The Arthur C. Clarke Award is always a fascinating snapshot of genre, and this year is no exception. Two of the books, Dungeon Crawler Carl and There Is No Anti-Memetics Division, were originally published online but both received their first UK edition in the previous calendar year, making them eligible.

It’s really good to see the award embracing new roads to publication like this, and also running headlong at the more popular side of genre fiction right next to the more literary. I can’t speak to Carl, but Anti-Memetics Division is an extraordinary piece of work that I read twice and stayed with me long after finishing both times. It’s not alone either, and here’s a full breakdown of the list, with, thanks to the Clarke Award, bookshop.org links for each one.

Dungeon Crawler Carl – Matt Dinniman (Michael Joseph)

The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend’s cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth – from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds – collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you’re in, you can’t get out. And what’s worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it’s game over. In this game, it’s not about your strength or your dexterity. It’s about your followers, your views. Your clout. It’s about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can’t just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that “it” factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That’s the only way to truly survive in this game – with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it’s anything but a game.

The Dream Hotel – Laila Lalami (Bloomsbury Circus)

Sara is returning home from a conference abroad when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside at the airport. Using data from her dreams, their algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming her husband. For his safety, she must be transferred to a retention centre, and kept under observation for twenty-one days.

But as Sara arrives to be monitored alongside other dangerous dreamers, she discovers that with every deviation from the facility’s strict and ever-shifting rules, their stays can be extended – and that getting home to her family is going to cost much more than just three weeks of good behaviour.

Then, one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Luminous – Silvia Park (Magpie)

Three siblings. Two human, one robot. The spectacular new debut about what it means to be alive.

In a recently reunified Korea, robots have integrated seamlessly into society. They are our teachers, our bus drivers and policemen. They are our lovers. They are even our children.

Eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through scrap metal in a Seoul junkyard, searching for anything that might repair her failing body. There amongst the piles of junk she happens across a robot boy: lifelike, strange and unlike anything she’s seen before.

Across the city, estranged siblings Jun and Morgan Cho haven’t spoken since the abrupt disappearance of their robot brother Yoyo, which shattered their childhoods and left a gaping hole in their lives. But Ruijie’s discovery is about to bring the lives of brother and sister hurtling back together, forcing them to confront the reality of Yoyo’s true nature, and the dark purpose their father never revealed.

At once a dazzling work of speculative fiction and a poignant family drama, Luminous is a timely, unforgettable story about what it really means to be human.

 There Is No Antimemetics Division – qntm (Del Rey)

An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign; but others, less so…

These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you – and you’ll never even know anything changed.

And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading.

But how do you contain something you can’t record or remember? How do you fight against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you’re at war?

WELCOME TO THE ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION

NO, THIS IS NOT YOUR FIRST DAY

When There Are Wolves Again – E.J. Swift (Arcadia)

Decades from now, two women sit beside a campfire and reflect on their life stories.

Activist Lucy’s earliest memories are of living with her grandparents during the 2020 pandemic and discovering her grandmother’s love of birds. Filmmaker Hester was born on the day of the Chornobyl explosion and visits the site years later to film its feral dogs in the Exclusion Zone. Here she meets Lux, the wolf dog who will give her life meaning.

Over half a century, their journeys take them from London to the Highlands to Somerset, through protests, family rifts, and personal tragedy. Lucy joins the fight to restore Britain’s depleted natural habitats and revive the species who once shared the island, whilst Hester strives to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.

Both dream of a time when there are wolves again.

The Salt Oracle – Lorraine Wilson (Solaris)

It’s been seventeen years since the internet crashed and left the world broken…

On the Bellwether, a huge floating college safe from the politics and war of the mainland, Auli is part of a research team studying the Oracle – a strange, uncanny girl who channels dangerous ghosts. The scientists notate everything she says, using her to piece together maps, weather forecasts, and anything else that might make the region’s hazardous waters a little safer for shipping cartels and local fishermen alike.
Auli is horrified when her beloved mentor, Boudain, reveals his scheme to create more human Oracles, seeking to leverage the power of this unique girl into security for the Bellwether and perhaps even a return to a new, warped digital age. The very next day, she finds him dead.

Reluctantly promoted to lead her team, Auli begins an investigation into Boudain’s death. Her scrutiny reveals the corrupt heart of the institute she has dedicated herself to, and as the ghosts and even the very seas around them start to mutate, she is forced to wrestle with a life-changing decision: save the Oracle or save the Bellwether – and all the lives that depend on it.

 This year’s winner will be announced on Wednesday 12th August 2026.

The winner will receive a trophy in the form of a commemorative engraved bookend and prize money to the value of £2026.00; a tradition that sees the annual prize money rise incrementally by year from the year 2001 in memory of Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

Find out more at https://clarkeaward.substack.com/

 

 

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