The 2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award—including the £2009 prize—will be handed out on 29 April as part of the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival.
The short-listed books for this year’s award are:
Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod (published by PS Publishing)
The Quiet War by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper (Gollancz)
Martin Martin’s on the Other Side by Mark Wernham (Jonathan Cape)
The annual award is “presented for the best science fiction novel of the year, and selected from a shortlist of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year.” It was originally established by a grant from Sir Arthur C. Clarke with the aim of promoting science fiction in Britain.
The winner is judged by a jury panel and selected from an initial shortlist of six eligible novels. The panel of judges is made up of a voluntary body of distinguished writers, critics, and fans with the panel line-up changing every year.
Speaking on behalf of the judging committee, Chair of the Judges Paul Billinger said: “It was a long and intense meeting to decide this year’s shortlist, with passionate debate from all of the judges. Although at times it seemed almost impossible, they eventually concluded that these six books were the ones that demonstrated to them what was best about the science fiction novels published in 2008.”