Tonight, Seattle’s Norwescon announced the winner of this year’s Philip K. Dick Award. Judges of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society select the nominees and make the decision. Watch the announcement HERE, as well as readings from each of the nominated works and the acceptance speeches of the winning author and the winner of the Special Citation award.
The winner of the 2026 Philip K. Dick Award is:
Outlaw Planet, by M. R. Carey (Orbit)
Congratulations to M. R. Carey for this stand-alone novel set in his Pandominion SF universe. Fans of the author are sure to appreciate it. Those of us come lately to Carey’s fiction might not recognize all the nuance–I didn’t, because I try not to read other reviews and reactions before I form my own opinion–but the novel is absorbing and beautifully put together. Readers will find it a wild and unusual ride.
Kudos to the judges, too, who fielded a rich menu of books (publication year: 2025) so varied in tone and effect that I don’t know how they were able to arrive a decision.
Carey’s truly ingenious double narrative is a worthy choice for the award. Part New Weird neo-Western (with animals), part military SF, Outlaw Planet miraculously unites its two very different halves into a tale reflecting the divisions within our own society. HERE is a review by a reader familiar with Carey’s world-building. HERE is another. They may give you more perspective than my own, which you can read HERE.
Congratulations, too, to Thomas Ha, who won the Special Citation award for his matchless collection of short fiction, Uncertain Sons and Other Stories (Undertow):
Ha’s hauntingly beautiful explorations of personal and family identity take place in a horrifying universe of invasive alien balloon-like blobs, towns looking for a scapegoat, nightmare carnivals. See my review and comments HERE and HERE.
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