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Saturday, December 31, 1988

1988 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: The most noteworthy thing I can say about the 1988 Campbell awards is that I have no idea whether any of these books are good or not, because I haven't read any of them. Usually I will have read one or two of the books that appeared on the year's ballot, or I will know the books by reputation, or at least know something about one or more of the authors whose works were nominated. But not only have I not read any of the three books that appeared in this year's slate, I have only read one book by one of the authors - Connie Willis' novel Passage, and that's clearly an insufficient basis to form an opinion about an author's body of work.

Best Novel

Winner:
Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis

Second Place:
The Sea and Summer by George Turner

Third Place:
The Unconquered Country by Geoff Ryman

Go to previous year's nominees: 1987
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1989

Book Award Reviews     Home

1988 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, London, United Kingdom.

Comments: In 1988, the Best Anthology or Collection category was split up into two categories aimed at honoring Anthologies and Collections separately., presumably because these two types of compilations are distinctly different and the nominee field containing both sets of books was a little overcrowded. The voters responded by promptly voting The Architecture of Fear and The Dark Descent into a tie for first place in the Best Anthology category.

Sadly, the split of Best Anthology or Collection into two different categories seems to have come at the cost of the Special Convention Award category, which is unfortunate. Many of the winners in the Special Convention award category were deserving people who had been otherwise egregiously overlooked by the World Fantasy Awards, meaning that losing this category was something of a step backwards for the awards.

Best Novel

Winner:
Replay by Ken Grimwood

Other Nominees:
Ægypt by John Crowley
Misery by Stephen King
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
Weaveworld by Clive Barker

Best Novella

Winner:
Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
Best Friends by Robert R. McCammon
The Boy Who Came Back from the Dead by Alan Rodgers
A Hypothetical Lizard by Alan Moore
Nesting Instinct by Scott Baker
The Pear-Shaped Man by George R.R. Martin
Shades by Lucius Shepard

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Friend's Best Man by Jonathan Carroll

Other Nominees:
Angel by Pat Cadigan
Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands by Garry Kilworth
In the House of Gingerbread by Gene Wolfe
Pamela's Get by David J. Schow
Splatter: A Cautionary Tale by Douglas E. Winter

Best Anthology

Winner:
(tie) The Architecture of Fear edited by Kathryn Cramer and Peter D. Pautz
(tie) The Dark Descent edited by David G. Hartwell

Other Nominees:
In the Field of Fire edited by Jeanne Van Buren Dann and Jack Dann
Masques II edited by J.N. Williamson
Night Visions 4 edited by Anonymous
Other Edens edited by Christopher Evans and Robert Holdstock
The Year's Best Horror Stories: XV edited by Karl Edward Wagner

Best Collection

Winner:
The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard

Other Nominees:
Night's Sorceries by Tanith Lee
Polyphemus by Michael Shea
Scared Stiff, Tales of Sex and Death by Ramsey Campbell
Why Not You and I? by Karl Edward Wagner

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Everett F. Bleiler

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
J.K. Potter

Other Nominees:
Tom Canty
Harry O. Morris
Michael Whelan

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
David G. Hartwell

Other Nominees:
Gardner Dozois
Tappan King
Dean R. Koontz
Shawna McCarthy
George Scithers
Terri Windling

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
(tie) Robert Garcia and Nancy Garcia
(tie) David B. Silva

Other Nominees:
Stephen Jones and David Sutton
Paul Mikol and Scot Stadalsky

Go to previous year's nominees: 1987
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1989

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1988 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: The Clarke Award is something of strange animal. The eligibility requirements are that a book must be in the science fiction genre, and it must be first published in Britain. Leaving aside the eternally elusive definition of what is and is not "in the science fiction genre", the publication requirement is the quirky element. Unlike, for example, the Aurealis Awards, which honor works of science fiction written by Australians, the Clarke Award honors works of science fiction published in Britain, regardless of whether the author is from Britain or not. This tends to result in British authors being nominated, as they are the most likely authors to have their work published in Britain first, but it seems to have resulted in a fair number of non-British authors arranging to have their books published in Britain first so as to be eligible for this award, which I think somewhat defeats its purpose.

Winner
The Sea and Summer by George Turner

Runner-Up
Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem

Shortlist
Ægypt by John Crowley
Ancient of Days by Michael Bishop
Gráinne by Keith Roberts
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint
Replay by Ken Grimwood

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1987
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1989

Book Award Reviews     Home

1988 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: 1988 is the first time I have had a serious disagreement with the results of the Mythopoeic Award for Fantasy Literature. I simply don't think that Orson Scott Card's novel Seventh Son should have won the award. While Seventh Son is not a bad novel, it is basically just a fairly routine hodgepodge of folklore thrown into an alternate history of the United States. In comparison, all of the other nominees were simply much more creative and interesting - an observation that is substantiated when one looks at some of the other genre awards handed out in 1988, with Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman winning a Nebula Award, and Connie Willis' Lincoln's Dreams winning the Campbell Award.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

Other Nominees:
The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:
C.S. Lewis by Joe R. Christopher

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1987
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1989

Book Award Reviews     Home

1988 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1988, David Brin won the Locus Awards' Best Science Fiction Novel category with The Uplift War, his sequel to the Locus Award winning novel Startide Rising. This was the first time a novel and its direct sequel had won the Locus Award, and as such, this was quite a feather in Brin's cap. This was also the third time overall that Brin had won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction novel, which is also an impressive accomplishment. What this highlights is that Brin was one of the defining authors of the science fiction genre in the 1980s. And what is so interesting about this is how clearly his fiction was reacting against the dominant American political paradigm of the era. In a decade defined by Reagan's outsize personality, Brin's writing tackled themes like environmentalism and evolution as well as condemning ideas such as jingoism, colonialism, and the notion that humanity holds a special place in the universe. And in doing so, Brin was doing one of the things that science fiction does best, which is to point out where the status quo is problematic in one way or another.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   The Uplift War by David Brin

Other Nominees:
2.   When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
3.   The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
4.   The Forge of God by Greg Bear
5.   Life During Wartime by Lucius Shepard
6.   The Annals of the Heechee by Frederik Pohl
7.   Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick
8.   The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven
9.   Great Sky River by Gregory Benford
10. 2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke
11. The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes
12. To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert A. Heinlein
13. Memories by Mike McQuay
14. Fool's Run by Patricia A. McKillip
15. The Secret Ascension by Michael Bishop
16. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
17. Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
18. Intervention by Julian May
19. After Long Silence by Sheri S. Tepper
20. Code Blue — Emergency! by James White
21. Way of the Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson
22. Araminta Station by Jack Vance
23. Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams
24. The Awakeners: Northshore; Southshore by Sheri S. Tepper
25. Still River by Hal Clement
26. Dover Beach by Richard Bowker
27. Rumors of Spring by Richard Grant
28. Liege-Killer by Christopher Hinz
29. In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman
30. Little Heroes by Norman Spinrad
31. Replay by Ken Grimwood
32. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
33. A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

Other Nominees:
2.   On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
3.   Sign of Chaos by Roger Zelazny
4.   Weaveworld by Clive Barker
5.   Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis
6.   Ægypt by John Crowley
7.   The Witches of Wenshar by Barbara Hambly
8.   The Grey Horse by R.A. MacAvoy
9.   Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter
10. Guardians of the West by David Eddings
11. A Man Rides Through by Stephen R. Donaldson
12. Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony
13. War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
14. Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll
15. Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
16. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
17. Land of Dreams by James P. Blaylock
18. Strange Toys by Patricia Geary
19. Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
20. The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley
21. Never the Twain by Kirk Mitchell
22. Darkspell by Katharine Kerr
23. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
24. The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.   War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Other Nominees:
2.   Mindplayers by Pat Cadigan
3.   In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman
4.   Liege-Killer by Christopher Hinz
5.   The Net by Loren J. MacGregor
6.   Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
7.   Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore
8.   After the Zap by Michael A. Armstrong
9.   Reindeer Moon by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
10. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
11. Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint
12. Napoleon Disentimed by Hayford Peirce
13. A Death of Honor by Joe Clifford Faust
14. The American Book of the Dead by Stephen Billias
15. The Architects of Hyperspace by Thomas R. McDonough
16. The Shadow of His Wings by Bruce Fergusson
17. Pennterra by Judith Moffett
18. The Leeshore by Robert Reed
19. A Rose-Red City by Dave Duncan
20. The Movement of Mountains by Michael Blumlein
21. Station Gehenna by Andrew Weiner
22. Soldiers of Paradise by Paul Park
23. Teot's War by Heather Gladney
24. Soulstring by Midori Snyder
25. Frame of Reference by Jerry Oltion

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   The Secret Sharer by Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:
2.   The Blind Geometer by Kim Stanley Robinson
3.   Eye for Eye by Orson Scott Card
4.   Mother Goddess of the World by Kim Stanley Robinson
5.   Superwine by Harry Turtledove
6.   Glass Cloud by James Patrick Kelly
7.   The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
8.   Love Sickness by Geoff Ryman
9.   The Forest of Time by Michael F. Flynn
10. Saving Time by Russell Griffin
11. (tie) Displaced Person by Ian Stewart
      (tie) Fugue State by John M. Ford

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   Rachel in Love by Pat Murphy

Other Nominees:
2.   Shades by Lucius Shepard
3.   Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight by Ursula K. Le Guin
4.   Flowers of Edo by Bruce Sterling
5.   Dream Baby by Bruce McAllister
6.   America by Orson Scott Card (reviewed in The Folk of the Fringe)
7.   The Evening and the Morning and the Night by Octavia E. Butler
8.   On the Border by Lucius Shepard
9.   He-We-Await by Howard Waldrop
10. Winter's Tale by Connie Willis
11. Dinosaurs by Walter Jon Williams
12. Runaway by Orson Scott Card
13. Yanqui Doodle by James Tiptree, Jr.
14. A Hole in the Sun by Roger MacBride Allen
15. The Moon and Michelangelo by Ian Watson
16. Perpetuity Blues by Neal Barrett, Jr.
17. The Sun Spider by Lucius Shepard
18. The Pear-Shaped Man by George R.R. Martin
19. The Return from Rainbow Bridge by Kim Stanley Robinson
20. Cage 37 by Wayne Wightman
21. Adeste Fideles by Frederik Pohl
22. Skylab Done It by George Alec Effinger
23. Second Going by James Tiptree, Jr.
24. Mandikini by Gregory Benford
25. Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair by Charles de Lint
26. My Life as a Born Again Pig by Frederik Pohl
27. At the Cross-Time Jaunter's Ball by Alexander Jablokov
28. Extras by Robert Charles Wilson
29. Dutchman by Jack McDevitt

Best Short Story
Winner:
1.   Angel by Pat Cadigan

Other Nominees:
2.   The Faithful Companion at Forty by Karen Joy Fowler
3.   Delta Sly Honey by Lucius Shepard
4.   In Midst of Life by James Tiptree, Jr.
5.   The Glassblower's Dragon by Lucius Shepard
6.   Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers by Lawrence Watt-Evans
7.   Cassandra's Photographs by Lisa Goldstein
8.   Forever Yours, Anna by Kate Wilhelm
9.   Night of the Cooters by Howard Waldrop
10. Glass by Nancy Kress
11. To Hell with the Stars by Jack McDevitt
12. The Ghost Lemurs of Madagascar by William S. Burroughs
13. The Pardoner's Tale by Robert Silverberg
14. The Little Magic Shop by Bruce Sterling
15. Highbrow by Neal Barrett, Jr.
16. Schwarzschild Radius by Connie Willis
17. Diner by Neal Barrett, Jr.
18. The Circular Library of Stones by Carol Emshwiller
19. For Thus Do I Remember Carthage by Michael Bishop
20. Dæmon by James Patrick Kelly
21. The Iron Star by Robert Silverberg
22. The World Next Door by Brad Ferguson
23. Friend's Best Man by Jonathan Carroll
24. Lapidary Nights by Marta Randall
25. What Bleak Land by Robert F. Young
26. Crying in the Rain by Tanith Lee
27. Heroics by James Patrick Kelly
28. The Alien in the Lake by Andrew Weiner

Best Collection
Winner:
1. The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard

Other Nominees:
2.   The Essential Ellison by Harlan Ellison
3.   The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vols I-V by Philip K. Dick
4.   And the Gods Laughed by Fredric Brown
5.   All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past by Howard Waldrop
6.   Portraits of His Children by George R.R. Martin
7.   Cardography by Orson Scott Card
8.   Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences by Ursula K. Le Guin
9.   Night's Sorceries by Tanith Lee
10. Polyphemus by Michael Shea
11. True Names. . .and Other Dangers by Vernor Vinge
12. A Touch of Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon
13. The Bridge of Lost Desire by Samuel R. Delany
14. The Best of Pamela Sargent by Pamela Sargent
15. Why Not You and I? by Karl Edward Wagner
16. Getting Home by F.M. Busby
17. Evil Water by Ian Watson
18. Scared Stiff, Tales of Sex and Death by Ramsey Campbell
19. Chance and Other Gestures of the Hand of Fate by Nancy Springer

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

Other Nominees:
2.   In the Field of Fire edited by Jeanne Van Buren Dann and Jack Dann
3.   Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year #16 edited by Terry Carr
4.   Universe 17 edited by Terry Carr
5.   Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder edited by Robert Silverberg
6.   The Dark Descent edited by David G. Hartwell
7.   The 1987 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha
8.   The Universe edited by Byron Preiss
9.   Tales of the Witch World edited by Andre Norton
10. Other Edens edited by Christopher Evans and Robert Holdstock
11. Free Lancers edited by Elizabeth Mitchell
12. Sword and Sorceress IV edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley
13. Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories: 16 (1954) edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg
14. L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume III edited by Algis Budrys
15. Interzone: The 2nd Anthology edited by John Clute, David Pringle, and Simon Ounsley
16. Vampires edited by Alan Ryan
17. New Destinies, Volume II, Fall 1987 edited by Jim Baen
18. Whispers VI edited by Stuart David Schiff
19. Shadows 10 edited by Charles L. Grant
20. Synergy: New Science Fiction, Number 1 edited by George Zebrowski
21. The Year's Best Horror Stories: XV edited by Karl Edward Wagner
22. The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 13 edited by Arthur W. Saha
23. The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Sam J. Lundwall
24. Masques II edited by J.N. Williamson
25. The Architecture of Fear edited by Kathryn Cramer and Peter D. Pautz
26. Tales from the Forbidden Planet edited by Roz Kaveney

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:
1.   Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Other Nominees:
2.   Michael Whelan's Works of Wonder by Michael Whelan
3.   Anatomy of Wonder, 3rd Edition edited by Neil Barron
4.   Cvltvre Made Stvpid by Tom Weller
5.   Wizardry and Wild Romance by Michael Moorcock
6.   Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror: 1986 by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento
7.   How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction edited by J.N. Williamson
8.   The Battle of Brazil by Jack Matthews
9.   Mind in Motion, the Fiction of Philip K. Dick by Patricia S. Warrick
10. The Tale that Wags the God by James Blish
11. Foundations of Science Fiction by John J. Pierce
12. Imprisoned in a Tesseract: The Life of James Blish by David Ketterer
13. The Maker of Dune: Insights of a Master of Science Fiction by Frank Herbert
14. Robert Heinlein by Leon Stover
15. A Closer Look by Patrick Woodroffe
16. Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index, Vols I and II edited by Hal W. Hall

Best Magazine or Fanzine
Winner:
1.   Asimov's

Other Nominees:
2.   Fantasy & Science Fiction
3.   Analog
4.   Omni
5.   Amazing Stories
6.   Twilight Zone
7.   Aboriginal SF
8.   Interzone
9.   Science Fiction Chronicle
10. Starlog
11. File 770
12. Thrust
13. Science Fiction Eye

Best Publisher
Winner:
1.   Tor

Other Nominees:
2.   Ballantine/Del Rey
3.   Bantam Spectra
4.   Putnam/Berkley/Ace
5.   DAW
6.   Arbor House
7.   Baen
8.   Underwood-Miller
9.   St. Martin's
10. Warner/Popular Library
11. Arkham House
12. Doubleday
13. Phantasia
14. Donald M. Grant
15. Avon
16. Simon & Schuster/Pocket
17. Gollancz
18. NAL/Signet
19. Dark Harvest
20. Science Fiction Book Club

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Jim Burns
3.   J.K. Potter
4.   Frank Kelly Freas
5.   Boris Vallejo
6.   Rowena Morrill
7.   Don Maitz
8.   David A. Cherry
9.   Darrell K. Sweet
10. Tom Canty
11. Vincent Di Fate
12. Frank Frazetta
13. Bob Eggleton
14. David Mattingly
15. Carl Lundgren
16. W.J. Hodgson
17. Barclay Shaw

Go to previous year's nominees: 1987
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1989

Book Award Reviews     Home

1988 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: 1988 was the first year since the Hall of Fame category was introduced in which only a single work was honored by induction into it. This seems to have been a permanent shift away from inducting two novels per year, as from this point forward the only times that more than one novel has been inducted in a particular year has been when the results were specifically designated a "tie". This appears to have been a change from the first several years of the Hall of Fame award in which it seems that two novels were simply selected for induction each year rather than two novels tying for first place in the voting, although it is difficult to confirm that this was the case, as in these relatively early years of the Prometheus Awards the Libertarian Futurist Society doesn't appear to have kept any records of who the nominees for the category were, or the details of how the inductees were selected. Or if they did keep such records, they haven't seen fit to make them public.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Jehovah Contract by Victor Koman

Other Nominees:
Circuit Breaker by Melinda Snodgrass
First Citizen by Thomas T. Thomas
The Uplift War by David Brin
Way of the Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson

Hall of Fame

Winner:
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1987
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1989

Book Award Reviews     Home