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Thompson wins Arthur C Clarke Prize for Rosewater
Tade Thompson has won the Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction with his novel Rosewater (Orbit).
His book, a twisty tale of alien invasion, was crowned the winner at a ceremony in Foyles, Charing Cross Road, on 17th July. He received a commemorative engraved bookend and prize money of £2,019.
Rosewater saw off competition from Semiosis by Sue Burke (HarperVoyager), Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee (REBCA), Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (Oneworld), The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag (Simon & Schuster) and The Loosening Skin (Unsung Stories) by Aliya Whiteley.
Dr Andrew M Butler, who represented the Arthur C Clarke Award in a non-voting role as the chair of judges, said it had been an “incredibly close” contest this year.
He said: “Alien invasion is always a political subject, and Tade Thompson's debut novel Rosewater expertly explores the nature of the alien, global power structures and pervasive technologies with a winning combination of science fictional invention, gritty plotting and sly wit.”
The award, originally established with a grant from the author, is presented for the best science fiction novel of the year, and selected from a list of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year.
