1976 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: Campbell Conference Awards Banquet in Lawrence, Kansas.

Comments: In 1976, the Campbell judges decided not to give an award to any novel, instead reaching back six years to hand a Retrospective Prize to Wilson Tucker's 1970 novel The Year of the Quiet Sun. Like all of the other "off-brand" awards that have been handed out at the Campbell Awards, this was the first, and so far, only time this kind of prize was given out. Everything about the Campbell awards in 1976 is somewhat puzzling. Tucker's novel, while good (evidenced by its nominations in 1970 for both the Hugo and Nebula Award), isn't so compelling that it seems like it would have demanded retroactive recognition. Not only that, there seem to have been plenty of deserving novels that were eligible for the Best Novel award in 1976. Not only is Robert Silverberg's Stochastic Man a fine novel, but if one looks at the Hugo and Nebula nominees for this year one finds a list replete with excellent novels, starting with Joe Haldeman's Hugo and Nebula winning Forever War. But even if the Campbell judges didn't want to be seen as following the Hugos and Nebulas, they could have voted for Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren, Joanna Russ' The Female Man, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye, Roger Zelazny's Doorways in the Sand, or any number of other excellent novels. Given the plethora of strong novels published in 1975, it seems puzzling that the Campbell Awards simply declined to recognize any of them.

Best Novel

Winner:

No Award

Second Place:

The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg

Third Place:
Orbitsville by Bob Shaw

Retrospective Prize

Winner:
The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
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1976 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown

Comments: In 1976 the Best Adult Fantasy Literature Award category vanished from the slate of Mythopoeic Awards. I'm not sure why the category disappeared this year, but it was merely a harbinger of things to come as the Mythopoeic Awards would vanish entirely for the next several years. Despite my best efforts to figure out why the Mythopoeic Society took these steps and eliminated first their fantasy literature award, and then their scholarship award as well, I have found nothing that provides clarity on these issues.

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

(tie) C.S. Lewis, An Annotated Checklist of Writings About Him and His Works by Joe R. Christopher and Joan K. Olstling

(tie) Charles W.S.Williams, A Checklist by Lois Glenn
(tie) Tolkien Criticism by Richard C. West

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1981

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1976 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1976 the Best Original Anthology and Best Reprint Anthology categories were eliminated and merged into a single Best Anthology category, a decision that I think was a good one. From a publishing perspective there is certainly a distinction to be made between an anthology that is comprised of original material and an anthology comprised of material that had previously been published elsewhere, but from a reader's perspective, the distinction matters almost not at all, and in many cases was probably confusing.

This year also saw the creation of a new category, which was listed at the time as Best Associational Item, but lines up with the later-created category of Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work, which is how I have listed it here. Essentially, this category recognizes books that are about science fiction and fantasy, but aren't themselves works of science fiction or fantasy.

Best Novel
Winner:
1.   The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Other Nominees:
2.   The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
3.   The Computer Connection (aka The Indian Giver) by Alfred Bester
4.   The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg
5.   Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
6.   Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
7.   The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
8.   Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
9.   Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
10. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
11. Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny
12. Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
13. Showboat World by Jack Vance
14. A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire by Michael Bishop
15. The Exile Waiting by Vonda N. McIntyre
16. Blake's Progress by Ray Nelson
17. Warriors of Dawn by M.A. Foster
18. Lifeboat by Gordon R. Dickson and Harry Harrison
19. Illuminatus! by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
20. The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee
21. Missing Man by Katherine MacLean

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   The Storms of Windhaven by Lisa Tuttle and George R.R. Martin

Other Nominees:

2.   Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny

3.   The Borderland of Sol by Larry Niven
4.   The Silent Eyes of Time by Algis Budrys
5.   ARM by Larry Niven
6.   The Custodians by Richard Cowper
7.   A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree, Jr.
8.   Allegiances by Michael Bishop
9.   Silhouette by Gene Wolfe
10. Mother and Child by Joan D. Vinge
11. Ancient Shadows by Michael Moorcock
12. Sharking Down by Edward Bryant

Best Novelette
Winner:

1.   The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
2.   Down to a Sunless Sea by Cordwainer Smith
3.   And Seven Times Never Kill Man by George R.R. Martin

4.   Retrograde Summer by John Varley (reviewed in Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 116, Nos. 6 & 7 (June/July 2009)

5.   A Galaxy Called Rome by Barry N. Malzberg
6.   '. . . for a single yesterday' by George R.R. Martin
7.   In the Bowl by John Varley
8.   Sandsnake Hunter by Gordon Eklund
9.   The Black Hole Passes by John Varley
10. Polly Charms, the Sleeping Woman by Avram Davidson
11. Cambridge 1:58 A.M. by Gregory Benford
12. San Diego Lightfoot Sue by Tom Reamy
13. The Venging by Greg Bear
14. End Game by Joe Haldeman
15. Blooded on Arachne by Michael Bishop

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   Croatoan by Harlan Ellison

Other Nominees:

2.   The Mother Trip by Frederik Pohl

3.   Child of All Ages by P.J. Plauger
4.   Sail the Tide of Mourning by Richard Lupoff
5.   Doing Lennon by Gregory Benford
6.   Sierra Maestra by Norman Spinrad
7.   Rogue Tomato by Michael Bishop
8.   Anniversary Project by Joe Haldeman
9.   Beyond Grayworld by Gregory Benford
10. Find the Lady by Nicholas Fisk
11. Catch That Zeppelin! by Fritz Leiber
12. All the Charms of Sycorax by Alan Brennert
13. Clay Suburb by Robert Young
14. Shatterday by Harlan Ellison

Best Single Author Collection
Winner:
1.   The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
2.   The Best of Cordwainer Smith by Cordwainer Smith, edited by J.J. Pierce
3.   Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
4.   Tales of Known Space by Larry Niven
5.   Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree, Jr.
6.   The Best of Henry Kuttner by Henry Kuttner
7.   The Best of C.L. Moore by C.L. Moore, edited by Lester del Rey
8.   The Early del Rey by Lester del Rey
9.   The Infinity Box by Kate Wilhelm
10. The Second Book of Fritz Leiber by Fritz Leiber
11. The Feast of St. Dionysus by Robert Silverberg
12. No Direction Home by Norman Spinrad
13. Buy Jupiter and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov
14. The Best of Frederik Pohl by Frederik Pohl, edited by Lester del Rey

Best Anthology
Winner:
1.   Epoch edited by Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:
2.   The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4 edited by Terry Carr
3.   Final Stage edited by Edward L. Ferman and Barry N. Malzberg
4.   New Dimensions 5 edited by Robert Silverberg
5.   The New Atlantis edited by Robert Silverberg
6.   The Best from Orbit Volumes 1-10 edited by Damon Knight

7.   The 1975 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha

8.   The Best of Planet Stories #1 edited by Leigh Brackett
9.   Nebula Award Stories Ten edited by James E. Gunn
10. Women of Wonder edited by Pamela Sargent
11. Orbit 16 edited by Damon Knight
12. Science Fiction of the Thirties edited by Damon Knight

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work
Winner:
1.   Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction by James E. Gunn

Other Nominees:
2.   SF Art by Brian W. Aldiss
3.   The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta by Frank Frazetta
4.   Lovecraft: A Biography by L. Sprague de Camp
5.   Hell's Cartographers edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison

6.   Science Fiction Handbook, Revised by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp

7.   Fantastic SF Art 1926 - 1954 by Lester del Rey
8.   Lovecraft at Last by Willis Conover
9.   Philip K. Dick: Electric Shepherd by Bruce Gillespie
10. Structural Fabulation by Robert S. Scholes
11. The Science Fiction Book: An Illustrated History by Franz Rottensteiner
12. The Science Fiction Book Review Index by Hal Hall

Best Magazine
Winner:
1. Fantasy & Science Fiction

Other Nominees:
2. Analog
3. Galaxy
4. Amazing Stories
5. Fantastic
6. New Dimensions

Best Fanzine
Winner:
1.   Locus

Other Nominees:
2.   Science Fiction Review
3.   Algol
4.   Outworlds
5.   Khatru
6.   Yandro
7.   Whispers
8.   Delap's F&SF Review
9.   Don-O-Saur
10. Notes from the Chemistry Dept.
11. Knights
12. Starling
13. SF Commentary

Best Critic
Winner:
1.   Richard Geis

Other Nominees:
2.   Lester del Rey
3.   Algis Budrys
4.   Richard Lupoff
5.   Spider Robinson
6.   Joanna Russ
7.   Susan Wood
8.   Richard Delap
9.   Charles Brown
10. Baird Searles
11. Theodore Sturgeon
12. Don D'Ammassa

Best Hardback Publisher
Winner:
1. Science Fiction Book Club

Other Nominees:
2. Doubleday
3. Harper & Row
4. Putnam/Berkley
5. Donald M. Grant

Best Paperback Publisher
Winner:
1. Ballantine

Other Nominees:
2. DAW
3. Berkley
4. Ace
5. Avon
6. Bantam
7. Pyramid

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Rick Sternbach

Other Nominees:
2.   Steve Fabian
3.   Frank Kelly Freas
4.   Tim Kirk
5.   Vincent Di Fate
6.   George Barr
7.   John Schoenherr
8.   Jack Gaughan
9.   Frank Frazetta
10. Darrell Sweet
11. James Shull
12. Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
13. William Rotsler
14. Mike Hinge
15. Wendy Pini
16. Jeff Jones
17. Grant Canfield
18. Alicia Austin
19. David Hardy

Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1977

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1976 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, New York, New York.

Comments: Although 1976 was only the second year for the World Fantasy Awards, one can already see the awards maturing, with full slates of nominees in every category except Best Novel, where there were only two total nominees. Fritz Leiber did very well in the awards, winning an award for his short story Belsen Express along with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

However, the pervasive racism and sexism of the era is also readily apparent as not a single woman or non-white was nominated in any of the categories.Although the white boys club of science fiction was slowly breaking up by the mid-1970s, in the fantasy world, the lily white sausage commandos that dominated fantasy fiction were much slower to release their death grip on the genre.

Best Novel

Winner:
Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson

Other Nominees:
Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Belsen Express by Fritz Leiber

Other Nominees:
The Barrow Troll by David Drake
Born of the Winds by Brian Lumley
The Ghastly Priest Doth Reign by Manly Wade Wellman

Best Collection

Winner:
The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson

Other Nominees:
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
The Early Long by Frank Belknap Long
Far Lands, Other Days by E. Hoffmann Price

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Fritz Leiber

Other Nominees:
Ray Bradbury
Frank Belknap Long
Manly Wade Wellman

Best Artist

Winner:
Frank Frazetta

Other Nominees:
George Barr
Steve Fabian
Edward Gorey
Tim Kirk

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Donald M. Grant

Other Nominees:
Willis Conover
L. Sprague de Camp
Arkham House
Frank Belknap Long
Donald A. Wollheim

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Karl Edward Wagner, David Drake, and James Groce

Other Nominees:
Gerry de la Ree
Harry O. Morris, Jr.
George Scithers
Roy A. Squires
Robert Weinberg

Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
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1976 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: MidAmeriCon in Kansas City, Missouri.

Comments: In 1976 Joe Haldeman's Forever War, the "response" to Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Although Haldeman asserts that he didn't intend his book to be a counter to Heinlein's seminal novel, many fans regarded it as such. Many of those same fans expected some sort of fracas between the two authors. They were to be sadly disappointed. According to Spider Robinson, Heinlein said The Forever War "may be the best future war story I've ever read". So much for Hugo Award controversies over the 1976 Best Novel winner.

In the Best Dramatic Presentation category, however, there was a controversy, and it focused on Harlan Ellison. The film version of A Boy and His Dog won the Hugo Award in that category, and as usual, the award was presented to the director and screenwriter of the film. Ellison objected to being left out on the grounds that he had written the original short novella the movie was based upon, and raised such a fuss that the Hugo committee decided to give in and recognize him. Unfortunately, they didn't have any extra Hugo statues, but they did have an extra base, so they handed Ellison the base, which he now jokingly refers to as his "half-Hugo".

Best Novel

Winner:
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Other Finalists:
The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg

Best Novella

Winner:

Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny

Other Finalists:
ARM by Larry Niven
The Custodians by Richard Cowper
The Silent Eyes of Time by Algis Budrys
The Storms of Windhaven by Lisa Tuttle and George R.R. Martin

Best Novelette

Winner:

The Borderland of Sol by Larry Niven

Other Finalists:
And Seven Times Never Kill Man by George R.R. Martin
The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin
San Diego Lightfoot Sue by Tom Reamy
Tinker by Jerry Pournelle

Best Short Story

Winner:

Catch That Zeppelin! by Fritz Leiber

Other Finalists:
Child of All Ages by P.J. Plauger
Croatoan by Harlan Ellison
Doing Lennon by Gregory Benford
Rogue Tomato by Michael Bishop
Sail the Tide of Mourning by Richard Lupoff

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
A Boy and His Dog

Other Finalists:
The Capture (slide show by Phil Foglio, written and narrated by Robert Asprin)
Dark Star
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Rollerball

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Ben Bova

Other Finalists:
Jim Baen
Edward L. Ferman
Robert Silverberg
Ted White

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Frank Kelly Freas

Other Finalists:
George Barr
Vincent Di Fate
Steve Fabian
Rick Sternbach

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Locus edited by Charles Brown and Dena Brown

Other Finalists:
Algol edited by Andrew Porter
Don-O-Saur edited by Don C. Thompson
Outworlds edited by Bill Bowers
Science Fiction Review edited by Richard E. Geis

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Richard E. Geis

Other Finalists:
Charles Brown
Don D'Ammassa
Don C. Thompson
Susan Wood

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Tim Kirk

Other Finalists:
Grant Canfield
Phil Foglio
Bill Rotsler
Jim Shull

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Tom Reamy

Other Finalists:
Arsen Darnay
M.A. Foster
John Varley
Joan D. Vinge

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
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1976 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California.

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

Winner:
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

Winner:

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

Winner:

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 Arnason

Best Short Story

Winner:
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

Winner:

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'Bannon
Rollerball by William Harrison

Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1977

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