Subjective Chaos 2022 Begins - Categories Shortlists and Our Judges!

Yes its that time again when a group of bloggers and readers assemble to sprinkle a little chaos into your lives. The Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards are open once again! Looking for those reads we think are worthy of attention and that give the genre some oomph! I really enjoy these discussions and I hope you too will enjoy finding some new reads!

First up look at the BEAUTIFUL website we now have as we enter our fifth year and a recap of our previous awards, nominees and juries! Go to The Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards – Where chaos and genre reading happen. for a trip down memory lane - yes SCKA is getting even more organised but trust me we will be always chaotic!

This year’s judges!

As always we have a mix of old and new faces and this year our various juries will comprise alongside little old me are

Adri (@adrijjy) is co-editor of the Hugo Award winning fanzine Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together, and a semi-aquatic mammal currently living in the UK. She divides her time between reading, interacting with dogs, and working in international development. She can also be found at Strange Horizons.

Arina (@voyagerarina) is a book reviewer voyaging the worlds of speculative fiction at Queen’s Book Asylum. When not championing indie and inclusive SFF, she enjoys programming, (TT)RPGing, and overall spreading the gospel of her sarcastic, chaotic neutral nature.

C. (@themiddleshelf1) fell into scifi and fantasy at 13 and has never recovered since. They can be found blogging about diverse books, novellas and small press publications at http://www.themiddleshelf.org or on Twitter.

Debbie (@Owlphabetical) doesn’t read as much as she’d like to, despite buying them as if she did. She doesn’t have a blog but occasionally tweets things that are not Wordle scores.

Fabienne (@flschwizer) can usually be found reading too many books at the same time and yelling about them to anyone who will listen on Libri Draconis or Grimdark Magazine. A reformed historian, she now spends her days thinking about stories in the publishing industry. https://linktr.ee/libridraconis

Imyril (@imyril) reviews SFF at There’s Always Room For One More and is the resident spreadsheet dragon for Wyrd and Wonder, SciFiMonth and Subjective Chaos (yes, even chaos benefits from a little organisation, shh).

Kris Vyas-Myall (@hammard_1987) is the co-founder of Cloaked Creators and someone who reads way too much fiction and likes anything bizarre, the weirder the better. They blog around the internet at various places including Galactic Journey and Geek Syndicate.

L.A. Young (a.k.a. Aquavenatus, Misty306) is a book reviewer for both her personal blog and Fantasy-Faction. In addition to reading, you can find her gaming, running, cooking, gardening and writing (check out her other published works online!). You can follow her on any of her many social media pages: https://linktr.ee/AquaVenatus

Leigh (@leighowyn) never reads enough and always tries to read more. She is generally found hanging about Twitter, reading about science and SFF, when she could be reading more books. Loves a spreadsheet, and is overly fond of exclamation marks!

Lisa (@deargeekplace, she/her) is a lifelong book nerd from Scotland who has gotten this far on the powers of tea, cake and enthusiasm and doesn’t see any reason to stop now. She is a co-host of online events Wyrd and Wonder and SciFiMonth, doesn’t have pets but wishes she could, and always looks both ways before crossing the street. https://deargeekplace.com/

Robin - runs the booktube channel The Book Wormhole

Sia is a worldwalker who stops by Earth occasionally to grab snacks in between jumping into new SFF realms. She uses far too much caps-lock and believes everything is better with unicorns. https://everybookadoorway.com/

Sun (@suncani1) is a SFF reader who can be found getting overly excited about a bunch of things on Twitter and occasionally pausing to pass longer comment at Libri Draconis as a contributor.

The First Round Nominees

So all the judges taking part have agreed on this list for our delight/pain/horror/joy are as follows: -

Best Short Fiction

Immortal Coil by Ellen Kushner (Uncanny Magazine)

Homecoming Is Just Another Word for The Sublimation of Self by Isabel J Kim (Clarkesworld)

The Badger’s Digestion; or The First-Hand Description of Deneskan Beastcraft by an Aouwan Researcher by Malka Older ( Constelacion)

The amazing Exploding Women of the Twentieth Century by AC Wise (Apex)

Best Graphic Novel (A New Category for 2022)

The Girl From The Sea by Molly Know Ostertag

Tidesong by Wendy Xu

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu

Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe

Best Series

The Expanse by James SA Corey

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

The Kingston Cycle by C L Polk

Los Nefilim by T Frohock

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Best YA (another new category for 2022!)

The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

We Light Up The Sky by Liliam Marques

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Best Debut

This Is Our Undoing by Lorraine Wilson

The Wolf and The Woodsman by Ava Reid

Unity by Elly Bangs

Inscape by Louise Carey

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

The Councillor by EJ Beaton

Best Blurred Boundaries

The Actual Star by Monica Byrne

The Library of the Dead by T L Huchu

On Fragile Waves by E Lily Yu

The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan Maresca

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Nightwatch on the Hinterlands by Un-Su Kim

Best Novella

This Is How We Stay Alive by Shingai Njeri Kagunda

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard

Tower of Mud And Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov

One Day All of This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

Sun-daughters, Sea-daughters by Aimee Ogden

The Past Is red by Catherynne M Valente

A Manslaughter of Crows by Chris Willrich

A Psalm For The Well-Built by Becky Chambers

These Lifeless Things by Premee Mohamed

The Future God of Love by Dilman Dila

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow

Best Fantasy

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

A Master of Djinn by P Djeli Clark

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

The Unbroken by C L Clark

The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley P Chan

Wendy, Darling by A C Wise

Blackheart Knights by Laure Eve

The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber

Best Science Fiction

A Desolation called Peace by Arkady Martine

Meet Me In Another Life by Catriona Silvey

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Alyx: An AI’s Guide to Love and Murder by Brent A Harris

The Unravelling by Ben Rosenbaum

Far From The Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasuke

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Notes From The Burning Age by Claire North

And so it begins - for the first round I’ll be judging initially in Fantasy, SF, Blurred Boundary, Debut, Novella and YA so that should keep me in trouble for a while! ;)

A cool list eh? The intention is the first round will be completed late this summer and then we can tell you who is in the final round!