Tuesday 27 January 2009

BSFA Award shortlist

It's that time of year again. The shortlists for the 2008 BSFA Awards have been announced. And they go something like this:

Best Novel

I've not read any of the four, although I do have The Night Sessions and plan to read it soon. I'm a bit behind on my Baxter reading, although eventually I would have got to Flood. The Harkaway I've heard good-ish things about, but not enough to make me want to shell out for a new hardback by an author I've never read before. Anathem.... Well, I hated the Baroque Cycle, so I'm certainly not going to buy Stephenson's latest brick in hardback.

And yes, I know there are such things as libraries. But I already have enough unread books of my own to keep me reading for several years, so why would I join a library?

Um, it seems The Gone-Away World is available in A-format paperback already. I might well get a copy, then...

Best Short Fiction
A new Chiang. Nuff said. I hope they make it available online. The others are already available to read on the tinterweb. I don't read enough short fiction each year to judge how the above stack up against everything else published. Annoyingly, you have to sign up for a 7-day trial for some online business information service to access the Rickert. Which requires you to enter a credit card number. Dumb move, F&SF.

Best Non-Fiction
I have Paul Kincaid's book, and I plan to read it. I am less interested in fantasy, or superheroes. Clute's piece, as it is online, I will read.

Best Artwork
Judge for yourself...

2 comments:

Carl V. Anderson said...

Exhalation was fantastic. I too hope they put it online soon as I would love to be able to point people to it. Of course I think it would be great if they bought Eclipse 2 as well!

Glad I don't have to choose the cover art winner. There is a really nice variety there and not one leaps out to me and screams "I'm the best!!!".

Anne S said...

I thought Anathem was a very enjoyable novel. But then again I'm a big Stephenson fan and did read the Baroque Trilogy in its entirety. Certainly built up the arm muscles, holding those heavy hard covers.

Anathem is considerably more readable than the aforementioned tomes.