The BSFA Awards - Best Novel

Helloooo!

I’m just going to say March was not a particularly nice month on a personal level for me and leave it at that. Things are getting better but blog wise I am playing catch up but the last day or so I can feel reading actually working at normal speed again.

So I’ve only had time to read in one BSFA category this past week and that was to read the one best novel finalist I’d not got round to. So here are my thoughts.

It’s fascinating to see three novels selected (Alien Clay was withdrawn at the author’s request) that all explore worlds ending and resuming in new forms. The 2020s are turning very much into a whirlwind of events changing things at a ridiculous pace and I wonder if there is something in the wider world considering what is the engulfed outcome of all of this uncertainty and also how are we going to deal with it?

Rabbit In The Moon by Fiona Moore - I think does some innovative work with climate change and exploring how the world and humanity could be changed. Perhaps the more traditional SF novel of the three but still worth a read but I did have reservations on the pacing of the story but admired the creativity of it.

Calypso by Oliver K Langmead — I really enjoyed we should have a lot more long form poetry in SF and this was a brave set of choices with a SF fusion on Blake’s poetry mixed with the old classics of reseeding an empty world. I loved how this plays with language, style and feels a good mix of the old and the new

Three Eight One by Aliya Whiteley is a beguiling read there is a lot of depth to this story in terms of exploring the power of the quest, adventure and how this affects both the person on the quest or also those reading about it. It also explores the way we also interpret or sometimes can over interpret stories. It has lingered long in my memory.

So of the three I’m going to say I’d be very pleased if Three Eight One won but can see any of the others taking the prize. We should know the answer soon!