The Red Tentacle is awarded annually to the novel containing speculative or fantastic elements that best fulfills the criteria of intelligent, progressive and entertaining.
The winner receives a £1,000 prize, a hand-crafted tentacular trophy and a bottle of the Kraken's finest black rum.
Previous winners of the Red Tentacle include Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls (2011), Lauren Beukes' Zoo City (2010) and China Miéville's The City and The City (2009).
Angelmaker
Nick Harkaway
William Heinemann
"All Joe Spork wants is a quiet life. He repairs clockwork and lives above his shop in a wet, unknown bit of London. The bills don't always get paid and he's single and has no prospects of improving his lot, but at least he's not trying to compete with the reputation of his infamous criminal dad. When Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. The client? Unknown. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine."
The Folly of the World
Jesse Bullington
Orbit
"The Saint Elizabeth Flood of 1421 destroyed towns and villages overnight, the land between the warring cities of Geertruidenberg and Dordrecht becoming a desolate inland sea. Yet even disaster can be profitable for the right sort of individual, and into this flooded realm sail three conspirators: a deranged thug at the edge of madness, a ruthless con man on the cusp of fortune and a half-feral girl who can swim like a fish."
A Face Like Glass
Frances Hardinge
Macmillan Children's Books
"In the underground city of Caverna the world's most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare - wines that can remove memories, cheeses that can make you hallucinate and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. The people of Caverna are more ordinary, but for one thing: their faces are as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and only the famous Facesmiths can teach a person to show (or fake) joy, despair or fear - at a price."
Jack Glass
Adam Roberts
Gollancz
"Jack Glass is the murderer. We know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel tells the story of three murders committed by Glass the reader will be surprised to find out that it was Glass who was the killer and how he did it. And by the end of the book our sympathies for the killer are fully engaged."
The Method
Juli Zeh (Translated by Sally-Ann Spencer)
Harvill Secker
"Mia Holl lives in a state governed by The Method, where good health is the highest duty of the citizen. Everyone must submit medical data and sleep records to the authorities on a monthly basis, and regular exercise is mandatory. Mia is a successful scientist who is outwardly obedient but with an intellect that marks her as subversive. Convinced that her brother has been wrongfully convicted of a terrible crime, Mia comes up against the full force of a regime determined to control every aspect of its citizens' lives."
