Worlds Without End Blog

Well, well. The Clarke always seems to render some surprises. Embassytown certainly isn’t a surprise and the most likely winner – and apart from Hull Zero Three, the rest I don’t know. Intriguing, yes?

I linked to my review of the Tepper above- I was very excited to see another book from her, but would never have put it on an award list because it was a bit of a disaster compared to her earlier and much loved works. It was published in the fall of 2010, so I’m a little confused about the criteria. If we were suggesting other books from 2010, I’d replace the Tepper with Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor.I didn’t finish Rule 34 but am reading the Mieville soon… Thanks for posting the list!

@Emil: There does seem to be one I’ve never heard of every year. This year it’s The Testament of Jessie Lamb. @Jenny: The Clarke uses the UK publication year for the award which is why The Waters Rising got the nom this year. I updated the publication date on the novel page to show the 2011 Gollancz pub date. Just last year Tim Powers’ book D eclare got a Clarke nomination when Corvus put it out in the UK even though it was originally published in the US in 2001 and won the WFA and was nominated for the Nebula and Locus that same year!

Does anyone know if The End Specialist is the same as The Postmortal (which could be the U.S. title)? I assume it’s not the story of a proctologist.

He said earlier that it was the UK title, in which case, I was a fan!

He said it was the Uk title for the Postmortal.mi read it when it was nominated for something else, and I’m a fan.

I want to read the Stross and Magary titles just for the cover art!

I can’t resist pointing to Christopher Priest’s take on this year’s shortlist. Yikes! http://www.christopher-priest.co.uk/journal/1077/hull-0-scunthorpe-3/

Mr Priest, my sentiments exactly! I don’t fully understand, nor appreciate, Stross’ appeal. It isn’t a good list.

Scott, thanks for linking Priest’s comments. I haven’t read anything he’s published but plan to do so now. Smart, powerful writer, it seems.As for the list, I read a few chapters of Rule 34, lost interest, and took it back to the library. I enjoyed Embassyville. I think Priest’s criticisms of the novel are all insightful and valid. But I think he gives short shrift to some interesting ideas about language that the novel contains. It is certainly a flawed novel, but not a boring one.

I’m like Danny. Priest’s post makes me want to read some of his work.