Now that’s a short-list!

The short list is up now for The British Science Fiction Association Awards, and what a list it is.

• 9Tail Fox — Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Gollancz)
• Accelerando — Charles Stross (Orbit) (Free ebook edition)
• Air — Geoff Ryman (Gollancz)
• Learning the World — Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
• Living Next Door to the God of Love — Justina Robson (Macmillan)

I’ve actually read all of those. I’d call that four excellent books, and one decent one. If I were deciding, I’d have a hard time deciding first and second between Robson and Ryman, with MacLeod narrowly behind. All three of those books are Damn Fine(tm). Grimwood would be fourth, but only because I preferred the Arabesk to the new one. That leaves Stross’ much-vaunted fix-up novel in last place–I enjoyed it, but was less impressed than everyone else in the world.

It’s got to be a good year when all the novels up for an award are at least good, and particularly when so many of them are outstanding.

I wish I knew more about the short story scene, so I could comment more on that, but I’ve only read the Link.