World Fantasy Awards 2010 shortlist

[mjolnir]

Didn't see these pposted yet. Shamelessly stolen from the list Aldarion posted on Westeros.

The Nominees:

Novel
Blood of Ambrose, James Enge (Pyr)
The Red Tree, Caitl?n R. Kiernan (Roc)
The City & The City, China Mi?ville (Macmillan UK/ Del Rey)
Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland)
In Great Waters, Kit Whitfield (Jonathan Cape UK/Del Rey)

Novella
The Women of Nell Gwynne?s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)
?The Lion?s Den?, Steven Duffy (Nemonymous Nine: Cern Zoo)
The Night Cache, Andy Duncan (PS)
?Sea-Hearts?, Margo Lanagan (X6 )
?Everland?, Paul Witcover (Everland and Other Stories)

Short Story
?I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said?, Richard Bowes (F&SF 12/09)
?The Pelican Bar?, Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse Three)
?A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc, or, A Lullaby?, Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons 6/09)
?Singing on a Star?, Ellen Klages (Firebirds Soaring)
?The Persistence of Memory, or This Space for Sale?, Paul Park (Postscripts 20/21: Edison?s Frankenstein )
?In Waiting?, R.B. Russell (Putting the Pieces in Place)
?Light on the Water?, Genevieve Valentine (Fantasy 10/09)

Anthology
Poe, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Solaris)
Songs of The Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Subterranean/Voyager)
Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations, Danel Olson, ed. (Ash-Tree)
Eclipse Three, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny: From Poe to the Pulps/From the 1940s to Now, Peter Straub, ed. (Library of America)
The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, Gordon Van Gelder, ed. (Tachyon)

Collection
We Never Talk About My Brother, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
Fugue State, Brian Evenson (Coffee House)
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor?s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin)
Northwest Passages, Barbara Roden (Prime)
Everland and Other Stories, Paul Witcover (PS)
The Very Best of Gene Wolfe/The Best of Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe (PS /Tor)

Artist
John Jude Palencar
John Picacio
Charles Vess
Jason Zerrillo
Sam Weber

Special Award ? Professional
Peter & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
Ellen Datlow for editing anthologies
Hayao Miyazaki for Ponyo
Barbara & Christopher Roden for Ash-Tree Press
Jonathan Strahan for editing anthologies
Jacob & Rina Weisman for Tachyon Publications

Special Award ? Non-Professional
John Berlyne for Powers: Secret Histories
Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan, & Sean Wallace for Clarkesworld
Susan Marie Groppi for Strange Horizons
John Klima for Electric Velocipede
Bob Colby, B. Diane Martin, David Shaw and Eric M. Van for Readercon
Ray Russell & Rosalie Parker for Tartarus Press

I'm shamefully poorly read; I can only comment on the novels, and even then I've only read three. What do others think?
________
LF-XH

[Randy M.]

I'm shamefully poorly read; I can only comment on the novels, and even then I've only read three. What do others think?

Oddly, my first reaction was to congratulate myself on having read two of the novels, more than I usually succeed in reading before awards season.

Randy M.

[mjolnir]

Yeah, I'm actually kinda pleased about having read three of the novels. My shame comes more from every other category of the list, from which I find I have read a grand total of squat. No matter how I fight it, I seem to be a novel reader at heart. It is not that I don't like and appreciate short stories, I do, but I've never managed to get myself into the habit of reading them. Also, I find that I need some time to absorb a good short story and so can't speed through a collection at all quickly, which is a fine way to read but means that anthologies -- when I get to them -- can take absolutely forever.

In terms of the novels, I've read the Enge, the Kiernan, and the Mieville. I think that, of those three, The Red Tree would be my choice most days, though I liked The City and the City a fair bit and could certainly understand if it won. I find Blood of Ambrose to be kind of a weird choice, though it's nice that there's some secondary world epic-ish fantasy on the list. I enjoyed Enge's central character of Morlock Ambrosius a lot but found the book he was in very uneven, with the comedy working for me only rarely and the drama kicking in only now and then after the first part. Nice ideas but very wonky, though the very irreverent everything-and-the-kitchen sink approach to swords-and-sorcery may be what's attracted the judges, I dunno. There are secondary world fantasies from last year I consider a lot stronger, personally [though admittedly most are series books]: Bear's By the Mountain Bound, Monette's Corambis, Abraham's The Price of Spring. Even Bakker's The Judging Eye or Abercrombie's Best Served Cold, though with the exception of Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora which was nominated a few years back this dark-'n-gloomy epic stuff seems to be very much not how this award rolls. Still, Enge does do interesting stuff.
________
Black xxx

[Bastard]

Oddly, my first reaction was to congratulate myself on having read two of the novels, more than I usually succeed in reading before awards season.

Randy M.

Nice, I was quite close... only two books behind.

[Westsiyeed]

I've read Red Tree, City and Finch - all good books, but personsally I'd pick Finch. Vandermeer's crime noir/fantasy novel was a breathe of fresh air in my reading list this year, loved it.