The 2014 Clarke Award shortlist has just been announced:
~ Nexus by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot)
~ God’s War by Kameron Hurley (Del Rey)
~ The Machine by James Smythe (Blue Door)
~ Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie (Orbit)
~ The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann (Gollancz)
~ The Adjacent by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
I guessed three correctly, so a better strike rate than last year, a fact that is far less interesting than the shortlist itself. And what a fascinating line-up it is.
I remember noting Nexus as a ‘possible’ when it came out, right back at the beginning of 2013, but reviews were mixed, and so it slipped off my radar. Similarly with the Phillip Mann – I know a lot of people were really looking forward to a new work from Mann, but many were disappointed by what they found. I can’t comment on either of these books personally, because I’ve not even sampled them yet, but it’s interesting to see two outside bets come to the fore like that.
Readers of the Arc blog will know how much I enjoyed and admired Kameron Hurley’s God’s War, but when it came to the Clarke, I suspected its earlier (US) publication date and prior awards exposure might count against it. I’m delighted to be wrong, delighted to see God’s War recognised for the fine piece of work it is. Interesting to see it going head-to-head now with Ancillary Justice, which I also reviewed for Arc. AJ is so much the ‘people’s favourite’ at the moment that its omission from the Clarke would have felt pretty weird, so well done Ann Leckie. And it’s fantastic to see James Smythe get the nod for The Machine, a novel I loved right from the first page and that thoroughly deserves its shortlisting.
If there’s a unifying theme to this year’s shortlist, it’s that the six shortlisted works are all genre SF – no Ozeki, Atwood, Crumey, Theroux or Eggers this time around. But these are far from conventional choices, and they’re all quite different from each other, too. We have a techno-thriller, a far-future space opera, a near-future psychodrama, a work of philosophical eco-SF, an almost-New-Weird war story, and a many-worlds quantum love story.
It’s a shortlist that no one predicted – but as the Clarke is an award that celebrates the literature of the unexpected, that can’t be a bad thing. I shall be looking forward to seeing more commentary emerge in the coming weeks.
On a personal note, I can’t express how happy I am to see The Adjacent make the line-up. Huge congratulations to Chris, and to all the other shortlistees. May the games commence!