We’re delighted to see Tricia Sullivan’s novel Lightborn make the shortlist for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award – one of the UK’s most prestigious awards for SF literature. Everyone at Orbit extends  their congratulations to Tricia, and to all of the other finalists.

It’s a finely balanced shortlist this year, with no publisher having more than one book on the list. There’s already been plenty of enthusiastic debate on twitter, with readers discussing the merits of the various novels. It seems the list sprung one or two surprises – needless to say, no one won the competition on the Torque Control blog for guessing the shortlist. That’s how hard it is to predict!

Here’s the shortlist in full:

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Generosity by Richard Powers (Atlantic Books)
Declare by Tim Powers (Corvus)
Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan (Orbit)

The winner – picked by a panel of judges – will be announced at SciFi London on 27 April 2011. Naturally, the Orbit UK team will be in attendance and suitably glammed up for the occasion (though on our best behaviour, promise).