The Long Lists for this year’s BSFA Awards are out, and provide much food for thought. We have a whole load of new categories this year, listed in a somewhat eccentric order on the official page (maybe that’s the constitutional order, I don’t know). As ever, I’ve run them through LibraryThing and Goodreads, to see how many people own each book on the former platform and have rated it on the latter; and I rank each section by the geometric average of the two ratings.
One thing I haven’t done this year is to look at the average ratings of each book on each system. This is simply because my time is limited; I’ve looked at around 200 books here, and am satisfied that the raw measure of penetration of the two systems gives a fair idea of how far they have percolated into the community and the wider public.
I didn’t look at Best Artwork, Best Short Fiction or Best Short Non-Fiction for this exercise; I assumed that none of the nominees in those categories would have been separately registered on LT or GR.
In the Best Audiobook category (strictly, Best Original Audio Fiction), there are 11 works on the longlist. Only one of them (The Downloaded, by Robert J. Sawyer) is owned by anyone of LibraryThing, and only two (The Downloaded, again, and The Dex Legacy by Emily Inkpen) have been rated by anyone on Goodreads. This is less than I would have expected; audiobook listeners are as assiduous about logging their consumption as are print or screen readers. I’m also disappointed not to see any of Big Finish’s output here; I can’t believe that I’m the only Big Finish fan who is also a BSFA voter (but I must admit that I myself did not actually get around to nominating).
The Best Fiction for Younger Readers long list has only 8 nominees, which is not very long. This is a bit surprising as that list has been reasonably well populated in the past. The 8 nominees, and the LT / GR rankings, are:
Title | Author | LT | GR |
Spellbound | F.T. Lukens | 177 | 5312 |
The Library of Broken Worlds | Alaya Dawn Johnson | 60 | 134 |
A Song of Salvation | Alechia Dow | 23 | 216 |
Mindbreaker | Kate Dylan | 12 | 194 |
City of Vicious Night | Claire Winn | 6 | 176 |
We Who Are Forged In Fire | Kate Murray | 2 | 50 |
The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern | J Dianne Dotson | 1 | 15 |
Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend | Lizzie Huxley Jones | 0 | 59 |
There’s obviously a strong leader here. Also, I am really puzzled as to how the last book on the list has managed to pick up as many as 59 Goodreads ratings, without a single LibraryThing user acquiring it. It also seems to be selling well enough on Amazon. It may be that the author has made a bit of a push on GR, but I’m not sure if it’s such a good platform for YA marketing.
There are 29 long-listees for Best Shorter Fiction (there are 30 works on the official long list itself, but one has been listed twice). Five of them have not been published in standalone format and so the comparison with LT/GR stats isn’t really fair, but I list them below for completeness.
Title | Author | LT | GR |
The Scourge Between Stars | Ness Brown | 130 | 2836 |
Rose/House | Arkady Martine | 82 | 1366 |
And Put Away Childish Things | Adrian Tchakovsky | 44 | 1068 |
Emergent Properties | Aimee Ogden | 53 | 527 |
The Navigating Fox | Christopher Rowe | 42 | 458 |
Hamlet – Prince of Robots | M. Darusha Wehm | 18 | 144 |
The Iron Children | Rebecca Fraimow | 12 | 79 |
Pluralities | Avi Silver | 7 | 83 |
I am AI | Ai Jiang | 3 | 161 |
The Midas Rain | Adam Roberts | 5 | 51 |
A Necessary Chaos | Brent Lambert | 6 | 34 |
The Book of Gaheris | Kari Sperring | 15 | 10 |
To The Woman in the Pink Hat | LaToya Jordan | 4 | 27 |
Europa | Allen Stroud | 2 | 36 |
Miasma | Jess Hyslop | 2 | 27 |
Telling the Bees | Emma Leadey | 6 | 6 |
Broken Paradise | Eugen Bacon | 3 | 5 |
Hero’s Choice | Merc Fenn Wolfmoor | 2 | 6 |
Off Time Jive | A.Z. Louise | 2 | 1 |
The Panharmonion Chronicles | Henry Chebaane | 0 | 26 |
A Feast for Flies | Leigh Harlen | 0 | 8 |
The Lies We Tell Ourselves | L K Kitney | 0 | 6 |
Little Nothing | Dee Holloway | 0 | 5 |
Where the God-Knives Tread | A.L. Goldfuss | 1 | 0 |
Axiom of Dreams | Arula Ratnakar | ||
Defective | Peter Watts | ||
Land of The Awaiting Birth | Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Joshua Uchenna Omenga. | ||
The Window in the Forest | Seán Padraic Birnie | ||
Undulation | Stephen Embleton |
Again some strong leaders, one in particular, but the figures here are probably less meaningful than in the other categories because of the difference in place of publication.
There are 24 long-listees for Best Non-Fiction (Long).
Title | Author | LT | GR |
A City on Mars | Kelly and Zach Weinersmith | 160 | 1116 |
Wish I Was Here | M John Harrison | 41 | 117 |
I Am the Law | Michael Molcher | 12 | 109 |
We’re Falling Through Space | J. David Reed | 2 | 83 |
Realms of Imagination: Essays from the Wide Worlds of Fantasy | Tanya Kirk and Matthew Sangster | 13 | 6 |
Spec Fic for Newbies: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror | Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan | 7 | 11 |
The Weird Tales Boys | Stephen Jones | 8 | 9 |
Selected Nonfiction 1962-2007 J.G.. Ballard | Editor Mark Blacklock | 8 | 5 |
David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure in Television | Simon Guerrier | 4 | 5 |
All These Worlds | Niall Harrison | 4 | 4 |
A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller | Nina Allan, editor | 2 | 6 |
Science Fiction Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Transnational Futures | Cosmopolitan Concerns | 3 | 3 |
Writing the Future edited | Dan Coxon and Richard V. Hirst | 4 | 2 |
Ex Marginalia: Essays on Writing Speculative Fiction by Persons of Color | Chinelo Onwualu | 1 | 7 |
An Introduction to Fantasy | Matthew Sangster | 2 | 2 |
Fear of Seeing: A Poetics of Chinese Science Fiction | Mingwei Song | 1 | 1 |
The Expanse Expanded | Jamie Woodcock | 1 | 1 |
Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea | Timothy S Miller | 1 | 1 |
Destination Time Travel | Steve Nallon & Dick Fiddy | 0 | 3 |
The Historical Dictionary of Fantasy Literature | Allen Stroud | 0 | 1 |
Follow Me: Religion in Fantasy and Science Fiction | Francesca T Barbini | 1 | 0 |
Blake’s 7 Production Diary Series A | Jonathan Helm | 0 | 0 |
Corroding the Now: Poetry + Science|SF | Francis Gene Rowe, Stephen Mooney, Richard Parker | 0 | 0 |
The Female Man: Eastercon talk | Farah Mendlesohn |
Once again, a very clear leader, but it’s striking how little penetration a lot of these have had. One of them is a lecture, so not surprisingly it has no owners on LT or GR. One has nobody rating it on GR, two have no owners on LT, and two more draw a blank on both. I guess that most SF fans read much more fiction rather than critique; I know I do.
I also think it would be helpful to know to what extent the administration of the awards is kept separate from the BSFA Committee; the Hugos make an explicit statement on this.
I feel the most uncomfortable about the Best Collection category, which is new this year. There are 51 nominees and 14 of them, more than a quarter, have no LibraryThing owners at all; four of those have nobody rating them on Goodreads either.
Title | Author/Editor | LT | GR |
Never Whistle at Night | Shane Hawk, Theodore C Van Alst Jr | 236 | 4591 |
Hit Parade of Tears | Izumi Suzuki | 60 | 888 |
Ten Planets | Yuri Herrera | 46 | 550 |
No One Will Come Back For Us | Premee Mohamed | 38 | 255 |
Drinking From Graveyard Wells | Yvette Ndlovu | 20 | 159 |
Jewel Box | E. Lily Yu | 17 | 135 |
New Suns 2 | Nisi Shawl | 29 | 72 |
The Inconsolables | Michael Wehunt | 11 | 139 |
Multiverses: An Anthology of Alternate Realities | Preston Grassman | 16 | 86 |
A Taste of Darkness | Various | 6 | 160 |
Gunflower | Laura Jean McKay | 10 | 75 |
Jackal, Jackal | Tobi Ogundiran | 9 | 69 |
You Are My Sunshine | Octavia Cade | 11 | 51 |
The Dead Man and Other Stories | Gene Wolf | 19 | 27 |
The Wolfe at the Door | Gene Wolfe | 13 | 34 |
Worlds Long Lost | Christopher Ruocchio | 6 | 51 |
Promise | Christi Nogle | 7 | 43 |
Best of British Science Fiction 2022 | Donna Scott | 19 | 15 |
The Skin Thief | Suzan Palumbo | 4 | 50 |
The Shadow Galaxy | J Dianne Dotson | 3 | 34 |
Caged Ocean Dub | Dare Segun Falowo | 8 | 11 |
Read, Scream, Repeat | Jennifer Killick | 1 | 71 |
Between Dystopias: The Road to Afropantheology | Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Joshua Uchenna Omenga | 3 | 23 |
Like Smoke Like Light | Yukimi Ogawa | 4 | 16 |
Strange Attractors | Jaine Fenn | 10 | 4 |
Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge (graphic novel – collection of linked strips) | Various | 1 | 27 |
Luminescent Machinations | Rhiannon Rasmussen and dave ring | 3 | 9 |
Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology | Justine Norton-Kerston | 2 | 10 |
Rosalind’s Siblings: Fiction and Poetry Celebrating Scientists of Marginalized Genders | Bogi Takács | 3 | 6 |
Embroidered Worlds | Valya Dudycz Lupescu, Olha Brylova, and Iryna Pasko | 12 | 1 |
Eclectic Dreams: A Milford Anthology | Various | 2 | 5 |
Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity Culture and Speculative Conjunctions | Khadijah Queen and Kiini Ibura Salaam | 2 | 4 |
Writing the Future | Dan Coxon and Richard V. Hirst | 4 | 2 |
Where Rivers Go To Die | Dilman Dila | 1 | 5 |
Michael Butterworth – Complete Poems 1965-2020 | Michael Butterworth | 2 | 2 |
Rhapsody of the Spheres | Juliana Rew | 2 | 2 |
Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology | Edited by Wole Talabi | 2 | 1 |
Have You Seen the Moon Tonight? & Other Rumors | Jonathan Louis Duckworth | 0 | 11 |
Best of World SF: Volume 3 | Lavie Tidhar | 0 | 6 |
Extracting Humanity | Stephen Oram | 0 | 5 |
Fighting for the Future: Cyberpunk and Solarpunk Tales | Phoebe Wagner | 0 | 5 |
Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 | Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Eugen Bacon, Milton Davis | 0 | 4 |
Twelve All in Dread: The Twelfth Witch and Other Stories | Juliana Rew | 0 | 4 |
Wolves and Girls | Maria Haskins | 0 | 4 |
Languages of Water | Editor, Eugen Bacon | 0 | 3 |
Indie YA Bites | Various | 0 | 2 |
Guerrilla Mural of A Siren Song | Ernest Hogan | 0 | 1 |
Beyond Between | David Viner | 0 | 0 |
Corroding the Now | Francis Gene-Rowe, Stephen Mooney and Richard Parker | 0 | 0 |
Dark Stars: Sci-Fi Horror Drabbles | Eric Fomley | 0 | 0 |
Simultaneous Times Vol.3 | Jean-Paul L. Garnier | 0 | 0 |
I don’t really know how useful a long-list of such length can be, when it includes so many candidates who have little traction. I appreciate that awards can call attention to otherwise overlooked work, but a) I’m not convinced that an award decided by popular vote, as the BSFA and Hugo Awards are, is the best vehicle for doing that and b) this is best done with a short list, not a long list!
Also a little surprised to note a couple of crossovers with Best Collection, but maybe the shortlisting process will sort that out.
Finally, Best Novel. This long list is very long, at 65 nominees. Only two have slipped past LibraryThing users, and all of them have been rated by at least a couple of Goodreads users. So it’s relatively robust, though with a couple of crossovers with Best Shorter Fiction which again presumably the shortlisting will sort out. There’s certainly some attractive titles here, and indeed two books that I have actually read, unlike any of the other categories. 65 is shorter than last year’s 68, or the previous year’s 74; it’s still very long though.
Title | Author | LT | GR |
Yellowface | R.F. Kuang | 1571 | 306112 |
Starling House | Alix E Harrow | 797 | 46020 |
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi | Shannon Chakraborty | 969 | 32188 |
Starter Villain | John Scalzi | 604 | 24312 |
Witch King | Martha Wells | 786 | 12949 |
Translation State | Ann Leckie | 385 | 7137 |
The Narrow Road Between Desires | Patrick Rothfuss | 254 | 9817 |
Some Desperate Glory | Emily Tesh | 412 | 5807 |
The Sinister Booksellers of Bath | Garth Nix | 302 | 4476 |
The Future | Naomi Alderman | 208 | 6112 |
Lords of Uncreation | Adrian Tchaikovsky | 154 | 7437 |
Mimicking of Known Successes | Malka Older | 260 | 4082 |
Bridge | Lauren Beukes | 86 | 11231 |
Titanium Noir | Nick Harkaway | 200 | 4319 |
Infinity Gate | M.R. Carey | 184 | 3429 |
In Ascension | Martin MacInnes | 155 | 3022 |
Dragonfall | L R Lam | 183 | 2314 |
Sleep No More | Seanan McGuire | 122 | 2525 |
The First Bright Thing | R. Dawson | 151 | 2031 |
Malevolent Seven | Sebastien de Castell | 102 | 2855 |
The Water Outlaws | S.L. Huang | 168 | 1393 |
Julia | Sandra Newman | 122 | 1717 |
Perilous Times | Thomas D Lee | 142 | 1438 |
The Surviving Sky | Kritika H. Rao | 111 | 1266 |
Season of Skulls | Charles Stross | 101 | 1324 |
The Archive Undying | Emma Mieko Camden | 126 | 1011 |
The Saint of Bright Doors | Vajra Chandrasekera | 136 | 931 |
Rose/House | Arkady Martine | 82 | 1366 |
Gods of the Wyrdwood | R J Barker | 82 | 1035 |
The Death I Gave Him | Em X. Liu | 68 | 1142 |
The Space Between Us | Doug Johnstone | 40 | 1729 |
These Burning Stars | Bethany Jacobs | 75 | 755 |
Orbital | Samantha Harvey | 61 | 790 |
A Market of Dreams and Destiny | Trip Gailey | 48 | 523 |
The Valkyrie | Kate Heartfield | 41 | 595 |
Hopeland | Ian McDonald | 68 | 319 |
More Perfect | Temi Oh | 47 | 383 |
Descendant Machine | Gareth L. Powell | 29 | 591 |
The Fractured Dark | Megan E. O’Keefe | 26 | 644 |
Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon | Wole Talabi | 49 | 329 |
The Circumference of the World | Lavie Tidhar | 40 | 284 |
Frontier | Grace Curtis | 13 | 835 |
Cahokia Jazz | Frances Spufford | 46 | 226 |
The Infinite | Ada Hoffmann | 20 | 232 |
The Master of Samar | Melissa Scott | 23 | 164 |
Talonsister | Jen Williams | 17 | 202 |
Airside | Christopher Priest | 22 | 128 |
Conquest | Nina Allan | 24 | 114 |
Hel’s Eight | Stark Holborn | 17 | 148 |
The Green Man’s Quarry | Juliet McKenna | 11 | 157 |
HIM | Geoff Ryman | 18 | 89 |
A Woman of the Sword | Anna Smith Spark | 14 | 114 |
Creation Node | Stephen Baxter | 13 | 119 |
Warrior of the Wind | Suyi Davies Okungbowa | 11 | 120 |
A Second Chance For Yesterday | R.A. Sinn | 10 | 113 |
One | Eve Smith | 3 | 212 |
Refractions | MV Melcer | 7 | 89 |
Lamb | Matt Hill | 3 | 73 |
Mother Sea | Lorraine Wilson | 1 | 46 |
The Pollutant Speaks | Alex Cochran | 3 | 11 |
All the Hollow of the Sky | Kit Whitfield | 2 | 15 |
The Disinformation War | SJ Groenewegen | 2 | 5 |
Inkbloom | E.D.E. Bell | 3 | 2 |
Prompt Excursion | Lewis S Kingston | 0 | 11 |
The Red Hairband | Catherine Greene | 0 | 3 |
One of the two books I have read from this list is Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, which is way out in front of the field with more Goodreads ratings than the other 64 combined and a smaller but still substantial lead on LibraryThing. I really don’t think that Yellowface is SF; it’s very much rooted in the present day, with no innovations of technology or weird magical stuff (the narrator has a couple of visions of a dead friend, but puts them down to stress). It’s not even about SF; the narrator writes a fantasy novel, but it’s a less important thread of the plot. I think that the BSFA Awards have missed a trick by not nominating Kuang previously; I think that she’s a great writer; and I think that Yellowface is an excellent book. But if it does get shortlisted, I won’t be voting for it, because I think that the BSFA Award for Best Novel should go to a work of SF.
(The other book I’ve read is The Future, by Naomi Alderman, which I also enjoyed.)
Doing all of this has been displacement activity as I eagerly anticipate the release of the nomination stats from last year’s Chengdu Worldcon; however I have to go out shortly for the rest of the evening, so my usual analysis will be tomorrow at the earliest.