Authors prepare for battle in World Fantasy awards
Authors prepare for battle in World Fantasy awards
August 26, 2010
Alison Flood
Guardian.co.uk
s it crime? Is it science fiction? Is it fantasy? China Miéville's bizarre tale of a murder investigation, The City and the City, has already won both of the UK's top science-fiction prizes, and is now lined up for battle in the fantasy arena.
The novel, winner of the Arthur C Clarke and British Science Fiction Association awards, is competing with Blood of Ambrose, a classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy from James Enge, and Kit Whitfield's tale of the uneasy alliance between humans and mermaids, In Great Waters, on the shortlist for this year's World Fantasy awards.
Also in contention are Jeff VanderMeer's Finch, which concerns detective's attempt to solve two murders in the rotten city of Ambergris, and CaitlÃn R Kiernan's The Red Tree, about a writer who discovers a dead man's unpublished manuscript and starts to investigate centuries-old secrets.
Enge expressed shock and pleasure at his nomination for a book that he says was "deliberately designed not to be award-bait". "I think the odds are very long indeed against Blood of Ambrose taking the 'best novel' award," he said. "It's an attempt to carry on some old pulpy traditions into the 21st century – sword and sorcery, in fact."
Although sword-and-sorcery writers have won the World Fantasy award in the past – Enge pointed to Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock – "they didn't win for sword-and-sorcery novels, and they were already legends when they were nominated. I'm not a legend, merely somewhat imaginary, or so it feels this morning," he said.
Whitfield, whose acclaimed debut novel, Bareback, subverted the werewolf myth, was "astonished" to be shortlisted for In Great Waters. "There are some seriously impressive people on that list, so I'm not going to be banging on the bookies' door to place odds on myself, but frankly I think being on the shortlist is enough to make me feel pretty darn cool whoever the final winner is," she said. "Rather than worrying about who the judges pick, I'm just happy to be in such good company."
In Great Waters stems from a throwaway quip, Whitfield revealed. "The idea of mermaids (though I don't use that word) was originally a joke my husband made; I was wondering what to write for a second novel, and he said, 'Well, you wrote about werewolves, why not mermaids?' I said, 'Ha ha, very funny ... hm ... actually, you know what ...?' and just started thinking about it," she said.
"I was taken on snorkelling holidays a lot when I was a child; there's something numinous about your childhood memories, and something magical about the way things are under the sea – the rhythm of the water, the way the depths swallow up light, the way sound changes completely – and it felt like a place my imagination could go play."
The winner – picked by five judges including the short story writer Kelly Link – will be announced on 31 October in Columbus, Ohio at the World Fantasy convention. Previous winners of the best novel prize include Susanna Clarke for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Haruki Murakami for Kafka On the Shore and Ursula K Le Guin for The Other Wind.
Last year's prize was jointly won by Margo Lanagan's young adult title Tender Morsels and Jeffrey Ford's The Shadow Year.
The World Fantasy awards best novel shortlist in full:
Blood of Ambrose by James Enge
The Red Tree by CaitlÃn R Kiernan
The City and the City by China Miéville
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield
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