Charnock wins 2018 Arthur C Clarke Award

19 July 2018 Books+Publishing

Anne Charnock’s Dreams Before the Start of Time (Amazon Publishing) has won the 2018 Arthur C Clarke Award for science-fiction, reports the Guardian.

Set in London in 2034, Dreams Before the Start of Time looks at the ethics of genetic screening, and the science of prenatal genetic engineering, in an era where infertility has been eradicated and artificial wombs have become the preferred method of gestation. The novel examines the reproductive decisions of several characters in the same group of families, over multiple generations.

Chair of judges Andrew M Butler called the novel, ‘a delightfully rich but unshowy intergenerational novel that demands rereading’.

Award director Tom Hunter said, ‘Charnock’s multi-generational vision of expanding human reproductive technologies is smart, science-literate fiction that embraces the challenge of humanising big ethical questions, and succeeds by exploring possible future scenarios that feel utterly real.’

Dreams Before the Start of Time was chosen from a shortlist of six, including Sea of Rust (C Robert Cargill, Gollancz), American War (Omar El Akkad, Picador), Spaceman of Bohemia (Jaroslav Kalfar, Sceptre), Gather the Daughters (Jennie Melamed, Tinder Press) and Borne (Jeff VanderMeer, Fourth Estate).

The novel wins £2018 (A$3556)—the prize money is adjusted annually to match the year. The Arthur C Clarke Award is presented annually for the best science-fiction novel published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

Category: Awards International news