Pornokitsch

The Kitschies reward the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic. 

Now in their sixth year, they are sponsored by Fallen London, the award-winning browser game designed by Failbetter Games.

The Kitschies' 2014 finalists were selected from 198 submissions, from over 40 publishers and imprints. 

The Red Tentacle (Novel)

• Lagoon, by Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Grasshopper Jungle, by Andrew Smith (Egmont)
• The Peripheral, by William Gibson (Viking)
• The Way Inn, by Will Wiles (4th Estate)
• The Race, by Nina Allan (NewCon Press)

The Golden Tentacle (Debut)

• Viper Wine, by Hermione Eyre (Jonathan Cape)
• The Girl in the Road, by Monica Byrne (Blackfriars)
• Memory of Water, by Emmi Itäranta (HarperCollins)
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers (Self-Published)
• The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara (Atlantic Books) 

The Inky Tentacle (Cover Art)

• The Ghost of the Mary Celeste, design by Steve Marking (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)
• A Man Lies Dreaming, cover by Ben Summers (Hodder and Stoughton)
• Through the Woods, cover by Emily Carroll and Sonja Chaghatzbanian (Faber and Faber)
• The Book of Strange New Things, cover by Rafaela Romaya and Yehring Tong (Canongate)
• Tigerman, cover by Glenn O'Neill (William Heinamann)

The Invisible Tentacle (Natively Digital Fiction)

• echovirus12, created/curated by Jeff Noon @jeffnoon, Ed @3dgriffiths, James Knight @badbadpoet, violet sprite @gadgetgreen, Richard Biddle @littledeaths68, Mina Polen @polen, Uel Aramchek @ThePatanoiac, Graham Walsh @t_i_s_u, Vapour Vox @Wrong_Triangle
• Kentucky Route Zero, Act III, by Cardboard Computer
• 80 Days, by Inkle Studios
• Sailor's Dream, by Simogo

This year's judges did a great job. (They also included Frances Hardinge and Cat Webb, who are BSFA Best Novel finalists as well, so double-congrats.)

A huge, huge, huge congratulations to the award's director, Glen Mehn, who has wrangled a new sponsor, added a new category, recruited the judges and, frankly, done a kickass job. Buy the dude a drink. 

From the standpoint of a random punter, these lists are the perfect combination of 'stuff I've read and loved', 'stuff I've read, not loved, but really respected' and 'stuff that sounds really good, and now I want to read'.

From the standpoint of a non-random punter, this is totally weird, as it is the first year where Anne & I were totally uninvolved with the award - is it ok if I kind of secretly resent how well it has gone without us? Just a tiny bit? (sniffle)