BSFA Awards for 2019
Posted in BSFA, BSFA Awards, Science Fiction at 20:00 on 11 February 2020
The BSFA has just published the short lists for the awards for works published in 2019.
As far as the fiction goes we have:-
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)
I have read none of the novels so far though Atlas Alone is on my tbr pile. The Tade Thompson is the second in a trilogy of which the first Rosewater is also on the pile. I’ll need to get round to that soon as I want to read it before The Rosewater Insurrection.
In the shorter works I reviewed This is How You Lose the Time War for Interzone 283 but not yet here. Jolene also appeared in that Interzone issue. My thoughts on it are here. I look forward to the arrival of the usual BSFA Awards booklet with all the shorter works (or extracts therefrom.)
Tags: BSFA, BSFA Awards, Science Fiction
Ian Sales
12 February 2020 at 17:16
Disappointing to see the same names appearing, multiple times in some cases. To be fair, four of the novels I enjoyed previous instalments in their series (none are standalone, which is also disappointing).
I heard Amal read an extract from This is How You Lose the Time War, and hated it. Have zero time for Chambers’s fiction.
jackdeighton
12 February 2020 at 19:27
Ian,
I agree about the disappointment. I’ve read three of the predecessor novels and wasn’t really taken with any of them. That Powell won last year for Embers of War was something of a joke.
I also agree about Chambers but must confess I liked This is How You Lose the Time War.
Ian Sales
13 February 2020 at 14:51
I liked The Green Man’s Heir – Mythago Woods meets Midsomer Murders – and I was pleasantly surprised by Planetfall, enough to want to read the rest of the series. Children of Time was half a brilliant novel and half a boringly trad generation starship story. Rosewater was too busy and unfocused, although it had its moments. Didn’t rate Embers of War at all.
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22 February 2020 at 19:29
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