Clarke 2014 and more

Arthur C Clarke Award 2014

 

The Clarke shortlist is out and it looks like this:

• The Adjacent by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
• God’s War by Kameron Hurley (Del Rey)
• The Machine by James Smythe (Blue Door)
• Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie (Orbit)
• Nexus by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot)
• The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann (Gollancz)

 There's already a bit of coverage at the Guardian and short posts by Nina Allan and Martin Petto, who has given us some odds, fairly acccurate I suspect. It's already obvious that UK writers and reviewers are a little surprised by the inclusion of Naam and Mann, but since neither can be as bad as Ack Ack Macaque I'll happily read both. I'm chuffed that The Machine has made it.

Carnegie Award

The Carnegie Shortlist is out too. It looks like this:

• All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry (Templar)
• The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks (Puffin)
• The Child's Elephant by Rachel Campbell-Johnston (David Fickling Books)
• Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper (Bodley Head)
• Blood Family by Anne Fine (Double Day) 
• Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (Faber & Faber)
• Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead (Anderson Press)
• The Wall by William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury)

As a secondary school librarian I should probably read them all but life is too short . . . though I've been meaning to read The Wall for some time. There's coverage here with links to reviews of all 8 books.

It made me look back through recent shortlists. I'm glad that authors like Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd, David Almond and Philip Reeve have all been celebrated and that Sally Gardner's fantastic Maggot Moon won last year BUT . . . and this is the biggest BUT I've had to consider for eons . . . why hasn't Frances Hardinge ever made the shortlist. This is just wrong and I don't quite understand why. I'm going to have a serious think and attempt an explanation in the near future.

Other stuff

Simon Ings reviews Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, as does Nina Allan.

 

 

Jonathan McAlmont takes Ender's Game to task here and links to a great column by Cory Doctorow on Locus Online. There's a good short essay by Kameron Hurley there too.

 

 

At SF Signal there is a short video interview to celebrate Women's History Month and the page has links to other good stuff too.

I'm going to read The Luminaries at Easter so I was interested to read David Hebblethwaite's thoughts here and here. This review is well worth reading too.

I'd missed this great review of Ancillary Justice by Gwyneth Jones.

Check out Patrick Ness's blog for the news that A Monster Calls is getting a film adaption. 

I'm currently reading this:

 

It has a fantastic short introduction by Farah Mendlesohn and John Clute's chapter on current SF is, unsurprisingly, sharp and thought provoking.