Tor.com is pleased to announce that the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas has revealed the 2013 finalists for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best novel of the year. The nominees include three Tor novels: Existence, by David Brin, The Rapture of the Nerds, by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, and The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi. Congratulations to them, and to all the other nominees! You can see the full announcement below.
Nominees for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award:
- The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks
- Any Day Now, by Terry Bisson
- Existence, by David Brin
- The Rapture of the Nerds, by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross
- Empty Space, by M. John Harrison
- Intrusion, by Ken MacLeod
- Railsea, by China Miéville
- The Fractal Prince, by Hannu Rajaniemi
- Blue Remembered Earth, by Alastair Reynolds
- Jack Glass: The Story of a Murderer, by Adam Roberts
- 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Slow Apocalypse, by John Varley
- Alif the Unseen, by G. Willow Wilson
The Campbell Award is one of the major annual awards for science fiction. The first Campbell Award was presented at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1973. Since then the Award has been presented in various parts of the world: at California State University at Fullerton; at St. John’s College, Oxford; at the World SF Writers Conference in Dublin; in Stockholm; at the World SF meeting in Dublin again; the University of Kansas; and in a joint event with the SFRA Convention in Kansas City in 2007.
Since 1979, the Campbell Award has been presented during the Campbell Conference at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, as the focal point of a weekend of discussions about the writing, illustration, publishing, teaching, and criticism of science fiction.
The Award was created to honor the late editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, now named Analog. Campbell, who edited the magazine from 1937 until his death in 1971, is called by many writers and scholars the father of modern science fiction. Writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss established the award in Campbell’s name as a way of continuing his efforts to encourage writers to produce their best possible work.
The Campbell Award differs from most other major awards in the field by being restricted to the novel and by its method of selection. The Hugo Awards are voted on by some thousand of the several thousand members who attend the World Science Fiction Convention, which meets annually at different locations on Labor Day weekend. The Nebula Awards are voted on by some hundred of the nearly three thousand members of the Science Fiction Writers of America and presented at the annual Nebula Award meeting usually held late in the Spring.
The Campbell Award is selected by a committee small enough to discuss among its members all of the nominated novels. The current jury consists of Gregory Benford, Paul Di Filippo, Sheila Finch, James Gunn, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Paul Kincaid, Christopher McKitterick, Pamela Sargent, and T.A. Shippey.
The Award will be presented Friday, June 14, at the Campbell Conference, held at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas, June 14-16, 2014.
