The 2006 shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, given annually “to the best science fiction novel which received its first British publication during the previous calendar year,” was announced this week. The nominees are:
- Accelerando, Charles Stross
Air, Geoff Ryman
Banner of Souls, Liz Williams
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Pushing Ice, Alastair Reynolds
I’ve read Accelerando, which I loved, and Never Let Me Go, which I found highly overrated. I agree with Abagail at Asking the Wrong Questions, who wonders about the shortlisting of Ishiguro’s book because “as a work of science fiction, the novel failed.”
The winner will be announced in April.
If in fact we are alone, it means that we’re not only the heirs to the cosmos, but its guardians; which is a portentous thought.
Arthur C. Clarke, 1993 interview with Wired magazine
