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Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod and published by PS Publishing is the winner of this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award, the UK’s premier prize for science fiction literature.
The announcement was made at the award’s official ceremony held in London, Piccadilly on the evening of Wednesday 29th April at an exclusive event held as part of the opening celebrations of this year’s SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival.
The annual award is presented for best science fiction novel of the year and selected from a list of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year.
This year’s prize was presented by Angie Edwards, Sir Arthur’s niece and Director of Rocket Publishing, and Marek Kukula, Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Speaking after the ceremony, Award Administrator Tom Hunter said:
"I’m absolutely delighted for Ian R. MacLeod that Song of Time was chosen as the winner of this year’s Clarke Award. It was a very strong shortlist this year, with a lot of speculation and debate, so both Ian and Pete Crowther of PS Publishing have every right to be feeling especially proud with this win today.
“The reaction to the announcement has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive, and I’m especially pleased that this year the prize very deservedly went to PS Publishing, who in recent years have proved themselves to be an exemplary example of a boutique small press publisher and a vital cornerstone of the UK’s science fiction community.”
Chair of the Judges Paul Billinger added:
“Set in a near-future England, Song of Time is a rich and subtle novel that couples themes of memory and identity with well crafted and all too human characters. Following the thoughtful reflections of an elderly musician as she contemplates her death (and, as this is the future, what may come next) the novel is infused throughout with the love of music and contains some of the most evocative writing on the subject for many years. This is a well deserved winner and a novel to savour.”
The winner receives a prize of £2009 and a commemorative engraved bookend.
The judging panel for the 2008 Arthur C. Clarke Award were Chris Hill and Ruth O’Reilly for the British Science Fiction Association, Robert Hanks and Rhiannon Lassiter for the Science Fiction Foundation and Pauline Morgan for SF Crowsnest. Paul Billinger represents the Arthur C. Clarke Award as the Chair of Judges.
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