As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, this year I have once again been on a mighty QUEST to plough through the whole of the Arthur C Clarke award shortlist. I am pleased to report that I have now COMPLETED my magical journey and would very much like to share my THORTS with an eagerly waiting world on a) what I thought of the final three that I read and b) which one I think will WIN.
The next book to read on my Virtual Pile was The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler, which was probably the MOST Arthur C Clarke-y of the LOT as it had several different IDEAS in it which it dutifully worked through. It wasn't quite as much FUN as Arthur C Clarke, verging on ponderous at times, but it was all right - the problem was that I've previously read Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children Of Time" series which also features (SPOILERS) Very Clever Octopuses but this time a) IN SPACE and b) much more excitingly, so it came off feeling not quite as good.
I then read Corey Fah Does Social Mobility by Isabel Waidner which I REALLY wanted to like but just could NOT get on with. It was at least TRYING to be amusing (which most of the other books on this list definitely weren't!) but there wasn't anything hugely engaging about it and behind all of that the characters were a bit boring. "Is this my fault?" I thought, "Can I not connect with The Young People?" (which is ridiculous because I have read and enjoyed several of the Mr Gum books and so am very much down with THE KIDZ) Happily, when the story finally got started about 25% of the way in I realised that it was a literary novel about a literary author who had won a literary award, written BY a literary author who had won a literary award. It was basically TWENTY FIRST CENTURY MARTIN AMIS, and so I felt no guilt in packing it in!
The final book on the list was Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which is advertised as "The Hunger Games meets The Handmaid's Tale" and GOLLY GOSH but that is certainly what it felt like... to start with, anyway. It took flipping AGES to get going as I had to read through page after page of RULES being explained and TERMINOLOGY, like it was a D&D manual or something, and for a long while it felt like a pretty basic attempt to DO ANOTHER HUNGER GAMES. However! HOWEVER! As it rolled on it gradually became clear that there was something ELSE going on, as footnotes got Increasingly Political and also the CHARACTERS became actual characters, rather than cyphers for EITHER The Rules OR The Message. By the time I got to the end I was sad that it had finished, and hoped for another volume. Yes, that's right, call me crazy but I think a SEQUEL to an existing science fiction book set in the same storyworld JUST MIGHT WORK!
So, with all that in mind I am sure you are thinking "But Doctor Hibbett," (thanks) "Which one did YOU think was the best and, if possible, which do you think will WIN?" These are two excellent and clearly very separate questions, so let's answer firstly with which ones I enjoyed the most, in order of preference THUS:
Some Desperate Glory
Chain-Gang All-Stars
The Ten-Percent Thief
The Mountain In The Sea
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
In Ascension
Basically, I really enjoyed the first two, thought the next two were all right, and then gave up on the final pair for reasons of Not Getting Along With. As for the ACTUAL winner, I don't think my favourite book on the shortlist has EVER won the main prize, and this is refelected in my prediction of which is most likely to win, put in order of preference again as follows:
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
In Ascension
Chain-Gang All-Stars
The Ten-Percent Thief
The Mountain In The Sea
Some Desperate Glory
Book awards committees always seem to want to SHOW OFF about how current and modern they are, rather than how much fun they had reading the actual book, so that's my guess of how it would go, but we shall see TOMORROW when the winner is announced. Whatever happens it's been FUN to read through them all (or at least start them all anyway!), but I hope next year there's a bit less PONDEROUSNESS and a bit more FUN actually IN them as well!
