Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel

"Yes, so, having already mentioned the Booker, this one was also actually nominated for the Booker International Prize. It is a novel in translation, which we haven’t had many of on the shortlists, and actually, it is one of three books on the shortlist this year by a writer of colour. So that’s 50% of our short list, versus 7% in the overall submissions list. Only nine authors in total were writers of colour in our submission list, and I’ve also written about that. That’s not something that we actively … we don’t use quotas or anything like that. But obviously, our judges are very aware of all of the issues around diversity in science fiction. It’s a huge ongoing conversation. The book itself is riffing off one of the progenitor novels of science fiction as a genre, Frankenstein , and some people will say that is the touchstone book, the one that launched it all. Others argue it goes back far further. But, whichever argument you pick, Frankenstein is one of the core early texts of what became science fiction, I think that’s inarguable. And it’s great to see that myth form being re-used in a setting that speaks so immediately about conflict in Baghdad. What a great way to take Shelley’s original tale of hubris and invention and to transform that and refresh it in that setting. “Our judges collectively redefine science fiction every year” It’s fantastic to see all of the shortlist in play against each other, the themes that emerge, the echoing concerns. It’s weird to compare Frankenstein of Baghdad with Revenant Gun , but actually Revenant Gun is all about conflict – a huge galactic empire that rules with its calendars, and the oppression of its entire population – similar themes to Frankenstein of Baghdad in many ways. Not galactic-spanning ones, of course. It’s also a book that’s more on the fantastical side, Frankenstein of Baghdad . So, it’s shared territory with books that have won in the past, like Zoo City , or the books by China Miéville, City & the City , or Perdido Street Station , which a lot of people view as fantasy rather than science fiction. Again, this comes back to our judges and how they collectively define science fiction every year, and what its purpose is. So, this is a book for me that actually has a special place on the list, because it enables us to look so much more broadly at the genre. Yes. Yes. I wasn’t there, so I can’t tell you exactly what was said, but it is the Arthur C Clarke Award and he is a science fiction writer. It was decided to make it an award for science fiction, rather than science fiction and fantasy. Now that obviously that does get very slippery, but the view of it is not to go towards the absolutely fantastical, if you like – the high fantasy, something like Game of Thrones , as a really obvious example. But Star Wars is technically fantasy. There’s no science in Star Wars whatsoever. Well, people argue that point. Technically, people say that’s ‘science fantasy’ if you want to get really taxonomical about it. Many people do. But a lot of people don’t. If you were doing a PhD, you might say, ‘technically, that’s past historical romance, with a soupçon of alternative history, and a dash of contemporary fantasy, as seen through the lens of … blah.’ I’ve mentioned this ‘toolkit’ several times, and that is actually a well-used metaphor in the community: the idea that science fiction as a toolkit. You can take different parts of it, and build different things. So, The Underground Railroad , for example, is built with a very particular element, which is the literalising of a metaphor. So, the underground railway is a railway that goes underground. Through that one move, Colson Whitehead is then able to write a novel about slavery, one step removed. He can talk about all the horror of slavery, in a story that people will find absolutely compelling, rather than worthy, if that makes sense. A novel you’ll actually read, rather than pretend you’ve read. “ Star W ars is technically fantasy. There’s no science in Star Wars whatsoever” And it means he can make the point that he wants to make much more strongly because he controls the world, and it’s just that one side step that he’s done that enables him to write something that doesn’t lessen the message. As Neil Gaiman said, “fiction is the lie that tells the truth.” That’s one element of the toolkit. So Frankenstein in Baghdad is taking that classic science fictional story, making that move, and using it to talk about a very contemporary issue."