Arthur C. Clarke Award 2018: Complete list of winners

The 2018 Arthur C. Clarke Award has crowned Anne Charnock’s Dreams Before the Start of Time as this year’s standout science fiction achievement. Named after the legendary science fiction author and futurist, the Arthur C. Clarke Award has long been one of the most prestigious honors in speculative fiction, recognizing novels that explore the relationship between science, technology, and society with both intellectual rigor and imaginative flair. Charnock’s winning novel exemplifies exactly the kind of thoughtful, forward-thinking science fiction the award seeks to celebrate—work that doesn’t just entertain but provokes genuine contemplation about humanity’s future.

What makes Charnock’s victory particularly noteworthy is the novel’s ambitious exploration of generational consciousness and time itself. Dreams Before the Start of Time represents the sort of conceptually daring storytelling that has become increasingly central to contemporary science fiction, where the genre grapples with climate change, artificial intelligence, and evolving human identity. The 2018 Arthur C. Clarke Award winner joins a distinguished lineage of previous honorees whose work has shaped how we think about science fiction’s relationship to our present moment and future possibilities.

Below, you’ll find the complete details of this year’s award winner and what made the selection significant for the science fiction community.

Science Fiction

• Dreams Before the Start of Time by Anne Charnock*