2015 Campbell Award Shortlist

The finalists for the 2015 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel of the year 2014 have been announced.

The award will be presented at the Campbell Conference, to be held in Lawrence, KS from June 11-14.

Nina Allan The Race Newcon Press
James L. Cambias A Darkling Sea Tor
William Gibson The Peripheral G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Daryl Gregory Afterparty Tor
Dave Hutchinson Europe In Autumn Solaris
Simon Ings Wolves Gollancz
Cixin Liu (Ken Liu, translator) The Three-Body Problem Tor (1st English edition)
Emily St. John Mandel Station Eleven Knopf
Will McIntosh Defenders Orbit
Claire North The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Redhook
Laline Paull The Bees Ecco
Adam Roberts Bête Gollancz
John Scalzi Lock In: A Novel of the Near Future Tor
Andy Weir The Martian Broadway Books
Jeff VanderMeer Area X (The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance) FSG Originals
Peter Watts Echopraxia Tor

Update 05/11/2015: Corrected to show all three Jeff VanderMeer novels as finalists collectively.

19 thoughts on “2015 Campbell Award Shortlist

  1. Well – the lack of Leckie is somewhat of a surprise – even though the book really does not stand on its own, I kinda expected to see it in the list.

    I am happy for the nods to Allan, Hutchinson and North – the three novels are very good in very different ways (and had not received enough attention this year – which they do deserve)

  2. Odd, I have more of my nominations on this list than I do the Hugos. Good group of guests too. Of Course, thats also the weekend my wife is out of town and I have both kids….

  3. Snowcrash,

    Your not the only one I suspect. I’m waiting to see how disappointing the movie is….

  4. I love “The Martian,” but given that even the version available now has a 2013 copyright date, how did it get nominated for this award?

  5. Ray Radlein,

    I suspect that this will have something to do with what is considered as “published” under these awards’ rules. For the Hugo the self-publication counts as published; here – it does not seem to.

  6. And as far as 2013 goes, copyright date isn’t the same thing as when something was published. I’m guessing The Martian was (traditionally) published in 2014.

  7. This is a pretty good cross-section of works. I will echo AnnieY’s pleasure at seeing Hutchinson, and Allan (I haven’t read the North yet) and would add the Ings and Roberts.

    The only one I have no real familiarity with is the Paull although I have read Gwyneth Jones’s review of the book in the Guardian. Is it worth reading?

  8. I always associated the ‘Campbell award’ with a commendation for the most distinguished new writers–didn’t know about this award. I really like the look of this list. With respect to awards, Adam Roberts is criminally under-recognized in the US. And with Liu squared, vandermeer cubed, daryl Gregory, and many others…that’s a super list.

  9. ok, I’ll bite. How are the nominees of the Campbell Award chosen? It seems like a good idea when short lists are announced that information about how the list was generated and how the winner is selected to be reiterated.

    For example, I am one of the unwashed multitudes of SFF fans who did not realize the Hugo moms were vulnerable to manipulation by slate voting. Is the Campbell a juried award?

    That being said, pretty good list, although I am surprised as well that Ancillary Sword is not there, I am happy about Weir, Liu, and North appearing on the list.

    I really want to want to read Station Eleven but the synopsis drives me away, every time.

  10. Generally this Campbell’s nominee list is not dominated by women. It’s interesting to follow, though, because it has a history of bold decisions like deciding nothing published in a given year is worthy, then giving second place to Robert Silverberg.

  11. “a history of bold decisions like deciding nothing published in a given year is worthy, then giving second place to Robert Silverberg”

    ROFLMAO! I don’t think I knew about that. Wow, that’s pretty interesting.

    Short/long lists are interesting. The Tiptree’s got a different jury each year, with very minimal instruction (literally about a sentence), so sometimes they pick one winner, sometimes two. Sometimes they release a short or long list of other recommendations, and sometimes not. Juries are interesting. The panel at World Fantasy 2014 where several of the jury members talked about the process was interesting, too. /nerd 😉

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