Philip K. Dick Award Reading

Norwescon has had the honor of hosting the Philip K. Dick Awards since 1984. The Philip K. Dick Award and Special Citation is presented annually for distinguished science fiction books published for the first time in the United States as a paperback original. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, and the ceremony is sponsored by Norwescon. Special guests attending the ceremony often include the nominated authors and publishers, as well as an administrator of the award. There is no charge to Norwescon members to attend the ceremony. We hope to see you there!

— From the Norwescon website

Since 2014, I’ve been making a point of reading all of the works nominated for that year’s Philip K. Dick Award before attending the award ceremony at that year’s Norwescon. While I haven’t yet predicted the winner, and not every book is quite to my personal tastes, all of the nominees have been worth reading, and it’s something I look forward to every year. Plus, since the nominees are announced in January, it’s a nice way to kick off the year with a selection of new SF/F works, usually from authors I’d not read before.

In 2023, I took over coordinating the Philip K. Dick Award ceremony at Norwescon. While my only role is to manage the ceremony, and have no input or influence over nominee selection or the final judging, in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety, I will no longer be publicly posting my reviews. This page is now just a list of the books that I’ve had the pleasure of reading over the years.

2024

2023

2022

  • Defekt by Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing)
  • Plague Birds by Jason Sanford (Apex Book Company)
  • Bug by Giacomo Sartori, translated by Frederika Randall (Restless Books)
  • Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson (Orbit)
  • The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publications) (Special Citation Winner)
  • Dead Space by Kali Wallace (Berkley Books) (Philip K. Dick Award Winner)

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014