P.K. Dick Award Nominee Reviews

Norwescon Webmonkeys
Wed, 17 Jan 2018 18:00:57 +0000
Blog, Norwescon 41, Philip K. Dick Awards

Curious about this year’s slate of Philip K. Dick Award nominees? The Barnes and Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog has reviews for each of the nominated books.

The Philip K. Dick Award has long been my favorite genre honor that isn’t the Hugo or Nebula. If the “big two” are analogous to the People’s Choice Awards and the Oscars, respectively, think of the PKD as a sort of Independent Spirit Award—eligible works are original novels published first in paperback within the prior calendar year. Though the economics of publishing are ever in flux, “paperback originals” are often when new movements in sci-fi get their start (William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which pushed cyberpunk into the mainstream, won the PKD is 1984) and new authors are free to write crazy ambitious books (Richard K. Morgan’s PDK-winning debut Altered Carbon won in 2002; next month Netflix launches it as a major new TV series).

The list of nominees for this year’s award is no less exciting, spanning the breadth of what sci-fi can do, from a locked room mystery set on a spaceship filled with clones to a contemporary answer to the dystopia of The Handmaid’s Tale. Below is the full list, and you’d do well to sample all of them before the winner is announced on March 30. With such a diverse array of ideas and subgenres on display, you may not love them all, but they all will challenge you to expand your horizons and consider new ideas.

Take a gander at the nominated works, read one or two (or all seven), and join us at the awards ceremony at Norwescon 41 on March 30!