Comments: Having shed the Best Dramatic Presentation category for the time being, the 1979 Nebula Awards were back to an entirely literary affair. But this modest change to the categories wasn't the only new development in the Nebula Awards, as the winners for this year were mostly people who had never won a Nebula before. Not only that, many of the nominees were faces that hadn't previously been seen much in the world of science fiction awards. In short, the wins by Vonda N. McIntyre, John Varley, Charles L. Grant, and Edward Bryant seem to indicate that the science fiction field was undergoing something of a changing of the guard. It's not a huge change, as most of the authors had been working for quite a while before 1979, but it was a change in that the field was entirely lacking in any offerings from writers such as Asimov, Lieber, Clarke, Heinlein, Niven, Le Guin, Silverberg or any of the other usual suspects.
Best Novel
Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
Other Nominees:
Blind Voices by Tom Reamy
The Faded Sun: Kesrith by C.J. Cherryh
Kalki by Gore Vidal
Strangers by Gardner Dozois
Best Novella
The Persistence of Vision by John Varley
Other Nominees:
Seven American Nights by Gene Wolfe
Best Novelette
A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye by Charles L. Grant
Other Nominees:
Devil You Don't Know by Dean Ing
Mikal's Songbird by Orson Scott Card
Best Short Story
Stone by Edward Bryant
Other Nominees:
Cassandra by C.J. Cherryh
A Quiet Revolution for Death by Jack Dann
Go to previous year's nominees: 1978
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1980
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