A Paris ruined by war, a dark planet peopled by the incestuous descendants of two abandoned astronauts and the dangerous surface of the moon are some of the settings for the year’s best science fiction novels, as chosen by the members of the British Science Fiction Association.
French-American writer Aliette de Bodard is shortlisted for the BSFA best novel prize for The House of Shattered Wings, which takes place in a devastated Paris after the Great Magicians’ War. Chris Beckett, whose novel Dark Eden won him the Arthur C Clarke award, makes the cut for follow-up Mother of Eden, set generations after the incestuous offspring of astronauts have dispersed across their dark planet.
The shortlist, which is voted for by BSFA members, also includes Dave Hutchinson’s Europe at Midnight, where intelligence officer Jim finds his intelligence service preparing for war with another universe, Ian McDonald’s Luna: New Moon, which lays out a deadly, cut-throat vision of life on the moon, and Justina Robson’s imagining of a world where science and magic are hard to distinguish.
Won in the past by names from JG Ballard to Philip K Dick, the BSFAs describe themselves as “fan awards that not only seek to honour the most worthy examples in each category, but to promote the genre of science fiction, and get people reading, talking about and enjoying all that contemporary science fiction has to offer”.
“I think it’s a really strong list,” said chair Donna Scott. “Aliette de Bodard has a style of writing that is beautiful and lyrical, but grounded in solid storytelling, as was evident in her BSFA award-winning short story The Shipmaker in 2010. Justina Robson is an excellent storyteller … Glorious Angels has had a lot of people intrigued, being a story that mixes SF, fantasy and horror, and [it’s] a bit sexy, too.”
Scott added that Beckett’s Dark Eden had been her “personal favourite” to win the BSFA best novel award last year, although it lost out to Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Sword. She said that his characters are “really engaging, and his world-building is fantastic”.
Hutchinson’s political science fiction Europe at Midnight, “the scenario of which seems so horrifyingly familiar at the moment”, was also praised by Scott, as was McDonald’s Luna. “Perhaps the most seasoned of the shortlisted authors, [Luna] is expert stuff: a gripping story of power and violence on one of the harshest landscapes imaginable,” said Scott. “So from the poetical to the muscular, this list has something for everyone on it.”
De Bodard is also shortlisted for the BSFA’s best short fiction prize for her story Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight, alongside works by the World Fantasy award winner Nnedi Okorafor, Paul Cornell, Jeff Noon and Gareth L Powell.
The winners of the prizes will be announced on 26 March during the 67th British National Science Fiction Convention in Manchester.
The shortlists in full
Best novel
Dave Hutchinson: Europe at Midnight
Chris Beckett: Mother of Eden
Aliette de Bodard: The House of Shattered Wings
Ian McDonald: Luna: New Moon
Justina Robson: Glorious Angels
Best short fiction
Aliette de Bodard: Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight
Paul Cornell: The Witches of Lychford
Jeff Noon: No Rez
Nnedi Okorafor, Binti
Gareth L Powell: Ride the Blue Horse
Best non-fiction
Nina Allan: Time Pieces: Doctor Change or Doctor Die
Alisa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce: Letters to Tiptree
Jonathan McCalmont: What Price Your Critical Agency
Adam Roberts: Rave and Let Die: The SF and Fantasy of 2014
Jeff Vandermeer: From Annihilation to Acceptance: a writer’s surreal journey
Best artwork
Jim Burns: cover of Pelquin’s Comet by Ian Whates
Vincent Sammy: cover of Songbird by Fadzlishah Johanabas
Sarah Anne Langton: cover of Jews Versus Zombies edited by Rebecca Levene and Lavie Tidhar
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