2003 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: This is where I reveal what an inconsistent science fiction fan I am. I have not read any of the books that were nominated for the 2003 Clare Award. I am familiar with all of the authors, and have read books by most of them, in some cases a lot of books by them. But none of those books are the ones that were nominated for this year's edition of the Clarke Award. And this is what my long-term project to read all of the winners and nominees of the major genre fiction awards is about: Filling in these gaps and compiling a collection of reviews for this magnificent body of speculative literature.

Winner
The Separation by Christopher Priest

Shortlist
Kil'n People by David Brin
Light by M. John Harrison
The Scar by China Miéville
Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

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2003 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: As I have noted before, I simply don't understand how Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is connected to libertarianism, but the nomination of C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength might serve to give an indication as to why it was nominated. I suspect that, in more recent years, the Libertarian Futurist Society has become the home of a substantial number of religious conservatives, a phenomenon that seems to also be happening in the wider political landscape, at least in the United States. From my perspective, the conservative religious ideology is completely incompatible with libertarianism, and those who try to reconcile the two often end up espousing a twisted ideology that is even more reprehensible than what one would get if you stripped away everything of any positive value from organized religion and libertarianism and left them with nothing but their worst aspects. The combination seems to result in a unprecedented level of toxicity in excess of the level one would get simply by adding together the toxic levels already present in religion and libertarianism.

Best Novel

Winner:

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Other Nominees:

Dark Light by Ken MacLeod

Escape from Heaven by J. Neil Schulman
The Haunted Air by F. Paul Wilson
Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan

Hall of Fame

Winner:

Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) by J.R.R. Tolkien

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

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2003 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 2003, the data concerning where and when the Mythopoeic Awards seems to have gone missing again. For 2002, the information is readily available, but seems to have vanished once more by 2003. I suspect that the 2003 Mythopoeic Awards were handed out on or about July 25 through July 28 at Mythcon 34, but I can't find any confirmation of that. In fact, I suspect that all of the Mythpoeic Awards since the inception of the award have been handed out at the Mythopoeic Society's own convention Mythcon, but since I have no way to confirm this suspicion, I can't in good faith do anything more than speculate that this was the case.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip

Other Nominees:

The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman

A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Best Children's Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Summerland by Michael Chabon

Other Nominees:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

Beowulf and the Critics by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Michael D.C. Drout

Other Nominees:
C.S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse by Don W. King

Imagination and the Arts in C.S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds by Peter J. Schakel

J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances edited by George Makana Clark and Daniel Timmons

Myth and Fantasy Studies

Winner:

Fairytale in the Ancient World by Graham Anderson

Other Nominees:

A Charmed Life: The Spirituality of Potterworld by Francis Bridger

The Christian Imagination: G.K. Chesterton on the Arts by Thomas C. Peters
Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake by G. Peter Winnington

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

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2003 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: Campbell Conference Awards Banquet at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

Comments: In 2003 Nancy Kress became only the third woman to win the Campbell Award with her novel Probability Space, a follow-on to her previously nominated novel Probability Sun. Of all of the major science fiction awards, the Campbell Award seems to be the most hostile to female authors overall, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Through the history of the award, very few women have been nominated - in 2003, out of ten finalists, only two were written by women - and even fewer have won, a result that seems problematic given the many excellent works of science fiction that have been produced by women during its existence.

Best Novel

Winner:

Probability Space by Nancy Kress

Second Place:

Kiln People by David Brin

Third Place:

Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer

Finalists:

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

Dark Ararat by Brian Stableford
The Golden Age by John C. Wright
Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
The Separation by Christopher Priest
The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper
Vitals by Greg Bear

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

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