Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist Announced

When do you know it’s spring in the science fiction community? Just around the time award season comes about. Yesterday, Locus Online published the shortlist for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award. Now after the big three awards (them being the Hugos, the Nebulas, and the Philip K. Dick Award) the Arthur C. Clarke Award is definitely one of the more prestigious honors in the industry given by the British Science Fiction Association. Many winners see a spike in book sales. Similarly, an honorarium of prize money is given to the winner equivalent to that of the current year (i.e. 2009 prize = 2009 pounds). The award is given to the first printing of the book in the United Kingdom.




This year’s short list includes the following:

Song of Time, Ian R. MacLeod (PS Publishing)
The Quiet War, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
The Margarets Sheri S. Tepper (Gollancz)
Martin Martin’s on the Other Side, Mark Wernham (JonathanCape)

A list of worthy recipients if you ask me. I look forward to see who will win this year’s prize.