Aurealis Awards

Although the editors of Aurealis hoped the Aurealis Awards would grow in significance and stature as they moved into their second year, the interest level shown has far exceeded our expections. HarperCollins published a new edition of last year’s dual Fantasy and Young Adult winner, Garth Nix’s Sabriel, loudly proclaiming on the title page that it was an Aurealis Award winner. Other winners have used the Award in their publicity, and the editors of Aurealis lost count as to the number of times the Aurealis Awards were mentioned in major newspapers and magazines. We are pleased to have achieved our main aim of promoting Australian SF, fantasy and horror writing. The Awards short lists have provided a recommended reading list for anyone interested in Australian speculative fiction. All of this depends on the integrity of the Awards, which in turn depends on the quality of the judges. The judges in the 1996 Awards were once again outstanding and Chimaera Publications would like to thank them for their support.

Division A: Science Fiction

Best Novel

• Winner: Metal Fatigue by Sean Williams (HarperCollins)
• Privateer by Simon Brown (HarperCollins)
• Map of Power by Tess Williams (Random/Arrow)

Best Short Story

• Winner: “Borderline" by Leanne Frahm (Borderline, MirrorDanse)
• “The Mark of Thetis" by Simon Brown (Eidolon #21)
• “The Ichneumon and the Dormeuse" by Terry Dowling (Interzone #106)
• “His Own, The Star Alphecca" by Terry Dowling (Eidolon #20)
• “The Embargo Traders" by Geoffrey Maloney (Aurealis #16)

Judges: Van Ikin, Alan Stewart, Michael Tolley

Division B: Fantasy

Best Novel

• Joint Winner: The Memory Cathedral by Jack Dann (Bantam)
• Joint Winner: Enchanter and Starman: The Axis Trilogy by Sara Douglass (HarperCollins)
• The Price of Wisdom by Shannah Jay (Pan Macmillan)
• Cairo Jim and the Alabastron of Forgotten Gods by Geoffrey McSkimming (Hodder Headline/Starlight)
• Equinox: The Second Book of Ascension by Dirk Strasser (Pan Macmillan)

Best Short Story

• Winner: "The Sword of God" by Russell Blackford (Dream Weavers, Penguin)
• "Green Monkey Dreams" by Isobelle Carmody (Green Monkey Dreams, Penguin/Viking)
• "Tattoo" by Matthew Condon (Original Sin, University of Queensland Press)
• "Of Fingers and Foreskins" Sara Douglass (Eidolon #21)
• "Our Swimmer" by Tim Richards (Letters to Francesca, Allen & Unwin)

Judges: Gayle Lovett, Peter McNamara, Peter Nicholls

Division C: Horror

Best Novel

No Award

Best Short Story

• Winner: "Passing the Bone" by Sean Williams (Eidolon #20)
• "Never Seen by Waking Eyes" by Stephen Dedman (Fantasy & Science Fiction August 1996)
• "Beckoning Nightframe" by Terry Dowling (Eidolon #22/23)
• "The Bloom of Decay" by Patricia MacCormack (Bloodsongs #7)
• "The Hanging People" by Kaaron Warren (Bloodsongs #7)

Judges: Chris A Masters, Steve Proposch, Rod Williams

Division D: Young Adult

Best Novel

• Joint Winner: Mirror, Mirror by Hillary Bell (Hodder Headline)
• Joint Winner: The Broken Wheel by Kerry Greenwood (HarperCollins)
• Beyond the Hanging Wall by Sara Douglass (Hodder Headline)
• Firedancer by Victor Kelleher: (Penguin)
• The Mask of Caliban by Michael Pryor (Hodder Headline)

Best Short Story

• Winner: "Green Monkey Dreams" by Isobelle Carmody (Green Monkey Dreams, Penguin/Viking)
• The Wizard and Me by Dave Luckett (Omnibus Books)
• The Pipe by James Moloney (Lothian Books)
• "B’ku, B’ku" by Gillian Rubenstein (Annie’s Brother’s Suit, Hyland House)
• "At the Edge of the Sea" by Keith Taylor (Dreamweavers, Penguin)

Judges: Race Matthews, Sean McMullen, Jenny Pausacker

1996 Aurealis Awards Judges’ Reports

Science Fiction

1996 was a year which saw no new novels from the most established names in Australian science fiction: the field was contested between relative newcomers. The judges admired the breathtaking inventiveness of Metal Fatigue and the subtle characterisation of Map of Power, commending both novels for their portrayal of the tensions and conflicts of future societies. Privateer was shortlisted for its sustained pace and mastery of the action-adventure mode. It was a good year for short fiction, with the panel having to work hard to bring its short list down to five. The shortlisted stories were impressive in both ideas and style, and bespeak an exciting future for Australian short SF. The winner – Leanne Frahm’s "Borderline", from her Borderline collection – is a particularly marvellous, magical piece of writing, proving the richness of the short story form in the way it uses a tale of encounter with the unknown to explore generational differences between characters against an evocative background of the Queensland landscape and lifestyle.

Fantasy

The judges were much struck by both the quality and the quantity of eligible books in the long fiction section. Around 25 books were considered here, though a number were rejected as ineligible. Fantasy has always been a somewhat elusive category, shading off in the margins into SF, horror, and even surrealism and magic realism. We rejected, for example, Janette Turner Hospital’s fine novel Oyster as being not quite centrally enough fantasy, and resisted the temptation to include Linda Jaivin’s erotic SF satire Rock'n'Roll Babes From Outer Space. Most titles we did include were hardcore genre fantasy, but not all. We were unable to separate Jack Dann’s beautifully written historical fantasia The Memory Cathedral from the Sara Douglass trilogy; it was like comparing apples and oranges. The two winning Douglass books are parts two and three of The Axis Trilogy, which unlike many trilogies reads very much as a unified novel. Had the judges been able, they would have cited the entire trilogy as a "single" work, but the first book, Battleaxe, is a 1995 title, was shortlisted for the 1995 Aurealis Awards, and is therefore ineligible this year. Of the Douglass trilogy, which is heroic fantasy, one judge commented "easily the best ‘epic’ I’ve seen come out of this country, and comparable with the best internationally", and another, "a wonderfully quirky and intelligent romp". Jack Dann’s book is set in an alternative renaissance Italy in which Leonardo da Vinci successfully invents a flying machine; the judges reviewed the US edition, but an Australian edition is coming out from HarperCollins in March 1997. Dann is a US-born writer, now (and for some years) resident in Australia, and married to an Australian. We deliberately excluded Sara Douglass’ excellent novel Beyond the Hanging Wall from the shortlist, because it seemed pointless to have her competing against herself.

By contrast, the short fiction section was rather limp, though we looked at many magazines and ten or twelve anthologies and collections. The top three or four stories were great, but the standard fell right off very quickly. We suspect that the semi-collapse of the magazine markets means that many apprentice fantasy writers now start off with novels (usually short, usually published as for young adults), which would help explain the density of interesting fantasy in the young adult area of the novel section. Cairo Jim and the Alabastron of Forgotten Gods was merely and marginally the most entertaining of around ten rather good young adult titles we could have chosen, the un-shortlisted works including interesting pieces from Emily Rodda, Sue Isle, Louise Katz, Sophie Masson and pre-eminently Kerry Greenwood (who we decided wrote SF not fantasy, but it was a close call). Blackford’s story, set in Asia Minor, is an absolute model of what you could almost call "postmodernist Conan", and wonderfully professional in both research and execution. He should write fiction more often, but has spent the last eight years being a high-level industrial advocate and also finishing (part-time) a law degree, which doesn’t leave much time. The story that placed a very close second is Tim Richards’ "Our Swimmer", one of the linked short stories in Letters to Francesca, a startlingly original, witty and weird collection whose subject, roughly, is the surrealism of the suburbs. The book is highly recommended. We will be astonished if all three winning works do not appear in US or UK editions shortly (one already has), since all are among the very best the whole English-speaking world had to offer in 1996.

Horror

In terms of the quality and volume of material printed, 1996 was a miserable year for Australian horror fiction. The poor standard of the few "straight" horror novels published was coupled with a sharp drop in the number of short stories that appeared. It is not surprising then that publishers had trouble supplying the panel with locally produced horror fiction; unlike the SF and fantasy genres, there still is no recognisable clan of regular Australian horror writers which local publishers can suggest as candidates for awards such as this one. With that in mind, it is easy to see why a "No Award" was given for the Best Horror Novel category. After reading the material published under the horror label, we found that almost all of it was poorly written and trashy. In fact, no book marketed as Horror, such as G.M. Hague’s third opus Voices of Evil and James Tatham’s The Evil Seed of the Father, was worth including in our final list. Others were considered only because some of their content was either violent (Strange Rain), supernatural (The Scarlet Rider) or macabre and psychotic (Dim, Storyman). Even though we agreed that the writing in a few of these books was exemplary, a "No Award" seemed appropriate due to the lack of a clear-cut favourite that was also squarely a horror novel.

Gathering a set of eligible short horror stories was marginally easier, although the complete list barely numbered a dozen thanks to the delivery of only one issue of Bloodsongs, among other factors. Carmel Bird and Isobelle Carmody were both rumoured to have horrific pieces in collections published this year, but copies of these could not be secured in time; other eligible stories are sure to be lurking in obscure places. Screams was the only mass-market anthology containing adult horror stories published in 1996. Sadly, every one of these "erotic" horror tales was little more than an overblown Penthouse Forum letter with gory supernatural elements chucked in for flavouring. Of the stories short-listed, Sean Williams’ "Passing the Bone" was the only clear-cut favourite. Without it, a "No Award" would have eventuated for this category as well, despite strong entries from Stephen Dedman and Terry Dowling.

Young Adult

The novel category proved very difficult this year, as the field was very even and there were several good works that narrowly missed inclusion on the shortlist. The judges were obliged to exclude Carmody’s Green Monkey Dreams, given that it is a collection of short stories rather than a novel, but we felt that its structure, cross references and recurring themes entitled it to be considered as a unified whole and we recommend that in future consideration be given to including collections of short stories by a single author in this category. Bell’s Mirror, Mirror is a novelisation of a TV series, but was felt to come across well as a novel, the judges commenting on its "sparkle", "romance" and "poignancy". However Greenwood’s The Broken Wheel also impressed the judges in terms of literary style and structure, and when extensive discussions failed to break the deadlock a tie was eventually agreed upon.

In the short story category, the judges confined their deliberations to each author’s best story first published in 1996. The standard of the finalists’ works was high, but Carmody’s "Green Monkey Dreams" was a clear overall winner across the judges’ criteria of originality, vitality, literary style and genre content. Luckett’s "The Wizard and Me" was a strong contender in terms of sheer originality and vitality, however, and deserves an honourable mention.