Comments: The three nominee limitation that had been used in the 1975 Nebula Awards was dropping in 1976, leading to much larger lists of nominees this year. The most interesting winner was Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, which was seen by many as a retort to Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers. Though many people have tried to gin up a controversy between the two authors, Heinlein and Haldeman appear to have held no animosity towards one another - my best guess is that each felt the others' novel served a different purpose than their own.
The other interesting winner was Young Frankenstein, which won in the Dramatic Presentation category. It's win, by itself, is not particularly noteworthy. It is a funny send up of classic horror movies, and was a worthy winner. But following on after Sleeper won in 1975, Young Frankenstein's win means that two comedic pieces won the Nebula Award in two consecutive years. Science fiction gets something of a rap as a genre in which comedy is not appreciated, but this seems to me to contradict that notion.
Best Novel
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Other Nominees:
Autumn Angels by Arthur Byron Cover
The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee
The Computer Connection (serial title The Indian Giver) by Alfred Bester
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
The Embedding by Ian Watson
The Exile Waiting by Vonda N. McIntyre
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire by Michael Bishop
Guernica Night by Barry N. Malzberg
The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson
Missing Man by Katherine MacLean
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg
Best Novella
Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny
Other Nominees:
A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree, Jr.
The Storms of Windhaven by Lisa Tuttle and George R.R. Martin
Sunrise West by William K. Carlson
Best Novelette
San Diego Lightfoot Sue by Tom Reamy
Other Nominees:
The Bleeding Man by Craig Strete
Blooded on Arachne by Michael Bishop
The Custodians by Richard Cowper
The Dybbuk Dolls by Jack Dann
The Final Fighting of Fion Mac Cumhail by Randall Garrett
A Galaxy Called Rome by Barry N. Malzberg
The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin
Polly Charms, the Sleeping Woman by Avram Davidson
Retrograde Summer by John Varley (reviewed in Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 116, Nos. 6 & 7 (June/July 2009)
The Warlord of Saturn's Moons by Eleanor ArnasonBest Short Story
Catch That Zeppelin! by Fritz Leiber
Other Nominees:
Attachment by Phyllis Eisenstein
Child of All Ages by P.J. Plauger
Doing Lennon by Gregory Benford
Find the Lady by Nicholas Fisk
Growing Up in Edge City by Frederik Pohl
Sail the Tide of Mourning by Richard Lupoff
A Scraping at the Bones by Algis Budrys
Shatterday by Harlan Ellison
Time Deer by Craig Strete
Utopia of a Tired Man by Jorge Luis Borges
White Creatures by Gregory Benford
White Wolf Calling by Charles L. Grant
Best Dramatic Presentation
Young Frankenstein screenplay by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder; based on the novel by Mary Shelley
Other Nominees:
A Boy and His Dog screenplay by L.Q. Jones; based on the work by Harlan Ellison
Dark Star by John Carpenter and Dan O'BannonRollerball by William Harrison
Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1977
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