• 

• 

• 

By Bence Pintér: The shortlist for this year’s Zsoldos Péter Award was published this week. (Last year’s shortlist was also announced few weeks ago). The Zsoldos Award is Hungary’s oldest sci-fi award, which went through a major reform last year. Formerly it was organized by fans at the Avana Association, but from 2020 the Zsoldos Estate appointed other organizers, there is a new jury (including Hugo Award-winner Bogi Takács!) and new rules – from now on it awards other speculative works also, not just science fiction.

This award has a history, it was established in 1997 to preserve the memory of Péter Zsoldos, the most prominent Hungarian science fiction writer of the last century, but it was always riddled with controversy, e.g. awarding books that were seen not worthy by the fandom as a whole, or the time when prominent contemporary Hungarian authors withdrew their nominations, but the organizers ignored this and declared one of said authors the winner. 

Now everyone hopes that it is on course to become a serious award at last. The ceremony for the two years’ winners will be on 20th April – online or in person, depending on the COVID situation. (The former organizer Avana Association also started its own award this year, the Monolith Award.)

Regények / Novels

• Juhász Roland (R. J. Hendon): Gyomláló (Fonix Astra)
• Markovics Botond (Brandon Hackett): Eldobható testek (Agave Könyvek)
• Waldman Szabolcs (Michael Walden): Csillagikrek (Metropolis Media)

Novellák / Short Stories

• Kiss Gabriella: Egy férfi belépett a bárba (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2020 GABO)
• Körmendi Ágnes: A konzul nyolcadik lelke (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2020, GABO)
• László Zoltán: Kimen?oldal (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2020, GABO)
• Nagy Roxána: Kicevice (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2020, GABO)
• Radics Roland: A másik (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2020, GABO)
• Veres Attila: A világ helyreállítása (Az év magyar science fiction és fantasynovellái 2020, GABO)

Fordítások / Translations

• Lily Brooks-Dalton: Az éjféli égbolt (Good Morning Midnight, Translated by Farkas Veronika; Agave Könyvek)
• Susanna Clarke: Piranesi (Piranesi, Translated by Molnár Berta Eleonóra; Agave Könyvek)
• R. F. Kuang: Sárkányköztársaság (The Dragon Republic, Translated by Ballai Mária; Agave Könyvek)

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