The Coral Bones

"This might sound strange, but I had a feeling this book might be shortlisted even before it was written or I’d ever heard of it. Let me explain: E.J. Swift is a UK author who has been on the Clarke Award radar since she first began her career, and her books have been discussed and praised by many of our previous judging panels. Now, the members of our judging panel change every year so you can never predict exactly how they might make their decisions from one year to the next, but when you’ve been doing this award thing as long as I have, you can sometimes make good on the odd prediction or two. To that end, I’ve long suspected it was only a matter of time until E.J graced our shortlists. When you combine that with this novel being such a powerful evocation of our current global climate crisis, you can see why I might have been on the money just this once. If that’s not enough of a personal recommendation for you, the multiple time periods aspect of this novel you mentioned is one that many people have spoken about in the same way they did with novels such as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (itself a Clarke Award shortlist alum) and I can’t wait to see where E.J. takes us next. Small presses are a vital part of the science fiction ecosystem, and we’re always the poorer for their absence. It’s always a pleasure to see a small press title make the shortlists, and we always work hard to make sure this kind of title is submitted. Unsung Stories exemplified the best of the small press world. Utterly professional, a delight to work with and have brought us not one but two shortlisted authors in recent years: the other being Aliya Whiteley . Cheerleading for small presses is one thing, but of course what they really need is our book-buying. Our shortlists work as recommendations, not definitive statements—no matter how much we believe in them ourselves. Reading is a pleasure, so I would much rather people came to one of two of our shortlisted titles rather than read all six out of a sense of obligation. How then to square the circle of buying books to support the publishing ecosystem and boost more diverse authors, while also pursuing our own individual passions and tastes? First, I’d suggest making a point to seek out new voices as part of your reading diet is only going to lead to more enjoyment and discovery in the long term. One thing I often do is ask for new voices as gifts—I am notorious hard to buy for, so wilfully opening myself up to something new is fun and I’d also suggest that gifting works to others is a great way of spreading the love (and the cash) as part of a bigger signal boost to new writers and imprints. After all, a gift will often be more treasured than something you picked up yourself and just plopped down in your to-be-read pile for ‘later.’"