The City and the City by China Miéville won the Arthur C. Clarke award, the U.K.'s prestigious science fiction prize, becoming the first author ever to win three times, the Guardian reported. Miéville said he was "absolutely gobsmacked" and "incredibly honoured" to win.
"It's very different from most of my other books," Miéville observed of The City and the City. "It was very much written in an effort to be absolutely faithful to works of crime fiction. Crime readers will denounce a book because it has 'cheated,' and I wanted to write a book that didn't cheat, that was faithful to crime rules and that if you'd never read any fantasy you could pick up."
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Contenders for Amazon's third annual Breakthrough Novel Award have been narrowed down to 50 general fiction and 50 young adult fiction semifinalists. Editors at Penguin will now evaluate the manuscripts and choose three finalists in each category, which will be announced May 25. Then Amazon customers will select grand prize winners for general fiction and best young adult novel, each of whom will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, including a $15,000 advance.