Comments: The cyberpunk subgenre arrived in force in 1985 with William Gibson's Neuromancer, a brilliant book that promptly won the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Nebula Award. Meanwhile, in the short story category Gardner Dozois won for the second year in a row for his story Morning Child. Although Dozois has since come to be known mostly as an editor, his writing is also top notch, and it is kind of unfortunate that it has been so overshadowed by his editing.
But all was not rosy for the SFWA in 1985. The science fiction field seems to have been sliding backwards rather than forwards with respect to its treatment of women. After the shameful ballots of 1983 and 1984 in which only four nominees in each year were for works penned by female authors, 1985 was even worse, with only two nominations for stories written by women.
Best Novel
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Other Nominees:
Frontera by Lewis Shiner
The Integral Trees by Larry Niven
Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein
The Man Who Melted by Jack Dann
The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson
Best Novella
PRESS ENTER[] by John Varley
Other Nominees:
The Greening of Bed-Stuy by Frederik Pohl
Marrow Death by Michael Swanwick
A Traveler's Tale by Lucius Shepard
Trinity by Nancy Kress
Young Doctor Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson
Best Novelette
Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
Other Nominees:
Bad Medicine by Jack Dann
The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule by Lucius Shepard
Saint Theresa of the Aliens by James Patrick Kelly
Trojan Horse by Michael Swanwick
Best Short Story
Morning Child by Gardner Dozois
Other Nominees:
The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything by George Alec Effinger
A Cabin on the Coast by Gene Wolfe
The Eichmann Variations by George Zebrowski
Salvador by Lucius Shepard
Sunken Gardens by Bruce Sterling
Go to previous year's nominees: 1984
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1986
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