Announcing the shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, 2024

We’re delighted to reveal the shortlist for the 38th Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction book of the year.

The six shortlisted books are:

Chain-Gang All-Stars — Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Harvill Secker)

The Ten Percent Thief — Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Solaris)

In Ascension — Martin MacInnes (Atlantic Books)

The Mountain in the Sea — Ray Nayler (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)

Some Desperate Glory — Emily Tesh (Orbit)

Corey Fah Does Social Mobility — Isabel Waidner (Hamish Hamilton)

Chair of Judges, Dr Andrew M. Butler, said:

“This year’s shortlist takes us from the deepest oceans to furthest outer space — with satire, time travel, aliens, octopuses, supercomputers and a six-legged Bambi. Many thanks to returning judge Stark Holborn and to neophytes Nic Clarke, Tom Dillon, Dolly Garland and Glyn Morgan for selecting six writers new to the Arthur C. Clarke Award. I suspect the final decision will be very close indeed.”

Award Director Tom Hunter added:

“In addition to six new writers joining the Clarke Award’s shortlist ranks, we were delighted to receive submissions from a record-breaking 50 eligible publishing imprints this year. We hope this speaks to the future health and depth of the genre across the UK’s publishing industry even as the task of defining science fiction becomes ever more challenging for our judges!”

The winner will receive a trophy in the form of a commemorative engraved bookend and prize money to the value of £2024.00; a tradition that sees the annual prize money rise incrementally by year from the year 2001 in memory of Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

The judging panel for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2024 are:

· Dolly Garland and Stark Holborn for the British Science Fiction Association.

· Nic Clarke and Tom Dillon for the Science Fiction Foundation.

· Glyn Morgan for the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival.

Dr Andrew M. Butler represented the Arthur C. Clarke Award directors in a non-voting role as the Chair of the Judges.

This year’s winner will be announced on Wednesday 24th July, 2024.