Category: Awards
- The Orbit Team - March 11th, 2008
Your intarwebs would have to be broken for you not to know that the shortlist for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award has just been announced. Shortlists are inevitably the source of much discussion and usually some controversy, and this year’s Clarke Award shortlist is no exception. There has been much written already about whether some books have been unjustly omitted and others undeservedly included. We, of course, couldn’t possibly comment. One thing we can comment on, though, is the completely uncontroversial shortlisting of Ken MacLeod‘s excellent The Execution Channel (also shortlisted for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel – don’t forget to vote!).
Many congratulations to Ken on The Execution Channel‘s double shortlisting. Ken’s previous book, Learning the World, was in the running for the BSFA, Clarke and Hugo Awards, in 2006. We at Orbit have our collective fingers crossed that he goes one better this year and walks away with a trophy!
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, New Titles, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - February 18th, 2008
More award news, with the shortlist for the 2008 Ditmars being announced over the weekend, and we’re delighted to see Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns and Marianne de Pierres’ Dark Space on the shortlist for best novel. Sean and Marianne were also both shortlisted for the Aurealis Award, and we’ve got our fingers crossed that one of them will win this time. Or perhaps both – is a tie too much to ask for?
Awarded since 1969 in recognition of outstanding achievement in Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror, the Ditmar is one of the premier awards for Australian speculative fiction. Previous winners of the Ditmar for Best Novel include Garth Nix, Peter Carey, George Turner, Victor Kelleher, Greg Egan and – on no fewer than five occasions – Sean Williams.
The Ditmars will be presented at Swancon, the 47th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, to be held over the Easter weekend. Guests of Honour include Orbit’s very own Ken MacLeod and Glenda Larke. Ken’s The Execution Channel is, of course, on the shortlist for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel (also to be presented over Easter), and Glenda’s Song of the Shiver Barrens was shortlisted for last year’s Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
On the whole, we’re rather pleased with the way 2008′s shortlists are developing.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - January 24th, 2008
The shortlist for the 2007 BSFA Awards has recently been announced, and we’re absolutely delighted to see Ken MacLeod‘s wonderful The Execution Channel in the running for the Best Novel.
Fighting has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia to the borders of China. In the US, refugees from climate-change disaster subsist in FEMA camps. Images of official executions circulate on the Internet like al Qaeda videos. State agencies sponsor conspiracy theories as cover-ups. As the troops of the last superpower stand astride the last of the oil, China and Russia aren’t the only states considering their options: certain nations of Old Europe are quietly preparing for the worst.
The war on terror is over. Terror won.
As with all of Ken MacLeod’s novels, The Execution Channel has garnered great critical acclaim. The Times calls it ‘Politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that’s absolutely mind-blowing’; noted critic Paul Kincaid, writing for Strange Horizons, says ‘A very good book, perhaps the best Ken MacLeod has written to date . . . an extraordinary novel’; while SFX sums it up as ‘Jaw-droppingly audacious’.
The BSFA Awards will be presented on 22nd March at Orbital, this year’s Eastercon, where a very smartly attired paperback edition will be available for your reading pleasure!
Hmm. . . ‘Orbital’, eh? Dare we see that as an omen . . . ?
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, Conventions, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - January 21st, 2008
And so is Charles Stross!
The 2007 SciFiNow awards have been announced in the latest issue. As you might have guessed from the title of this post, Charles Stross and Halting State, his latest novel, have been voted the fan favourites in the Best Author and Best Novel categories. Hurrah!
You can check out all the fantastic things Starburst, DeathRay and The Book Swede are saying about it here and pick it up at bookshops near you this month.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Awards, Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - January 9th, 2008
Wonderful news just in that Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns has made the final ballot for the Philip K. Dick Award, presented annually for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.
Sean is quite naturally extremely pleased and reports receiving “a wave of Dick jokes, the likes of which I haven’t seen since High School”.
Many congratulations to Sean and all of the shortlisted authors.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - December 7th, 2007
All right, I admit it: that’s a terrible title for a blog post. What’s far from terrible, though, is the fact that Glenda Larke, Marianne de Pierres and Sean Williams all have novels on the shortlist for the 2008 Aurealis Awards!
Glenda’s
Song of the Shiver Barrens is shortlisted in Best Fantasy Novel Category, while Marianne’s first foray into space opera,
Dark Space, and Sean’s most recent excursion into similar territory,
Saturn Returns, are both shortlisted in the Best SF Novel category.
Song of the Shiver Barrens will be available in an Orbit edition in May next year (although the very wise amongst you will seek out the first two books,
Heart of the Mirage and
The Shadow of Tyr, to see what all the fuss is about!), while
Dark Space and
Saturn Returns are available now (with a mass market paperback of
Saturn Returns coming next June).
Many congratulations to Glenda, Marianne and Sean, and all the shortlisted authors.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - September 5th, 2007
Well . . . not quite. But Charles Stross’ Glasshouse has just won the 2007 Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel of the year.
Founded in 1979 and awarded since 1982 by the Libertarian Futurist Society, the award honours science fiction writers whose books examine the meaning of freedom. Orbit has some history of achievement in this award, with Charlie following the success of Ken MacLeod’s 2006 winner, Learning the World. Ken has won the Prometheus three times, in fact — a point Charlie wittily acknowledges on his blog.
Our congratulations to Charlie on the success of Glasshouse, which was also shortlisted for this year’s Hugo Award — Charlie’s fourth consecutive shortlisting. The last writer to achieve that was a fellow by the name of Silverberg . . .
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - August 22nd, 2007
The team behind the late, lamented SF review site Emerald City, Cheryl Morgan and Kevin Standlee, have launched a new online project, Science Fiction Awards Watch. They describe the purpose of the new site:
So what is this all about? Well, there are few things that the science fiction community likes to talk about more than awards, so we thought it might be good to have a central place where these conversations can take place . . . We have a number of fine critics who have offered to participate in discussions here from time to time, and we are looking for more . . . There will also be public debate. After all, the Hugo Award winners will be announced very soon now, and somehow that always results in a storm of controversy around the blogosphere. Which is why we are launching this site now. We are coming up to what we expect to be the busiest time of the year for award controversies.
You can find out more on their site.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, News
- The Orbit Team - August 8th, 2007
Much ecstatic piping on the tin whistle (Clarke original, key of D, natch) greeted the news that Mike Carey’s superb debut The Devil You Know, featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor, has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award for Best Novel.
The award will be presented at Fantasycon in Nottingham this September, which Mike will be attending — along with fellow Orbit author Terry Brooks, who is one of the Guests of Honour.
You can read an extract of The Devil You Know here.
Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors, and our best wishes to Mike — everyone at Orbit is hoping for a well-deserved win for Felix Castor’s first outing.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, Conventions, News, Orbit UK
