Black Man by Richard Morgan

Congratulations to Richard Morgan; and of course, it's an excellent book, which you should all go and read right now. Or, if you prefer, you could look at my photos from the award party and ceremony, over here. Paul Billinger has some here, including a good one of the judges.

I haven't seen many reactions around yet, but Abigail Nussbaum is pleased. Jeff VanderMeer also thinks it's a good choice, and has a short piece up at the Amazon blog. Instant Fanzine considers it "the least slapfightlicious choice."

UPDATE: Paul Raven's happy (but it's the only one of the shortlist), Joe Gordon is chuffed, and Jonathan and James report they enjoyed attending the ceremony, and the Guardian implies that Richard Morgan is a genetically-modified assassin. (They also -- mistakenly -- give the impression that Paul Billinger was a voting judge; in fact the Chair's role, which Paul carried out very well, is to moderate the discussion.)

Over on the Guardian blog, Sam Jordison reports on a night in the new world of SF. Two things strike me about this report: first, it's great to hear that the passion involved in the decision was visible to an observer; second, I really regret not knowing that he was there, because I'd have liked to thank him for his continuing series of Guardian blog posts on past Hugo Award winners. I very much hope he gets a chance to post about his reaction to Black Man.

Elsewhere, Joe Abercombie is pleased the award went to an unashamedly sf novel, Philip Palmer enjoyed himself, and the post-presentation Gollancz meal seems to have gone well. (As for the tiny trousers mentioned in both posts, I can only assume that Adam Roberts has been supplying Lilliputian assistants to his fellow writers, and is now running a premium clothing-replacement business.)

Sci-Fi London have footage from the ceremony here, while the text of Paul Billinger's speech can be found here. And io9's take: "Shockingly, Science Fiction Book Wins SF Book Award".

The Red Men: Matthew de Abaitua - Snow Books
The H-Bomb Girl: Stephen Baxter - Faber & Faber
The Carhullan Army: Sarah Hall - Faber & Faber
The Raw Shark Texts: Steven Hall - Canongate
The Execution Channel: Ken MacLeod - Orbit
Black Man: Richard Morgan - Gollancz

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987. The book is chosen by a panel of judges from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and the Science Museum of London. It is now administrated by the Serendip Foundation. The winner receives a prize consisting of a number of pounds sterling equal to the current year (£2007 for year 2007).

Tom Hunter, Award Administrator, says:

Featuring visions as diverse as a dystopian Cumbria and a future Hackney, time-travel adventures in 1960’s Liverpool and an alternate world British Isles in the throes of terrorist attack, through to tech-noir thrillers and a trawl through subconscious worlds where memories fall prey to metaphysical sharks, the Clarke Award has never been so close to home and relevant to the British literary scene.

The Clarke Award has always been about pushing at the speculative edges of its genre. It’s one possible map amongst many, never the whole territory, and this year’s shortlist stands as both the perfect introduction to the state of modern science fiction writing as well as a first tantalising glimpse of possible futures to come.

And those books? Read on.

Shortlist overviews
Abigail Nussbaum at Strange Horizons
Adam Roberts at Futurismic
Lisa Tuttle in The Times
Tony Keen

A poll

The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter

• Reviewed by Paul Kincaid at Strange Horizons
• Reviewed by Steven H Silver at the SF Site
• Reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn at The Inter-Galactic Playground
• Reviewed by Nic Clarke at Eve's Alexandria
• Reviewed by James at Big Dumb Object

The Red Men by Matthew de Abaitua

• Reviewed by Martin Lewis at Strange Horizons
• Reviewed by Nic Clarke at Eve's Alexandria
• Reviewed by Charlie Anders at io9
• Reviewed by Joshua Glenn in The Boston Globe

The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall

• Reviewed by Colin Greenland in The Guardian
• Reviewed by Victoria Hoyle at Strange Horizons
• Reviewed by Nic Clarke at Eve's Alexandria
• Reviewed by AI White at Open Letters Monthly
• Reviewed by Rachel Hore in The Independent
• Reviewed by Michael Arditti in The Telegraph
• Reviewed by James at Big Dumb Object

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

• Reviewed by Patrick Ness in The Guardian
• Reviewed by Tom Shone in The New York Times
• Reviewed by Alice Fordham in The Times
• Reviewed by Matt Thorne in The Independent
• Discussed by Philip Palmer

The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod

• Reviewed by Paul Kincaid at Strange Horizons
• Reviewed by Nic Clarke at Eve's Alexandria
• Reviewed by Lisa Tuttle in The Times
• Reviewed at Lenin's Tomb
• Reviewed by Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing
• Reviewed by James at Big Dumb Object

Black Man by Richard Morgan

• Reviewed by Russell Letson in Locus
• Reviewed by Martin Lewis at Strange Horizons
• Reviewed by Sherryl Vint at Strange Horizons
• Reviewed by Nic Clarke at Eve's Alexandria
• Reviewed by Jakob Schmidt at the SF Site
• Reviewed by Thomas M Wagner at SF Reviews.net

So. Run the numbers. Six novels, five publishers. Four stories set in the future. Three first-time nominees -- two debut novels, in fact. One young adult book. What else?

(When everyone in the UK's woken up, there may well be some discussion here, here and here.)

Reactions
John Jarrold
Abigail Nussbaum
Paul Raven
The Guardian
Martin Lewis
Jeff VanderMeer