I know I'm a little late in posting this, but a couple of days ago, the shortlist for the 2014 Arthur C. Clarke Award was announced. Below are the shortlisted titles, bold representing works already read.
God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Del Rey UK)
Ancillary Justice, Anne Leckie (Orbit)
The Disestablishment of Paradise, Phillip Mann (Gollancz)
Nexus, Ramez Naam (Angry Robot)
The Adjacent, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
The Machine, James Smythe (Blue Door)
While it is not execrable as some of the recent Clarke shortlists, I cannot claim to be excited by this list. While I did like Hurley's first two novels in her series (and perhaps should see to buying the third volume sometime in the near future), the Leckie strikes me as the sort of book that will see its current praise fail to translate into something that is remembered even five years from now. The Priest I'll likely import at some point, but I'm not really enthused about the other finalists, as their synposes do not appeal to me at all.
God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Del Rey UK)
Ancillary Justice, Anne Leckie (Orbit)
The Disestablishment of Paradise, Phillip Mann (Gollancz)
Nexus, Ramez Naam (Angry Robot)
The Adjacent, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
The Machine, James Smythe (Blue Door)
While it is not execrable as some of the recent Clarke shortlists, I cannot claim to be excited by this list. While I did like Hurley's first two novels in her series (and perhaps should see to buying the third volume sometime in the near future), the Leckie strikes me as the sort of book that will see its current praise fail to translate into something that is remembered even five years from now. The Priest I'll likely import at some point, but I'm not really enthused about the other finalists, as their synposes do not appeal to me at all.
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1 comment:
Titan books will publish The Islanders and The Adjacent in the US next month.
As the list goes, very meh for me; one book I thought best sf of last year (The Adajcent), one very hyped mediocrity on which I fully agree with you about being forgotten soon (Ancillary Justice), two books that I looked at but did not generate the least interest in me (God's machine and Nexus), one book I've been trying and failing to read its author for a while now (The Machine - and I am still trying to advance in The Explorer as on one hand this is a book that should really work for me, on the other I read a few lines and they just do not gel...) and one I read 1/3 and I will probably read - or at least browse completely - at some point, as I used to really like the author's earlier books, but as others pointed, a mostly stuffy, already dated and showing age novel in The Disestablishment of Paradise
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