The shortlist for this year’s Arthur C Clarke Award has been released. It includes two debuts, both by female authors, which received glowing reviews from SFX: A Memory Called Empire, an intricate far-future political thriller by Arkady Martine (real name AnnaLinden Weller), and Namwali Serpell’s The Old Drift, which we called “a beautifully told, richly evocative tale”. Kameron Hurley and Adrian Tchaikovsky have both received their second Clarke nominations (for The Light Brigade and Cage Of Souls respectively). Also in the mix: Charlie Jane Anders’s The City In The Middle Of The Night and David Wellington’s The Last Astronaut . The winner will be announced in September.