This weekend you may have felt in the air a level of anxiety, confusion, regret and pain. Yes, the judges of Subjective Chaos Kind of Award were deciding who goes into the final round! One thing I enjoy about being I the jury is this really helps you think about what books appeal (and which do not). Blogging is often solitary so to discuss a book and try to justify that reaction is always an interesting experience. As always competition was fierce and the strong group led to a variety of opinions and votes. But like all good Sith there must be two…or three is we live up to the Chaos part of the award.

Who is in the final round and what were my impressions of this class of 2019? Which does seem to be a lot longer than seven months away!

Best Fantasy

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri

One of the strongest categories we had and one of the most varied I reactions. As you can see, we couldn’t agree on two – voting will be interesting! One common strand in the group was about the past getting interrogated and not quite being what we think it was. Issues of race, colonisation and the inaccuracies of history were often being explored. Fantasy can often be accused of nostalgia; but I think our nominees all instead are prepared to face the reality of the past instead. 2019 as a year of reckoning perhaps?

Best Science Fiction

All City by Alex DiFrancesco

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Personally, the nominee group I struggled to settle into. I’m not sure if this was about me these days being more on the fantasy side of the fence but I found a lot of the SF nominees tending to be homages to the big plot lines – robots, spaceships or big dumb objects. This I found disappointing in the decade we have been in I was hoping for more interrogation of our lives and future directions. However, I do think our finalists here represent that extra bit of social commentary that I like to have in my reads.

Blurred Boundaries

The Migration by Helen Marshall

David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okingbowa

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The most intangible of our categories tends to be the hardest to pick. For me I’m looking for rteh element of surprise or a really on the edge mix of genres. I think all three of the finalists are tales that end up to be something very different to what they initially offer be it the end of the world, warring gods or yep necromancers in space.

Best Series

The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson

Elemental Logic by Laurie J Marks

Not a selection I was voting in – I’m blaming 2020! One trilogy very familiar to me and one series I know the judges who liked it really really liked it – lets see where we go!

Best Novella

This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

As is often the case another strong category with many highly enjoyable stories. WE went from bizarre Brexit tales, the future of space travel to charming love tales. As with fantasy there seemed to be a common theme of who are we and where are we going? Choices about the future personal or more profound came up a lot making me think 2019 was very much about what lies ahead in the new decade (and as always SF didn’t see it coming quite as expected)

Best Short Fiction

The Migration Suite: A Study in C Sharp Minor by Maurice Broadus

The ocean that Fades Into Sky by Kathleen Kayembe

Quite a varied round and this highlighted the different ways judges approach the subject. But eventually some consensus was chosen. Reinterpretation of the past (and future) again seemed a theme in many of the tales.

And so now the judges gather in our dark towers and avoid sunlight one last time to weigh up which books get our coveted painted rocks. I shall report back on my wider thoughts on SF in the future (work was a JOY this fortnight) but in the meantime take care!