The Clarke Award shortlist is out. It’s full of surprises – and all in a good way. I think I’m right in saying that this year’s line-up is the first since 2008 to present three ‘non-genre’ contenders out of the six. Torque Control sadly didn’t host the traditional ‘guess the shortlist’ competition this year, but in the event I don’t think anyone would have come anywhere near to picking out this one. It’s interesting to note that of those who did post their guesses online, David Hebblethwaite came closest with a highly creditable four out of six picked correctly. However, the presence on the list of the two books he didn’t get – Adrian Barnes’s Nod and Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars – leaves the actual shortlist looking very different indeed from his (or indeed anyone else’s) prediction.
Perhaps the biggest surprise exclusion is Adam Roberts’s Jack Glass. This novel has been getting good press, not to mention a grand swell of popular support – note its victory in the BSFA Awards last Sunday – so if I’d been pressed to pick the one dead cert for the list it would have been Jack. Speaking personally, the exclusion that most disappoints me is M. John Harrison’s Empty Space – although perhaps its being the third part of a trilogy might eventually have swayed the judges towards leaving it off. It’s also sad to see James Smythe not make the cut. I finished reading The Explorer on Monday, a well-crafted, intriguing and original novel that gripped my attention from beginning to end and I think it might just have overtaken The Testimony as my favourite of Smythe’s two submissions. Still, I’m not too worried because there’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Smythe will be back to fight many other days.
Of those books that did make it, KSR’s 2312 feels like a natural choice for the judges – it’s solid, heartland SF, elegantly written and seriously intended. I’m delighted for Chris Beckett that Dark Eden made it through, and happy to see Ken MacLeod’s Intrusion on there also – both of these are carefully worked, serious-minded novels that show passion for the ever-evolving ‘project’ of SF. Anyone who read my review of Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars at Strange Horizons will know I’m personally not that keen on it, but there’s no question that it is clearly an arguable contender and it contains some lovely writing. Purely at a sentence level it outclasses many of the other submissions by quite some distance and I’m interested to see the judges pushing it forward on to the shortlist. I’ve not read Nod, but there are people I trust who have and who rate it highly, so again – interesting.
I’m most keen to read Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker. As a writer Harkaway interests me very much – not just in his commitment to speculative ideas, but in his cogently outspoken views on SF and the contemporary idiom, his obvious passion for books and ideas in general. He’s clearly a bright feather in SF’s cap, and so it’s good to see his novel make the shortlist. Will Harkaway emulate Mieville and Beukes with a Kitschies-Clarke double?
In sum, this is a good shortlist, filled with imaginative, thought-provoking and most excitingly of all unexpected choices, and the judges should be highly commended for it. May it provoke intense discussion, speculation and enthusiasm, and serve as an example to future judging panels of what great things a good Clarke shortlist can do in showcasing the many and various things SF can say and be.