2021 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced

2021 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced

- Failed State: A Novel by Christopher Brown
- The Book of Koli by M. R. Carey
- Dance on Saturday by Elwin Cotman
- Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds
- Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine
- The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Anyone read any of these? Thoughts?

Read Bone Silence. It's the final book of a trilogy. Always seems a bit odd when parts of a series appear in shortlists. Especially ones that don't make much sense without the other books.

Failed State is the middle book of a trilogy I believe.

Of the list I've read Bone Silence, The Doors of Eden, and The Book of Koli.

Of that lot only the Tchaikovsky is on my near-term radar.

For a first time in a very long time, I had read none of these. 2 books that are later part of series (>2 iansales: - right? I kinda understand how it happens but it is very annoying) where I had not read the earlier ones either. I’ll probably try to read all of them at some point but we will see.

I've read Dance on Saturday as an LTER book. It was very good, although I have no idea how it stacks up against the others. Like the previous award winner Pinsker's Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea, it's a collection of excellent, thought-provoking short stories. I think there's more variety of topic and tone in Cotman's book, although Pinsker's was more sfnal.

My review of Dance on Saturday: https://www.librarything.com/work/24292213/details/184839718
My review of Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea: https://www.librarything.com/work/19229235/details/162622834

>1 dominik2m: I've read The Book of Koli and the rest of the trilogy. I really enjoyed them. :)

None of these books are on my radar. I hate Trilogies; though I did read John Scalze's Collapsing Empire (?) triology. The last book was a big disappointment.

>2 iansales: I agree. I suppose it's fair that a specific book of a series may be particularly award-worthy, but it's hard to judge without reading the previous books (then again I have no idea how the judging process actually works).

>6 paradoxosalpha: Your reviews for both Dance on Saturday and Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea are good! I'll probably check them out. I have read about half of Pinsker's other novel, A Song for a New Day, but couldn't finish it because it felt a little too on the nose compared with present day, as it was about a pandemic forcing people to stay inside and minimize contact with actual humans.

>9 dominik2m:

I was glad I read A Song For A New Day before the present situation. BTW "other" is superfluous in "other novel" it is her only novel to date (although she has another one due to be published in May). Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea is a short story collection.

>9 dominik2m: It is the exact reason I am dread to start A Song For A New Day... I don't do too well with near-future dystopian novels... I am not a naturally optimistic person so I'd like to keep a little bit of hope.

>11 divinenanny: It's quite a hopeful book, actually, so no need to avoid it because of that.

>11 divinenanny: I just finished reading A Song for a New Day this past Tuesday. Thought it was amazingly good. Yes, there are many parallels with covid - to the point where I almost think Pinsker may be a sooth-sayer - but the story is character driven and the two protagonists are easy to get along with. It is also, as >12 anglemark: notes, quite a hopeful novel. I rated it 9 out of 10 and will gladly read more from the author.

>12 anglemark: & >13 ScoLgo:

Oh that is great to hear. Moving it back to the top of the list :D

I thought Road Out of Winter was readable. Confused about why it was nominated for a literary award though (confused about why maybe half of nominated books were chosen though, ha).

Try to read the SFF award nominees each year, prioritizing standalones and avoiding books that seem unappealing. The PKD Award releases their nominations before everything else I follow each year.

Glad to see people are so pleased with Dance on Saturday.

>7 Verkruissen: The Book of Koli is enjoyable but the first book really does not stand on its own very well - it is a prologue and a glimpse at a story more than a real story. Very good world-building (including using the changed and degraded/evolved language to show changes) but outside of that, it feels like the prologue of a real story.

I expect that I will really like the rest of the trilogy (although the third won't be out until next month so it will be awhile for it) but I am not sure why the first was nominated - and how much of this nomination is on the strength of the book itself as opposed to the series (at 2 or 3 books).