation about things you are not al- partner. lowed to think about. But Borlú forges ahead: a woman Okay, from here on out I get way SPOILERY is dead and someone must pay. Everybody does what about the two very odd cities but not the actual plot. they must, or gets destroyed by a faceless system that If you hate it when the weird twist in worldbuilding is answers to no one. Orwell and Kafka would love this. spoiled, just click away and buy the book, because it re- Oh wow, that sounded pretty bleak, huh? The ally is quite good. plot is grim, but I was charmed by the wealth of details Are all the babies gone? All right, let’s proceed. of daily life and characters in the The City & The City. Where Besz’el has sooty crumbling stonework, The pacing is deliberate but with a spare writing style, Ul Qoma boasts glittering skycrapers. This city has and at just over 300 pages this is a very brisk read. The adapted handsomely to the modern world, attracting crime novel feel is tone perfect, although Miéville might foreign investors and high-tech industry. This would be have focused on this aspect too much, sacrificing the a surprise considering Ul Quoma’s dalliance with So- fantastical elements. After all the imagination he used viet-style communism in the last century. Before that, making Besz’el; Ul Quoma, and Breach so different, he they backed the losing side in WWII. Once a devout never attempts to explain how it all works. Personally I kingdom worshiping something like Islam, they are didn’t mind this — trying too hard to describe the nu- now a secular Westernized state on the cutting edge minous can ruin credulity (see The Iron Council- time of global society. That giant grumbling sound? It’s from golems, really?). A writer without Miéville’s consider- their neighbors in Besz’el. Once he gets through the able intelligence and talent would have made this a red tape, Inspector Borlú won’t have far to travel – the confusing mess. two cities occupy the exact same geographical space. Readers should shed their preconceptions This isn’t like Budapest or Minneapolis/St. Paul, and treat themselves to a highly original and gripping nor are they divided cities like Cold War Berlin or Je- experience.The City & The City is still Urban Fantasy, rusalem. Through some unexplained quirk of topology yes, but don’t look for elves on motorcycles or spell- you can be in either Ul Qoma or Besz’el and never casting cops. China Miéville has done something very notice the other except for overlapping areas called different, new, and — oh yeah — weird. “crosshatching”. Citizens of both cities are raised from The City & The City is available now from Ama- birth to ignore or unsee elements from the alternate zon, or from your local independent bookseller. side. To travel through these crosshatched zones, or Commenter Grey_Area is known to the old even acknowledge a person or shop sign, is strictly worker-priests as Christopher Hsiang. His passport to forbidden. Any transgressions are swiftly acted upon Besz’el was revoked after that incident on the Street of by a mysterious force or agency known only as Breach. Crocodiles. The punishments cannot be appealed, and Breach does not bother to share its guidelines or agenda. To avoid A Third View from Christopher J Garcia trouble, certain colors, fashions, even gestures are ac- As a detective novel? Good. cepted in one city but illegal in the other. Tourists must As a science fiction novel? Decent. complete classes in recognizing crosshatches and un- As a Thought Experiment? Amazing. seeing the other city. Driving in busy traffic must be a I found myself reading it and whenever the plot nightmarish test of self control. went away, I was reading partly, but mostly my mind This is an absurdist extension of what many of was riding all the possibilities that Ul-Qoma and Beszel us city-dwellers already do. We daily ignore the more presented, how the breech/Breech worked, how a city unpleasant truths on our streets and often unsee lots might fold in on itself, how the citizens learn to deal all of cool stuff: “Feh, that’s for the tourists” Yah, I can be a sorts of difficulties. You can throw any obstacle, fam- jaded schmuck sometimes. Miéville doesn’t lean on this ine, war, dangers of every type, and they will cope and point and I may just reading something he never meant, come to find a form of life. into the novel. He can get very soapboxy (ahem, The This is the most psychological of novels, the Iron Council) . Not surprising considering his strong most kind of novel. This requires powerful thought and convictions. But The City & The City is fairly free of intense interconnectivity. You must realise there is a politics, and instead concentrates on the story. world outside the novel and then you must try and fit As the murder investigation unfolds, Borlú runs that in with what is in the novel far more than you do afoul of different political fringe groups who desire to other fantasy. either destroy or unite with the opposite city. The ever Is it SF? Absolutely! Science fiction is the litera- present bureaucracy adds to the tangle of conspiracies ture of impossible thought, and if The City & The City and shoals of red herrings. The case also involves con- isn’t the best example of that, what is? Two Very Different Looks at Yellow Blue Tibia

The Thoughts of James Bacon System. I couldn’t grasp the random drops in the book, Konstantin Skvorecky’s memoir of the alien invasion like one of the SF authors claiming to have written The of 1986. Grasshopper lies heavy. Perhaps it was an allusion to the idea, that the situation Skvorecky ,finds himself in, I should say from the onset, that I have a is some sort of alternative history, within an alternative preconception of Adam Roberts. My perception which future that he helped create. An alternative within and has been formed by reading his comments online, is that alternative. he is a bit arrogant. (a beetle knows a beetle) Although I I found some aspects a little too forced, and suppose I need to reconcile that he is an academic, and the booze a bit too clichéd, I suppose Irish people this may account for his robust approach to things, but would get the same treatment, but sometimes it felt if in this odd world of science fiction reading, the bit that the book were set in the UK everyone would talk like is known as fandom, is actually a passionate hobby. Bertie Wooster. With this set pre-conception in mind, I was Overall though, I quite enjoyed the book. Of then disappointed to find myself enjoying Yellow Blue the three I read, from the Clarkes shortlist, it is the Tibia, and even looking forward to his next book New least strong, but it is still very pleasant and a quick and Model Army. How annoying is that. easy read. The second world war has ended, and Stalin demands the presence of Science Fiction writers, they are unsure if this is an audience with the leader, or a trip to the Gulags. Stalin wants to concrete his power, And the strikingly different view of Hugo-nominee as he reckons that the American capitalist enemy may Catherynne M. Valente (CMV.com) not always be threatening enough for the people to ‘require’ his leadership. This state’s of fear being a form Yellow Blue OH MY GOD NO of slavery or oppression by occluded deceit, quite a current concept, reflecting sometimes the ways we Allow me to say upfront, in case it was not clear: today are told of various emergencies, which therefore I am not Russian, nor do I play one on TV. I have justifies various impositions upon the rights of normal not the smallest drop of Russian blood in me. citizens. I am, however, married to a man who grew up in The ideas and SF authors who come up with the former Soviet Union, and thus spend a lot of time them suddenly find they are no longer required, and with him. I also spend a lot of time with his family, all of then we catch up with them, some forty years later. At whom lived through some pretty dire parts of the 20th this stage, with an ‘Our Man in Havanna’ feeling, we find century in Russia. I speak very terrible Russian on the our protagonist, being persuaded to consider that what level of a toddler. Rather notoriously, I’ve traveled to they wrote, is now coming true. Konstantin is a great Russia, and most recently written an entire novel set in character, embittered, always being disbelieved despite Leningrad, and thus done more research than you can his honesty and convictions, quite a hilariously acerbic shake a red stick at. Russian culture features extremely character at times, especially when dealing with the prominently in my life these days. I say this so that you monolith that is Soviet bureaucracy. will understand how frustrated I have become over the The idea of faking an alien invasion, is one that last two days, but not make the mistake of thinking I’m resonates with me, this is of course the premise of talking about my own culture. saving the world in Watchmen, to avert a nuclear war I just finished reading Yellow Blue Tibia. by creating a bigger problem for humanity to face, although Adams differs here in a variety of ways and Oh my fucking god, you guys. tying it into historical occurrences, in a secret history sort of way, is sufficient change to lose connectivity. You know how sometimes (all the time) Ameri- It’s rather upbeat, given the timing of the can movies and books will flip the R in the title to indi- setting, one expects that The Soviet Union is much cate one out to HOLD UP, THIS SHIT IS RUSSIAN, YO? greyer and duller, but then, within this setting, Roberts Like so: ?. This is, of course, maddening, no less than uses the characters to create great humour, and uses using a Greek lambda for an A when it is patently not the systems absurdity in a clevery mocking and dry way, an A. ? is not an R, it goes: “ya.” Incidentally, the cover that one can but laugh. I often thought more of this of Yellow Blue Tibia is the single worst offender I have being an attack on a ‘system’ rather than just the Soviet ever seen in this category, as it goes to bizarre lengths to make every English letter into purely because of the genre he some freakish version of a Rus- wrote. Yes, there is Soviet pulp, but sian one, including putting a line the constant asides about how de- through a ? to make an A, because spised SF is and passive-aggressive I guess the Russian A--you know, defenses of how awesome it is, A--wasn’t Russian enough. I know really, were meant for a Western the author isn’t in charge of this, audience, not authentic to Russia but I should have known, because where fantastika has a long and the novel is the literary equivalent rich tradition of not being spat on. of this exact phenomenon. Of course, one of the more egre- Is it a bad book? On its gious problems was that it seems own merits I’d say no worse than not to have occurred to anyone mediocre. The plot: Stalin hires a in the editorial process that “sci- bunch of SF writers to create a ence fiction” does not begin with believable alien threat to unite the SF in Russian, much less ??, as the Communists against something protagonist makes much of while other than America, which he as- analyzing Josef Stalin’s name to sumes will fall within 5 years. The somehow contain the initials for things they wrote then start com- science fiction. (In the Latin alpha- ing true. Roberts is going for a bet, Jehovah begins with an I...) Bulgakov meets Foucault’s Pendu- Then there’s the names. lum sort of thing, with conspira- Oh, the linguistic hugemanatee at cies that turn out to be true and work here! The main character’s a lot of madcap running around name is Konstantin, but his friends Moscow with clever asides and call him Konsty. Not, you know, “incisive” satire on the Soviet system, but it doesn’t re- Kostya, which is the actual diminutive and not even ally come off as clever or madcap or even very conspir- remotely hard to find out if you’ve ever read a Russian atorial. When you have to have characters comment on novel. Stalin makes fun of one Jan Frenkel for having how funny a protagonist is, he’s not really that funny. a Slavic first name which he actually changed to Ivan, If in a workshop I’d say that we get all of ten pages to but seems to be cool not only with his German-Jewish care about the conspiracy these guys write, and pretty surname, but the protagonist’s surname, which is actu- much no information on what it is besides “radiation ally Czech. The one actual Russian word that’s used is aliens” + blow up Ukraine, so we have no investment actually not correct at all, but an inexplicable mangling in whether or not it’s real. An on the sentence level of the word for “dead.” One character actually refers almost every line is tortured and too full of clauses and to the “x”s in the Russian alphabet, in a passage with so robbed of any spirit by endless commas. But I had to many things wrong with it it beggars the mind. (There do some breathing exercises to even analyze the book aren’t any. And yes, he meant x as in the English x. Oh, I on that level because literally every cultural note in this know it looks like an X. But it goes: “ch” and is not an entire novel is wrong. X, much like our friend ?.) I cannot even being to explain how much this The title itself makes me want to punch some- book did it wrong. I’ll give you the most glaring exam- thing. I actually said in the beginning of this book: ples, not even getting into the little things that niggled “[info]justbeast , the title better not be some stupid pun once I gave up being immersed in the book and started on ???? or I’m just going to kill myself.” [info]justbeast actually thinking about why anyone would assume no assured me this could not possibly be the case. And he one in 1940s Russia would speak French or how living was right. It’s much worse. You might think it has to do in gaga-grad as a euphemism for crazy is not really a with alien physiology, but you’d be wrong. Russian-ism but an English-Russian-ism and not that The title allegedly is a phonetic English version funny anyway and ooh, I want to listen to Lady Gaga of “I love you” in Russian. I love you in Russian is ya anything to get away from this thing. The fact is that the lyublyu tebya. So, um, I guess if you have THE WORST book would have been a lot more believable with all PRONUNCIATION IN THE ENTIRE WORLD and the names changed and set in England or America. are an idiot, it kind of almost works. Except no, no, Firstly, Roberts has just ported the entire con- it doesn’t. Instead it’s the worst pun in the universe. tempt for science fiction writers from the West right Then, to make it better, the American love interest says into Russia, with nothing changed, not even considering it to Russian people and they understand her despite that there is a different culture of literature there and the emphasis and ACTUAL VOWELS being completely writers, even of SF, had a pretty high position that the wrong. I used to think this was an awesome intriguing protagonist would have no reason to hide with shame title. Now I hate myself and all living things. This is why we can’t have nice things, kids. happy to know is a cute joke having to do with the Oh, what else? Konstantin, in 1986 Moscow, de- alien conspiracy and just a nice set piece, which really cides he’s an alcoholic and stops drinking, is concerned I’m not at all cool with, given the rest of the painfully about the effects of tobacco on his lungs. Awesomely, inept cultural appropriation going on here. The much- at one point, without any irony whatsoever, while being vaunted satire in the novel’s blurbs is just one-note lol detained by the KGB, Konstantin loudly claims that he Russia sux nonsense, and I think it’s telling that the must be charged with a crime or released, since that’s acknowlegments thank a plainly not-Russian friend for the law! Really? Would you like your Miranda rights her childhood memories of having once visited Kiev read to you, too? How about your one phone call? The and Moscow. Because that’s what this reads like. The KGB and local police have to do precisely shit for you dim memories of someone who might have once seen in Soviet Russia, and this isn’t even a tough research bit- a movie about Russia. -it’s like rule one in the totalitarian handbook, and given I agonized over cultural details while writing how cynical and experienced our hard-boiled protag is Deathless. I didn’t even feel right making it a first per- supposed to be, I just can’t even finish this sentence for son novel for that very reason--which YBT is. It shocks how stupid this is. me as much as a nude author picture would, to see And then we get into factual problems. Because any cultural accuracy just flung to the wind, and this honestly, the cultural notes aren’t just wrong for Rus- ugly pastiche, a Westerner in redface prancing around sia, they’re wrong for the 80s. And sometimes offensive. an amazing idea for a book that got totally lost in end- One of the characters, Saltykov, has Asperger’s Syn- less chase scenes, guns, and tell me the truth/you can’t drome. In 1986. Asperger’s was not diagnosed by that handle the truth! exchanges. The entire central 200 name in anyone until 1992. And of course Saltykov is pages of the book are filled with that, such that aliens just literally the most annoying person ever born, and and conspiracies barely register. exists purely to block the protagonist and cause prob- I heard so many good things about this book. I lems with his hilarious syndrome and be comic relief, went out of my way to get it from the UK. And really, I sort of, even though his symptoms are pretty much might as well have just added -ski to every word in this classic OCD and not Asperger’s. And the American book and treated it like Communist Mad Libs for all woman is, of course, fat. Not just fat, but constantly that it had any point whatsoever, or any authenticity at described in the most grotesque terms possible, that all. Apparently cultural sensitivity just doesn’t apply to she has to collect her flesh and haul it into a car--she those evil, evil Russians. practically has no character other than to be fat and Yeah, I know, that’s harsh. I mean, I could gripe American. And a Scientologist. I’ll get back to that in about the cover design, too (not all books involving a minute. Eventually, of course, it dawns on Konstan- Russia have to be red, actually). But I have to call them tin that skinny bodies aren’t so awesome in post-war like I see them, or else what’s a blog for? Russia and he falls in love with her for no reason and she with him, even though she’s in her thirties and he’s in his late sixties and horrifyingly scarred. Their main topic of conversation seem to remain, however, how fat she is. I’ve never used the word fatphobic before, but there it is. Literally, she can be stabbed with no damage because she’s so incredibly fat--did you hear how fat she is? SO VERY FAT. Oh, and she’s a Scientologist. I know the Church was around then (though since Hubbard died in 1986, literally a month before the action of the book, and the Scientologists never mention it, but the Soviet authori- ties are all over that, I can’t even say this rings right) but really, Scientology and Asperger’s and alcoholism and the evils of tobacco are concerns of today, not of 1986. It just feels wrong. And there’s no reason for them to be Scientologists, it doesn’t matter to the plot, except in that they necessarily believe in aliens. No one has cell phones or email, but other than that it might as well be 2010. In America (or England, I know the au- thor is British), since every single cultural reference the protagonist makes is a Western one. I swear I am more Russian than this guy. And then there’s Chernobyl, which you’ll be Galileo’s Dream, By Kim Stanley Robinson Reviewed by Roz Keveany

The science of altering the past time travellers effectively dramatise his role as a moral Reviewed by Roz Kaveney in The agent. His choice to compromise – to rely on history Independent Monday, 10 August 2009 to absolve him and Copernican theory – comes to seem admirable in Robinson’s fable. Sometimes we Great things are done by imperfect people. Isaac need living men finishing their work as much as heroes Newton was a curmudgeon obsessed with convicting who go down in flames. forgers and working out the date of Creation from www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books Biblical genealogy. Albert Einstein was an adulterer. Johannes Kepler had fanciful ideas about the music of the spheres. And Galileo, that great martyr of reason and experimental science? He was a blusterer, a flatterer and an arrogant bully who dumped his daughters in a convent. Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel about the events leading to Galileo’s trial for heresy is a warts and all picture, but one that makes us love and admire the great astronomer in spite of his weaknesses. Part of the way he does this is by reminding us of the man’s physical presence. His Galileo has a bad hernia and drinks too much, he’s in constant ill health as he goes about discovering the moons of Jupiter. He is wonderfully tactless and a show-off – and does not bridle his mind even when the logic of his discoveries is leading him in potentially fatal directions. He is also, and this is the colossal risk Robinson takes, the hero of a science- fiction novel in which he escapes his own time to participate in one of the greatest of human adventures – one that threatens, yet again, to dethrone humanity from the centre of its perceived universe. Some 30th century scientists have discovered, and are communicating with, a being in the ice-covered oceans of Europa, one of Jupiter’s “Galiliean moons”. They bring Galileo forward, partly as a prestigious tool in their arguments, partly to salve their consciences over the way they have manipulated history to bring about a version in which he shortens the war of religion and science by heroically dying at the stake. Galileo’s struggles to deal with these “Far North” by Marcel Theroux Reviewed by Tommy Wallach Far North by Marcel Theroux, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25.00, 314 pages Fallout Girl expect: “Killing always sits heavy with me,” Makepeace Another take on the post-apocalyptic novel proves muses after taking the life of a violent thief, “Whether that this venerable genre is anything but a wasteland. that’s because of my being a woman, or because my “Every day I buckle on my guns and go out to disposition is naturally softhearted for another reason, patrol the dingy city. I’ve been doing it so long that I’m I don’t know.” shaped to it, like a hand that’s been carrying buckets in Far from seeming gimmicky, Makepeace’s the cold.” gender lends a So begins tension to Far North author Marcel that most examples Theroux’s “Far of the genre lack. North,” a novel of Post-apocalyptic p o s t - ap o c a ly p s e novels tend to center set in Siberia. It’s around a taciturn an interesting male unafraid of geographic choice kicking some ass (“I for this kind of story, Am Legend,” “The as Siberia is one of Road,” “Dhalgren”), the few places in the or if the author does world that already choose a woman for looks as desolate a protagonist, she is and ravaged as a invariably described post-apocalyptic as a passive sufferer landscape. Theroux, (“The Handmaid’s who has both Tale,” “The Unit”) spent time on or a maternal the Great Steppe, wise-woman (“The and also filmed a Stand”). I can’t think documentary on of another example settlers who have of a character like chosen to move Makepeace, who back to Chernobyl, acts as any woman does a remarkable would if she wanted job evoking the to survive in a post- breath-freezing cold apocalyptic world— of that world, giving in short, like a man. even the novel’s Makepeace’s most implausible parents had moved ideas the ring of to Siberia before the truth. apocalypse, as part of In “Far a social movement North,” climate aimed at escaping change, along with the twisted values the attempts to and moral decadence delay climate change, of modern life. When has led to world survivors of the war war, which may or may not have resulted in the end of human civilization arrived in Evangeline, they came into conflict with the (it’s never made entirely clear what has happened to settlers already living there. “It was like two different the world outside of Siberia). The protagonist of the species colliding: the world that had a choice, and the novel, Makepeace, is the sole remaining citizen of the world that had none. The strains between us were town of Evangeline. Early in the book, we learn that ratcheting up in secret. And even those who noticed it this noir-ish, hard-nosed character is not at all what we didn’t like to admit to it. The trouble lit slow, like one of those lazy damp leaf fires in autumn.” apocalypse. Makepeace chooses her only two friends to do salvage work in Polyn, thinking it a favor, but it When the story begins, Makepeace’s position turns out that an anthrax attack during the war has as sheriff of Evangeline has become something of a made the place poisonous. All those who enter the city sinecure, as she’s the only person still living there. So are killed afterwards, just to recover a few batteries or when a plane crashes right before her eyes, the time bits of circuitry. seems ripe for adventure. Makepeace leaves Evangeline Theroux posits that the wide distribution behind and heads off in search of whatever new of knowledge and skills would prove the greatest civilization has re-conquered the skies. What follows impediment to rebuilding civilization after a worldwide is a vaguely episodic account of her travels through catastrophe: the North. Everywhere she turns, Makepeace finds “We had been so prodigal with our race’s hard- corruption and lawlessness. She is accused of being a won knowledge. All those tiny facts inched up from the spy, starved, beaten, and enslaved. And whenever you dirt. The names of plants and metals, stones, animals, think things are about to take a turn for the better, they and birds; the motion of the planets and the waves. All just get worse. of it fading to nothing, like the words of a vital message Author Marcel Theroux some fool had laundered with his pants and brought all For example, Makepeace spends several years garbled.” working as a slave at a place called “the base”. After Both the world and the characters of Far years of service, she is promoted and made a guard. North are immaculately designed, so it’s a shame that Her responsibilities in this position including choosing the plot sometimes comes up short. A short love prisoners to work in “The Zone”, a derelict city once interest for Makepeace results in an unsatisfying coda known as Polyn, where the most advanced technologies to the primary action of the novel, and a tricky reveal in of the old world were collected just before the the final chapters seems similarly contrived. Theroux’s decision to make his protagonist a slave removes some of her agency, and slows down the middle of the book. That said, I felt a similar lack of action in Cormack McCarthy’s recent apocalyptic novel, “The Road,” and that book won the Pulitzer, so I suppose it’s not really much of a complaint. In Makepeace, Theroux has given us a protagonist at once recognizeable and original, struggling to survive as a woman in a world that no longer has much need for the feminine. Her struggle finds a counterpart in the struggle of her world, a wounded creature itself on the brink of barrenness and death. In this way, Makepeace becomes a metaphor, both for the physical degradation of the planet, and the human impulse to survive. As she describes herself, “I thought that whatever hopes and convictions she had cherished, Makepeace was just another mask that life wore as it fought to renew itself, unsentimental, unsparing, fighting ugly.” Many thanks to Musician Tommy Wallach who gave us permission to use this piece www.tommywallach.com An Adventure- Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding by James Bacon

A very nice and light swashbuckling action his self centred manner and greed fail to enamour him adventure book, enjoyable and easy to read. Full of as you would expect of a lead character. His journey action and in world where brigands and freebooters, is not one of failure to success, rather one realises pirates and merchants ply the skies in airships. throughout, just when he seems to be redeeming Could be SF, could be Fantasy, depends on your himself, that he was really very shitty and these current outlook, where or what the world the story took little victories do little to redeem his past. His pleasure place on wasn’t important, similar to our own, with at succeeding, is what any Captain would accept as obvious differences in technological advancement, normal. There is a lot about loyalty, Frey through luck given different topographies, sufficed. rather than skill has built up a bank of loyalty and The story is about the captain and crew of an respect, which he doesn’t even expect, doesn’t even armed freighter airship, The Ketty Jay, although I had realise it exists. wondered if the story would be about the ship, rather I enjoy naval stories. Parick O’Brien has trumped than the captain and he might be done away with. The C.S Forrester for me and Wooding’s book feels to fall airship is given buoyancy by a liquid or gas known as into a category, as it is not unusual for the Captain to aerium, that seems to act like a fuel when reacting be the focus of the story, and also there is usually a to electromagnets to create an Ultra Light gas and physical, mental and philosophical journey to be taken. provide lift, a resource that caused wars, and is crucial The difference here, for me was that Frey although on a for transportation in this world. similar path, remains a flawed character, even as he gets I enjoyed the book, which was mostly about things together. flaws in characters. All of the characters have a flaw, I found the Tricnia Dracken, his nemesis and some are simple too simple perhaps, but some are a also an ex, a wonderful character. The mess that are little complex. The main protagonist is the Captain , relationships, raises its ugly head. Here the cheapness Darian Frey, yet the stories that Frey applies to perspective doesn’t always relationships, seems very stay with him, and the story real and I could recognise is shared with two other his attitude, towards women characters, Grayther Crake and commitment from men a ‘Daemonist’ and Jez Kyte I know. who is really dead. What was awesome As I read, I kept was the way in which this expecting there to be a powerful woman, had been space element, but this essentially totally screwed was because occasionally I over by his treatment of would forget it’s not Firefly. her, leading to a horrendous Similar things, the freight series of events, which airship, a mixed bag of crew, made her, perhaps the most all with pasts that we will interesting and powerful learn but which they are character of the book. I could keen to keep to themselves, see that in this character, a Navy to avoid, all this harsh events and trauma led to a sense of nearness building a deeper strength to the TV series.Luckily with a lot of potential. by about a quarter in, the Occasionally I thought book had developed its she harboured a deeper own resonance and the thinking than I expected and world had conjured itself I liked her character even as sufficiently in my mind’s Frey battled with his own eye, that this sub conscious past and conscious to try correlation desisted. and portray her from his Darrian Frey, the perspective. captain of the ship, and a bit She was also the of a shit, to be honest, is the true winner at the end of main protagonist. At times the novel, although not to the mortal determent of Frey, but she beat him. It was really quite good fun stuff. It reminded me of the fun of a nice element. reading On Stranger Tides and Drawing of The Dark. I As well as desiring more about Crake and Kyte, like the way that many of the more fantastical elements I wanted more about Silo, a quite silent character, who have some sort of science element thrown in and was once a slave and of a differing beaten race, this thought that Wooding did a super job of getting the whole area looked intriguing, and worth a more in- action scenes across to the reader. depth look, but then would that have made it stodgy. Of course though, I suppose, I was also rooting And with Bess, I felt there was a real element of for this book, because it felt least ‘like’ a Clarke book. grotesque, being played with, yet this whole ‘Golem’ Although that is not a sentiment that I am alone on as concept needed more undoing. many people were surprised to see this book on the The world of Retribution Falls is definitely a list, and it was immediately the rank outsider, and this place where I want more novels to visit. I found it just made me like it all the more.

Art Credits Cover, Pages 33 - 35 Photos by James Bacon Page 1-AP photo of Arthur C. Clarke from 1952 Page 11 - By Alice & Leda (of Alice and Leda’s Super Fun Show) Page 12 - Monolith by Dave Varano (davar.deviantart.com) Page 13 - HAL 900 from David Stork of Hal’s Legacy Page 17 and 20 - from the Distant Planets series by Ken Walker Page 18 and 19 from the Arthur C Clarke Award Official website (http://www.clarkeaward.com/) Page 31 - Arthur C Clarke by Nalaka Gunawardene Back Cover by Rick Hutchins (www.RJDiogenes.com) The Arthur C. Clarke Awards 2010. Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly Circus, London. A Letter from James Bacon Dear Chris, The Apollo Cinema, has a frontage on Regent St, and is literally on the south side of the great Piccadilly Circus, in London’s west end. The venue is situated two floors down stairs, where dug out of the ground like some modern day subterranean facility, are five luxury seated cinema screens, a bar and a very nicely furnished lounge. The screens vary from a 40 seater to a 168 seater. The cinema was purpose built and opened in 2004 and since 2006 it has been the home of Sci-Fi

Former Clarke Winner Paul McAuley

There were no shortage of authors, Paul McAuley, Al Reynolds, Chris Priest, Ian Watson and new author on the horror block Sarah Pinborough, who was wearing a very nice dress. She wasn’t alone, and between black and white polka dot summer dress with patent shoes, and zebra styled High Heels, there was quite a bit of fashion on display. I suspect, that some of the well turned heels belonged to employees of the various publishing houses represented. Malcolm Edwards not London and The Arthur C. Clarke Awards. in those type of heels was there from Gollancz, as was The setting is salubrious and prestigious, this Jo Fletcher who was in those type of heels and Gillian is slap bang in the middle of central London, a truly Redfarn also from Gollancz. Penguin was represented, magnificent capital city, and it attracts quite a spectrum and there were a number of Agents, I saw John Berlyne of people. from Zeno agency. I wore long trousers and shoes, so I I arrived a little early, in the company of Liz Batty, looked moderately respectable. and had some fun taking photo’s of Stormtroopers I was meant to note all the people, Chris, but I outside, from The Garrison. Downstairs, in the lounge, I was too engrossed with Steve Jones, and I hadn’t seen greeted Steve Jones and we spoke about World Horror him for a while. Jo Dante of Gremlins fame turned up, and there was free beer and wine on offer, and slowly although whether for the actual awards or not I am but surely, the lounge filled. not sure. I joined the ‘Croydon’ gang who consisted of crowd, speaking to our hearts. He spoke of hearing a Mark and Claire and other fans I know, and there was quote and writing it down. a continuous stream of platters of appetizers. Soon Man Booker judge, John Mullan, who was enough we were ushered into the main cinema. It was responding to a Kim Stanley Robinson’s challenge in busy, with shuffling to get everyone in, a testament to New Scientist about the lack of SF being consider the popularity of the event. I met Penny Hill, who I didn’t realise was the by the Booker, was quoted by China as saying about wife of Judge Chris Hill, of BSFA fame, it was nice to Science Fiction that “it is in a special room in book chat to her, she is very pleasant. I wondered if there shops, bought by a special kind of person who has was some coincidence, between my faith in these two special weird things they go to and meet each other.” judges and the pleasing shortlist. China then mentioned that this award ceremony, Louis Savvy who ruins the festival gave us a was one of those special weird things, and he was very nice welcoming, and chatted to us about things, that very pleased to be there. It was a superb speech. would be on as part of Sci-Fi. On the big screen were And so the great and the good left. On the way, I was introduced to John Landis, which was a little surreal. There was an after award party, but it was a Private affair, in a bar, being sponsored by SFX on Shaftsbury Ave. I managed later to congratulate China, albeit briefly, he was just about to be interviewed, but he was so genuinely pleased, you could see it in his face. Overall it was a very nice evening, it’s pretty obvious that a lot of people work really tremendously hard to make it all happen, and the Serendip Foundation which finds the funding for the award, is a voluntary group. Best James Louis Savvy the books that had made the shortlist. China Mievile, Gwyneth Jones and Adam Roberts were all present. I am not sure if Marcel Thereux was there, but all the judges bar one, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, who could not make it, were there. And so Tom Hunter got up and spoke, thanking the various judges, and everyone involved. He looked quite dapper in a Dinner suit. Then Paul Billinger who is chair of the Judges spoke about all the titles in turn. It was quite good to be reminded of the novels, and interesting to hear someone else’s viewpoint of them. Then SFX magazine editor, David Bradley was called to the lectern, to make the announcement and present a prize, some £2010, not a small amount of money and quite a bit I imagine for an author. I had been asked previously, who should and who would win. I was rooting for Chris Wooding and knew in my bones that China Mielville would win. It’s just too good a book, posses to big and too many questions to the readers. And he did. He was pretty humble, he is a really nice guy and here he was charming, stylish and eloquent. He thanked many people, but then rallied the This isn’t the bus you’re looking for... The 2010 Clarke Awards The 2010 Clarke