When this year’s Goodreads Choice awards were first announced I was disappointed to see that the only book by a woman on the science fiction ballot was MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. While it might have been amusing to see Atwood win an award for writing SF, I was pretty sure that there were better books out there. People on Twitter were talking about write-in candidates, but I didn’t think much of their chances. I’m delighted to say that I was wrong.
The semi-final around of voting is now open, and the SF list has expanded to include two very fine books: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord, and Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. I was so pleased that I went and voted. If you have a Goodreads account, you can vote too, here.
By the way, can I just say that I think it is very silly running a Best of the Year poll before the year has ended. The best historical novel of 2013 hasn’t yet been published, though it is out tomorrow in the USA. Look out for it.
Thank you for pointing that out. I had the same reaction to the initial list and hadn’t bothered to go back and look at the current round. I just went through all the categories and was also pleased to see The Shining Girls in the Mystery & Thriller section.