Also in the last little while, the 2012 James Tiptree Jr Award, for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender, was announced. Here's the winners and honor list, with links to SH reviews where available:
Winners
- The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan (review by Niall Alexander)
- Ancient, Ancient by Kiini Ibura Salaam (review by Richard Larson)
Honor List
- Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
- Rituals by Roz Kaveney (review by Sarah Frost)
- Up Against It by M.J. Locke
- 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (review by Ernest J. Yanarella; review by L. Timmel Duchamp)
- Jagganath by Karin Tidbeck (review by Indrapramit Das)
- Firebrand by Ankaret Wells
- "The Receptionist" by Lesley Wheeler (review by Sally Rosen Kindred)
I've read both winners, and the Kaveney, Robinson and Tidbeck books besides, which I think is the most I've ever managed of a Tiptree list pre-announcement, and just about qualifies me to say that this strikes me as a very strong year. Were it entirely up to me I'd have bumped The Drowning Girl down to the Honor List and given the award to Ancient, Ancient alone, because it really is an excellent collection; but on balance all of the works I've read seem to me to deserve their recognition. (That said, Vandana Singh has an important critique of 2312 here, that I'm going to come back to in a separate post.)