Talking of Finland, the results of the 2013 Tähtivaeltaja Award were announced on Monday. This is an award for science fiction published in Finnish. The shortlist was as follows:

• Pintakuvio (Surface Detail) by Iain M. Banks
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Teemestarin kirja by Emmi Itäranta
• Muistoissa sininen Maa (Blue Remembered Earth) by Alastair Reynolds
• Kiduttajan varjo (The Shadow of the Torturer) by Gene Wolfe

And the winner is the Gene Wolfe book, Kiduttajan varjo, which was translated by my friend, Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo. You may well be thinking that a Gene Wolfe book has something of an unfair advantage, but bear in mind that most, if not all, of the jury will have read the book in the original English. If Johanna hadn’t done a great job translating it then it would not have won. I’m very happy for her.

By the way, you may have noticed that one of the books on the short list was original in Finnish. Emmi Itäranta’s book has already won a couple of mainstream literary awards in Finland (including a €16,000 prize). It will be published in English as Memory of Water next year.

Further details about the Tähtivaeltaja Award are available from the ever-reliable Tero.