The judges for the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award have made their decision:

Martin MacInnes, IN ASCENSION

What a great choice! One of the judges commented that this year’s choice was in the spirit of Clarke’s best fiction, and I agree. Find my review here.

It’s a wonderful novel, very deep, exceptionally well-written. I blitzed through it when I read it last month–just couldn’t put it down, in that best of all reading highs. I think it will really reward a careful re-reading, so I plan to do that.

First, though, I’m speeding ahead to consider the short-listed novels for the 2024 Hugo Awards. They will be announced on August 11. Luckily for me, I’ve already read them by now, so I’ll have plenty of time to think about which ones I liked best, and why.

The short-listed novels are:

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, Harper Voyager UK)
• The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
• Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
• Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor, Tor UK)
• Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
• Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

If you’ve been following my blog posts, you’ll notice some of these novels were also short-listed for other awards, including two winners, The Saint of Bright Doors (Nebula, Locus) and Witch King (Locus).

Time for more reading!