The British Science Fiction Award shortlist is out, and Management Lessons from Game of Thrones is a finalist for Best Non-Fiction!
I feel so unworthy.
If you want to buy Management Lessons from Game of Thrones, or read an excerpt, it’s all in the pinned post here.
No FitzJames and Moyo stories this year (though I have published one, “The Little Friend” in Fission #2), but Management Lessons from Game of Thrones and three short pieces, “Mnemotechnic,” “The Memory Spider” and “The Slow Deaths of Automobiles” are all on the BSFA Award Longlist! And two out of three of those are stories about Things.
Congratulations to all my fellow listees!
The BSFA Award Shortlist has been announced, and my FitzJames and Moyo story, “Things Can Only Get Better”, about a surgical bot repurposed as a taxi who cracks a gambling ring, is on it! This is their second time on the shortlist, after 2020’s “Jolene”, and what can I say but it’ll be an honour to lose to such amazing people.
You can read my story at the link to Abyss and Apex above, and vote at bsfa.co.uk.
The list:
Best Book for Younger Readers
The Raven Heir by Stephanie Burgis, Bloomsbury Children’s Books
A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger, Levine Querido
Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao, Rock the Boat
Redemptor, by Jordan Ifueko, Hot Key Books
The Empty Orchestra, by Elizabeth Priest, Luna Press Publishing
Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep by Philip Reeve, David Fickling Books
Best Novel
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, Tor
Blackthorn Winter by Liz Williams, NewCon Press
Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts, Gollancz
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tor
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley, Solaris
Green Man’s Challenge by Juliet E. McKenna, Wizard’s Tower Press
Best Shorter Fiction
‘Fireheart Tiger’ by Aliette de Bodard, Tor.com
‘Light Chaser’ by Peter F. Hamilton, Gareth L. Powell, Tor.com
‘O2 Arena’ by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Galaxy Edge Magazine
‘Things Can Only Get Better’ by Fiona Moore, Abyss & Apex
Best Non-Fiction
Cyberpunk Culture and Psychology: Seeing Through the Mirrorshades, by Anna McFarlane, Routledge
Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color, by Joy Sanchez-Taylor, Ohio State Press
The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture, by Mark Bould, Verso Books
Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Francesca T. Barbini, Luna Publishing
Octothorpe Podcast, by John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty, Octothorpe
Science Fiction and the Pathways out of the COVID Crisis, by Val Nolan, The Polyphony
Best Artwork
Cover of Eugen Bacon’s Danged Black Thing, by Peter Lo / Kara Walker, Transit Lounge Publishing
Cover of Eugen Bacon’s Saving Shadows, by Elena Betti, NewCon Press
Cover of Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm, by Dan dos Santos / Lauren Panepinto, Orbit
Cover of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (ed.)’s The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction, by Maria Spada
Glasgow Green Woman by Iain Clark, Glasgow2024
I interview artificial intelligence expert Hod Lipson over at Vector, the journal of the British Science Fiction Association! Read it here.
Here’s a video of me doing a reading for the BSFA Vector Solidarity Salon reading series. The story is “The Little Car Dreams of Gasoline”, published in On Spec magazine in 2016.
And one of my cats gets involved.
I’m going to be giving a reading this Thursday in the BSFA Vector’s Solidarity Salon! I’m on at 8:45, following Chinelo Onwualu at 8:15. The Facebook event page is here, and I’ll provide a link to the video after the event.
I’ll be reading “The Little Car Dreams of Gasoline,” which is my first published self-driving car story, and is a stand-alone prequel to my novel Driving Ambition.
Nicholas Whyte has kind things to say about “Jolene” in his BSFA rundown!
You can read “Jolene” for free here.
(PS– book bundle)
You get a car, and you get a car, and everybody gets a car! I’m making my BSFA Award-shortlisted story “Jolene“, first published in Interzone 283, available for free online. Click the title to download it and read what really happens to a cowboy when his wife, dog and truck have all left him….
A Doctor Of Many Things 