Comments: In 1989, Lois McMaster Bujold won the Best Novel Nebula for her brilliant book Falling Free. Although the competition, including William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive and Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun, was composed of first rate novels, Bujold's win was well-deserved.
In the Best Novella category, on the other hand, the wrong story won. While there is nothing wrong with Connie Willis' The Last of the Winnebagos, it was simply a criminal miscarriage of justice for any story to win over Jane Yolen's holocaust time travel story The Devil's Arithmetic.
Best Novel
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
Other Nominees:
Deserted Cities of the Heart by Lewis Shiner
Drowning Towers by George Turner
Great Sky River by Gregory Benford
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card
The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Best Novella
The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis
Other Nominees:
The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians by Bradley Denton
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Journals of the Plague Years by Norman Spinrad
The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter by Lucius Shepard
Surfacing by Walter Jon Williams
Best Novelette
Schrödinger's Kitten by George Alec Effinger
Other Nominees:
Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance? by Howard Waldrop
Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus by Neal Barrett, Jr.
The Hob by Judith Moffett
Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick
Peaches for Mad Molly by Steven Gould
Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh by Ian McDonald
Best Short Story
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge by James Morrow
Other Nominees:
The Color Winter by Steven Popkes
Dead Men on TV by Pat Murphy
The Fort Moxie Branch by Jack McDevitt
Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner by John Kessel
Voices of the Kill by Thomas M. Disch
Go to previous year's nominees: 1988
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1990
Book Award Reviews Home
