Forget The Oscars, Here Are The BSFA Nominations

It’s like the Academy Awards of the SF literary world, and China Mieville is the Hugo of this list with the most nominations… two! (But there are only four categories)

While Hugo and The Artist go head to head out in Hollywood, it’s China Mieville, Kim Lakin-Smith, Christpher Priest, Adam Roberts and Lavie Tidhar who are battling it out for the biggest award in UK SF literature

The BSFA has announced the shortlist for this year’s awards. The winners will be announced in April, at Eastercon in London. The shortlists are picked by nominations from the British Science Fiction Association membership, with Terry Pratchett’s new Discworld novel Snuff and Charles Stross’s Rule 34 just missing out on a place in the final five.

Best Novel

Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith (Newcon Press)
Embassytown by China Miéville (Macmillan)
The Islanders by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
By Light Alone by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Osama by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)

Best Short Fiction

The Silver Wind by Nina Allan (Interzone 233, TTA Press)
The Copenhagen Interpretation by Paul Cornell (Asimov's, July)
Afterbirth by Kameron Hurley (Kameron Hurley's own website)
Covehithe by China Miéville (The Guardian)
Of Dawn by Al Robertson (Interzone 235, TTA Press)

Best Non-Fiction

Out Of This World: Science Fiction But Not As We Know it by Mike Ashley (British Library)
The SF Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition ed. John Clute, Peter Nicholls and David Langford (website)
Review Of Arslan by M J Engh, Abigail Nussbaum (Asking the Wrong Questions blog)
SF Mistressworks , ed. Ian Sales (website)
Pornokitsch , ed. Jared Shurin and Anne Perry (website)
The Unsilent Library: Essays On The Russell T Davies Era Of The New Doctor Who (Foundation Studies In Science Fiction) , ed. Graham Sleight, Tony Keen and Simon Bradshaw (Science Fiction Foundation)

Best Art

Cover of Ian Whates’s The Noise Revealed by Dominic Harman (Solaris)
Cover and illustrations of Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls by Jim Kay (Walker)
Cover of Lavie Tidhar’s Osama by Pedro Marques (PS Publishing)
Cover of Liz Williams’s A Glass of Shadow by Anne Sudworth (Newcon Press)

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.