A Look At The Clarke Award Shortlist 2025
Hellooo
It’s Clarke Award time and later today the judges will announce their decision for this year’s winner. Overall I enjoyed the shortlist experience even if I didn’t love every book on it. It’s useful to see what works for me as a best science fiction award nominee in the year and can we see any linking themes. I think two come about and it’s interesting that the stories all while using different styles all seem selected around that theme. Was there a book I’d have added? Two come to mind the first of which would be my favourite read of last year dealing with genetically modified insects, flying cities and also the nature of war which would have been the fantastic The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed.
The first book to discuss is Annie Bot by Sierra Greer and while I appreciate the idea and intent of the book dealing with abusive relationships and the of a robot to replicate one under control I think the execution is poor and problematic. yes it’s about someone working out who they are and trying to get some agency other own but the plotlines felt loose and followed a clunky logic I cannot get past. So this is very much at the bottom of my list.
Controversially next up for me is Private Rites by Julia Armfield I’ve heard a lot of love about this book and halfway into reading this I was very much in this camp. I really enjoyed the writing, the family dynamics and the running theme of people ignoring problems and them getting worse and worse. This is very much a story of people lost in their lives and not sure who they are. But the second half lost me through its lack of drive and ultimately I come down on the view that this is a family drama with a loose connection to using climate change as metaphor rather than a science fiction novel about climate change. The science fiction ultimately feels an add on for effect (though often delivered well) but the finale bolts on a horror plotline which really didn’t work for me. I came away quite disappointed.
Interestingly Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle by Maud Woolf I had opposite feelings and the first few chapters made me question what was noteworthy but Woolf is a really good writer and this strange glossy tale of stars making clones to kill their other clones actually turns into a story of being lost in our various ideas of who we are so much we don’t know ourselves any more. It’s got heart, some gorgeous writing and I’m so glad this came on my radar. It’s ultimately feeling more debut and a little rougher around the edges so it doesn’t quite get to the top of my list but this is an author I’ll be looking forward to more books from them.
I do question why Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky isn’t on the list I really like that story for its exploration of authoritarianism, revolution and doing it with science and humour - not an immediate fit with the themes so far seen but for me annoyingly a story I liked a little bit more than Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky . Humour is very much in the eyes of the reader and so I know plenty who don’t find this work for them but for me it really did - the bleak humour of systems falling apart down to logic and not quite human emotions plus a few pointed digs at Golden Age concepts made this a hugely enjoyable read. It’s also offering models of the future, questions on identify and self-awareness that honours SF’s past and suggests the way of the future.
In some ways Extremophile by Ian Green feels like cyberpunk but in 2025 style and it’s been so long since we’ve had this kind of novel with heists, corporation being battled and underground not quite caring heroes you can say this could just be a fond imitation but I think it’s a lot more. This story in some ways works a bookend to Private Rites - here the world is boiling under a hot sun, climate change and social turmoil is rampant but it’s the corporations carrying on regardless. It’s a story that could very much have used passivity and nihilism but here we have people making choices and doing their best. The punk feeling is mirrored in Green’s propulsive writing which was a joy to read and I find myself more interested in a story that takes a stand than lets the water rise above your head. I like my science fiction a bit more rebellious and so this of those two is my favourite although it too has some pacing issues as the heist seems to get left to the very end of the story to resolve.
I read The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley and it was a beautiful surprise. I went in expecting humorous SF romance and I got something a lot more interesting. This story explores immigration - the new and the impact for those already settled into a country. Time travellers from different cultures have to work with the modern and a strange civil service. Some do well and others do not. Morality, sexuality and trying to let others decide who you are are swirled around in a fanatic mix. The SF ideas are used very well to explore these concepts and its engaging. There are consequences, big ideas and an unusual time travel plot. It’s got heart, humour and knows when to make a sharp point to us instead. Of the six this would be my pick.
So we will see later today what the judges decided. Identity comes across a lot but I think there is also a sense of - what’s next for us? Apocalypse, rebellion, drowning, war, control and being lost in images of ourselves via social media on steroids. The 2020s comes out of Covid lockdown into a world of regular crisis and chaos. The centre appears not to hold so what is next. These are books often more concerned with what awaits us, what will it make of us and that I feel is where science fiction does this far better than other genres saying to us here are some options to explore and hopefully learn from before we repeat the book but as tragicomedy. I do worry the world often seems not to have realised all fiction doesn’t need to be enacted for real l. The genre looks still to be alive and kicking and that is a good thing to take away from the award.
