Aurealis Awards Shortlist Announced

It's that time of year when the Aurealis Awards finalists are announced. You can read the official announcement here, and I have reproduced the lists below. The links below go to my reviews where those exist (albeit a little sparse this year). A lot of books already on my TBR and some new ones to add.

(PS If you're interested, the Nebula Award Finalists have also been announced.)

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).