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Thursday, December 31, 1998

1998 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1998 the Libertarian Futurist Society reached into its bag of tricks and decided to hand out a Special Prometheus Award for the Free Space anthology edited by Brad Linaweaver and Edward E. Kramer. That the Libertarian Futurist Society would want to honor such a book is completely unsurprising, given the subject matter of the book and the stature of the writers contributing to it. But the fact that they had to go outside of the normal process and honor the book with a "Special Award" points towards the limitations of the Prometheus Awards - they only normally honor novels and "classic" works of libertarian thought in any media form (as would become apparent a few years after this in which the Society would honor the BBC television program The Prisoner). But if there is a current work of libertarian fiction that isn't a novel, there is no way to honor the work other than the ad hoc method of giving it a special award.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod

Other Nominees:
Bretta Martyn by L. Neil Smith
Finity's End by C.J. Cherryh
The Fleet of Stars by Poul Anderson
Nanotime by Bart Kosko

Hall of Fame

Winner:
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
The Mirror Maze by James P. Hogan
Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson
A Planet for Texans (aka Lonestar Planet) by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell

Special Award

Winner:
Free Space edited by Brad Linaweaver and Edward E. Kramer

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1997
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home

1998 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: The most interesting thing about the 1998 Clarke Awards is not that Mary Doria Russell won for The Sparrow, her novel about first contact with aliens gone wrong, because there is no question that her work is a deserving winner. No, the interesting thing is that Stephen Baxter was nominated yet again and didn't win. Baxter seems to be nominated almost every year, and yet he has never won a Clarke Award, and must hold some sort of record for the most nominations without a victory.

Winner
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Shortlist
Days by James Lovegrove
The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper
Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand
Nymphomation by Jeff Noon
Titan by Stephen Baxter

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1997
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home

1998 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: As quickly as they had been merged together in 1997, the Best Adult Fantasy Literature and Best Children's Fantasy Literature categories were once again split apart in 1998. Given that one of the nominees this year in the Children's Fantasy Literature category was Jane Yolen's three part Young Merlin series, which had an installment published in 1996 (and which as a result would have been eligible for nomination in 1997), the decision to merge the two categories seems all the more mystifying.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt

Other Nominees:
Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle
The Gift by Patrick O'Leary
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Trader by Charles de Lint

Best Children's Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Young Merlin (Passager, Hobby, and Merlin) by Jane Yolen

Other Nominees:
The Boggart and the Monster by Susan Cooper
A Dark Horn Blowing by Dahlov Ipcar
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:
A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to "Faërie" by Verlyn Flieger

Other Nominees:
C.S. Lewis Index: Rumours from the Sculptor's Shop by Janine Goffar
C.S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide by Walter Hooper
Charles Williams: A Celebration edited by Brian Horne
Finding the Landlord: A Guidebook to C.S. Lewis's The Pilgrim's Regress by Kathryn Lindskoog

Myth and Fantasy Studies

Winner:
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy edited by John Clute and John Grant

Other Nominees:
Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination by Richard Mathews
Lord Dunsany: Master of the Anglo-Irish Imagination by S.T. Joshi
The Supernatural and English Fiction by Glen Cavaliero

Go to previous year's nominees: 1997
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home

1998 Cambpell Award Nominees

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

Comments: Although Forever Peace is not his best novel, the fact that Haldeman didn't win for The Forever War couldn't be remedied in 1998 in any way other than by honoring the similarly named although not really connected current novel. It didn't hurt that the competition was not particularly stellar, although as has been the case for many of the Campbell Award ballots, it was exclusively male. I wonder if the result might have been a little tighter if the judges had considered the books written by other half of the human species.

Best Novel

Winner:
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

Second Place:
/ Slant by Greg Bear

Third Place:
Secret Passages by Paul Preuss

Go to previous year's nominees: 1997
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home

1998 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Monterey, California.

Comments: The 1998 World Fantasy awards had some minor controversy when it was discovered that Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel The Club Dumas was not actually eligible for the award, as it had been first translated and published in English in 1996. The novel was withdrawn from the ballot and replaced by Eric S. Nylund's Dry Water, so all ended up more or less as it should have been. But this raises a couple of questions, the first of which is don't the World Fantasy Awards have people who are supposed to check on these sorts of issues before they announce the final slate of nominees? This problem was caused by an apparent inability to check dates, which seems like a reasonably easy thing to do. The second question that is raised is how would anyone think that a replacement entry on the ballot would have a chance of winning? I'm sure Dry Water is a fine book, but the judges were essentially being told "this book wasn't good enough to get on the same slate as the four other remaining nominees, but now that we need a replacement for a withdrawn nominee, try to give it a fair shake even though you know we originally considered it to be inferior to them all". Obviously, it didn't win, but the fact that it was on the ballot at all seems to have been supremely unfair to Nylund given the circumstances of its placement there.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford

Other Nominees:
American Goliath by Harvey Jacobs
Dry Water by Eric S. Nylund
The Gift by Patrick O'Leary
Trader by Charles de Lint
The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte [nomination withdrawn]

Best Novella

Winner:
Streetcar Dreams by Richard Bowes

Other Nominees:
Coppola's Dracula by Kim Newman
The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins by Brian Hodge
The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
The Zombies of Madison County by Douglas E. Winter

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Dust Motes by P.D. Cacek

Other Nominees:
Audience by Jack Womack
Fortune and Misfortune by Lisa Goldstein
Get a Grip by Paul Park
The Inner Inner City by Robert Charles Wilson

Best Anthology

Winner:
Bending the Landscape: Fantasy edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel

Other Nominees:
Dark Terrors 3 edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
Modern Classics of Fantasy edited by Gardner Dozois
Northern Frights 4 edited by Don Hutchison
Revelations (U.K. title: Millennium) edited by Douglas E. Winter

Best Collection

Winner:
The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton

Other Nominees:
Driving Blind by Ray Bradbury
Fractal Paisleys by Paul Di Filippo
A Geography of Unknown Lands by Michael Swanwick
Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Edward L. Ferman
Andre Norton

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Alan Lee

Other Nominees:
Rick Berry
Jim Burns
Don Maitz
Dave McKean

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
John Clute and John Grant

Other Nominees:
Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
Stephen Jones
Gordon van Gelder

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Fedogan & Bremer

Other Nominees:
Richard Chizmar
Chris Logan Edwards
Barry Hoffman
Jeff VanderMeer and Tom Winstead

Go to previous year's nominees: 1997
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home

Friday, August 7, 1998

1998 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: BucConeer in Baltimore, Maryland.

Comments: Although Joe Haldeman's Best Novel winning Forever Peace sounds like it should be a sequel to his Hugo-Award winning The Forever War, it is an entirely different story, with entirely different characters. However, like Haldeman's earlier book, Forever Peace is a thoughtful and devastating examination of the consequences of war in a future more technologically advanced age.

The one category in this year that I have a quibble with is the Best Dramatic Presentation award. While it was probably inevitable that the movie Contact would win, given its big budget production and the fact that it was based upon a book written by the deservedly well-respected Carl Sagan, it seems criminal that Babylon 5 didn't even get a single nomination for any of the episodes of its stellar fourth season. Among great episodes like Falling Toward Apotheosis, Into the Fire, Intersections in Real Time, and Endgame, certainly there was one that deserved at least a slight nod. But no, the voters had to reward Veerhoeven's execrable treatment of Starship Troopers and the airy fluff of Men in Black instead. There is no justice in the world.

Best Novel

Winner:
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

Other Finalists:
City on Fire by Walter Jon Williams
Frameshift by Robert J. Sawyer
Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

Best Novella

Winner:
. . . Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen M. Steele

Other Finalists:
Ecopoiesis by Geoffrey A. Landis
The Funeral March of the Marionettes by Adam-Troy Castro
Loose Ends by Paul Levinson
Marrow by Robert Reed

Best Novelette

Winner:
We Will Drink a Fish Together . . . by Bill Johnson

Other Finalists:
Broken Symmetry by Michael A. Burstein
Moon Six by Stephen Baxter
Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream by James Alan Gardner
The Undiscovered by William Sanders

Best Short Story

Winner:
The 43 Antarean Dynasties by Mike Resnick

Other Finalists:
Beluthahatchie by Andy Duncan
The Hand You're Dealt by Robert J. Sawyer
Itsy Bitsy Spider by James Patrick Kelly
No Planets Strike by Gene Wolfe
Standing Room Only by Karen Joy Fowler

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy edited by John Clute and John Grant

Other Finalists:
Infinite Worlds: The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art by Vincent Di Fate
Reflections and Refractions: Thoughts on Science-Fiction, Science, and Other Matters by Robert Silverberg
Space Travel by Ben Bova with Anthony R. Lewis
Spectrum 4: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner, with Jim Loehr

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Contact

Other Finalists:
The Fifth Element
Gattaca
Men in Black
Starship Troopers

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Other Finalists:
Scott Edelman
David G. Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon van Gelder

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Bob Eggleton

Other Finalists:
Jim Burns
Thomas Canty
David A. Cherry
Don Maitz
Michael Whelan

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown

Other Finalists:
Interzone edited by David Pringle
The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, Ariel Haméon, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin Maroney
Science Fiction Chronicle edited by Andrew I. Porter
Speculations edited by Kent Brewster and Denise Lee

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Mimosa edited by Dick Lynch and Nicki Lynch

Other Finalists:
Ansible edited by Dave Langford
Attitude edited by Michael Abbott, John Dallman, and Pam Wells
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Tangent edited by David Truesdale

Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Bob Devney
Mike Glyer
Andy Hooper
Evelyn C. Leeper
Joseph T. Major

Best Fan Artist

Winner:
Joe Mayhew

Other Finalists:
Brad W. Foster
Ian Gunn
Teddy Harvia
Peggy Ranson

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Mary Doria Russell

Other Finalists:
Raphael Carter
Andy Duncan
Richard Garfinkle
Susan R. Matthews

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's finalists: 1997
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home

Friday, July 3, 1998

1998 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Westercon in San Diego, California.

Comments: Science fiction readers are, I think more than the fans of any other genre, lovers of the history of the genre. As evidence of this, I point to the 1998 nominees for Best Collection. The winner in the category was a collection by Harlan Ellison, an author who started his career in the 1960s. Closely behind Ellison were collections by Alfred Bester and Theodore Sturgeon, both of whom had been at their most prolific in the 1950s. Also on the list was a collection of the works of Cyril M. Kornbluth, an author who died in 1958. I don't know if avid readers of other fiction genres so eagerly snap up and consume the works of authors forty or fifty years after it was first produced, or honor such works with awards at such a time distance either, but I doubt they do.

It seems odd to me, however, that science fiction readers seem so fond of nostalgia. One would think that people who consume fiction that looks to the future would also look forward instead of back, but that seems not to be the case. If you ask a science fiction fan to recommend a book, they are likely to suggest something that was first published forty or fifty years ago, and even requests for recent recommendation often results in a suggestion that is twenty or more years old.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

Other Nominees:
2.   Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson
3.   Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
4.   Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman by Walter M. Miller, Jr. with Terry Bisson
5.   Finity's End by C.J. Cherryh
6.   / Slant by Greg Bear
7.   Diaspora by Greg Egan
8.   Fool's War by Sarah Zettel
9.   Titan by Stephen Baxter
10. 3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
11. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton
12. God's Fires by Patricia Anthony
13. Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel
14. Destiny's Road by Larry Niven
15. Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt
16. The Black Sun by Jack Williamson
17. The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper
18. Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand
19. Secret Passages by Paul Preuss
20. The Fleet of Stars by Poul Anderson
21. Mississippi Blues by Kathleen Ann Goonan
22. The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
23. (tie) Dreaming Metal by Melissa Scott
      (tie) Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield
25. The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss
26. Once a Hero by Elizabeth Moon
27. Einstein's Bridge by John Cramer
28. Deception Well by Linda Nagata

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Earthquake Weather by Tim Powers

Other Nominees:
2.   Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick
3.   City on Fire by Walter Jon Williams
4.   The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
5.   Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
6.   The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
7.   Freedom & Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull
8.   Trader by Charles de Lint
9.   The Gift by Patrick O'Leary
10. Winter Tides by James P. Blaylock
11. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
12. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
13. Dogland by Will Shetterly
14. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
15. Lord of the Isles by David Drake
16. Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn by Robert Holdstock
17. Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks
18. The Mines of Behemoth by Michael Shea
19. My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
20. The Night Watch by Sean Stewart
21. The Stars Dispose by Michaela Roessner
22. The Blackgod by J. Gregory Keyes

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.    The Great Wheel by Ian R. MacLeod

Other Nominees:
2.   Expendable by James Alan Gardner
3.   Black Wine by Candas Jane Dorsey
4.   An Exchange of Hostages by Susan R. Matthews
5.   Mars Underground by William K. Hartmann
6.   The Art of Arrow Cutting by Stephen Dedman
7.   The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman
8.   Lightpaths by Howard V. Hendrix
9.   A Thousand Words for Stranger by Julie E. Czerneda
10. Waking Beauty by Paul Witcover
11. The Troika by Stepan Chapman
12. The Stone Prince by Fiona Patton
13. Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis
14. Iron Dawn by Matthew Woodring Stover
15. The Seventh Heart by Marina Fitch
16. The Seraphim Rising by Elisabeth DeVos

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   . . . Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen M. Steele

Other Nominees:
2.   Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle
3.   The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich by Fritz Leiber
4.   Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
5.   Marrow by Robert Reed
6.   The Golden Keeper by Ian R. MacLeod
7.   The Vampire's Beautiful Daughter by S.P. Somtow
8.   Ecopoiesis by Geoffrey A. Landis
9.   A Cold Dry Cradle by Gregory Benford and Elisabeth Malartre
10. Messengers of Chaos by G. David Nordley
11. Quinn's Deal by L. Timmel Duchamp
12. The Black Blood of the Dead by Brian Stableford
13. Coppola's Dracula by Kim Newman
14. In the Furnace of the Night by James Sarafin
15. The Veil of Snows by Mark Helprin
16. The Funeral March of the Marionettes by Adam-Troy Castro
17. Briar Rose by Robert Coover
18. Izzy and the Father of Terror by Eliot Fintushel

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   Newsletter by Connie Willis

Other Nominees:
2.   Moon Six by Stephen Baxter
3.   Lethe by Walter Jon Williams
4.   Galaxia by Gregory Benford
5.   Reasons to be Cheerful by Greg Egan
6.   Julie's Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
7.   Mother Grasshopper by Michael Swanwick
8.   We Will Drink a Fish Together . . . by Bill Johnson
9.   The Pipes of Pan by Brian Stableford
10. Escape Route by Peter F. Hamilton
11. Echoes by Alan Brennert
12. Beauty in the Night by Robert Silverberg
13. Blood and Judgment by John Brunner
14. Second Skin by Paul J. McAuley
15. Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream by James Alan Gardner
16. London Bone by Michael Moorcock
17. The Dragons of Springplace by Robert Reed
18. El Castillo de la Perseverancia by Howard Waldrop
19. After Kerry by Ian McDonald
20. On the Ice Islands by Gregory Feeley
21. The Undiscovered by William Sanders
22. Quinn's Way by Dale Bailey
23. The Botanist by Mary Rosenblum
24. Crossing Chao Meng Fu by G. David Nordley
25. Residuals by Paul J. McAuley and Kim Newman

Best Short Story
Winner:
1.   Itsy Bitsy Spider by James Patrick Kelly

Other Nominees:
2.   Scientifiction by Howard Waldrop
3.   Zemlya by Stephen Baxter
4.   The 43 Antarean Dynasties by Mike Resnick
5.   Get a Grip by Paul Park
6.   The Wisdom of Old Earth by Michael Swanwick
7.   On the Inside by Robert Silverberg
8.   No Planets Strike by Gene Wolfe
9.   Always True to Thee, in My Fashion by Nancy Kress
10. Standing Room Only by Karen Joy Fowler
11. The Hand You're Dealt by Robert J. Sawyer
12. Glass Earth Inc. by Stephen Baxter
13. Winter Fire by Geoffrey A. Landis
14. Gulliver at Home by John Kessel
15. An Office Romance by Terry Bisson
16. The Heart of Whitenesse by Howard Waldrop
17. Flash Company by Gene Wolfe
18. Orphanogenesis by Greg Egan
19. Booming Ice by Robert Reed

Best Collection
Winner:
1.   Slippage by Harlan Ellison

Other Nominees:
2.   His Share of Glory: The Complete Short Science Fiction of C.M. Kornbluth by Cyril M. Kornbluth
3.   Axiomatic by Greg Egan
4.   Virtual Unrealities by Alfred Bester
5.   Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly
6.   Thunder and Roses: Volume IV: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon, edited by Paul Williams
7.   Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle
8.   Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter
9.   Going Home Again by Howard Waldrop
10. The Pure Product by John Kessel
11. Barnacle Bill the Spacer and Other Stories by Lucius Shepard
12. The Forest of Time and Other Stories by Michael F. Flynn
13. A Geography of Unknown Lands by Michael Swanwick
14. Back in the U.S.S.A. by Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman
15. The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances by Peter S. Beagle
16. Exorcisms and Ecstasies by Karl Edward Wagner
17. (tie) The Arbitrary Placement of Walls by Martha Soukup
      (tie) Voyages by Starlight by Ian R. MacLeod
19. Eating Memories by Patricia Anthony
20. Fractal Paisleys by Paul Di Filippo
21. Fabulous Harbours by Michael Moorcock

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

Other Nominees:
2.   The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
3.   Year's Best SF 2 edited by David G. Hartwell
4.   The Science Fiction Century edited by David G. Hartwell
5.   Millennium (aka Revelations) edited by Douglas E. Winter
6.   The Best of Interzone edited by David Pringle
7.   Black Swan, White Raven edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
8.   The Horns of Elfland edited by Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Donald G. Keller
9.   Nebula Awards 31 edited by Pamela Sargent
10. New Worlds edited by David Garnett
11. Bending the Landscape: Fantasy edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel
12. Love in Vein II edited by Poppy Z. Brite and Martin H. Greenberg
13. The New Hugo Winners Volume IV edited by Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg
14. Dying For It edited by Gardner Dozois
15. Black Mist and Other Japanese Futures edited by Orson Scott Card and Keith Ferrell
16. Modern Classics of Fantasy edited by Gardner Dozois
17. A Century of Science Fiction, 1950-1959 edited by Robert Silverberg

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:
1.   The Encyclopedia of Fantasy edited by John Clute and John Grant

Other Nominees:
2.   Reflections and Refractions: Thoughts on Science-Fiction, Science, and Other Matters by Robert Silverberg
3.   Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction, Revised Edition by James E. Gunn
4.   Outposts: Literatures of Milieux by Algis Budrys
5.   St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers edited by David Pringle
6.   Bram Stoker's Dracula edited by Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal
7.   Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars by Brooks Landon
8.   Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry by Jack Zipes
9.   A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosopy of H.P. Lovecraft by S.T. Joshi
10. Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index: 1992-1995 edited by Hal W. Hall

Best Art Book
Winner:
1.   Infinite Worlds: The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art by Vincent Di Fate

Other Nominees:
2.   Spectrum 4: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner with Jim Loehr
3.   Something in My Eye: Excursions into Fear by Michael Whelan; edited by Arnie Fenner and Cathy Fenner
4.   "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison, illustrated by Rick Berry
5.   www HRGiger com by H.R. Giger
6.   The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King, illustrated by Dave McKean
7.   (tie) A Treasury of Great Children's Book Illustrators by Susan E. Meyer
      (tie) The Veil of Snows by Mark Helprin, illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Best Editor
Winner:
1.   Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
2.   David G. Hartwell
3.   Gordon van Gelder
4.   Ellen Datlow
5.   Stanley Schmidt
6.   David Pringle
7.   Scott Edelman
8.   Patrick Nielsen Hayden
9.   Martin H. Greenberg
10. Terri Windling
11. Kristine Kathryn Rusch
12. Shawna McCarthy

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Asimov's

Other Nominees:
2.   Fantasy & Science Fiction
3.   Science Fiction Age
4.   Analog
5.   Interzone
6.   Realms of Fantasy
7.   The New York Review of Science Fiction
8.   Science Fiction Chronicle

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

Other Nominees:
2.   Bantam/Dell
3.   HarperCollins (U.S.)
4.   Putnam/Ace
5.   Random House/Del Rey
6.   Baen
7.   Avon/Morrow
8.   DAW
9.   Penguin/Roc
10. Warner
11. White Wolf
12. Mark V. Ziesing
13. NESFA Press

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Bob Eggleton
3.   Vincent Di Fate
4.   Thomas Canty
5.   (tie) H.R. Giger
      (tie) Don Maitz
7.   Jim Burns
8.   Rick Berry
9.   Dave McKean

Go to previous year's nominees: 1997
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home

Saturday, May 2, 1998

1998 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Comments: The 1998 Nebula awards are more notable for who didn't win the Best Novel Award than for who did. Vonda N. McIntyre won for her excellent novel The Moon and the Sun, but sitting on the list of losing nominees is George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Now, A Game of Thrones isn't the first book from a wildly popular series to lose an award, but looking back at this list it seems almost funny that it wasn't the winner, just because given the acclaim that the series has since garnered, one would assume that it had. It is also interesting to see how long ago this was: books eligible for this cycle of the Nebula Awards were published in 1997. That's sixteen years ago, and Martin just recently published volume five in the series for an average pace of less than one book every three years.

However, the 1998 Nebula awards were interesting for a happier although not entirely untarnished reason: writing by women seems to have been getting recognized more regularly in more recent years. Three of the four Nebula Awards went to works written by women, although only nine total entries were. This is a better situation, but not ideal, since the implication is that women could get on the ballot if their work is truly superior - resulting in the high winning percentage among female authors - but the bar for a woman to get on the ballot was still higher than it was for men.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre

Other Nominees:
Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt
Bellwether by Connie Willis
City on Fire by Walter Jon Williams
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

Best Novella

Winner:
Abandon in Place by Jerry Oltion

Other Nominees:
. . . Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen M. Steele
Chrysalis by Robert Reed
The Funeral March of the Marionettes by Adam-Troy Castro
Loose Ends by Paul Levinson
Primrose and Thorn by Bud Sparhawk

Best Novelette

Winner:
The Flowers of Aulit Prison by Nancy Kress

Other Nominees:
The Copyright Notice Case by Paul Levinson
The Dog's Story by Eleanor Arnason
The Miracle of Ivar Avenue by John Kessel
Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream by James Alan Gardner
The Undiscovered by William Sanders
We Will Drink a Fish Together . . . by Bill Johnson

Best Short Story

Winner:
Sister Emily's Lightship by Jane Yolen

Other Nominees:
Burning Bright by K.D. Wentworth
The Crab Lice by Gregory Feeley
The Dead by Michael Swanwick
The Elizabeth Complex by Karen Joy Fowler
Itsy Bitsy Spider by James Patrick Kelly

Go to previous year's nominees: 1997
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1999

Book Award Reviews     Home