Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, members of the Eastercon convention have also been eligible to vote.

2018 winners:

Novel: Embers of War by Gareth L Powell
Short Fiction: Time Was by Ian McDonald
Artwork: In the Vanishers’ Palace: Dragon I and II by Likhain
Non-Fiction: On motherhood and erasure: people-shaped holes, hollow characters and the illusion of impossible adventures by Aliette de Bodard

Just got Embers of War from the library. Will I read it in time? Don't know!

Kateblue wrote: "Just got Embers of War from the library. Will I read it in time? Don't know!"

I've read good comments on that one. Write here if you finish it, I want to know how well it is

Oleksandr wrote: "Kateblue wrote: "Just got Embers of War from the library. Will I read it in time? Don't know!"

I've read good comments on that one. Write here if you finish it, I want to know how well it is"

Same here. I am super curious about that one.

2019 Shortlist

The works shortlisted for the BSFA Awards 2019 are as follows:

Best Novel:

Juliet E McKenna – The Green Man's Foe (Wizard’s Tower Press)
Emma Newman – Atlas Alone (Gollancz)
Gareth L Powell – Fleet of Knives (Titan Books)
Adrian Tchaikovsky – Children of Ruin (Tor)
Tade Thompson – The Rosewater Insurrection (Orbit)

Best Shorter Fiction:

Becky Chambers – To Be Taught, If Fortunate (Hodder & Stoughton)
Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone – This is How You Lose the Time War (Jo Fletcher Books)
Fiona Moore – Jolene (Interzone #283)
Gareth L Powell – Ragged Alice (Tor.com)
Tade Thompson – The Survival of Molly Southbourne (Tor.com)
Ian Whates – For Your Own Good (Wourism and Other Stories, Luna Press)
Best Non-Fiction:

Farah Mendlesohn – The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein (Unbound)
Glyn Morgan & C Palmer-Patel (Eds) – Sideways in Time: Critical Essays on Alternate History Fiction (Liverpool University Press)
Gareth L Powell – About Writing (Luna Press)
Adam Roberts – HG Wells: A Literary Life (Palgrave Macmillan)
Jo Lindsay Walton – Away Day: Star Trek and the Utopia of Merit (Big Echo)
Best Artwork:

Aitch & Rachel Vale – Cover for ‘Deeplight’ by Frances Hardinge (UK edition) (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Chris Baker (Fangorn) – Cover for ‘Wourism and Other Stories’ by Ian Whates (Luna Press)
Julia Lloyd – Cover for ‘Fleet of Knives’ by Gareth L Powell (Titan Books)
Charlotte Stroomer – Cover for ‘The Rosewater Redemption’ by Tade Thompson (Orbit)
Richard Wagner – Cover for Interzone #284 (Interzone)

Woohoo! Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman and Tad Thompson on the list! Happy!

Gabi wrote: "Woohoo! Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman and Tad Thompson on the list! Happy!"

Their lists maybe closer to my taste that H/N. Here is the 2018 list, also with Emma Newman and Tad Thompson

Best Novel

Dave Hutchinson – Europe at Dawn (Solaris)
Yoon Ha Lee – Revenant Gun (Solaris)
Emma Newman – Before Mars (Ace Books)
Gareth L Powell – Embers of War (Titan Books)
Tade Thompson – Rosewater (Orbit)
Best Shorter Fiction

Nina Allan – The Gift of Angels: an Introduction (Clarkesworld)
Malcolm Devlin – The Purpose of the Dodo is to be Extinct (Interzone #275)
Hal Duncan – The Land of Somewhere Safe (NewCon Press)
Ian McDonald – Time Was (Tor.com)
Martha Wells – Exit Strategy (Tor.com)
Liz Williams – Phosphorus (NewCon Press)
Marian Womack – Kingfisher (Lost Objects, Luna Press)
Best Non-Fiction

Nina Allan – Time Pieces column 2018 articles (Interzone)
Ruth EJ Booth – Noise and Sparks column 2018 articles (Shoreline of Infinity)
Liz Bourke – Sleeps With Monsters column 2018 articles (Tor.com)
Aliette de Bodard – On motherhood and erasure: people-shaped holes, hollow characters and the illusion of impossible adventures (Intellectus Speculativus blog)
Adam Roberts – Publishing the Science Fiction Canon: The Case of Scientific Romance (Cambridge University Press)
Best Artwork

Ben Baldwin – wraparound cover for ‘Strange Tales’ slipcase set (NewCon Press)
Joey Hi-Fi – cover for ‘Paris Adrift’ by EJ Swift (Solaris)
Sarah Anne Langton – cover for ‘Unholy Land’ by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publications)
Sing Yun Lee and Morris Wild – artwork for ‘Sublime Cognition’ conference (London Science Fiction Research Community)
Likhain – In the Vanishers’ Palace: Dragon I and II (Inprnt)
Bede Rogerson – cover for ‘Concrete Faery’ by Elizabeth Priest (Luna Press)
Del Samatar – artwork for ‘Monster Portraits’ by Sofia and Del Samatar (Rose Metal Press)
Charlotte Stroomer – cover for ‘Rosewater’ by Tade Thompson (Orbit)
Advance voting is open to BSFA members and Eastercon members until Monday 15th April, online at https://tinyurl.com/bsfa2018shortlist, or by post (see https://bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-2018-awards-v...). Votes will also be accepted in person at Eastercon until noon on Saturday, April 20.

Gareth L. Powell series is in the short list the second year in a row, maybe we should try him in SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group?

Oleksandr wrote: "Gareth L. Powell series is in the short list the second year in a row, maybe we should try him in SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group?"

I'm all for it. I never heard of this author before.

I've been meaning to read Embers of War for a while now; I'd be interested in reading the series.

Antti wrote: "I've been meaning to read Embers of War for a while now; I'd be interested in reading the series."

I've made a call for a BR here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I like the category selection in these awards. Non-fiction, especially, opens the door for works which are sorely missing from other awards, such as incisive critiques like last year's winner.

Sarah wrote: "I like the category selection in these awards. Non-fiction, especially, opens the door for works which are sorely missing from other awards, such as incisive critiques like last year's winner."

non-fics are really interesting, I fully agree. I right now collected a few to read

The winners of the 2019 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards have been announced.
The awards were voted on by members of BSFA and the British Annual Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon). The winners were announced in a video ceremony on May 17, 2020.

Best Novel

WINNER: Children of Ruin, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)
The Green Man’s Foe, Juliet E. McKenna (Wizard’s Tower)
Atlas Alone, Emma Newman (Gollancz)
Fleet of Knives, Gareth L. Powell (Titan)
The Rosewater Insurrection, Tade Thompson (Orbit)
Best Shorter Fiction

WINNER: This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Jo Fletcher)
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton)
“Jolene”, Fiona Moore (Interzone 9-10/19)
Ragged Alice, Gareth L. Powell (Tor.com Publishing)
The Survival of Molly Southbourne, Tade Thompson (Tor.com Publishing)
“For Your Own Good”, Ian Whates (Wourism and Other Stories)
Best Non-Fiction

WINNER: The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)
Sideways in Time: Critical Essays on Alternate History Fiction, Glyn Morgan & C. Palmer-Patel, eds. (Liverpool University Press)
About Writing, Gareth L. Powell (Luna)
HG Wells: A Literary Life, Adam Roberts (Palgrave Macmillan)
Away Day: Star Trek and the Utopia of Merit, Jo Lindsay Walton (Big Echo)
Best Artwork

WINNER: Cover for Wourism and Other Stories by Ian Whates, Chris Baker (Luna)
Cover for Deeplight by Frances Hardinge, Aitch & Rachel Vale (Macmillan)
Cover for Fleet of Knives by Gareth L. Powell, Julia Lloyd (Titan)
Cover for The Rosewater Redemption by Tade Thompson, Charlotte Stroomer (Orbit)
Cover for Interzone 11-12/19, Richard Wagner

I'm very glad for Adrian Tchaikovsky

YES! I'm SO happy for Adrian Tchaikovsky!

He deserves more awards than he gets

British Science Fiction Association members will have from January 18 until February 5 to help choose the BSFA Awards shortlists for works published in 2020

The long list is here:
https://bsfa.co.uk/awards-longlist/
BEST NOVEL

88 Names by Matt Ruff (HarperCollins)
Afterland by Lauren Beukes (Mulholland Books)
Analogue/Virtual by Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Hachette)
Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow (Tor)
Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis (St Martin’s Press)
Beneath The Rising by Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock (47North)
Burn by Patrick Ness (Quill Tree)
Chosen Spirits by Samit Basu (Simon & Schuster)
Club Ded by Nikhil Singh (Luna Press)
Comet Weather by Liz Williams (NewCon)
Dark Angels Rising by Ian Whates (Newcon Press)
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (Granta)
Fearless by Allen Stroud (Flame Tree Publishing)
Ghost Species by James Bradley (Hodder & Stoughton)
Greensmith by Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com)
Ivory’s Story by Eugen Bacon (NewCon Press)
King of the Rising by Kacen Callender (Orbit)
Light of Impossible Stars by Gareth L. Powell (Titan)
Liquid Crystal Nightingale by Eeleen Lee (Abaddon)
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin (Oneworld)
Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston (Tor.com)
Mordew by Alex Pheby (Galley Beggar)
Network Effect by Martha Wells (Tor.com)
Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen (Orbit)
Noumenon Ultra by Marina J. Lostetter (Harper Voyager)
People of the Canyons by Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear (Forge Books)
Picard: Last Best Hope by Una McCormack (Simon & Schuster)
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
Saints of Salvation by Peter F Hamilton (Del Rey)
Saving Lucia by Anna Vaught (Bluemoose)
Space Station Down by Ben Bova & Doug Beason (Tor Books)
Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang (Head of Zeus)
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey (Orbit)
The Breach by M.T. Hill (Titan)
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit)
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)
The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)
The Evidence by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
The God Game by Danny Tobey (St. Martin’s Press)
The Last Human by Zack Jordan (Del Rey)
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook (Oneworld)
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (Hachette)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
The Silence by Don DeLillo (Picador)
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison (Gollancz)
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez (Titan)
Threading the Labyrinth by Tiffani Angus (Unsung Stories)
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini (Tor)
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott (Tor)
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (Sceptre)
War of the Maps by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
Water Must Fall by Nick Wood (NewCon Press)
SHORT FICTION

A Voyage to Queensthroat by Anya Johanna DeNiro (Strange Horizons)
All I Asked For by Anne Charnock (Future Care Capital)
All Your Bases, Yada-Yada by Paula Hammond (Third_Flatiron)
Always Forever Today, Andrew Hook (Frequencies of Existence)
Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super, by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine)
Carnival by Milton Davis (Hadithi and the State of Black Speculative Fiction)
Cofiwch Aberystwyth by Val Nolan (Interzone, TTA Press)
Convergence in Chorus Architecture by Dare Segun Falowo (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora)
Devil’s Road by Gary Gibson (NewCon)
Fairy Tales for Robots by Sofia Samatar (Made to Order)
Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)
Flight by Claire Wrenwood (Tor.com)
Fog and Pearls at the King’s Cross Junction by Aliya Whiteley (LondonCentric)
Georgie in the Sun by Natalia Theodoridou (Uncanny Magazine)
Give Me My Wings by Eneasz Brodski (Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses)
Grubane by Karl Drinkwater (Organic Apocalypse)
Honeybones by Georgina Bruce (TTA Press)
Ife-Iyoku, Tale of Imadeyunuagbon by Oghenechovwe Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora)
In the Storm, a Fire by Andrew Dana Hudson and Jay Springett (And Lately, The Sun)
Infinite Tea in the Demara Cafe by Ida Keogh (LondonCentric)
Isn’t Your Daughter Such a Doll by Tobi Ogundiran (Shoreline of Infinity)
Ivory’s Story by Eugen M. Bacon (NewCon)
Make America Great Again by Val Nolan (Interzone, TTA Press)
Mist Songs of Delhi by Sid Jain (PodCastle)
Odette by Zen Cho (Shoreline of Infinity)
Paper Hearts by Justina Robson (NewCon)
Placed into Abyss (Mise en Abyse) by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com)
Rat and Finch are Friends, by Innocent Chizaram Ilo (Strange Horizons)
Red_Bati by Dilman Dila (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora)
Rocket Man by Louis Evans (Interzone, TTA Press)
Saving Simon by Allen Stroud (Forgotten Sidekicks, Kristell Ink)
Selkie Summer by Ken McLeod (NewCon)
Seven Days in Geocenter by Yu Yu (no publisher information)
Seven Dreams of a Valley by Prashanth Srivatsa (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Sin Eater by Ian R. MacLeod (Made to Order)
Singularity by Davide Mana (Shoreline of Infinity)
Soaring, the World on their Shoulders by Cécile Cristofari (Interzone, TTA Press)
SoulShine by Koji A. Dae (Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses)
The Abduction of Europe, Andrew Hook, in Frequencies of Existence (NewCon)
The Continuity by Philip Berry (And Lately, The Sun)
The Good Shepherd by Stewart Hotson (LondonCentric)
The Menace from Farside by Ian McDonald (Tor.com)
The Road to Woop Woop by Eugen Bacon (The Road to Woop Woop and Other Stories)
The Roman Road by Vajra Chandrasekera (Fireside)
The Thirteenth Floor by Robert Bagnall (Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses)
The Torch by Samantha Walton (Gutter Magazine)
The Translator, at Low Tide by Vajra Chandrasekera (Clarkesworld Magazine)
The Unclean by Nuzo Onoh (Dominion: An Anthology of Black Speculative Fiction)
Time’s Own Gravity by Alexander Glass (Interzone, TTA Press)
To Set at Twilight in a Land of Reeds by Natalia Theodoridou (Clarkesworld Magazine)
Warsuit by Gary Gibson (Interzone, TTA Press)
We are Still Here by Anya Ow (Shoreline of Infinity)
We Will Become as Monsters by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Future Fire)
Yellow and the Perception of Reality by Maureen McHugh (Tor.com)
You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez and Julie Maroh (DC Comics)
You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary South (Fsg Originals)
BEST ARTWORK

Art for Glasgow in 2024 WorldCon bid by Iain Clarke (Shipbuilding Over the Clyde)
Cityscape by Myriam Wares
Cover of Aliya Whiteley’s Greensmith
Cover of Dark River by Rym Kechacha
Cover of Eli Li’s A Strange and Brilliant Light by Sinjin Li
Cover of Hag: Forgotten Tales Retold
Cover of Hao Jingfang’s Vagabonds
Cover of Ian Whates’s Dark Angels Rising by Jim Burns
Cover of Judge Dredd Megazine #426 by Tim Napper
Cover of Juliana Rew’s (ed.) Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses by Keely Rew
Cover of M. John Harrison’s The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by Micaela Alcaino
Cover of Mary South’s You Will Never Be Forgotten by Jamie Keenan
Cover of Nature 22 October 2020 by Paul Klee (‘Vaccine Design’)
Cover of Neal Asher’s Lockdown Tales by Vincent Sammy
Cover of Nick Wood’s Water Must Fall by Vincent Sammy
Cover of Nikhil Singh’s Club Ded by Ruby Gloom
Cover of Patrick Ness’s Burn by Alejandro Colucci
Cover of Robot Dreams series by Fangorn (NewCon)
Cover of Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings
Cover of Shoreline of Infinity 17 by Siobhan McDonald
Cover of Shoreline of Infinity 18 by Jackie Duckworth
Cover of Shoreline of Infinity 19 by Stephen Daly
Cover of Storm Constantine and Wendy Darling’s (eds) Para Mort by Ruby
Cover of The Breach by M.T. Hill
Four Black Lives Matter murals from LA rendered in VR/AR by multiple artists
Illustration for Val Nolan’s ‘Make America Great Again’ by Richard Wagner
Ponte La Mascara! by Noe Leyva (interior art for Cortex Prime RPG rulebook)
Samraaji Skyhavens by Steven Sanders (interior art for Terra Oblivion RPG rulebook, p. 42)
Shing Yin Khor’s series of famous artworks re-created in Animal Crossing.
BEST NON-FICTION

At the Brink: Electronic Literature, Technology, and the Peripheral Imagination at the Atlantic Edge by Anne Karhio (Electronic Book Review)
Beachcombing: And other oddments by David Langford (Ansible Editions)
Big Echo Interviews ed. Robert G Penner (Big Echo)
‘Books in Which No Bad Things Happen’ by Jo Walton (Tor.com)
Diseases of the Head: Essays on the Horrors of Speculative Philosophy ed. Matt Rosen (Punctum)
‘Estranged Entrepreneurs’ by Jo Lindsay Walton (Foundation)
‘How Science Fiction Imagined the 2020s’ by Tim Maughan (OneZero)
‘How the Federation Overcame its Shipbuilding Gap for the defense of Coppelius in Star Trek: Picard‘ by Claude Berube (NavyCon)
It’s the End of the World: But what are we afraid of? by Adam Roberts (Elliott & Thompson)
‘Review of M. John Harrison’s Settling the World‘ by Martin Petto (Strange Horizons)
Science Fiction and Climate Change by Andrew Milner and JR Burgmann (Liverpool University Press)
‘The 2020 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist’ by Nandini Ramachandran (Strange Horizons)
The Jonbar Point: Essays from SF Horizons by Brian Aldiss, with an introduction by Christopher Priest (Ansible Editions)
The Unstable Realities of Christopher Priest by Paul Kincaid (Gylphi)
Ties That Bind: Love in Fantasy and Science Fiction ed. Francesca T. Barbini (Luna Press)
‘Zones of Possibility: Science Fiction and the Coronavirus’ by Rob Latham (Los Angeles Review of Books)

Thanks, Z! All these different lists, while having some common titles, also have a lot of different titles from each other. There are a decent number here that I haven't heard of yet.

Kristenelle wrote: "There are a decent number here that I haven't heard of yet."

Me too

Great reference, thanks!

Short list is out https://bsfa.co.uk/the-bsfa-awards-20...

Oleksandr wrote: "Short list is out https://bsfa.co.uk/the-bsfa-awards-20..."

Did you see that "Doors of Eden" is there?! Are you all so happy? 😁

But like also, there are short listed books that I haven't even heard of. Guess I need to read faster.

Kristenelle wrote: "Did you see that "Doors of Eden" is there?! Are you all so happy? ."

Tchaikovsky was in their shortlists last three years IIRC, so I'm happy but I expected it

Oleksandr wrote: "Short list is out https://bsfa.co.uk/the-bsfa-awards-20..."

Nice collection of works! And yeah, there are a couple of novels I hadn't heard of: I guess it's inevitable, given the amount of books published each year.

Few of the short works aren't available online, but three of them are:

Anne Charnock, ‘All I Asked For’

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, ‘Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon’

Tobi Ogundiran, ‘Isn’t Your Daughter Such a Doll’

I'm so happy to have an award list that doesn't follow the hype. 4 of the novel nominations have less than 100 ratings here on GR (2 of them even less than 10) - those are the ones I'm most interested to read.

Gabi wrote: "I'm so happy to have an award list that doesn't follow the hype. 4 of the novel nominations have less than 100 ratings here on GR (2 of them even less than 10) - those are the ones I'm most interes..."

Let's Buddy read them! Choose the title and date, I'll try to join

Oleksandr: my first one would be Threading the Labyrinth by Tiffani Angus, because I can get this one as ebook on storytel. If you'd like to join, when would you have time?

Gabi wrote: "If you'd like to join, when would you have time?."

I'd like to join and as for date I think about March 5-10, in order to read it before Hugo noms are over (Mar 19) to maybe nominate it. Does this sounds ok?

That's perfect, Oleksandr.

The City We Became won BSFA https://bsfa.co.uk/news/10272071

While it was an ok work, I liked other nominees more. I hope it isn't a step toward diversity above all like in recent H/N

The City We Became, The Last Human, Liquid Crystal Nightingale and Axiom's End are in my TBR for sure.

Looks like I have to read the City ^^'. I hope it is in Hugo package, cause it still is too expensive to buy for me.

Gabi wrote: "Looks like I have to read the City ^^'. I hope it is in Hugo package, cause it still is too expensive to buy for me."

I'd say 95% probability it is there

I think anything less that 99% is underconfinent.

Yeah it's gonna be in the Hugo shortlist.
We'll find out in just over a week when they announce the nominees.

Antti wrote: "I think anything less that 99% is underconfinent."

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Gabi wrote: "Looks like I have to read the City ^^'. I hope it is in Hugo package, cause it still is too expensive to buy for me."

I was lucky to find it when the price was really reduced.

This year's winner is our beloved Adrian Tchaikovsky with his Shards of Earth! https://file770.com/2021-bsfa-awards/...