The finalists for the Zsoldos Péter Award for 2024 were announced February 20.

The award was established in 1997 to preserve the memory of Zsoldos Péter, the most prominent Hungarian science fiction writer of the last century. It was reformed in 2020, and now it awards other speculative works also, not just science fiction. Also in 2020, a new category was introduced to acknowledge the work of translators.

 A professional jury will select the winners in each category. The award will be presented on April 20.

NOVELS

• Kleinheincz Csilla: Alvilági szövedék (Tangled Underworld) (GABO Könyvkiadó)
• Markovics Botond: Felfalt kozmosz (Devoured Cosmos) (Agave Könyvek)
• Rusvai Mónika: Kígyók országa (Country of Snakes) (GABO Könyvkiadó)

SHORT STORIES

• Fekete I. Alfonz: “Szétszálazottak” (The Unraveled Ones) (The Black Aether: Ébredés, Agave Könyvek)
• Gaura Ágnes: “Az erdő szíve” (The Heart of the Forest) (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2023, GABO Könyvkiadó)
• László Zoltán: “Önkéntelen alakfelismerés” (Involuntary Pattern Recognition) (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2023, GABO Könyvkiadó)
• Markovics Botond: “Mi dolga maradt?” (What’s left to do?) (Hévíz Folyóirat 2023/2 A.I.)
• Moskát Anita: “Innen már nem fordulhatsz vissza” (You Can’t Go Back From Here) (Kortárs Folyóirat)
• Rusvai Mónika: “Csontról csontra” (Bone by Bone) (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2023, GABO Könyvkiadó)

BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL

• R. F. Kuang: Bábel (Translated into Hungarian by Horváth Vivien) (Agave Könyvek)
• Hiron Ennes: Pióca (Translated into Hungarian by Kleinheincz Csilla) (Agave Könyvek)
• Robert Repino: Mort(e) (Translated into Hungarian by Zónai Melinda) (Multiverzum Kiadó)

[Thanks to Bence Pintér for the story and title translations.]

The Zsoldos Péter Award 2023 winner was announced April 20.

The award was established in 1997 to preserve the memory of Zsoldos Péter, the most prominent Hungarian science fiction writer of the last century. It was reformed in 2020, and now it awards other speculative works also, not just science fiction. Also in 2020, a new category was introduced to acknowledge the work of translators.

NOVELS

• Lőrinczy Judit: Az utolsó tanú (GABO Kiadó) [The Last Witness]

SHORT STORIES

• Moskát Anita: Fekete monitor (A hazugság tézisei, GABO Kiadó) [“Black Monitor”]

BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL

• Kim Stanley Robinson: A Jövő Minisztériuma (Translated by Farkas Veronika, Agave Könyvek) [The Ministry for the Future]

A professional jury selected the winners in each category. The works of Hungarian creators were judged by a jury of seven people: Vera Benczik, Péter H. Nagy, Orsolya Hegedűs, József Keserű, Péter Kristóf Makai, Réka Szilárd and Bogi Takács. From among the translated works, a three-member jury selected the best ones: József Lapis, Anna Nina Orosz and Zsófia O. Réti.

[Thanks to Bence Pintér for the story and title translations.]

The finalists for the Zsoldos Péter Award for 2022 were announced February 20.

The award was established in 1997 to preserve the memory of Zsoldos Péter, the most prominent Hungarian science fiction writer of the last century. It was reformed in 2020, and now it awards other speculative works also, not just science fiction. Also in 2020, a new category was introduced to acknowledge the work of translators.

 A professional jury will select the winners in each category. The award will be presented on April 20.

NOVELS

• Kondor Vilmos: Második magyar köztársaság (Open Books) [Second Hungarian Republic]
• Lőrinczy Judit: Az utolsó tanú (GABO Kiadó) [The Last Witness]
• Moskát Anita: Szerződési szabadság (A hazugság tézisei, GABO Kiadó) [Contractual Freedom]

SHORT STORIES

• Gaura Ágnes: Ha elég mélyre nyúlsz (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2022, GABO Kiadó) [“If You Reach Deep Enough”]
• Kiss Gabriella: Hétszerte (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2022, GABO Kiadó) [“Sevenfold”]
• László Zoltán: Ördöglakat (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2022, GABO Kiadó) [“Devil’s Lock”]
• Moskát Anita: Fekete monitor (A hazugság tézisei, GABO Kiadó) [“Black Monitor”]
• Veres Attila: Tranzisztor (A valóság helyreállítása, Agave Könyvek) [“Transistor”]

BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL

• Kim Stanley Robinson: A Jövő Minisztériuma (Translated by Farkas Veronika, Agave Könyvek) [The Ministry for the Future]
• John Scalzi: A Kaidzsú Állatvédő Társaság (Translated by Rusznyák Csaba, Agave Könyvek) [The Kaiju Preservation Society]
• Jeff VanderMeer: Kolibri szalamandra (Translated by Kleinheincz Csilla, Agave Könyvek) [Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel]

[Thanks to Bence Pintér for the story and title translations.]

The winners of the Zsoldos Péter Award for 2022 were announced April 20.

The juried award was established in 1997 to preserve the memory of Zsoldos Péter, the most prominent Hungarian science fiction writer of the last century.

BEST NOVEL

• Baráth Katalin: Afázia (Agave Könyvek)

In accomplished crime writer Katalin Baráth’s first science fiction novel after the destruction of Earth the Solar System is in a Cold War. The two sides are empires, one capitalist (Democracy), one communist (Network Empire), but both of them forgot to use language and communicate the way we do now. Instead, they use visual feeds.

Enter the Moyers, a tiny nation of formidable warriors descended from Hungarian survivors of the Earth’s destruction, who preserved their literature and spoken language… A language, which affects citizens of the two empires as a drug, so they are bound to subdue and use them against the other side.

As the two empires prepare for war, the Moyers have to navigate between them to protect their independence. They send a genetically manipulated asexual supersoldier, and a burned-out spy to retrieve a superweapon created by the Founding Father of their colony, before their enemies can find it.

Baráth’s work is a highly inventive novel, which is using the best classic sci-fi, cyberpunk and space opera tropes to explore and criticise Hungarian ideas about our place in the world.

BEST SHORT STORY

• Juhász Viktor: Az Eigengrau (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2021, GABO Könyvkiadó)

“Az Eigengrau” is a maze-like story about labyrinths, set in a prison colony at the edge of the known world, where an authoritarian city-state sends its disgraced sorcerers. These once mighty servants of the state, who used to uphold the law, now trawl the still lethal, magically active battlefields for ancient weapons of war. The story focuses on one of the convicts – deprived of his shadow and his powers – and the state agent sent to fetch him, as their pursuit on the borderland leads to places where identity, topography and time is broken and blurred.

BEST TRANSLATION

• William Gibson: Neuromancer (translated by Farkas Veronika, Agave Könyvek)

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER

• Baráth Katalin: Afázia (Agave Könyvek)

[Thanks to Bence Pintér for the story synopses.]

The finalists for the Zsoldos Péter Award for 2022 were announced February 16.

The award was established in 1997 to preserve the memory of Zsoldos Péter, the most prominent Hungarian science fiction writer of the last century. It was reformed in 2020, and now it awards other speculative works also, not just science fiction. Also in 2020, a new category was introduced to acknowledge the work of translators.

 A professional jury will select the winners in each category. The award will be presented on April 20.

2022 FINALISTS

BEST NOVEL

• Baráth Katalin: Afázia (Agave Könyvek)
• László Zoltán: Mindig egyre több (GABO Könyvkiadó)
• Sepsi László: Termotestek (Jelenkor)

BEST SHORT STORY

• Erdei Lilla: Vadhús (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2021, GABO Könyvkiadó)
• Füzesi Dóra: Amobász (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2021, GABO Könyvkiadó)
• Juhász Viktor: Az Eigengrau (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2021, GABO Könyvkiadó)
• Kleinheincz Csilla: Növényeknek mondotta el (Spekulatív Zóna)
• Kiss Gabriella: Túlélok (Légszomj, GABO Könyvkiadó)
• László Zoltán: Hullámsodrok (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2021, GABO Könyvkiadó)
• Moskát Anita: Istenanyák (Prae magazin, 2020/4.)

BEST TRANSLATION

• Margaret Atwood: Legvégül a szív [The Heart Goes Last] (translated by Csonka Ágnes, Jelenkor)
• Octavia E. Butler: A magveto példázata [The Parable of the Sower](translated by Huszár András, Agave Könyvek)
• William Gibson: Neuromancer (translated by Farkas Veronika, Agave Könyvek)

Editor’s note: WordPress does not support the Hungarian letter o with a double acute accent above itself, therefore, in the four instances where it should appear above, the character has been replaced with a Latin o.

[Thanks to Bence Pintér for the story.]