Since I have to leave in less than an hour to go into London for the ceremony, this will of necessity be a brief post. But I wanted to make a few summary comments about this year's shortlist for the Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction.
I'll deal with the books in my order of preference; links are to my posts here at EA.
Ken MacLeod, The Execution Channel
The first of the shortlisted books I read, and it remains my favourite: I loved it the first time through for its sharp, slow-burn tension and that audacious, crazy ending. I loved it even more when I returned to it to write my post, as - flicking through to select quotes for the review, I was struck again and again by how clearly focused and how clever it was. A genius sleight-of-hand trick and a smart meditation on how the modern world might soon look, its central theme - the distorting effect of long-term fear - implicit on every page, in every character act, in every line of dialogue.
Richard Morgan, Black Man
But it was, I will say, a close-run thing. Black Man is a virtuoso piece of work, undoubtedly: a rich and heady dive into the sort of endlessly-fascinating future world that feels authentic in every sharpened edge and worn-down corner. Black Man's scope is much wider than The Execution Channel's. Its cast of characters bigger and more diverse - and much, much more vivid and real - and its vision of the future encompasses everything from work permits to race relations. But it is edged out because it is just a little too big, its structure too uncertain and just a little too subservient to the tropes of this type of story; I preferred the sleek, deadly focus of MacLeod. But I would be very happy to see it win, and can't wait to read Morgan's upcoming fantasy novel, The Steel Remains.
Sarah Hall, The Carhullan Army
Again, this book places third only through the narrowest of margins. The Carhullan Army was a joy to read: beautiful and lucid and heartbreakingly clear in its emotional and thematic intent. I was completely drawn in to this world of women living and working together, and alone, in a landscape I love. In both its optimism and its darker undercurrents, this is a thoughtful and insightful novel. It loses out in large part because I wanted more of a good thing: it ends much too soon, feeling to this reader like a failure to follow through the implications of the set-up and the themes. But lovely, really, and deserves a much wider audience.
Stephen Baxter, The H-Bomb Girl
The most purely enjoyable book of the shortlist, and it really ought to be a classic of children's fiction in the future. I would have adored it when I was 12 or 13. I put it fourth mostly because of these things. If all the books are to be judged against each other on the same terms, then The H-Bomb Girl feels unavoidably thin by comparison. For all the striking darkness of its vision of nuclear apocalypse, it isn't really doing much more than a coming-of-age adventure story. Which is great and entertaining and written with a wonderful lightness of touch, but not in the same league as the three books ahead of it. Still, I won't be wrecking the venue if it wins.
Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts
Hall's book has a lot going for it - good prose style, fast pace, fabulously wacky ideas (conceptual text sharks that eat memories!), fun typesetting tricks. And it definitely suits being read in two days, as I've done. But it never rises to the level it sets for itself, being essentially a very simple and simplistic story, with little variety in its emotional notes, wrapped up in metatextual tinsel and artfulness. There is, sadly, nothing much out in those waters.
Matthew de Abaitua, The Red Men
As I said in last night's review, I feel quite strongly that I'm not the intended or desirable audience for this book, and as such I found its tics and weaknesses irritating in ways that I might have been able to ignore had I cared more about anything that was going on. A lot of potential here, but it's too long, too self-indulgent, and lacks focus and - ultimately - narrative coherence. Very funny in places, though, and starts much better than it ends. I'm astonished, though, that this is on the shortlist rather than Ian McDonald's vastly superior Brasyl, which I am reading at the moment and shall review soon.
And now I must sign off for the evening. Other reviews can be found at Torque Control; of particular note are Abigail Nussbaum's two-part review at Strange Horizons, and Adam Roberts' piece at Futurismic. Enjoy!