Some interesting titles on this list: I’ve only read one of them, but intend to look up the others. There’s a little bit of wrestling with genre definitions in the news article that accompanies the list:

“It’s a very strong selection and quite varied, reflecting science fiction publishing in this country,” said chair of judges Paul Billinger. “There are novels from people well-known in the genre – Miéville, Robinson and Roberts – but what they have written is not perhaps standard SF; they don’t have space ships, but these books are clearly SF.”

Space ships? I’m surprised Mr. Billinger hasn’t come across Orson Scott Card’s way better definition: science fiction has rivets, fantasy has trees. (In other words, science fiction explains how things work in terms of the scientific principles that govern the world we live in; fantasy doesn’t.)

In any case, these tales apparently all have either rivets or trees (although Publishers Weekly called The City & The City “barely speculative,” which means it was pushing the genre boundaries particularly hard). Here’s the list:

Spirit by Gwyneth Jones (that’s the U.K. edition; I’m not finding an American edition)

The City & The City by China Miéville

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson

Far North by Marcel Theroux

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

Showing 2 comments
  • Kez

    I started reading Galileo’s Dream but I just couldn’t get into it. I have a love / hate relationship with Kim Stanley Robinson though – I loved his Mars series and haven’t been able to read anything else!

  • Sebastian (a lady)

    I prefer Card’s definition too. For example, I would put several of Michael Crieghton’s books into science fiction (Spere, Prey, maybe even Timeline).

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