A few days ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a soiree by the awfully nice people at Tor to celebrate the relaunch of three-time winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature China Mieville's back catalogue but with an all new look courtesy of brand spanking new covers by Crush Creative.

In keeping with Mieville's books the artwork is unlike anything you'll generally see in fantasy fiction, being dark, uncompromising and wholly original and it cleverly suggests some of the major themes in his work with designs that artfully meld mechanics with organics causing even the most casual of browsers to stop and look twice.

A straw poll amongst those in attendance couldn't really place a favourite although both Perdido Street Station and The Scar both did well. In case anyone at Tor is listening (ahem!), mine is definitely The City & The City and a full-size poster of that would look very nice on the wall, thanks!

The other nice thing that happened was that we were given autographed advanced review copies of China's new book, Embassytown, and while the going was good I snaffled a spare one to give away to a lucky prize winner! I also got a couple of sets of postcards featuring the full set of new covers for two lucky runners-up. Not bad eh?

So all you have to do to win the signed, advance review copy of China Mieville's new book, Embassytown, is answer this question:

"How many times has China Mieville won the Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction literature?"

Answers by email to robert [at] sci-fi-london [dot] com, the competition closes on Friday 11th March at midday sharp and the winner and two runners up will be the first out of the hat.

Good luck!