Tuesday, December 31, 1985

1985 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: 1985 is another year in which the Campbell Award result, in retrospect, seem wrong, mostly because we now know what a pervasive influence William Gibson's novel Neuromancer has had upon the field of science fiction. Essentially heralding the coming of age of the "cyberpunk" subgenre, Gibson's work inspired and shaped the way science fiction developed from the day it was published forward. It is now almost impossible to find a science fiction novel that doesn't draw upon the ideas found in Neuromancer. And yet, in 1985, it came in third in the Campbell Awards, behind two good novels that have simply not turned out to be turning points in the history of science fiction.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Years of the City by Frederik Pohl

Second Place:
Green Eyes by Lucius Shepard

Third Place:
Neuromancer by William Gibson

Go to previous year's nominees: 1984
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1986

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