[Jay_T]

Emerald City (http://www.emcit.com/wordpress/) is reporting Iron Council has won this years Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel.

*claps*

[Iskaral Pust]

Personnally I thought Iron Council was by far the worst of his novels, it just seemed to carry absolutely none of his flare or distintive stamp. Unlike Perdido Street Station and Scar I found the prose irritating and succient and generally felt the story wandered around trying to find things to do. I just thought nearly everything about it shouted pointless gimmick. :mad: Obviously, I was very disappointed.

[Hobbit]

That's an interesting result - thanks for pointing it out, Ainulindale!

For those who don't know, there seems to have been a good field this year.

The nominees for best novel were:

# Ian McDonald, River of Gods.
# China Miéville, Iron Council.
# David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas.
# Richard Morgan, Market Forces.
# Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife.
# Neal Stephenson, The System of the World: Volume Three of the Baroque Cycle.

Iron Council is a very political book, more overtly political than any of China's others. I find that such books rarely show authors off at their best, and political ranting takes over from plot, characterisation and most things of interest to the reader. With that in mind, I don't think it's his best, but it is good.

So a brave result, particularly in these political times.

I thought River of Gods would get it myself, though I still haven't read it. :o The BSFA have really really rated it, and I'm hearing a lot of good things about it.

I like Morgan myself, but don't think Market Forces is his strongest. (Woken Furies is in the pile and keeps trying to get me to read it.... perhaps next year!)

Neal Stephenson I still haven't got near....

As an aside, I bought a copy of The Time Traveller's Wife as a present for a work-colleague. She told me that a) She couldn't put it down; and b) was inconsolable at the end of the book - a surprise for someone I usually regard as fairly British and unflappable in such matters.

Cloud Atlas I just can't get into - it struck me as pretentious posturing, and (unusually for someone who usually likes that sort of thing!) I just keep putting it down. But there are people who really like it. Another time, another place, perhaps: I still might finish it, as I hate leaving books unfinished. Whether i'll enjoy it is a different matter.... :)

Hobbit

[Hobbit]

Oh, and Adam Robert's original review of the nominees is HERE. (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/clarkes2005.htm#andthewinneris)

He's updated it to write about the winner.

Let's hope it's like he/China says - it encourages debate.

Hobbit

[Jay_T]

My opinion of the choice is this; No I didn't personally enjoy Iron Council as much as The Scar or Perdido Street Station, however Iron Council wasn't competeing against those books, and I still thougth Iron Council was damn good. It's a interesting situation I think, because although admittedly the majority of readers found Iron Council to be lesser than it's predecessors regarding the audacious imaginative, and creative writings found in the prior novels lacking in Iron Council, however, I have read many more critically minded opinions that think Iron Council is his best work due to the focus in the in the novel, which IMHO did lessen from the "flair and distinctive stamp" I think Iskaral Pust is mentioning in his post. One of the detractions he got for The Scar, was the unbridled creativity not maintaining some sort of structure, so it's a kind of damned-if-you-do, damned-if you-don't situation slightly.

It was a change and like I said I liked his prior 2 novels better, but still find Iron Council to more than adequate and deserving of the nomination and award. Admittedly there may be some bias in my stance, but even taking that into account for a moment of objectivity, it's hard for me to not to agree with choice, or of any of the nominess (well the 3 I read). Like most of the awards his year, a strong group IMHO.

[Lowlander]

Just read Mieville is bringing out a story collection later this year : Looking for Jake and Other Stories. This contains one novella (The Tain) and 13 other short stories.

Looks to be a good collection. Haven't read "The Tain" but read some good reviews about it.

[Nimea]

Funny, apart from the Stephenson all the nominées are on my to-read-pile (and in case of the winner on my to-read-list, I am waiting for paperback).

So I have nothing else to say really - I just hope to get to all those books within the year.

*shrugs*

[FicusFan]

As an aside, I bought a copy of The Time Traveller's Wife as a present for a work-colleague. She told me that a) She couldn't put it down; and b) was inconsolable at the end of the book - a surprise for someone I usually regard as fairly British and unflappable in such matters.

Hobbit

I have only read Time Traveler .... so far, and thought it was great. The ending was shattering.

I have no plans to pick up Stephenson.

I have the others, except for River of Gods which is on order for me from the UK in PB, but the first batch of books that my local indy store ordered got turned back by US customs for some reason, so we are waiting for shipment 2.

I will read Iron Council but though I loved PSS I thought The Scar was filled with boring nasty characters, unevenly paced, and rather sterile in terms of how packed PSS was with the odd and the wonderful. I have browsed the prolog of Iron Council and have decided to put it off until later. I am a bit tired of his long wordy style, though I also didn't think much of King Rat .