China Miéville wins Arthur C Clarke award

China Miéville has won this year's prestigious Arthur C Clarke award in a ceremony in London on May 11th, with his bnovel The Iron Council. [Via Forbidden Planet]. The official website hasn't been updated yet (and it's stuck in a 1997 timewarp).

This could spark the "but is it Science Fiction?" debate. Isn't The Iron Council fantasy? But then look back at the past winners...

2004 - Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
2003 - The Separation by Christopher Priest
2002 - Bold As Love by Gwyneth Jones
2001 - Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

That's two historical SF and two fantasy. You have to go back to 2000 to when Distraction by Bruce Sterling won for something close to traditional(?) SF, but even that wasn't.

Anyway, I'm not complaining, I like the variation and I've read 8 out of the 19 winners. But somewhere I bet some people are complaining. (On the net someone is always complaining about everything most of the time....)