1974 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California.

Comments: After winning the 1973 Best Novella Nebula for A Meeting with Medusa, Arthur C. Clarke followed up by winning the Best Novel Nebula in 1974 for what was probably his best book: Rendezvous with Rama. And after begin denied in 1972 and losing to "No Award" for Best Short Story, Gene Wolfe recovered and won the Best Novella Nebula in 1974 for The Island of Doctor Death.

But the real development of 1974 was the introduction of the Best Dramatic Presentation Nebula, designed to honor scriptwriters with the dystopian Soylent Green taking home the prize in this category's first year. Because the SFWA, which sponsors the Nebula Awards, is a writers' organization, the award is directed to the screenwriter, and sometimes to the novelist upon who an adapted work is based, rather than the producers of the film being honored.

Best Novel

Winner:
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Other Nominees:
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
4The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
The People of the Wind by Poul Anderson
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Best Novella

Winner:

The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe

Other Nominees:
Chains of the Sea by Gardner Dozois
Death and Designation Among the Asadi by Michael Bishop
Junction by Jack Dann
The White Otters of Childhood by Michael Bishop

Best Novelette

Winner:

Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda N. McIntyre

Other Nominees:
Case and the Dreamer by Theodore Sturgeon

The Deathbird by Harlan Ellison (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Best Short Story

Winner:
Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death by James Tiptree, Jr.

Other Nominees:

How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion by Gene Wolfe

Shark by Edward Bryant
A Thing of Beauty by Norman Spinrad
Wings by Vonda N. McIntyre
With Morning Comes Mistfall by George R.R. Martin

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:

Soylent Green by Stanley R. Greenberg, screenplay; based on a novel by Harry Harrison

Other Nominees:
Catholics (TV production) by Brian Moore
Steambath by Bruce Jay Friedman
Westworld by Michael Crichton

Go to previous year's nominees: 1973
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1975

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1974 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: California State University in Fullerton, California.

Comments: In 1974, the Campbell Award for Best Novel resulted in not one, but two ties, which is odd, because technically, there is only one award given. But because they track second (and usually third) place finishers rather than simply list all of the shortlisted but non-winning nominees (like most other awards do), the award found itself with a tie for both first and second place.

The other odd thing about the 1974 Campbell Awards is that the judges saw fit to hand out an award for Best Nonfiction Book, which went to Carl Sagan's The Cosmic Connection. As with Silverberg's 1973 Special Award for Writing Excellence for his novel Dying Inside the year, this award category seems to have had no precedent at the Campbell Awards, and the category has not been repeated, making its appearance in this year all the more mystifying.

Best Novel

Winner:
(tie) Malevil by Robert Merle

(tie) Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Second Place:
(tie) The Embedding by Ian Watson
(tie) The Green Gene by Peter Dickinson

Best Nonfiction Book

Winner:
The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1973
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1975

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