Locus Awards 2011 Winners

The winners of the 2011 Locus Awards have been announced:

Best Science Fiction Novel

Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis

• Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks
• Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Zero History, William Gibson
• The Dervish House, Ian McDonald

Best Fantasy Novel

Kraken, China Miéville

• Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay
• Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor
• The Fuller Memorandum, Charles Stross
• The Sorcerer’s House, Gene Wolfe

SF and the Gender Divide

Following on from the Guardian SF&F special in May there has been a lot of debate on the blogosphere regarding the gender divide in science fiction, exemplified by this article on the SFWA website by Cheryl Morgan.

In response to the British Library’s summer exhibition: “Out of this World”, which celebrates science fiction right back to its earliest incarnations, the Guardian asked a number of prominent SF&F authors (mostly male) to nominate their all-time favourite SF. Nearly all the men and most of the women picked male authors. Nicola Griffith on her website did some maths and found that females accounted for only 4% of these recommendations.

Do women really write so little good SF? Is there a male conspiracy at work? Are we as a book group contributing to gender inequality?

Matt Smith to return for new Doctor Who series

Matt Smith has signed on to appear in a new series of Doctor Who, the BBC has confirmed.