1991 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: Through the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, the members of the Libertarian Futurist Society seem to have been playing a game with themselves. They repeatedly nominated works like Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Levin's This Perfect Day, and Zamyatin's We, and then turned around and voted for books like Wilson's An Enemy of the State to be inducted into the Prometheus Award Hall of Fame. This pattern seems to me to be the result of the voters nominating works that they think they should be reading, but when the time came to vote for the winner, they voted for the books they were actually reading, leading to a collection of high-quality nominees losing out to an array of mediocre winners.

Best Novel

Winner:

In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn

Other Nominees:

The Cybernetic Shogun by Victor Milán

The Tery by F. Paul Wilson
Under the Yoke by S.M. Stirling
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

Hall of Fame

Winner:

An Enemy of the State by F. Paul Wilson

Other Nominees:
Circus World by Barry B. Longyear
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Go to previous year's nominees: 1990
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1992

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1991 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: In 1991, Pacific Edge, Kim Stanely Robinson's final installment in his Three Californias series, won the Campbell Award. This victory seems to continue a trend among award voters to give a nod to the final book in a series as a way to recognize the series as a whole, regardless of whether it was the best book in the series or not. There seems to be a trend in genre fiction towards making publishing a trilogy length series of book the de facto standard, with stand-alone novels becoming rarer and rarer. I have to wonder if this tendency of award voters to ignore books until they are the third or fourth in a series has influenced this trend, as authors and editors spend their time trying to chase accolades by pushing out more and more series fiction.

Best Novel

Winner:

Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson

Second Place:

Queen of Angels by Greg Bear

Third Place:

Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow

Go to previous year's nominees: 1990
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1992

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1991 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: After an absence of several years, the slate of nominees for the Scholarship Award returned in 1991, possibly as a preview for the expanded slate of awards that would show up in 1992. Whether this addition of non-winning nominees for the Scholarship Award was a harbinger of the split of both of the Mythopoeic Award categories or not is entirely unclear, but it does allow us to see what competition George Sayer's work had for the award, and be able to evaluate their relative merits.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner

Other Nominees:

The Books of Great Alta (Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna) by Jane Yolen

Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow
Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times by George Sayer

Other Nominees:
Owen Barfield on C.S. Lewis by Owen Barfield
The Pattern in the Web: The Mythical Poetry of Charles Williams by Roma A. King

A Purgatorial Flame: Seven British Writers in the Second World War by Sebastian Knowles

The Taste of the Pineapple: Essays on C.S. Lewis as Reader, Critic, and Imaginative Writer edited by Bruce L. Edward

Go to previous year's nominees: 1990
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1992

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1991 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Tuscon, Arizona.

Comments: The 1991 World Fantasy Awards were the home of some small controversy when Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess won the Best Short Story Award for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The problem was not that the story wasn't good enough to win, but rather that it had been published in graphic form, as part of the Sandman comic book series. I've always found these kinds of controversies to be silly - if the writing is good enough, and the work otherwise meets all of the requirements of the category, why does it matter if it was published in a "traditional" format or as a graphic novel? This sort of complaint seems almost petty to me. If great fantasy fiction is being produced, then it should be recognized regardless of the details regarding its publication.

Best Novel

Winner:
(tie) Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow
(tie) Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner

Other Nominees:
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

Best Novella

Winner:
Bones by Pat Murphy

Other Nominees:
The Barrens by F. Paul Wilson
Black Cocktail by Jonathan Carroll
The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
A Midsummer Night's Dream by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

Other Nominees:
Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson
The Last Feast of Harlequin by Thomas Ligotti
Stephen by Elizabeth Massie

Best Anthology

Winner:

Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell

Other Nominees:
Alien Sex edited by Ellen Datlow
Borderlands edited by Thomas F. Monteleone
Dark Voices 2: The Pan Book of Horror edited by David Sutton and Stephen Jones
Walls of Fear edited by Kathryn Cramer

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Best Collection

Winner:
The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories by Carol Emshwiller

Other Nominees:
The Brains of Rats by Michael Blumlein
Houses Without Doors by Peter Straub
The Leiber Chronicles by Fritz Leiber
Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Ray Russell

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Dave McKean

Other Nominees:
Janet Aulisio
David Bergen
Brian Froud
Don Maitz
J.K. Potter

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Arnie Fenner

Other Nominees:
Ellen Datlow
S.T. Joshi
Paul Mikol and Scot Stadalsky
David Pringle

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Richard T. Chizmar

Other Nominees:
Barry Hoffman
Marc Michaud
Steve Pasechnick

Go to previous year's nominees: 1990
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1992

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1991 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: As one might expect from an award that was given to an almost iconic piece of feminist fiction in its first cycle, the Clarke Awards seem to have caught on more quickly that other genre awards to the fact that women make up half of the population, and are just as capable of turning out fantastic works of genre fiction as men are. And in 1991, the judges showed that they had learned this lesson, as three of the six nominees were works by women. Compared to other awards like Campbell Award and Prometheus Award, and even the Hugo Award and Nebula Award, this recognition of reality is like a breath of fresh air.

Winner
Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland

Runner-Up
Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle

Shortlist
The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
Farewell Horizontal by K.W. Jeter
Red Spider, White Web by Misha
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1990
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1992

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1991 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1991 the relatively new Best Horror Novel category was renamed the Best Horror or Dark Fantasy Novel. This renaming highlights what I think are the problematic aspects of the category, namely, what are the borders between "horror", "dark fantasy", and plain old "fantasy"? Genre fiction is replete with fuzzy borders - the demarcation between Science Fiction and Fantasy can be awfully blurred at times - but in the case of these three designations, they seem to overlap more than they describe three different genres.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Other Nominees:
2.   Earth by David Brin
3.   Queen of Angels by Greg Bear
4.   The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
5.   Voyage to the Red Planet by Terry Bisson

6.   Stranger in a Strange Land [Expanded Edition] (original uncut edition) by Robert A. Heinlein

7.   The Quiet Pools by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
8.   The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
9.   Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
10. The Ring of Charon by Roger MacBride Allen
11. Pegasus in Flight by Anne McCaffrey
12. Raising the Stones by Sheri S. Tepper
13. Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson
14. The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman
15. Redshift Rendezvous by John E. Stith
16. Summertide by Charles Sheffield
17. Polar City Blues by Katharine Kerr
18. The World at the End of Time by Frederik Pohl
19. Clarke County, Space by Allen M. Steele
20. The Hollow Earth by Rudy Rucker
21. The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey
22. In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn
23. The Ghost from the Grand Banks by Arthur C. Clarke
24. The Divide by Robert Charles Wilson
25. Agviq by Michael A. Armstrong
26. Heathern by Jack Womack

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
2.   Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
3.   Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
4.   Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow
5.   Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner
6.   The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
7.   The Blood of Roses by Tanith Lee
8.   Servant of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
9.   Drink Down the Moon by Charles de Lint
10. Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle
11. Ghostwood by Charles de Lint
12. Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett
13. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
14. Time and Chance by Alan Brennert
15. In Between Dragons by Michael Kandel
16. Gossamer Axe by Gaèl Baudino
17. Chase the Morning by Michael Scott Rohan
18. Castleview by Gene Wolfe

Best Horror or Dark Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Other Nominees:
2.   The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition by Stephen King
3.   Moon Dance by S.P. Somtow
4.   Tempter by Nancy A. Collins
5.   The Werewolves of London by Brian Stableford
6.   Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin
7.   Dark Matter by Garfield Reeves-Stevens
8.   Fire by Alan Rodgers
9.   The Bad Place by Dean R. Koontz
10. Gothic Romance by Emmanuel Carrère

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.   In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn

Other Nominees:
2.   Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand
3.   Arachne by Lisa Mason
4.   Golden Fleece by Robert J. Sawyer
5.   An Abyss of Light by Kathleen M. O'Neal
6.   Black Snow Days by Claudia O'Keefe
7.   In the Net of Dreams by William Mark Simmons
8.   Nightlight by Michael Cadnum
9.   Cortez on Jupiter by Ernest Hogan
10. Keepers of the Peace by Keith Brooke
11. The Interior Life by Katherine Blake
12. The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   A Short, Sharp Shock by Kim Stanley Robinson

Other Nominees:

2.   Heads by Greg Bear

3.   The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman
4.   Bones by Pat Murphy
5.   Lion Time in Timbuctoo by Robert Silverberg
6.   Fool to Believe by Pat Cadigan
7.   Kalimantan by Lucius Shepard
8.   Skull City by Lucius Shepard
9.   Elegy for Angels and Dogs by Walter Jon Williams
10. Mr. Boy by James Patrick Kelly
11. Bully! by Mike Resnick
12. Bwana by Mike Resnick
13. Naught for Hire by John E. Stith
14. Trembling Earth by Allen M. Steele
15. Mammy Morgan Played the Organ, Her Daddy Beat the Drum by Michael F. Flynn
16. Weatherman by Lois McMaster Bujold
17. The First Since Ancient Persia by John Brunner
18. The Cairene Purse by Michael Moorcock

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   Entropy's Bed at Midnight by Dan Simmons

Other Nominees:
2.   Dr. Pak's Preschool by David Brin
3.   The Shobies' Story by Ursula K. Le Guin
4.   Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang
5.   And the Angels Sing by Kate Wilhelm
6.   A Braver Thing by Charles Sheffield
7.   Invaders by John Kessel
8.   Piecework by David Brin
9.   Inertia by Nancy Kress
10. The All-Consuming by Lucius Shepard and Robert Frazier
11. The Shores of Bohemia by Bruce Sterling
12. The Safe-Deposit Box by Greg Egan
13. Toward Kilimanjaro by Ian McDonald

14. The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, a Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk by Dafydd ab Hugh

15. (tie) Mrs. Byres and the Dragon by Keith Roberts
      (tie) UFO by Michael Swanwick
17. Hot Sky by Robert Silverberg
18. Hyena Eyes by Ray Aldridge
19. The Caress by Greg Egan
20. Timekeeper by John Morressy
21. The Last Feast of Harlequin by Thomas Ligotti
22. Transit of Betelgeuse by Robert R. Chase
23. Chaff by Robert Reed
24. Limekiller at Large by Avram Davidson
25. The Death Artist by Alexander Jablokov
26. The Haunted Boardinghouse by Gene Wolfe
27. Simulation Six by Steven Gould
28. Stephen by Elizabeth Massie
29. The Spiral Dance by R. Garcia y Robertson

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson

Other Nominees:

2.   Cibola by Connie Willis

3.   Godspeed by Charles Sheffield
4.   The First Time by K.W. Jeter
5.   Zürich by Kim Stanley Robinson
6.   Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates by Pat Murphy
7.   Husbands by Lisa Tuttle
8.   White City by Lewis Shiner
9.   We See Things Differently by Bruce Sterling
10. The Utility Man by Robert Reed
11. Axiomatic by Greg Egan
12. Missolonghi 1824 by John Crowley
13. Designated Hitter by Harry Turtledove
14. Lieserl by Karen Joy Fowler
15. True Colors by Kathe Koja
16. Shore Leave Blacks by Nancy Etchemendy
17. Learning to Be Me by Greg Egan
18. (tie) The Cold Cage by Ray Aldridge
      (tie) Midnight News by Lisa Goldstein
19. Après Moi by Gardner Dozois
20. The Sadness of Detail by Jonathan Carroll
21. VRM-547 by W.R. Thompson
22. Over Flat Mountain by Terry Bisson
23. Arousal by Richard Christian Matheson
24. Projects by Geoffrey A. Landis
25. Lizard Lust by Lisa Tuttle

Best Collection
Winner:

1.   Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card by Orson Scott Card

Other Nominees:
2.   Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
3.   Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons
4.   N-Space by Larry Niven
5.   The Leiber Chronicles by Fritz Leiber
6.   (tie) The Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard
       (tie) Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
8.   The Gateway Trip by Frederik Pohl
9. Points of Departure by Pat Murphy
10. The Shield of Time by Poul Anderson
11. Facets by Walter Jon Williams
12. Slow Dancing Through Time by Gardner Dozois
13. Lunar Activity by Elizabeth Moon
14. The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard
15. Houses Without Doors by Peter Straub
16. War Fever by J.G. Ballard
17. The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories by Carol Emshwiller

Best Anthology
Winner:

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

Other Nominees:

2.   Alien Sex edited by Ellen Datlow

3.   The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

4.   Universe 1 edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber

5.   The 1990 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha

6.   Borderlands edited by Thomas F. Monteleone
7.   Nebula Awards 24 edited by Michael Bishop
8.   Project Solar Sail edited by Arthur C. Clarke

9.   Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine: Issue Nine: Fall 1990 edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

10. Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror edited by Paul M. Sammon
11. Zenith 2 edited by David S. Garnett

12. Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories: 20 (1958) edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg

13. Skin of the Soul edited by Lisa Tuttle

14. Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories: 21 (1959) edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg

15. Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine: Issue Seven: Spring 1990 edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

16. The Mammoth Book of Vintage Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1950s edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh

17. The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XVIII edited by Karl Edward Wagner
18. Women of Darkness II edited by Kathryn Ptacek
19. Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell

20. L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume VI edited by Algis Budrys

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:

1.   Science Fiction Writers of America Handbook edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

Other Nominees:

2.   How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

3.   Science Fiction in the Real World by Norman Spinrad
4.   H.R. Giger's Biomechanics by H.R. Giger
5.   Hollywood Gothic by David J. Skal
6.   Bury My Heart at W.H. Smith's by Brian W. Aldiss

7.   Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror: 1989 by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento

8.   The Weird Tale by S.T. Joshi
9.   Fantasy Literature: A Reader's Guide edited by Neil Barron
10. C.S. Lewis: A Biography by A.N. Wilson
11. Horror Literature: A Reader's Guide edited by Neil Barron
12. Don't Tell the Grown-Ups by Alison Lurie

13. Understanding American Science Fiction: The Formative Period, 1926-1970 by Thomas D. Clareson

14. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror: 1984 by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento

Best Editor
Winner:
1.   Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
2.   Ellen Datlow
3.   Kristine Kathryn Rusch
4.   Edward L. Ferman
5.   Stanley Schmidt
6.   David Pringle
7.   David G. Hartwell
8.   Donald A. Wollheim
9.   Terri Windling
10. Charles C. Ryan
11. Martin H. Greenberg
12. Beth Meacham

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Asimov's

Other Nominees:
2.   Fantasy & Science Fiction
3.   Analog
4.   Interzone
5.   Aboriginal SF
6.   Omni
7.   Weird Tales
8.   Amazing Stories
9.   Science Fiction Chronicle
10. Science Fiction Eye
11. Pulphouse
12. Quantum (formerly Thrust)
13. The New York Review of Science Fiction
14. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine

Best Publisher
Winner:
1.   Tor/St. Martin's

Other Nominees:
2.   Bantam/Doubleday/Dell
3.   Putnam/Berkley/Ace
4.   Ballantine/Del Rey/Fawcett
5.   Baen
6.   DAW
7.   Ziesing/Ursus
8.   Avon/Morrow
9.   Dark Harvest
10. Pulphouse/Axolotl
11. Warner/Popular Library/Questar
12. Arkham House
13. Penguin USA/Roc/Viking/Signet/NAL
14. Gollancz
15. Underwood-Miller

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Don Maitz
3.   Tom Canty
4.   J.K. Potter
5.   Gary Ruddell
6.   Keith Parkinson
7.   David A. Cherry
8.   Bob Eggleton
9.   Frank Kelly Freas
10. Boris Vallejo
11. W.J. Hodgson
12. Jim Burns
13. Janet Aulisio
14. Ilene Meyer
15. Darrell K. Sweet
16. Barclay Shaw
17. Thomas Kidd
18. (tie) Ian Miller
      (tie) Vincent Di Fate

Go to previous year's nominees: 1990
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1992

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