The 32 Best Arthur C. Clarke Award-Winning Novels

Four decades of jury picks, ranging from slim cult oddities to doorstop epics and literary crossovers. Some aged into classics; others deserve a second look.

1. 1
   Black Man

   Richard K. Morgan's 2007 thriller about a genetically engineered enforcer, published in the US as Thirteen; 2008 winner.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The Calcutta Chromosome

   Amitav Ghosh's 1995 medical thriller woven around malaria research in colonial India; 1997 winner.
   897pts
3. 3
   Children of Time

   Adrian Tchaikovsky's 2015 epic of uplifted spiders and humanity's last ark ship; 2016 winner.
   787pts
4. 4
   The Handmaid's Tale

   Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopia about a theocratic regime, the award's first winner in 1987.
   787pts
5. 5
   Synners

   Pat Cadigan's 1991 cyberpunk novel about hackers, music video and direct brain interfaces; 1992 winner.
   787pts
6. 6
   Bold as Love

   Gwyneth Jones's 2001 novel of rock stars running a fractured near-future Britain; 2002 winner.
   787pts
7. 7
   Dreaming in Smoke

   Tricia Sullivan's 1998 novel of a struggling colony linked to an unstable AI; 1999 winner.
   718pts
8. 8
   Song of Time

   Ian R. MacLeod's 2008 memoir of a dying violinist in a future Europe; 2009 winner.
   636pts
9. 9
   Iron Council

   China Miéville's 2004 revolutionary Western set in Bas-Lag; 2005 winner.
   636pts
10. 10
    Annie Bot

    Sierra Greer's 2024 novel narrated by a companion robot learning autonomy; 2025 winner.
    636pts
11. 11
    Unquenchable Fire

    Rachel Pollack's 1988 novel of a mystical modern America where a woman carries a miraculous child; 1989 winner.
    538pts
12. 12
    Take Back Plenty

    Colin Greenland's 1990 space-opera romp following pilot Tabitha Jute; 1991 winner.
    538pts
13. 13
    Zoo City

    Lauren Beukes's 2010 Johannesburg noir where the guilty are bound to animal familiars; 2011 winner.
    538pts
14. 14
    Deep Wheel Orcadia

    Harry Josephine Giles's 2021 verse novel in Orkney dialect set on a space station; 2022 winner.
    538pts
15. 15
    Fairyland

    Paul J. McAuley's 1995 biotech novel of engineered 'dolls' in a fractured Europe; 1996 winner.
    418pts
16. 16
    Perdido Street Station

    China Miéville's 2000 New Weird epic set in the teeming city of New Crobuzon; 2001 winner.
    418pts
17. 17
    Quicksilver

    Neal Stephenson's 2003 sprawling Baroque Cycle opener about Newton-era science; 2004 winner.
    418pts
18. 18
    Dark Eden

    Chris Beckett's 2012 tale of an inbred community on a sunless alien planet; 2013 winner.
    418pts
19. 19
    Ancillary Justice

    Ann Leckie's 2013 debut about a starship AI trapped in a single body, which swept the major awards; 2014 winner.
    418pts
20. 20
    The Old Drift

    Namwali Serpell's 2019 multigenerational Zambian saga that ends in the near future; 2020 winner.
    418pts
21. 21
    The Animals in That Country

    Laura Jean McKay's 2020 novel of a pandemic that lets people understand animals; 2021 winner.
    418pts
22. 22
    Venomous Lumpsucker

    Ned Beauman's 2022 satire of extinction credits and a vanishing fish; 2023 winner.
    418pts
23. 23
    In Ascension

    Martin MacInnes's 2023 novel of a marine biologist drawn from a deep-sea trench to outer space; 2024 winner.
    418pts
24. 24
    Body of Glass

    Marge Piercy's 1991 novel pairing a cyborg guardian with the Golem legend; 1993 winner.
    0pts
25. 25
    Vurt

    Jeff Noon's 1993 hallucinatory Manchester novel of feather-induced dreams; 1994 winner.
    0pts
26. 26
    Distraction

    Bruce Sterling's 1998 satire of a near-future, politically broken America; 2000 winner.
    0pts
27. 27
    Air

    Geoff Ryman's 2004 novel of a remote village facing an internet in the mind; 2006 winner.
    0pts
28. 28
    Nova Swing

    M. John Harrison's 2006 noir set beside a reality-warping zone called the Event Site; 2007 winner.
    0pts
29. 29
    The City & the City

    China Miéville's 2009 murder mystery in two cities sharing one space, his record third win in 2010.
    0pts
30. 30
    Station Eleven

    Emily St. John Mandel's 2014 post-pandemic novel following a travelling Shakespeare troupe; 2015 winner.
    0pts
31. 31
    Rosewater

    Tade Thompson's 2016 Nigerian first-contact thriller around an alien biodome; 2019 winner.
    0pts
32. 32
    When There Are Wolves Again

    E. J. Swift's ecological novel about rewilding and the return of wolves; 2026 winner.
    0pts

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