Aurealis Awards 2018 finalists announced

The finalists for the 2018 Aurealis Awards, presented for science fiction, fantasy and horror writing in Australia, have been announced.

The finalists are:

Best science fiction novel

• Scales of Empire (Kylie Chan, Voyager)
• Obsidio (Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, A&U)
• Lifel1k3 (Jay Kristoff, A&U)
• Dyschronia (Jennifer Mills, Picador)
• A Superior Spectre (Angela Meyer, Ventura Press)
• The Second Cure (Margaret Morgan, Vintage)

Best fantasy novel

• Devouring Dark (Alan Baxter, Grey Matter Press)
• Lady Helen and the Dark Days Deceit (Alison Goodman, HarperCollins)
• City of Lies (Sam Hawke, Bantam)
• Lightning Tracks (Alethea Kinsela, Plainspeak Publishing)
• The Witch Who Courted Death (Maria Lewis, Piatkus)
• We Ride the Storm (Devin Madson, self-published)

Best horror novel

• The Bus on Thursday (Shirley Barrett, A&U)
• Years of the Wolf (Craig Cormick, IFWG Publishing Australia)
• Tide of Stone (Kaaron Warren, Omnium Gatherum)

Best graphic novel/illustrated work

• Deathship Jenny (Rob O’Connor, self-published)
• Cicada (Shaun Tan, Lothian)
• Tales from The Inner City (Shaun Tan, A&U)

Best children’s fiction

• The Relic of the Blue Dragon (Rebecca Lim, A&U)
• The Slightly Alarming Tales of the Whispering Wars (Jaclyn Moriarty, A&U)
• The Endsister (Penni Russon, A&U)
• Secret Guardians (Lian Tanner, A&U)
• Ting Ting the Ghosthunter (Gabrielle Wang, Puffin)
• Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt (Rhiannon Williams, Hardie Grant Egmont)

Best young adult novel

• Small Spaces (Sarah Epstein, Walker)
• Lifel1k3 (Jay Kristoff, A&U)
• Catching Teller Crow (Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina, A&U)
• His Name was Walter (Emily Rodda, HarperCollins)
• A Curse of Ash and Embers (Jo Spurrier, Voyager)
• Impostors (Scott Westerfeld, A&U)

Best collection

• Not Quite the End of the World Just Yet (Peter M Ball, Brain Jar Press)
• Phantom Limbs (Margo Lanagan, PS Publishing)
• Tales from The Inner City (Shaun Tan, A&U)
• Exploring Dark Short Fiction #2: A Primer to Kaaron Warren (Kaaron Warren, Dark Moon Books)

Best anthology

• Sword and Sonnet (Aiden Doyle, Rachael K Jones & E Catherine Tobler, Ate Bit Bear)
• Aurum (Russell B Farr, Ticonderoga Publications)
• Mother of Invention (Rivqa Rafael & Tansy Rayner Roberts, Twelfth Planet Press)
• Infinity’s End (Jonathan Strahan, Solaris)
• The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year (Jonathan Strahan, Solaris)

Best science fiction novella

• ‘I Almost Went To The Library Last Night’ (Joanne Anderton, Aurum, Ticonderoga Publications)
• The Starling Requiem (Jodi Cleghorn, eMergent Publishing)
• Icefall (Stephanie Gunn, Twelfth Planet Press)
• ‘Pinion’ (Stephanie Gunn, Aurum, Ticonderoga Publications)
• ‘Singles’ Day’ (Samantha Murray, Interzone #277, TTA Press)
• Static Ruin (Corey J White, Tor.com)

Best science fiction short story

• ‘The Sixes, The Wisdom and the Wasp’ (E J Delaney, Escape Pod)
• ‘The Fallen’ (Pamela Jeffs, Red Hour, Four Ink Press)
• ‘On the Consequences of Clinically-Inhibited Maturation in the Common Sydney Octopus’ (Simon Petrie & Edwina Harvey, A Hand of Knaves, CSFG)
• ‘A Fair Wind off Baracoa’ (Robert Porteous, A Hand of Knaves, CSFG)
• ‘The Astronaut’ (Jen White, Aurealis)

Best fantasy novella

• ‘This Side of the Wall’ (Michael Gardner, Metaphorosis Magazine, January 2018)
• ‘Beautiful’ (Juliet Marillier, Aurum, Ticonderoga Publications)
• ‘The Staff in the Stone’ (Garth Nix, The Book of Magic, Voyager)
• Merry Happy Valkyrie (Tansy Rayner Roberts, Twelfth Planet Press)
• ‘The Dressmaker and the Colonel’s Coat’ (David Versace, Mnemo’s Memory and Other Fantastic Tales, self-published)
• The Dragon’s Child (Janeen Webb, PS Publishing)

Best fantasy short story

• ‘Crying Demon’ (Alan Baxter, Suspended in Dusk 2, Grey Matter Press)
• ‘Army Men’ (Juliet Marillier, Of Gods and Globes, Lancelot Schaubert)
• ‘The Further Shore’ (J Ashley Smith, Bourbon Penn #15)
• ‘Child of the Emptyness’ (Amanda J Spedding, Grimdark Magazine #17)
• ‘A Moment’s Peace’ (Dave Versace, A Hand of Knaves, CSFG Publishing)
• ‘Heartwood, Sapwood, Spring’ (Suzanne J Willis, Sword and Sonnet, Ate Bit Bear)

Best horror novella

• ‘Andromeda Ascends’ (Matthew R Davis, Beneath the Waves – Tales from the Deep, Things In The Well)
• ‘Kopura Rising’ (David Kuraria, Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud, IFWG Publishing Australia)
• ‘The Black Sea’ (Chris Mason, Beneath the Waves – Tales from the Deep, Things In The Well)
• Triquetra (Kirstyn McDermott, Tor.com)
• ‘With This Needle I Thee Thread’ (Angela Rega, Aurum, Ticonderoga Publications)
• Crisis Apparition (Kaaron Warren, Dark Moon Books)

Best horror short story

• ‘The Offering’ (Michael Gardner, Aurealis #112)
• ‘Slither’ (Jason Nahrung, Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2, IFWG Publishing Australia)
• ‘By Kindle Light’ (Jessica Nelson-Tyers, Antipodean SF #235)
• ‘Hit and Rot’ (Jessica Nelson-Tyers, Breach #08)
• ‘Sub-Urban’ (Alfie Simpson, Breach #07)
• ‘The Further Shore’ (J Ashley Smith, Bourbon Penn #15)

Best young adult short story

• ‘A Robot Like Me’ (Lee Cope, Mother of Invention, Twelfth Planet Press)
• ‘The Moon Collector’ (D K Mok, Under the Full Moon’s Light, Owl Hollow Press)
• ‘The Sea-Maker of Darmid Bay’ (Shauna O’Meara, Interzone #277, TTA Press)
• ‘Eight-Step Koan’ (Anya Ow, Sword and Sonnet, Ate Bit Bear)
• ‘For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights’ (Deborah Sheldon, Breach #08).

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 4 May in Melbourne.

To see the winners of last year’s Aurealis Awards, click here.

Tags: Aurealis Awardsfantasyhorrorscience-fiction

Category: Awards Local news