 |
| The BSFA Logo |
The British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards are held annually by the BSFA. The winners are voted on by members of the association, meaning that they are fan awards meant to promote the genre as a whole. They are presented during the year after the books were published, so even though the winners were announced in April, 2022, they represent books published in 2021.
WINNERS
BEST NOVEL
This may be sci-fi blasphemy, but I have not read a book by Tchaikovsky yet. There are many on my TBR; I just haven't gotten to them yet. This book has rave reviews, however. With an average rating of 4.23 on Goodreads and 4.5 on Amazon, I have no doubt that his writing is great. This sets it up for high expectations but we'll see if I feel the same once I get around to it.
Other nominees:
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Tor)
Green Man’s Challenge by Juliet E. McKenna (Wizard’s Tower)
Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley (Solaris)
Blackthorn Winter by Liz Williams (NewCon)
I haven't read any of these so I can't say what I would have voted for.
BEST SHORT FICTION (UNDER 40,000 WORDS)
This book has been on hold at my library for so long. I have really been loving novellas recently so I really hope that once I can check it out, I'll enjoy this as well. It sounds really good and has a 3.51 rating on Goodreads and a 4.3 rating on Amazon, but it is marketed as a fantasy romance and those don't tend to be my favorite. The author has also won numerous awards with a Nebula, an Ignyte, a Locus, and four other BSFA awards.
Other nominees:
“O2 Arena” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Galaxy’s Edge 11/21)
Light Chaser by Peter F. Hamilton & Gareth L. Powell (Tordotcom)
“Things Can Only Get Better” by Fiona Moore (Abyss & Apex 9/3/21)
BEST NONFICTION
As someone who is in the middle of writing my own fantasy book, I am extremely interested in reading this. However, if it wasn't for this award, I would definitely not pick this up. I know people say not to judge a book by it's cover, but it makes this book look like a dry college textbook. It's actually a collection of papers about worldbuilding in all forms of media. That sounds fascinating and I have no idea why they went with this cover.
Other nominees:
The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture by Mark Bould (Verso)
Octothorpe podcast byJohn Coxon, Alison Scott & Liz Batty
Cyberpunk Culture and Psychology: Seeing Through the Mirrorshade by Anna McFarlane (Routledge)
“Science Fiction and the Pathways out of the COVID Crisis” by Val Nolan (The Polyphony 6/21)
Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color by Joy Sanchez-Taylor (Ohio State)
BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG READERS
I loved this book. I think the way that Zhao build this world. It was a fantastic mixture of sci-fi and fantasy with both a form of magic as well as the presence of aliens. The book had strong character work and was one of the best YA I read last year. I was very impressed that this was a debut because it felt like it came from an author with a lot of experience. It has a 4.25 rating on Goodreads and an amazing 4.7 rating on Amazon.
Zhao also has a great YouTube channel where they talk about a lot of popular fiction in terms of real life issues.
Other nominees:
The Raven Heir by Stephanie Burgis (Bloomsbury Children’s)
Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko (Hot Key)
A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
The Empty Orchestra by Elizabeth Priest (Luna)
Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep by Philip Reeve (David Fickling)
Comments
Post a Comment