Toronto, ON, September 25, 2017: The Sunburst Award Society is pleased to announce the winners of the sixth annual Copper Cylinder Award.
The Copper Cylinder Award is an annual award for Canadian literature of the fantastic, selected by members of the Sunburst Award Society for books published during the previous year. It derives its name from what is considered the first Canadian scientific romance, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, by James De Mille (1833-1880). All winners of the Copper Cylinder receive a unique, handcrafted copper cylinder trophy.
Adult Award
The winner of the 2017 Copper Cylinder Adult Award is Company Town by Madeline Ashby [Tor Books].
From the publisher:
New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd. Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig—making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline? Madeline Ashby's Company Town is a brilliant, twisted mystery, as one woman must evaluate saving the people of a town that can't be saved, or saving herself.
Madeline Ashby is a science fiction writer and a strategic foresight consultant. Her debut series about killer robots included vN and the sequel, iD. Her essays and criticism have appeared at BoingBoing, io9.com, WorldChanging, Creators Project, Arcfinity, and Tor.com. Since late 2014, she has been a regular columnist for the Ottawa Citizen.
Young Adult Award
The winner of the 2017 Copper Cylinder Young Adult Award is The Skids by Ian Donald Keeling. [ChiTeen]
From the publisher:
They’re called the Skids. They’ve got three-eyes, tank treads and a bucket-full of attitude. They play the games and the few that don’t get vaped in the first weeks still die at five years old. Game over, thanks for playing. Johnny Drop’s the best skid the Skidsphere’s seen in generations, but he won’t get to enjoy it. Because his world is going to die. Part Hunger Games, part X-Games, with a little Monster’s Inc. and The Matrix smashed into the mix, The Skids will take you on a ride beyond what you know of the world. So pop the top and show ’em the circus, we-we- we’re going for a ride.
Ian Donald Keeling is an author and actor. His short fiction and poetry have previously appeared in Realms of Fantasy, On Spec, and Grain. He is also on the faculty for sketch and improv at Second City in Toronto.
The Sunburst Award Society also confers the annual juried Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Both awards celebrate the best in Canadian fantastic literature published during the previous calendar year.
For additional information about the Copper Cylinder Awards, Sunburst Award Society membership, and the voting process, please visit the website at http://coppercylinderaward.ca
For additional information about the Sunburst Awards, the nominees and jurors, eligibility, and the selection process, please visit the website at http://sunburstaward.org.
Contact:
Rebecca Simkin, Chair
The Sunburst Award Society
2 Farm Greenway
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M3A 3M2