1987 World Fantasy Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Nashville, Tennessee.

Comments: 1987 was the last year that the World Fantasy Awards handed out a combined award for collections and anthologies, and the victor was James Tiptree, Jr.'s collection Tales of the Quintana Roo. Having anthologies and collections together in one category made for some very awkward ballots, as the two different types of compilations of short fiction aren't really comparable in any meaningful sense. The separation of the categories was long overdue.

Otherwise, 1987 was a pretty ordinary year for the World Fantasy Awards. There weren't any particularly noteworthy winners other than Andre Norton with her special convention award, and the only person who got more than one nomination was Stephen King, who got two although he didn't win in any category.

Best Novel

Winner:
Perfume by Patrick Süskind

Other Nominees:
It by Stephen King
The Pet by Charles L. Grant
Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe
Strangers by Dean R. Koontz
Talking Man by Terry Bisson
The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy

Best Novella

Winner:
Hatrack River by Orson Scott Card

Other Nominees:
Chance by Connie Willis
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Night Moves by Tim Powers
The Night Seasons by J.N. Williamson

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Red Light by David J. Schow

Other Nominees:
The Boy Who Plaited Manes by Nancy Springer
The Brains of Rats by Michael Blumlein
The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King
Pain by Whitley Strieber
The Rise and Fall of Father Alex by Amyas Naegele
They're Coming for You by Les Daniels
Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back by Joe R. Lansdale

Best Anthology or Collection

Winner:
Tales of the Quintana Roo by James Tiptree, Jr.

Other Nominees:
Black Wine edited by Douglas E. Winter
Cutting Edge edited by Dennis Etchison
Dreams of Dark and Light by Tanith Lee
Liavek: The Players of Luck edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull
Merlin's Booke by Jane Yolen
Night Visions 3 edited by George R.R. Martin

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Jack Finney

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Robert Gould

Other Nominees:
Stephen Gervais
Chris Van Allsburg
J.K. Potter

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Jane Yolen

Other Nominees:
Donald M. Grant
David G. Hartwell
Simon Ounsley and David Pringle
Jack Sullivan
Terri Windling

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
(tie) Jeff Conner
(tie) W. Paul Ganley

Other Nominees:
Stephen Jones and David Sutton
David B. Silva

Special Convention Award

Winner:
Andre Norton

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1986
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1988

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1987 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: Campbell Conference Awards Banquet at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

Comments: The opposite ends of the Campbell Award ballot in 1987 are interesting because of their contrasts. Joan Slonczewski's novel A Door Into Ocean is a story featuring feminism, ecological awareness, and pacifism that suggests that the moral response to aggression is nonviolent resistance. Orson Scott Card's novel Speaker for the Dead is a murder mystery that suggests that the moral response to the inequities caused by a paternalistic religious society is to make the society even more paternalistic and even more religious. Slonczwski's novel won the award in 1987, but it seems like Card's vision has seeped into modern politics and taken root.

Best Novel

Winner:

A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski

Second Place:

This Is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow

Third Place:

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Go to previous year's nominees: 1986
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1988

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1987 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: Eastercon in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Comments: 1987 was the inaugural year for the Clarke Award, and right away the judges decided to jump into a controversy by giving the honor to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This award was not controversial because Atwood's book wasn't a worthy recipient of the award, but rather because Atwood was (and remains) adamant that her books were (and are) not science fiction because they do not involve "talking squids in space", even though by any definition of the genre many of her books clearly are. In my opinion, genre awards should not be handing any awards to Atwood. If she doesn't want her work to be considered to be science-fiction, then there is no reason for it to be honored as such. It seems to me that it would be much preferable to recognize this contributions of authors who are proud to be writing genre fiction rather than someone who looks down their nose at anything other than literary fiction.

Winner
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Runner-Up
The Ragged Astronauts by Bob Shaw

Shortlist
Eon by Greg Bear
Escape Plans by Gwyneth Jones
Green Eyes by Lucius Shepard
The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson
Queen of the States by Josephine Saxton
Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1988

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1987 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1987, the Libertarian Futurist Society, for the second time, inducted a pretty lousy Ayn Rand book and a pretty good Robert A. Heinlein book into their Hall of Fame. The fact that these authors had a second round of books inducted isn't that surprising, as their works are widely regarded as being the cornerstones of libertarian science fiction. What is surprising is the amount of time it took for the Prometheus Awards to get around to honoring a second round of books from this pair of authors.

Best Novel

Winner:

Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge

Other Nominees:

Circuit by Melinda Snodgrass

The Crystal Empire by L. Neil Smith
A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Hall of Fame

Winner:

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1986
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1988

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1987 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: After just missing the year before with Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card captured the Best Science Fiction Novel award for 1987 with Speaker for the Dead. The thing that is interesting about this win is that overall, I think Speaker for the Dead is a weaker book than Ender's Game, so the fact that Speaker won and Ender didn't seems a bit odd. One could possibly chalk this oddity up to weaker competition in 1987 when compared to 1986, but looking at the list of other nominees like The Handmaid's Tale, Chanur's Homecoming, and Marooned in Realtime, that simply doesn't seem plausible. It seems that the best explanation for this win is that the voters, now more aware of Card because of the success of Ender's Game, were voting a "make up" win for him as compensation for their oversight the previous year. I can't say that this is certain, but it does seem like the most plausible explanation.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Other Nominees:
2.   Heart of the Comet by Gregory Benford and David Brin
3.   Count Zero by William Gibson
4.   The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
5.   Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov
6.   Chanur's Homecoming by C.J. Cherryh
7.   Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge
8.   The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
9.   The Coming of the Quantum Cats by Frederik Pohl
10. Santiago by Mike Resnick
11. Enigma by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
12. When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
13. Lear's Daughters by M. Bradley Kellogg with William Rossow
14. Star of Gypsies by Robert Silverberg
15. Nerilka's Story by Anne McCaffrey
16. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
17. The Moon Goddess and the Son by Donald M. Kingsbury
18. Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams
19. The Architect of Sleep by Steven R. Boyett
20. Venus of Dreams by Pamela Sargent
21. The Nimrod Hunt by Charles Sheffield
22. This Is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow
23. The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt
24. The Forever Man by Gordon R. Dickson
25. The Ragged Astronauts by Bob Shaw
26. Rebels' Seed by F.M. Busby

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe

Other Nominees:
2.   Blood of Amber by Roger Zelazny
3.   It by Stephen King
4.   Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon
5.   Twisting the Rope by R.A. MacAvoy
6.   The Folk of the Air by Peter S. Beagle
7.   The Serpent Mage by Greg Bear
8.   Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm
9.   The Quest for Saint Camber by Katherine Kurtz
10. A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E. Feist
11. The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson
12. The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay
13. Magic Kingdom For Sale - Sold! by Terry Brooks
14. Homunculus by James P. Blaylock
15. Wielding a Red Sword by Piers Anthony
16. The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
17. The Dragon in the Sword by Michael Moorcock
18. Jinian Star-Eye by Sheri S. Tepper
19. New York by Knight by Esther M. Friesner
20. The King of Ys: Roma Mater by Poul Anderson and Karen Anderson
21. The Hounds of God by Judith Tarr
22. The Unconquered Country by Geoff Ryman
23. Yarrow by Charles de Lint
24. The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell
25. Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
26. A Voice for Princess by John Morressy
27. Talking Man by Terry Bisson

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.   The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt

Other Nominees:
2.   Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
3.   A Hidden Place by Robert Charles Wilson
4.   Wrack & Roll by Bradley Denton
5.   The Cross-Time Engineer by Leo Frankowski
6.   No Safe Place by Anne Moroz
7.   Sentience by Terry A. Adams
8.   (tie) The Doomsday Effect by Thomas Wren
      (tie) Windmaster's Bane by Tom Deitz
10. The Game of Fox and Lion by Robert R. Chase
11. Fire Sanctuary by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
12. Warchild by Richard Bowes
13. Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr
14. The Curse of Sagamore by Kara Dalkey
15. The Star Country by Michael Cassutt
16. The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea
17. The Burning Stone by Deborah Turner Harris

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   R & R by Lucius Shepard

Other Nominees:

2.   Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson

3.   Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo by John Varley
4.   Gilgamesh in the Outback by Robert Silverberg
5.   Collision by James Tiptree, Jr.
6.   Spice Pogrom by Connie Willis
7.   Voice in the Dark by Jack McDevitt
8.   Good Night, Sweethearts by James Tiptree, Jr.
9.   As Big as the Ritz by Gregory Benford
10. Dydeetown Girl by F. Paul Wilson
11. Though the Heavens Fall by Harry Turtledove
12. Born from the Beast by Vance Aandahl
13. Hotel Mind Slaves by Ronald Anthony Cross
14. Eifelheim by Michael F. Flynn
15. The Head of Shemesh the Eshurian by Avram Davidson
16. Newton Sleep by Gregory Benford

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   Thor Meets Captain America by David Brin

Other Nominees:
2.   Hatrack River by Orson Scott Card
3.   The Glass Flower by George R.R. Martin
4.   The Winter Market by William Gibson
5.   Permafrost by Roger Zelazny
6.   Of Space-Time and the River by Gregory Benford
7.   Aymara by Lucius Shepard
8.   Fire Zone Emerald by Lucius Shepard
9.   The Arcevoalo by Lucius Shepard
10. Salvage by Orson Scott Card (reviewed in The Folk of the Fringe)
11. The Girl Who Fell into the Sky by Kate Wilhelm
12. The Barbarian Princess by Vernor Vinge
13. Windows by Ian Watson
14. Chance by Connie Willis
15. Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes by Somtow Sucharitkul
16. Fill It With Regular by Michael Shea
17. Into Gold by Tanith Lee
18. Against Babylon by Robert Silverberg
19. The Beautiful and the Sublime by Bruce Sterling
20. Video Star by Walter Jon Williams
21. Cold Light by Ian Watson
22. The News from D Street by Andrew Weiner
23. (tie) The Prisoner of Chillon by James Patrick Kelly
      (tie) The Pure Product by John Kessel
25. Voices by Michael Bishop
26. The Gate of Ghosts by Karen Joy Fowler
27. Grave Angels by Richard Kearns
28. Surviving by Judith Moffett
29. The Metaphysical Gun by Wayne Wightman

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov (reviewed in Robot Dreams)

Other Nominees:

2.   Down and Out in the Year 2000 by Kim Stanley Robinson

3.   Rat by James Patrick Kelly
4.   Tangents by Greg Bear
5.   The Boy Who Plaited Manes by Nancy Springer
6.   Alien Graffiti by Michael Bishop
7.   Face Value by Karen Joy Fowler
8.   Thorn by Robert Holdstock
9.   Pretty Boy Crossover by Pat Cadigan
10. Jeff Beck by Lewis Shiner
11. Voyage South from Thousand Willows by Lucius Shepard
12. Our Town by Kim Stanley Robinson
13. The Lions Are Asleep This Night by Howard Waldrop
14. And So to Bed by Harry Turtledove
15. Blindsight by Robert Silverberg
16. Strangers on Paradise by Damon Knight
17. Lo, How an Oak E'er Blooming by Suzette Haden Elgin
18. Fair Game by Howard Waldrop
19. The Idea Trap by George Zebrowski
20. Phone Repairs by Nancy Kress
21. Snake-Eyes by Tom Maddox
22. Skintwister by Paul Di Filippo
23. State of the Art by Robert Charles Wilson
24. Sea Change by Scott Baker

Best Collection
Winner:

1.   Blue Champagne by John Varley

Other Nominees:
2.   Burning Chrome by William Gibson
3.   Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop
4.   Visible Light by C.J. Cherryh
5.   Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin
6.   The River of Time by David Brin
7.   Callahan's Secret by Spider Robinson
8.   Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov
9.   Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler
10. The Planet on the Table by Kim Stanley Robinson
11. In Alien Flesh by Gregory Benford
12. The Starry Rift by James Tiptree, Jr.
13. Close Encounters with the Deity by Michael Bishop
14. Dreams of Dark and Light by Tanith Lee
15. Cascade Point and Other Stories by Timothy Zahn
16. Tales of the Quintana Roo by James Tiptree, Jr.
17. Merlin's Booke by Jane Yolen
18. Beyond the Safe Zone by Robert Silverberg
19. Retief in the Ruins by Keith Laumer
20. The Complete Nebula Award-Winning Fiction by Samuel R. Delany
21. Kaeti & Company by Keith Roberts

Best Anthology
Winner:

1.   The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:

2.   Wild Cards edited by George R.R. Martin

3.   Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year #15 edited by Terry Carr
4.   Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology edited by Bruce Sterling

5.   Afterlives: Stories About Life After Death edited by Pamela Sargent and Ian Watson

6.   Universe 16 edited by Terry Carr
7.   The Hugo Winners, Volume 5: 1980-1982 edited by Isaac Asimov
8.   Heroes in Hell edited by Janet Morris

9.   The 1986 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha

10. Cutting Edge edited by Dennis Etchison
11. Tales from the Spaceport Bar edited by George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer
12. L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume II edited by Algis Budrys
13. Hitler Victorious edited by Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg
14. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. IV edited by Terry Carr

15. Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories: 15 (1953) edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg

16. Nebula Awards 21 edited by George Zebrowski
17. Uncollected Stars edited by Piers Anthony
18. The Year's Best Horror Stories: XIV edited by Karl Edward Wagner
19. Shadows 9 edited by Charles L. Grant
20. The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 12 edited by Arthur W. Saha
21. Under the Wheel edited by Elizabeth Mitchell

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:

1.   Trillion Year Spree by Brian W. Aldiss with David Wingrove

Other Nominees:

2.   Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick by Paul Williams

3.   The John W. Campbell Letters, Vol. 1 edited by Perry A. Chapdelaine, Sr., Tony Chapdelaine, and George Hay

4.   Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Special Effects by Thomas G. Smith
5.   Science Fiction in Print: 1985 by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento
6.   The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural edited by Jack Sullivan
7.   The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller with Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley

8.   Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines edited by Marshall B. Tymn and Mike Ashley

9.   Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers, Second Edition edited by Curtis C. Smith

10. Lightship by Chris Evans, art by Jim Burns
11. H.R. Giger's Necronomicon 2 by H.R. Giger

12. Inside Outer Space: Science Fiction Professionals Look at Their Craft edited by Sharon Jarvis

13. . . . And the Lurid Glare of the Comet by Brian W. Aldiss
14. Hard Science Fiction edited by George E. Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin
15. Galaxy Magazine: The Dark and the Light Years by David L. Rosheim
16. Chroma: The Art of Alex Schomburg by Jon Gustafson, art by Alex Schomburg

Best Magazine or Fanzine
Winner:
1.   Fantasy & Science Fiction

Other Nominees:
2.   Asimov's
3.   Analog
4.   Omni
5.   Amazing Stories
6.   Interzone
7.   Twilight Zone
8.   Science Fiction Chronicle
9.   Fantasy Review
10. Science Fiction Review
11. Night Cry
12. Starlog

Best Publisher
Winner:
1.   Ballantine/Del Rey

Other Nominees:
2.   Tor
3.   Putnam/Berkley/Ace
4.   Bantam
5.   DAW
6.   Baen
7.   Arbor House
8.   Bluejay
9.   Doubleday
10. Phantasia
11. Warner/Popular Library/Questar
12. Arkham House
13. Donald M. Grant
14. NAL/Signet
15. Gollancz
16. Underwood-Miller
17. Avon

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Jim Burns
3.   J.K. Potter
4.   Frank Kelly Freas
5.   Darrell Sweet
6.   Don Maitz
7.   Rowena Morrill
8.   Boris Vallejo
9.   Barclay Shaw
10. David A. Cherry
11. David Mattingly
12. H.R. Giger
13. Thomas Kidd
14. Victoria Poyser
15. Vincent Di Fate
16. Tom Canty
17. Phil Foglio
18. Carl Lundgren
19. David Hardy
20. Robert Gould

Go to previous year's nominees: 1986
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1988

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1987 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: Due to the specific rules of the Mythopoeic Awards, a series is eligible as a whole in the year that its final volume appears. In addition to the nomination for Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry this year, R.A. MacAvoy had previously been nominated for her Damiano Trilogy in 1985. I have mixed feelings about these sorts of inclusions in award nominations, because of the inherent difficulty in comparing a single book, like most nominees, with a series of books such as these. On the other hand, the two most famous authors of the Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, were known for book series like the Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Space Trilogy, so it seems somewhat fitting to honor this sort of literary product in the Mythopoeic Awards.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
The Folk of the Air by Peter S. Beagle

Other Nominees:

The Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road) by Guy Gavriel Kay

Merlin's Booke by Jane Yolen
Tales from the Flat Earth by Tanith Lee

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion by Richard Purtill

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1986
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1988

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1987 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Conspiracy '87 in Brighton, England.

Comments: In 1987, Orson Scott Card accomplished something that no other author had before when Speaker for the Dead won the Hugo Award for Best Novel becoming the first author to win the Best Novel award in consecutive years for a book and its sequel. In an interesting twist, Card's book beat out another sequel to a Hugo winning novel, William Gibson's follow up to Neuromancer titled Count Zero. On a lesser note, somehow L. Ron Hubbard's incredibly crappy Black Genesis managed to secure a Hugo nomination, possibly due to Scientologists stuffing the ballot box.

In the Best Dramatic Presentation category another sequel won the Hugo, as the James Cameron directed Aliens took home the prize. And once more, a Star Trek movie was nominated for a Hugo, but lost.

Best Novel

Winner:
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Other Nominees:
Black Genesis by L. Ron Hubbard
Count Zero by William Gibson
Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge
The Ragged Astronauts by Bob Shaw

Best Novella

Winner:

Gilgamesh in the Outback by Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:
Eifelheim by Michael F. Flynn
Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson
R&R by Lucius Shepard
Spice Pogrom by Connie Willis

Best Novelette

Winner:

Permafrost by Roger Zelazny

Other Nominees:
The Barbarian Princess by Vernor Vinge
Hatrack River by Orson Scott Card
Thor Meets Captain America by David Brin
The Winter Market by William Gibson

Best Short Story

Winner:

Tangents by Greg Bear

Other Nominees:
The Boy Who Plaited Manes by Nancy Springer
Rat by James Patrick Kelly
Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov (reviewed in Robot Dreams)
Still Life by David S. Garnett

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:

Trillion Year Spree by Brian W. Aldiss with David Wingrove

Other Nominees:
The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller with Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley
Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Special Effects by Thomas G. Smith
Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick by Paul Williams
Science Fiction In Print: 1985 by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Aliens

Other Nominees:
The Fly
Labyrinth
Little Shop of Horrors
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Terry Carr

Other Nominees:
Gardner Dozois
Edward L. Ferman
David G. Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Jim Burns

Other Nominees:
Frank Kelly Freas
Tom Kidd
Don Maitz
J.K. Potter
Barclay Shaw

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown

Other Nominees:
Fantasy Review edited by Robert A. Collins
Interzone edited by Simon Ounsley and David Pringle
Science Fiction Chronicle edited by Andrew Porter
Science Fiction Review edited by Richard E. Geis

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Ansible edited by Dave Langford

Other Nominees:
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Lan's Lantern edited by George "Lan" Laskowski
Texas SF Inquirer edited by Pat Mueller
Trapdoor edited by Robert Lichtman

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Dave Langford

Other Nominees:
Mike Glyer
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Arthur Hlavaty
Simon Ounsley
D. West
Owen Whiteoak [nomination withdrawn]

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Brad W. Foster

Other Nominees:
Steve Fox
Stu Schiffman
Arthur "Atom" Thomson
Taral Wayne

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Karen Joy Fowler

Other Nominees:
Lois McMaster Bujold
Leo Frankowski
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
Rebecca Ore
Robert Reed

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1986
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1987 Nebula Award Reviews

Location: Halloran House Hotel, New York City, New York.

Comments: In 1987 Orson Scott Card won the Best Novel Nebula for Speaker for the Dead. This win was historic, in that because Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead both won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, Card became the first author to pull of that feat for a novel and its sequel in successive years. However, this is something of a disappointment because when one evaluates the Speaker for the Dead, it is good, but not great, and probably not as good a couple of the other nominees such as Count Zero and The Handmaid's Tale. Oddly, given Card's espoused political and social positions, it seems to me like he probably doesn't regard Atwood's cautionary tale as a dystopia, but rather a political future to be coveted and desired.

However, after the embarrassing ballots of the early 1980s, the Nebula Awards seem to have gotten themselves turned around a little bit in 1987, with seven of the twenty-four nominations going to works penned by female authors. There was still a ways to go to get to something resembling real gender equity, but at least the ratio wasn't horribly unbalanced this year.

Best Novel

Winner:
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Other Nominees:
Count Zero by William Gibson
Free Live Free by Gene Wolfe
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Journal of Nicholas the American by Leigh Kennedy
This Is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow

Best Novella

Winner:

R&R by Lucius Shepard

Other Nominees:
Dydeetown Girl by F. Paul Wilson
Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson
Gilgamesh in the Outback by Robert Silverberg
Newton Sleep by Gregory Benford

Best Novelette

Winner:

The Girl Who Fell into the Sky by Kate Wilhelm

Other Nominees:
Aymara by Lucius Shepard
Hatrack River by Orson Scott Card
Listening to Brahms by Suzy McKee Charnas
Permafrost by Roger Zelazny
Surviving by Judith Moffett
The Winter Market by William Gibson

Best Short Story

Winner:
Tangents by Greg Bear

Other Nominees:
The Boy Who Plaited Manes by Nancy Springer
The Lions Are Asleep This Night by Howard Waldrop
Pretty Boy Crossover by Pat Cadigan
Rat by James Patrick Kelly
Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov (reviewed in Robot Dreams)

Go to previous year's nominees: 1986
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1988

Book Award Reviews     Home