Nominations are still open for everyone's favourite phallic* SFF award! If you are able to nominate, why not consider some of our great books?
Everyone with memberships to either Chicon 8 or the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon that was purchased before February 1, 2023 is eligible to nominate up to five items in each of the 17 Hugo and 2 other award categories.
Some of the things you might consider nominating us for are under the cut!
*I don't wanna invoke the stalactite post but, like, come on
BEST NOVEL
Anything that came out in 2022 is eligible! And we had some bangers.
BEST SERIES
The Graceling Realm series by Kristin Cashore
The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
The Last War trilogy by Mike Shackle
The Hussite Trilogy by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Legacy of the Mercenary King trilogy by Nick Martell
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
The Great God's War trilogy by Stephen Donaldson
THE ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
Rebecca Zahabi, The Collarbound
Kelly Andrew, The Whispering Dark
BEST EDITOR - LONG FORM
Gillian Redfearn
Maybe we’re biased, but Gillian’s the best. She’s been at Gollancz nearly 20 years, and is the editor for Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Alastair Reynolds, Aliette de Bodard, Joanne Harris, Garth Nix, Elizabeth Bear, Patrick Rothfuss, Miles Cameron, Chris Wooding, Sarah Pinborough, Charlaine Harris… the list goes on! She is so involved in the SFF community, attending cons worldwide and she is staggeringly great at what she does. The only UK-based editor to be shortlisted for a Hugo award, she’s also genuinely one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Shortly after I first met her, she said something nice to me in the pub and I cried. On the plus side I set the bar for our future relationship very achievably low.
Marcus Gipps
Marcus has been in the biz for decades, starting as a bookseller and had a review Livejournal (yes, that's right, one of us) that helped him build respect with so many people in the industry. Any of the legendary, big names of SFF? He probably edits them. Michael Moorcock, Christopher Priest, Paul McAuley, Pat Cadigan, Stephen Baxter... He led the acquisition of THE LAST UNICORN once Peter S. Beagle got his rights back, he heads our WITCHER publishing, and his knowlege of SFF history is encyclopedic. He also leads our SF Gateway and Masterworks projects, archiving out of print SFF and saving them to keep in circulation. Marcus may be the most unflappable many on the planet, which is good because I'm extremely flappable so we balance out nicely.
Brendan Durkin
Do you like CHONKY books? So does Brendan. If you want a book to use as an offensive weapon, Brendan will have likely commissioned it. Brendan finds the books that are going to be the classics of the future. He works with J. T. Greathouse, Christopher Buehlman, Mike Shackle, SJ Morden, Chris Wooding, as well as being the lead for the Ursula K. Le Guin estate, the Terry Pratchett estate AND the Frank Herbert estate! Oh, and our beautiful D2C editions? All from his crazy genius mastermind brain. Also if you need somewhere to eat in central London? Go to him for a recommendation. I impressed him with my lunch choice the other day and felt like I'd Made It.
Your votes have been cast and tallied, and the official shortlist is in! Here are the titles you chose this year:
BEST ADULT NOVEL:
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic #2)
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth #2)
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (The Machineries of Empire #1)
Best YA Novel:
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows #2)
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab (Monsters of Verity #1)
Best Middle Grade Novel:
The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan (Magnus Chase & the Gods of Asgard #2)
Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan (The Trials of Apollo #1)
Best Graphic Work:
Descender vol. 2 by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen
Saga vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughn, Fiona Staples
Monstress vol. 1 by Sana Takeda, Marjorie M. Liu
Best Short Work:
Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #3.5)
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #1)
Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson
There will read-alongs hosted for the shortlisted books during the months of March, April, and May. For more information regarding read-along dates and more specifics, check out the official Goodreads group, which has all the details you will need leading up to the voting period in June!
We hope you are satisfied with the shortlist you voted on and contributed to and wish you all happy reading over the next few months.
Here are the nominees for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2023 science fiction book of the year...
The 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist has been announced - and Gollancz has two titles!!!
THE RED SCHOLAR'S WAKE by Aliette de Bodard
Shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association award for Best Novel, WINNER of the BSFA award for Best Cover, this sweeping sapphic space opera can now add another award nod to the list. It's a stunning romance between a sentient pirate spaceship and the woman she marries in order to find out who killed her first wife. TorDotCom compared the dynamics to that of classic gothic novels, Tasha Suri said it was "so romantic I may simply perish". Inspired by Vietnamese culture, and the famous Chinese pirate Ching Shih, it's the sort of book that will make you go feral with delight.
PLUTOSHINE by Lucy Kissick
Winner of the inaugural Working Class Writers' Prize, PLUTOSHINE was written while Lucy Kissick completed her PhD, looking at the composition of Martian lakes by recreating them in a lab and extrapolating how they interacted with the atmosphere. This novel takes her knowledge of planetary atmospherics and geology and blends them with a thrilling story about terraforming, colonisation, and the impacts on everyone involved.
We're so so delighted to be the publishers of two of the three women shortlisted for the 2023 prize, and that they represent the diverse voices that Gollancz is striving to champion!
Locus magazine announced the finalists for their 2023 awards earlier this week, and we are GIDDY to see some of our books in such distinguished company!
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
The Red Scholar's Wake, Aliette de Bodard
Achingly romantic, beautifully imagined, this space opera with a sapphic love story at the centre involves pirates, sentient space ships, and is heavily influenced by Chinese and Vietnamese culture.
Eversion, Alastair Reynolds
Clever, complex, and twisty, this phenomenal book is cinematic in scope, examining selfhood, agency and identity into an adventure story that wraps around itself to pull you along into something special.
BEST FIRST NOVEL
The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler (published by our buddy imprint W&N)
Described as 'David Mitchell meets Arrival', this literary wonder explores the dangers, and necessities, of communicating with a new species - you might not like what they have to say, but can you risk not finding out? (you are also Not Prepared for how neon this bad boy is in real life good lord)
BEST PUBLISHER
Gollancz
We're always excited to be nominated for awards! Particularly now as we ramp up to our 100th anniversary and are putting together big plans over the next few years to celebrate! We love what we do, and love working with readers and authors to do it well.
BEST ARTIST
Charles Vess
Charles is a phenomenal artist, and it's great he's getting this recognition. If you've seen our stunning Ursula K. Le Guin illustrated hardbacks, that's Charles' work.
We're also delighted to see some of our authors nominated in other categories too, including Wole Talabi for Best Novelette ("A Dream of Electric Mothers") and the BSFA award-winning "Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances" by Aliette de Bodard for Best Novel.
Congratulations to everyone who is nominated, can't wait to see the winners!
You may or may not have noticed, but Locus released the shortlist for their awards over the weekend, and HELL YEAH WE HAVE NOMINEES.
HAMMAJANG LUCK by Makana Yamamoto is nominated for Best First Novel, and Gollancz is nominated for Best Publisher!
Thank you to everyone who voted in the shortlisting process. obviously I'm going to assume that anyone on tumblr only voted for Gollancz because of my hard work memeing away with you all. It's nice to see my talents and efforts recognised.
