2015 PLANETARY AWARDS NOMINATIONS

 

 

Thanks to Planetary Defense Command I discovered this call for bloggers (and also podcasters and booktubers) to nominate their favorite science-fiction and fantasy book published in 2015.

HERE you will find all the necessary information: you’re still in time to vote! The Awards require we nominate three categories:

1) Shorter story (under 40,000 words/160 paperback pages)
2) Traditionally published novel
3) Small press / self-published novel

My thanks to Planetary Defense Command for this opportunity to list my 2015 favorite reads!

And here are my choices.

For Shorter Story, SLOW BULLETS by Alastair Reynolds: this author usually deals with wide-spanning galactic civilizations, but here he keeps his focus tighter on a group of people who find themselves marooned in space – and time – through an accident that might be sabotage as well. I enjoyed the fascinating characters and the more intimate depiction of their psychology.

For Traditionally Published Novel I had no doubts: my vote goes to LUNA, NEW MOON by Ian McDonald. It’s a rich, multi-faceted tale of the civilization created on our Moon by the colonists who came to live there, choosing for themselves and their children the forced exile due to the physiological changes brought on my micro-gravity. It’s also the compelling story of those who made their fortune on the Moon, and the way they wage war on each other to conquer or maintain supremacy.

And for Small Press/Self-Published Novel, again I had no doubts: THE LOST MASK by Ashley Capes. The second volume in the Bone Mask Trilogy, it’s fantasy set in a very intriguing world, in which bone masks have a life of their own and confer power to their wearer – but sometimes exact a terrible price.  It’s a complex, many-layered world that draws you in through interesting characters and different narrative threads that keep the pace lively and compelling, bringing the background to full life under your eyes. Highly recommended.

Good luck to everyone!