And so the first round of Subjective Chaos this year ends!1

It was an interesting judging seasonagain.  Another rewarding book experience finding new series and catching up on books I’ve missed. The jury as always injected anarchy but our forces combined and in our Voltron form, we have agreed the 2019 finalists. Living up to standard Subjective Kind of Chaos we have again not quite followed the rules in having two finalists plus a novel that switched sides.

The finalists going into the last round are

Fantasy

The Poppy War by R F Kuang

The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley

Science Fiction

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente

I Still Dream by James Smythe

Blurred Boundaries

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Novella

Prime Meridean by Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Tea Master and The Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Series

Machineries of War by Yoon Ha Lee

The Fractured Europe Series (Review incoming) by Dave Hutchinson

The jury now goes into the shadows and expect announcements and shiny painted rocks around Worldcon weekend