Review : Fairyland wins

A vision of a dystopic future won the Arthur C. Clarke award for the best
science fiction novel of 1995. Paul McCauley’s Fairyland (Gollancz, £8.99,
ISBN 0 575 06071 9) took the prize with a dark account of genetic meddling used
to create humanoid toys. It is set in a near-future Europe when London is awash
with monsoon rain and Paris is strangled by shanty towns. The runner-up was Ken
McLeod’s first novel The Star Fraction (Legend, £10, ISBN 0 099 55871 8):
dystopia with wit and energy.