Friday, December 31, 1999

1999 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: The most interesting thing about the 1999 Campbell Award results is not the winner, although George Zebrowski's dytopian future involving asteroid penal colonies is an excellent book. No, the most interesting thing is the nomination for Poul Anderson's book Starfarers in the twilight of the author's career. It is fairly common for an older author to receive a nomination (or even an award) late in their career for a book that is clearly not their best material more or less as a way to recognize them for their earlier, better work. But in Anderson's case, this nomination was clearly not of this sort, as Starfarers is clearly one of Anderson's better pieces of fiction, easily as good as, for example, Boat of a Million Years. Even this late in his life, Anderson was still churning out excellent fiction.

Best Novel

Winner:
Brute Orbits by George Zebrowski

Second Place:
Starfarers by Poul Anderson

Third Place:
Distraction by Bruce Sterling

Go to previous year's nominees: 1998
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2000

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