Helloooo!

And the judges of The Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards in 2023 gathered together to have the final battle erm I mean discussion on who wins our coveted painted rocks from far off shores that I am not at liberty to reveal – but Mordor does indeed have lovely beaches apropos of nothing.

As always, this year has been filled with great and varied books to tempt and make us think. New names and old favourites returned and it has not been easy. The votes in this one were pretty close across the board but without further ado here are the winners of our 2023 categories: -

Best Short Story

This Excessive Use of Pickled Foods by Leora Spitzer (Khoreo Magazine)

Best Novella

Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy by Sam J Miller (Solaris)

Best Blurred Boundary Novel

The Way The Light Bends by Lorraine Wilson (Luna Press Publishing)

Best Science Fiction Novel

The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler (Macmillan)

Best Fantasy Novel

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (Del Ray)

Huge congratulations to all our winner, finalists and shortlist nominees – it has been an honour to read your stories.

Huge thanks to my co-judges for their input and contribution – C, Kris, Anna, Adri, Sun, Lois, Robin, Gautam, Sara and Roseanna. Judging is never easy, and I’ve loved everyone’s thoughts.

The past six years has been a pleasure watching this little award grow. A blogger jury award that has done the thing I think all awards need to do - find interesting books and raise them to people’s attention. I’m taking a step back from judging for a while due to other work and blogging commitments, but the nature of the awards is its fluidity in judges, categories and types of books to explore. Chaos is eternal and I cannot wait to hear what our successors have in store for us next year and I’ll be cheering them on from the sidelines.

For now adieu!