Arthir C Clarke Awards Shortlist 2025
The shortlist for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award has been announced. I didn’t manage to read all of the books on it last year (though I didn’t make any serious attempt to, either), but I’ll admit I wasn’t particularly wowed by those that I did read. For that reason I haven’t been deliberately keeping track of this year’s awards, but when I got the email about the list coming out I figured I should take a look at what’s on it. Here’s what the shortlist looks like this year:
- Private Rites by Julia Armfield
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- Extremophile by Ian Green
- Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
- Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf
I’ve already read The Ministry of Time, and my memory of it is that I enjoyed it a lot at the beginning and then liked it less and less as I progressed through it. I haven’t yet read anything else on the list, though, and most of them are books I don’t know anything about. I’m familiar with Tchaikovsky’s work but haven’t read Service Model yet, and Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under The Sea has been on my TBR for over a year, but I’m not familiar with Private Rites or the other authors on the list.
After a quick perusal of the books on the list, here’s how I’m feeling about them at the moment:
Private Rites actually sounds more like my sort of thing than Our Wives Under The Sea, which is already a book I’ve really been looking forward to reading despite having never managed to make time for yet. I’ve been really enjoying climate fiction over the past few years and this sounds like a brooding, quiet family thriller that I expect I’ll probably love.
Extremophile sounds like the sort of book I’ll either absolutely adore or hate within 20 pages, with no middle ground, and I’m always excited to pick one of those up and see which way it falls.
Annie Bot just doesn’t sound like it’s for me, unfortunately. Nothing really appeals to me about it at all. Similarly, Service Model doesn’t really appeal, and the only reason I’d pick it up is that I know I like Tchaikovsky’s work. In general, robot fiction that explores the ethics and complications of intelligent and self-aware robotics is a hard sell for me, and both of these books seem to be playing in that pool.
Finally, Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock could go either way for me. It’s an interesting pitch but not one that grabs me immediately. I think if it's more of a thriller than a clone book I might like it.
I like that the Clarke awards often seem to highlight books that don’t show up on other awards lists, but I also feel like they often pick things that don’t really align with my tastes. I’m definitely going to try and make time for Private Rites and Extremophile at some point, though.