Awards! Once Again!

More awards that I missed because I was busy not working in SF anymore!

The 2014 Prometheus Hall of Fame Finalists!

This is one of the more ideologically driven awards in the SFF world, as the notes from the organizers will show:

• “As Easy as A.B.C.,” a short story by Rudyard Kipling published in London Magazine in 1912, presents an ambiguously utopian future that has reacted against mass society (which was beginning to emerge during Kipling’s day) in favor of privacy and freedom of movement.
• “Sam Hall,” a short story by Poul Anderson published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1953, depicts a regimented future America obsessed with security and facing a libertarian revolution aided by cybernetic subversion.
• “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” a short story by Harlan Ellison published in Galaxy in 1965, is a dystopian satire set in an authoritarian society dedicated to punctuality, in which a lone absurdist rebel attempts to disrupt everyone else’s schedules.
• Falling Free, a novel by Lois McMaster Bujold published in 1988, explores free will and self-ownership by considering the legal and ethical implications of human genetic engineering. 
• Courtship Rite, a novel by Donald M. Kingsbury published in 1982, portrays a harsh desert planet’s exotic human culture founded on applying the mathematical concept of optimization in biology, political organization, and ethics.

 May the most Randian candidate prevail!

(via SFWA)

The 2014 Philip K. Dick Award Finalists!

This is the award that goes to a book published as a paperback in the US, because that's how Phil did it. (Though I do wonder if there have been any discussions about e-only publishing, which is largely taking the place of the kind of rack-filler mass-markets that Dick was stuck in most of his career. It would be an interesting shift, certainly.)

• A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock (47North)
• The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke (Angry Robot)
• Self-Reference Engine by Toh EnJoe, translated by Terry Gallagher (Haikasoru)
• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
• Life on the Preservation by Jack Skillingstead (Solaris)
• Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Books of Science Fiction edited by Ian Whates (Solaris) 
• Countdown City by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books) 

(via SF Signal)

2014 Robert A. Heinlein Award!

No finalists or suspense here: it was recently announced that the award is going to Geoffrey A. Landis, who besides being a multi-award-winning SF writer is also a real live space scientist. And, since the Heinlein is specifically for promoting space exploration in fiction and fact -- because we need elbow room, son! we gots to get us out to them thar stars! -- that is incredibly appropriate.

The best thing about the Heinlein award is this description of the physical award itself.

The Robert A. Heinlein Award is a sterling silver medallion bearing the image of Robert A. Heinlein, as depicted by artist Arlin Robbins. The medallion is matched with a red-white-blue lanyard. In addition, the winner receives two lapel pins for use when a large medallion is impractical, and a plaque describing the award, suitable for home or office wall display.

It takes a moment, but then you realize: the awards semi-seriously expect the recipient to wear the medallion at all times, and only threw in the "two lapel pins" grumblingly for the few occasions when a giant picture of RAH around one's neck is "impractical."

(via SFWA)


As always, congratulations to all nominees, double congratulations to winners, and commiserations to the eventual losers.