International Fantasy Award Winners for Best Fiction Book

Of the two categories given as International Fantasy Awards, the award for Best Fiction Book was the longer lived. This award was handed out every year from 1951 to 1955, and then after a year's hiatus, one last time in 1957. Clicking on the year will take you to a page listing all of the nominees for the International Fantasy Award for that year.

On the whole, this award was granted to deserving candidates. Of the six books that won, the only one I'd quibble with is John Collier's Fancies and Goodnights, mostly on the basis of the book being a collection of shorter, previously published stories rather than a novel, and that there were a couple novels published that year that were probably more deserving such as John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids, Isaac Asimov's Foundation, and Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. That said, Fancies and Goodnights is not a bad choice for a winning book, just, in my opinion, not quite as good as its competition.

1951: Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
1952: Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier
1953: City by Clifford D. Simak
1954: More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
1955: A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn

1957: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

What Are the International Fantasy Awards?

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