The winner and runners up of this year’s Crawford Award have been announced. I’m delighted to see that the winner is one of my favourite books of the year: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo.
The Crawford doesn’t have a jury as such. Instead a group of people make recommendations to Gary K Wolfe and he decides on a winner based on what the group says, and on his own reading. What that means is that no one has to read every debut fantasy novel for the year. Many of them are very long. That way lies madness.
Usually I am one of the group of advisors, and that was the case this year. I have linked to my reviews of the winners and runners up below. I hope to catch up with the others soon. I have also provided links for UK readers to buy via Bookshop.org (they might work in the US as well). I have no idea why the Jennings isn’t available.
Winner: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (buy)
Runners up:
- Night Roll, Michael DeLuca (buy)
- Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel, Julian Jarboe (buy)
- Flyaway, Kathleen Jennings
- In Veritas, C.J. LaVigne (buy)
- Beneath the Rising, Premee Mohamed (buy)
Purchases through Bookshop.org help to support independent bookstores and, if made via my links, Wizard’s Tower Press.