Wow, was I late to this particular party.
The Steel Remains won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for best novel – in 2010!
How the hell did I miss this?
I vaguely remember my US publicist mentioning way back at the beginning of 2009 that it might be worth putting Steel up for the Spectrum, but I never heard any more after that and promptly forgot all about it. Then I was in Australia for two months, then I was in games for two years – Stockholm, Vancouver, Frankfurt, London, New York, a fast blur of studios, hotel rooms and airport lounges and whoooooosh; that’s the sound of my work-life picking up velocity like some bullet train I’d inadvertently stumbled aboard, and I barely got the chance to look out the windows until early 2011, by which time I was speeding rapidly towards impending fatherhood. Then the fallout from that particular impact – sleepless nights, a ripped and torn set of new priorities, vaccinations and doctor’s visits, a move to Spain, a book tour for The Cold Commands, a houseful of Christmas guests in a house we barely knew, soul-searching about where to base ourselves for the next couple of years, research and local colour, a slow but steady flow of friends and family to check out the new circumstances, an eventual return home to water damaged ceilings and faulty central heating and the search for suitable bilingual nurseries/toddler groups and – oh look, it’s late 2012.
Well, that’s my excuse anyway, and I’m sticking to it.
So apologies to the Spectrum judging committee and award administrators for my utter fucking silence on this subject for the last two years. I am, of course, honoured to have won. The gay communities on both sides of the Atlantic were very supportive of what I was trying to achieve in Steel and gave me a great deal of good press and enthusiasm. This is the veritable cherry on the top of that response.
Ehm……could I have my award trophy now, please?
Incidentally, The Cold Commands got short-listed for the very same award this year, so it seems no-one’s bearing a grudge. Didn’t win this time around, of course, but can you really blame them? The judges must have figured they’d give it to someone who’d get around to saying thank you a bit more promptly…….
Sigh.
Belated congratulations, then! I specifically remember some gay-ish award TSR won, but don’t remember if it was this one. Was there another award it won as well?
Time flies with a child anyway, and even faster once you’ve hit the 45 year mark.
Cool! Congratulations!
Hmmmm, so does this mean you weren’t snubbing Hollywood when you didn’t show up for the opening of Altered Carbon? I heard Brad Pitt was pissed (and I don’t mean Britishly drunk).
Gollancz rt’d this on Twitter. Baby bombs are devastating, and wonderful;)
Wow. Must be rough. Seriously, congratulations: a well-deserved award.
Come on, do another Takeshi Kovacs book. He can even be gay, I don’t care, I skip the sex anyway
Congratulations on your award(s) and family adventures. I love your books…..and I am with Timmy C, you could surely do another takeshi. I don’t skip anything in it and would love any body or person he (or possibly she) inhabits!
I’m sure if Richard had enough ideas and a burning desire to write another Takeshi Kovacs novel he’d leap headfirst into making a fourth book.
Until then (if indeed ‘then’ ever occurs) I say we should leave Richard alone to take care of his own career and his family in whatever manner he sees fit
Let’s not start going all G.R.R Martin-fanbase on him.
Let’s just say Takeshi has lived a long, long time and Richard, if he ever wanted to, could tell us what happened between Woken Furies and The Steel Remains. Be careful what you ask for though.
Linda:
I always figured (and IIRC read something that said as much) that the Takeshi Kovacs references in A Land Fit for Heroes were a bit of an Easter egg that Richard doesn’t -or at least didn’t- have a plan for tying it all together.
It would be interesting, however.
Jo:
Read TCC again and pay particular attention towards the end of the book. I need to re-read it myself to remember where it possibly ties together.
Oh no don’t misunderstand me. I’m well aware of the possibilities. I paid close attention and even followed the discussion threads on the subject. It’s hard to stop speculating once you twig about the Ahn Foi and Kwelgris etc
It’s just that I was under the impression that Richard wasn’t necessarily keen to run with it in a big way. However I could of course be very mistaken on that count.
Takavach – Takeshi Kovacs, nobody touching that one?
I hope all that spanish sun isn’t going to turn you all soft southerner Richard.
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