Children of Time wins Arthur C Clarke award

British writer Adrian Tchaikovsky has won the Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction for his novel Children of Time (Pan Macmillan).

In Children of Time, the remnants of humanity leave a dying Earth for a terraformed new planet, only to discover that the world is now occupied by a new species.

Tom Hunter, director of the award, said: “[Children of Time] has a universal scale and sense of wonder reminiscent of Clarke himself, combined with one of the best science fictional extrapolations of a not-so-alien species and their evolving society [that] I’ve ever read.”

Andrew M Butler, chair of the judging panel, added: “Children of Time tells two parallel stories of the last survivors of Earth and the inhabitants of a terraformed planet. It takes the reader’s sympathies and phobias, and plays with them masterfully on an epic and yet human scale.”

The other works shortlisted for the award were Nnedi Okorafor’s The Book of Phoenix (Hodder), Iain Pears’ Arcadia (Faber), Dave Hutchinson’s Europe at Midnight (Solaris), J.P. Smythe’s Way Down Dark (Hodder), and Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Hodder).

Tchaikovsky was awarded a prize of £2,016 at an event in London last night.

Last year's prize was won by Emily St John Mandel for Station Eleven (Picador).