Philip K. Dick Award Winner Announced

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award has a winner.

It was announced Friday, April 14 at Norwescon 40 that The Mercy Journals by Claudia Casper has won the award for distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time in 2016.

Set thirty years in the future, the story follows a former soldier Allen “Mercy” Quincy, survivor of the third world war. Mercy suffers from PTSD, and he’s haunted by survivor’s guilt along with mnemectomy — the process of putting unwanted memories outside of self in an attempt to degrade them. After meeting a dancer named Ruby and starting to move on with his life, Mercy’s brother reappears with news that Mercy’s missing sons have been spotted, and the two begin a search for the children in a journey north to the family cabin on Vancouver Island.

Special citation went to Unpronounceable by Susan diRende.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust, and is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society with the award ceremony sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. This year’s judges were Michael Armstrong, Brenda Clough, Meg Elison, Lee Konstantinou, and Ben Winters.

You can see the presentation here (thanks, Don!):