Slightly slow to get to the BSFA shortlists, as I had a busy few days, but here are the Goodreads / LibraryThing stats for the Best YA and Best Novel categories, compared with the long lists; and also links for them and for the nominees in other categories.
As usual, I have ranked the finalists in descending order of the geometrical average of their number of owners on Goodreads and LibraryThing, and also provided the average rating on both systems, bolding the highest in each category. I’ve also given Amazon links where I have them – I know, I know, evil big river, but I get a (pathetically) small commission from it…
The Best Novel list is curious. The top novel on the shortlist was 35th, just over half way down, on the long list ranking by GR/LT ownership, and the second novel was 30th; the other three were all in the bottom half of the long-list ranking and one was in 61st place out of 68. To be specific, more people appear to have nominated The Coral Bones for the BSFA Award than own it on LibraryThing.
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||||
| raters | av rating | owners | av rating | |||
| The Red Scholar’s Wake, by Aliette de Bodard | 811 | 3.40 | 104 | 4.06 | £9.99 from Amazon | |
| Stars and Bones, by Gareth Powell | 1052 | 3.68 | 64 | 3.29 | £8.01 from Amazon | |
| City of Last Chances, by Adrian Tchaikovsky | 626 | 4.05 | 59 | 4.25 | £8.79 from Amazon | |
| The This, by Adam Roberts | 288 | 3.92 | 54 | 3.90 | £9.99 from Amazon | |
| The Coral Bones, by E.J. Swift | 13 | 4.54 | 5 | – | £9.72 from Amazon |
The nominations for Best YA Book are much more in line with the long list, with 7 of the long list’s top 11 making the cut, and all of the top three.
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | ||||
| raters | av rating | owners | av rating | ||
| Only A Monster, by Vanessa Len | 17095 | 3.91 | 463 | 3.60 | £7.49 from Amazon |
| Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, by Juno Dawson | 9481 | 3.88 | 418 | 3.61 | £7.91 from Amazon |
| Violet Made of Thorns, by Gina Chen | 10701 | 3.63 | 340 | 4.00 | £8.99 from Amazon |
| Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, by Xiran Jay Zhao | 2579 | 4.17 | 99 | 4.09 | £7.35 from Amazon |
| Unraveller, by Frances Hardinge | 866 | 4.20 | 67 | 4.27 | £11.99 from Amazon |
| Illuminations, by T Kingfisher | 1095 | 4.20 | 50 | 4.10 | £12.99 from Amazon |
| Mindwalker, by Kate Dylan | 681 | 4.20 | 38 | 3.75 | £13.16 from Amazon |
The Short Fiction shortlist includes three stories published as standalones, and two in magazines.
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | ||||
| raters | av rating | owners | av rating | ||
| Ogres, by Adrian Tchaikowsky | 1934 | 4.26 | 66 | 4.06 | £25.00 from Amazon |
| Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, by Aliette de Bodard | 266 | 4.22 | 33 | 4.15 | £8.50 from Amazon |
| Luca, by Or Luca | 1 | 4 | 3 | – | £11.55 from Amazon |
| “A Moment of Zugzwang”, by Neil Williamson (ParSec 4) | £5.99 here | ||||
| “Seller’s Remorse”, by Rick Danforth (Hexagon Magazine 11) | free here |
The Non-Fiction category includes two books and three online articles. NB that the books have higher ratings on Goodreads and LibraryThing than any of the other finalists in any other category.
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | ||||
| raters | av rating | owners | av rating | ||
| Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, by Rob Wilkins | 1254 | 4.72 | 183 | 4.34 | £14.00 from Amazon |
| Management Lessons from Game of Thrones, by Fiona Moore | 4 | 5.00 | 3 | – | £19.95 from Amazon |
| “The Critic and the Clue: Tracking Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker“, by Maureen Kincaid Speller | free here | ||||
| “Preliminary Observations From An Incomplete History of African SFF”, by Wole Talabi | free here | ||||
| “Too Dystopian For Whom? A Continental Nigerian Writer’s Perspective”, by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki | free here |
Finally, six book covers for Best Art – I link to each and give thumbnail extracts here.
Because I am a Clarke Award judge this year, I won’t comment on the Best Novel list and I won’t have time to read the Best YA Book finalists, but I’ll cover the other three in due course, starting with Best Art next Tuesday.