Chris Beckett beat off competition from a very strong shortlist including Ken MacLeod, Nick Harkaway, Adrian Barnes, Peter Heller and Kim Stanley Robinson to win the 2013 Arthur C Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature, the UK's most prestigious genre prize, with only his second novel, Dark Eden.

Dark Eden takes place on an alien planet with no natural light source, where 163 years previously, an astronaut crew from Earth crash landed. While some of them tried to leave, others stayed behind and the book tells the story of the 532 descendants of those few, struggling to peacefully co-exist using rules and lore handed down from people none of them has ever known, and survive day-to-day while waiting to be rescued and returned by a world none of them has ever seen.

Chair of judges, Andrew M Butler, said that "Dark Eden fuses rich biological and sociological speculation with characters you will really care about. It's a great book, and this is a well-deserved win for Chris Beckett."

Tom Hunter, Award Director of the Arthur C Clarke award, said of the winner "The idea of an abandoned colony on a distant planet is a great SF trope, but the world of Dark Eden is richly drawn through the eyes of the main characters but reveals itself slowly, letting the reader imagine what lies in the dark beyond. But ultimately, like all great science fiction, this is a book about people and about what it means to be human, our drive to tell stories about ourselves and our world, and a testament to the enduring power of the human imagination."

The Arthur C Clarke Award is given to the year's best science fiction novel, and previous winners include Margaret Atwood, Paul McAuley, Jane Rogers, M John Harrison, Neal Stephenson and 3-time winner China Miéville.

Chris Beckett was presented with the award and a cheque for £2013 at a ceremony on Wednesday evening at The Royal Society.