As I'm sure you'll have heard by now, Chris Beckett took home the Arthur C. Clarke award yesterday, for the best science fiction novel published in Britain in 2012.
I'd have picked 2312 myself, but Dark Eden is a worthy winner, I think. Then again, aside the much ballyhooed about fact that it didn't feature a single female author, or any persons of colour, the shortlist was extraordinary. I've read everything on it except Nod by Adrian Barnes, which I admit I'm not particularly interested in, and only The Dog Stars disappointed. Otherwise, a bunch of best in class books.
In any event, in light of the news, I went looking for the review of Dark Eden I remembered writing after reading it nearly a year ago, primarily in order to link to it today, but also to see if I still agreed with my initial assessment.
Long story short, I couldn't find it.
I searched through The Speculative Scotsman and Strange Horizons, Tor.com and SF Signal—any and all of the places it might possibly have been published—only to realise that for some reason (very possibly a holiday) it had never made it out of My Documents. Like the 5000 word critique of Haruki Murkami's IQ84 that's been waiting there, utterly unloved, for an even longer period.
I'm going to give my Dark Eden review a bit of a once-over tomorrow morning, with an eye towards running it here on TSS immediately afterwards.
Before I say good day, allow me to offer my hearty congratulations to Chris Beckett. Learn from my mistake and try not to waste all your winnings on sweets, sir!
Say, would you be interested in hearing what I thought about Murakami's last novel while we're at it? :)
Yes Sir, I'd like your opinion on IQ84, it's still on my Mount TBR ;)As Always, greatings from Belgium
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