The Tähtivaeltaja Award, given by the Helsinki Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction book published in Finnish in 2012, was announced yesterday. The winner is “The Shadow of the Torturer” (Kiduttajan Varjo) by Gene Wolfe, published by Gummerus and translated by Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo.
The jury praises both the clarity of vision and the literary quality of the book; the far future world encompasses deep philosophical thinking, allegorical storytelling, and visions with great sense of wonder. The whole is original and extremely imaginative. The translation is excellent, and with all the neologisms invented for it manages to support the richness of the original.
The jury consisted of critic Hannu Blommila, editor Toni Jerrman, critic Elli Leppänen, and critic Antti Oikarinen.
The shortlist for the award was:
“Surface Detail” (Pintakuvio) by Iain M. Banks
“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
“Teemestarin kirja” (Memory of Water”) by Emmi Itäranta
“Blue Remembered Earth” (Muistoissa sininen Maa) by Alastair Reynolds
“The Shadow of the Torturer” (Kiduttajan varjo) by Gene Wolfe
© Tero Ykspetäjä
Reposted by Tero Ykspetäjä’s permission from his blog, Partial Recall : http://partialrecall.blogspot.com/ We’re thanking him!
