1996 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: 1996 represents a clear turnaround from 1994, when apparently no science fiction novel was good enough to win the Campbell Award, because in this year the first and the second place novels were both deserving of the top prize. Both Stephen Baxter and Neal Stephenson are brilliant, although very different, writers, and The Time Ships and The Diamond Age are both examples of them at the top of their respective games. Unfortunately for Stephenson, the judges didn't see fit to place his novel in a tie for first place, and Baxter walked away with the trophy.

Best Novel

Winner:

The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter

Second Place:

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Third Place:

Chaga (aka Evolution's Shore) by Ian McDonald

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

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1996 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: Another year, another set of nominees in the Inklings Studies category that focus exclusively on Tolkien and Lewis. As a counterweight to this predictability, the two fantasy literature categories included both books by fantasy fiction royalty like Patricia A. McKillip, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper and relative newcomers like Sylvia Waugh and Sherwood Smith as well as a work by Kenneth Morris, an author who died in 1937. This variety, much more so than the hidebound obsession over two authors displayed in the Inklings Studies category, is what makes the Mythopoeic Awards interesting and keeps them fresh. Endless rehashing of the works of a single author, or a pair of authors, is a dead end path that leads to a moribund award, and the sooner the Mythopoeic Society realizes this, the better.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Waking the Moon (Revised) by Elizabeth Hand

Other Nominees:

All the Bells on Earth by James P. Blaylock

The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip
Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop
The Dragon Path by Kenneth Morris

Best Children's Fantasy Literature

Winner:
The Crown of Dalemark by Diana Wynne Jones

Other Nominees:
The Boggart by Susan Cooper
Falcon's Egg by Luli Gray
The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh
Wren's War by Sherwood Smith

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull

Other Nominees:
C.S. Lewis: A Reference Guide, 1927-1988 by Susan Lowenberg
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Patterning of a Fantastic World by Colin Manlove
The Fiction of C.S. Lewis: Mask and Mirror by Kath Filmer
The Hobbit: A Journey into Maturity by William H. Green

Myth and Fantasy Studies

Winner:

From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers by Marina Warner

Other Nominees:

The Seed and the Vision: On the Writing and Appreciation of Children's Books by Eleanor Cameron

T.H. White's The Once and Future King by Elisabeth Brewer

When Toys Come Alive: Narratives of Animation, Metamorphosis, and Development by Lois Rostow Kuznets

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

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1996 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: After an absence of two years, the "runner-up" category returned to the Clarke Awards in 1996. Why? I have no idea. For the most part I have simply given up trying to figure out the rhyme or reason for the ever fluctuating methodologies used by genre awards.

On a more concrete note, 1996 was the year that Paul J. McAuley finally won a Clarke Award. As one of the most prominent British science fiction authors of recent years, he had been nominated multiple times for the award, but until 1996 he had always been a bridesmaid and never the bride.

Winner
Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley

Runner-Up
The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod

Shortlist
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Happy Policeman by Patricia Anthony
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

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1996 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Schaumburg, Illinois.

Comments: Though the pace of change can be glacial, sometimes when the wheel turns, it turns in a hurry. And when it comes to female representation in the World Fantasy Awards, the turnaround, incomplete though it was, was rapid. Although the Awards had only gotten around to honoring Ursula K. Le Guin for her impressive body of work in 1995, and their track record of nominating and honoring women prior to that had been spotty at best, in 1996, the field was filled with contributions from female authors and editors. Gwyneth Jones won two awards, one for Best Short Fiction and one for Best Collection, and the Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women won in the Best Anthology category. Every fiction category had at least one female nominee, and more than one category had multiple female nominees. The only category devoid of women was the Best Artist category. Actual equity had not yet been achieved, but substantial steps in that direction had been taken.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Other Nominees:
All the Bells on Earth by James P. Blaylock
Expiration Date by Tim Powers
Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra
Requiem by Graham Joyce
The Silent Strength of Stones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Best Novella

Winner:
Radio Waves by Michael Swanwick

Other Nominees:
Ether OR by Ursula K. Le Guin
Home for Christmas by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom by Jonathan Lethem
More Tomorrow by Michael Marshall Smith
Where They Are Hid by Tim Powers

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
The Grass Princess by Gwyneth Jones

Other Nominees:
Angel Thing by Petrina Smith
Dragon's Fin Soup by S.P. Somtow
Loop by Douglas E. Winter
The Perseids by Robert Charles Wilson
The Singing Marine by Kit Reed

Best Anthology

Winner:

The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women edited by A. Susan Williams and Richard Glyn Jones

Other Nominees:
Dark Love edited by Nancy A. Collins, Edward E. Kramer, and Martin H. Greenberg
Dark Terrors edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
High Fantastic edited by Steve Rasnic Tem
She's Fantastical edited by Lucy Sussex and Judith Raphael Buckrich

Best Collection

Winner:

Seven Tales and a Fable by Gwyneth Jones

Other Nominees:
Death Stalks the Night by Hugh B. Cave
The Ivory and the Horn by Charles de Lint
The Panic Hand by Jonathan Carroll
The Secret of This Book (aka Common Clay) by Brian W. Aldiss

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Gene Wolfe

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Gahan Wilson

Other Nominees:
Thomas Canty
Alan M. Clark
Bob Eggleton
J.K. Potter

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Richard Evans

Other Nominees:
Stephen Jones
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Gordon van Gelder
Paul Williams

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Marc Michaud

Other Nominees:
Fedogan & Bremer
Robert K.J. Killheffer, Meg Hamel, and Jenna A. Felice
Steve Pasechnick
Robert Weinberg

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

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1996 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1996, the Libertarian Futurist Society went back to its roots and inducted Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novel Red Planet into its Hall of Fame. This is one of the fortuitous circumstances in which the book inducted was both an decent example of the libertarian ideology and also a very good book. Red Planet also just happens to be one of my favorite of Heinlein's juvenile novels, so for me, that's an additional bonus.

Best Novel

Winner:

The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod

Other Nominees:

CLD (Collective Landing Detachment) by Victor Milán

Design for Great-Day by Alan Dean Foster and Eric Frank Russell
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Hall of Fame

Winner:

Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

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