A Son of the Rock

British Science Fiction Association, 2023, 64 p.

This is the usual annual BSFA booklet containing the nominated art works and the nominated works of short fiction – including those in the younger readers category.

All of the adult fiction nominees’ stories must have been too long to reproduce fully here as we are given only extracts – as was also true for the younger readers category.

Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances by Aliette de Bodard is a fantasy featuring a dragon kingdom and ghosts. The extract is well written byt such stuff doesn’t really grab me.

Sellers’ Remorse by Rick Danforth is narrated by Sheytl, a door-to-door salesman – for a god.

Luc by Or Luca has a content warning at the beginning. The extract contains Chapter 5 and a part of Chapter 6. Our female protagonist feels that she is surrounded by water – complete with parrotfish. Her psychoanalyst even tells her, “It seems like you’re drowning.” The extract is too short to allow judgement on whether this is an actual physical phenomenon (thus making the story a fantasy) or she is suffering from delusions/hallucinations.

Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky seems to be set in a fantasy Dark Ages except the feudal overseers are ogres. What we read here is the story’s set up.

The extract from A Moment of Zugzwang by Neil Williamson is the beginning of a detective tale where protagonist Stina investigating what she thinks is a suspicious death confronts her suspect, Dimitra Klimala, a woman with no publicly available information about her, over a game of chess.

The non-fiction nominees were:-

“Too Dystopian for Whom? A Continental Nigeria Writer’s Perspective” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki which criticises the Western slant on dystopias, partly by arguing that dystopia is always somewhere in the world; circumscribed lives are common in non-Western societies. (I would add that that is also true of most of them as well.)

“The Critic and the Clue: Tracking Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker by Maureen Kincaid Speller takes issue with early reviews of the book concerned since it requires a deeper analysis.

“Management Lessons from Game of Thrones: Organisation Theory and Strategy in Westeros” by Fiona Moore appears to be an attempt to explain management theory and its applications in the real world by reference to Game of Thrones (seemingly via the TV version rather than George R R Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” books.) As such its actual connection to SF and fantasy looks to be peripheral (except in so far as fiction reflects the times in which it is written.)

“Preliminary Observations from an Incomplete History of African SFF” by Wole Talabi and the ASFS does what it says on the tin – complete with graphs.

“Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes” by Rob Wilkins is the author’s account of his time as Terry Pratchett’s PA.

Pedant’s corner:- “‘when she were angry’” (when she was angry,) “to not” (x 3, not to,) “off of” (just ‘off’; no ‘of’,) “look like a twats” (either ‘twats’ or ‘a twat’,) “bowed his hand in respect” (it’s usually heads which people bow in respect.) She lays in her toxic fumes” (She lies in her toxic fumes.) “There’s also the nightmares” (nightmares requires a plural verb form; ‘There are also’.) “She walks over to her bike, still in their usual place” (its usual place, surely?) “Luca’s eyes are stapled to her thighs” (that must be extremely painful,) “outside of” (x 2, just ‘outside’; no ‘of’,) a paragraph break in the middle of a sentence (x 2.) “Luca Looks over” (Luca looks over.) “Let’s say this time is was the apples you couldn’t resist” (it was the apples,) “to go eat apples” (to go to eat,) (to go apologise” (to go to apologise,) “til spring” (till spring,) “so that he an take” (he can take,) Robe’s (Roben’s,) “he’s tried to impose upon you the serious burden of the work” (to impress upon you would be more usual,) “the cavalcade and retinue arrive” (arrives,) another “outside of,” “by similar practices … that has” (practices …. that have,) “too cliché” (too clichéd,) “incred ibility” (incredibility,) “and unpublished typescript” (an unpublished,) epicentre (it wasn’t an earthquake so ‘centre’, or, if you feel the need to emphasise its centrality, hypocentre would be more appropriate.)