The shortlist has been announced for the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke award has been announced in the UK, and it includes six books that should be on everyone's "must read" list.

Here's the shortlist, posted today by SF Crowsnest:

Song of Time: Ian R. MacLeod - PS Publishing
The Quiet War: Paul McAuley - Gollancz
House of Suns: Alastair Reynolds - Gollancz
Anathem: Neal Stephenson - Atlantic
The Margarets: Sherri S. Tepper - Gollancz
Martin Martin's on the Other Side: Mark Wernham - Jonathan Cape

A winner will be announced in late April at the Sci-Fi London Film Festival, and will get £2009 in prize money. Though the shortlist isn't very diverse, all these authors are incredibly accomplished and have contributed a great deal to the genre. You should definitely check out all these books to see which one you'd choose as the winner.

via SFCrowsnest

Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at annalee@io9.com.