'Countdown City' by Ben Winters wins this year's Philip K. Dick Award

This year’s winner of the annual Philip K. Dick Award was named recently at the 37th Annual Norweson in Seatac, Wash., and this year’s winner was “Countdown City” by Ben Winters .

Other finalists for this year’s award were:

- A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock

- The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke

- Self-Reference Engine by Toh EnJoe, translated by Terry Gallagher

- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

- Life on the Preservation by Jack Skillingstead

- Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, edited by Ian Whates

“Self-Reference Engine” by Toh EnJoe, translated by Terry Gallagher, was this year’s Special Citation Award Winner, which is basically the award for coming in second.

The Philip K. Dick Award, which is named after one of the most influential sci-fi writers of all time, is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust “for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.” Most of Dick’s books, which included “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, aka, “Blade Runner,” were published as paperback originals.

The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society.

The award was first given right after Dick’s untimely death in 1982, and since then, a number of authors have received the award. Here’s the complete list of the winners:

1982 – Software by Rudy Rucker
1983 – The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
1984 – Neuromancer by William Gibson
1985 – Dinner at Deviant’s Palace by Tim Powers

1986 – Homunculus by James P. Blaylock
1987 – Strange Toys by Patricia Geary
1988 – 400 Billion Stars by Paul J. McAuley and Wetware by Rudy V.B. Rucker
1989 – Subterranean Gallery by Richard Paul Russo
1990 – Points of Departure by Pat Murphy

1991 – King of Morning, Queen of Day by Ian McDonald
1992 – Through the Heart by Richard Grant
1994 - Mysterium by Robert C. Wilson
1995 – Headcrash by Bruce Bethke

1996 – The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
1997 – The Troika by Stepan Chapman
1998 – 253: A Novel by Geoff Ryman
1999 – Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter
2000 – Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith

2001 – Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
2002 – The Mount: A Novel by Carol Emshwiller
2003 – Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
2004 – Life by Gwyneth A. Jones
2005 – War Surf by M.M. Buckner

2006 – Spin Control by Chris Moriarty
2007 – Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
2008 – Emissaries from the Dead by Adam-Troy Castro and Terminal Mind by David Walton
2009 – Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson
2010 – The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder

2011 – The Samuil Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden
2012 - Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery
2013 - Countdown City by Ben Winters .

In the end, how many of these books have you had a chance to read? Which did you like or dislike? Which would you recommend and why? Let us know in the comments section below.