1976 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California.

Comments: The three nominee limitation that had been used in the 1975 Nebula Awards was dropping in 1976, leading to much larger lists of nominees this year. The most interesting winner was Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, which was seen by many as a retort to Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers. Though many people have tried to gin up a controversy between the two authors, Heinlein and Haldeman appear to have held no animosity towards one another - my best guess is that each felt the others' novel served a different purpose than their own.

The other interesting winner was Young Frankenstein, which won in the Dramatic Presentation category. It's win, by itself, is not particularly noteworthy. It is a funny send up of classic horror movies, and was a worthy winner. But following on after Sleeper won in 1975, Young Frankenstein's win means that two comedic pieces won the Nebula Award in two consecutive years. Science fiction gets something of a rap as a genre in which comedy is not appreciated, but this seems to me to contradict that notion.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Other Nominees:
Autumn Angels by Arthur Byron Cover
The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee
The Computer Connection (serial title The Indian Giver) by Alfred Bester
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
The Embedding by Ian Watson
The Exile Waiting by Vonda N. McIntyre
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire by Michael Bishop
Guernica Night by Barry N. Malzberg
The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson
Missing Man by Katherine MacLean
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg

Best Novella

Winner:

Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny

Other Nominees:
A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree, Jr.
The Storms of Windhaven by Lisa Tuttle and George R.R. Martin
Sunrise West by William K. Carlson

Best Novelette

Winner:

San Diego Lightfoot Sue by Tom Reamy

Other Nominees:
The Bleeding Man by Craig Strete
Blooded on Arachne by Michael Bishop
The Custodians by Richard Cowper
The Dybbuk Dolls by Jack Dann
The Final Fighting of Fion Mac Cumhail by Randall Garrett
A Galaxy Called Rome by Barry N. Malzberg
The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin
Polly Charms, the Sleeping Woman by Avram Davidson

Retrograde Summer by John Varley (reviewed in Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 116, Nos. 6 & 7 (June/July 2009)

The Warlord of Saturn's Moons by Eleanor Arnason

Best Short Story

Winner:
Catch That Zeppelin! by Fritz Leiber

Other Nominees:
Attachment by Phyllis Eisenstein
Child of All Ages by P.J. Plauger
Doing Lennon by Gregory Benford
Find the Lady by Nicholas Fisk
Growing Up in Edge City by Frederik Pohl
Sail the Tide of Mourning by Richard Lupoff
A Scraping at the Bones by Algis Budrys
Shatterday by Harlan Ellison
Time Deer by Craig Strete
Utopia of a Tired Man by Jorge Luis Borges
White Creatures by Gregory Benford
White Wolf Calling by Charles L. Grant

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:

Young Frankenstein screenplay by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder; based on the novel by Mary Shelley

Other Nominees:

A Boy and His Dog screenplay by L.Q. Jones; based on the work by Harlan Ellison

Dark Star by John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon
Rollerball by William Harrison

Go to previous year's nominees: 1975
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1977

Book Award Reviews     Home

1975 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: 1975 was a good year for Ursula K. Le Guin, as she earned two Locus Award wins and two further nominations. It was also the year that the Locus Awards shook up their categories a bit, adding the Best Novelette category, and splitting the single author collections off on its own, to create three "collections of short fiction" categories: Best Single Author Collection, Best Original Anthology, and Best Reprint Anthology. And keeping with this theme, three of the series that gained nominations in the Original Anthology category - Orbit, New Dimensions, and Universe - also scored nominations in the Best Magazine category.

Best Novel
Winner:
1.   The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
2.   The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
3.   Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
4.   The Godwhale by T.J. Bass
5.   The Unsleeping Eye by D.G. Compton
6.   The Inverted World by Christopher Priest
7.   Fire Time by Poul Anderson
8.   The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
9.   The Dream Millennium by James White
10. The Twilight of Briareus by Richard Cowper
11. The Company of Glory by Edgar Pangborn
12. The Domains of Koryphon by Jack Vance
13. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
14. How Are the Mighty Fallen by Thomas Burnett Swann
15. Total Eclipse by John Brunner
16. The Destruction of the Temple by Barry N. Malzberg
17. Star Gate by Tak Hallus
18. Star Rider by Doris Piserchia
19. A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson
20. Prince of Annwn by Evangeline Walton
21. Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas
22. Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster
23. A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows by Poul Anderson

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   Born with the Dead by Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:

2.   A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

3.   Riding the Torch by Norman Spinrad
4.   Assault on a City by Jack Vance
5.   Strangers by Gardner Dozois
6.   The Marathon Photograph by Clifford D. Simak
7.   The Araqnid Window by Charles L. Harness
8.   On the Street of the Serpents by Michael Bishop
9.   Father by Pamela Sargent
10. Tin Soldier by Joan D. Vinge
11. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
12. Threads of Time by Gregory Benford
13. The East Coast Confinement by Arsen Darnay
14. The Kozmic Kid by Richard Snead

Best Novelette
Winner:

1.   Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W by Harlan Ellison (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
2.   The Pre-Persons by Philip K. Dick
3.   -That Thou Art Mindful of Him! by Isaac Asimov
4.   I'm Looking for Kadak by Harlan Ellison
5.   On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi by William Tenn
6.   Twig by Gordon R. Dickson
7.   Nix Olympica by William Walling
8.   If the Stars Are Gods by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
9.   After the Dreamtime by Richard Lupoff
10. The Seventeen Virgins by Jack Vance
11. The Raven and the Hawk by William Rotsler
12. Getting Home by F.M. Busby
13. Whale Song by Terry Melen
14. Catman by Harlan Ellison
15. The Gift of Garigolli by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth
16. Whatever Happened to Nick Neptune? by Richard Lupoff
17. A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls by Kate Wilhelm
18. A Little Something for Us Tempunauts by Philip K. Dick
19. Gate-o by Don Picard
20. A Matter of Gravity by Randall Garrett
21. And Keep Us from Our Castles by Cynthia Bunn
22. Forlesen by Gene Wolfe
23. Under Siege by Robert Thurston

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:

2.   The Hole Man by Larry Niven (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

3.   Schwartz Between the Galaxies by Robert Silverberg

4.   'The Author of the Acacia Seeds' and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics by Ursula K. Le Guin

5.   The Engine at Heartspring's Center by Roger Zelazny
6.   The Four-Hour Fugue by Alfred Bester
7.   Cathadonian Odyssey by Michael Bishop
8.   Enter a Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson
9.   Midnight by the Morphy Watch by Fritz Leiber
10. Royal Licorice by R.A. Lafferty
11. We Purchased People by Frederik Pohl
12. The Stars Below by Ursula K. Le Guin
13. Do You Know Dave Wenzel? by Fritz Leiber
14. Mysterious Doings at the Metropolitan Museum by Fritz Leiber
15. In the House of Double Minds by Robert Silverberg
16. The Mountains of Sunset, the Mountains of Dawn by Vonda N. McIntyre
17. Willowisp by Joe Pumilia
18. Enjoy, Enjoy by Frederik Pohl
19. Mute Inglorious Tam by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth

Best Single Author Collection
Winner:
1. The Best of Fritz Leiber by Fritz Leiber

Other Nominees:
2. A Hole in Space by Larry Niven
3. The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum by Stanley G. Weinbaum
4. Approaching Oblivion by Harlan Ellison
5. The Book of Fritz Leiber by Fritz Leiber
6. The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson by Poul Anderson
7. Case and the Dreamer by Theodore Sturgeon
8. Born with the Dead by Robert Silverberg

Best Original Anthology
Winner:
1.   Universe 4 edited by Terry Carr

Other Nominees:
2.   New Dimensions IV edited by Robert Silverberg
3.   Threads of Time edited by Robert Silverberg
4.   Orbit 14 edited by Damon Knight
5.   Stellar #1 edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey
6.   Wandering Stars edited by Jack Dann
7.   Universe 5 edited by Terry Carr
8.   Final Stage edited by Edward L. Ferman and Barry N. Malzberg
9.   2020 Vision edited by Jerry Pournelle
10. Continuum 1 edited by Roger Elwood
11. Fellowship of the Stars edited by Terry Carr
12. Continuum 2 edited by Roger Elwood
13. Science Fiction Emphasis I edited by David Gerrold
14. Orbit 13 edited by Damon Knight
15. Orbit 15 edited by Damon Knight

Best Reprint Anthology
Winner:
1.   Before the Golden Age edited by Isaac Asimov

Other Nominees:
2.   The Best Science Fiction of the Year #3 edited by Terry Carr

3.   The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction: A Special 25^th Anniversary Anthology edited by Edward L. Ferman

4.   The 1974 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha

5.   Nebula Award Stories Nine edited by Kate Wilhelm
6.   Alpha 5 edited by Robert Silverberg
7.   Modern Science Fiction edited by Norman Spinrad
8.   SF: Authors' Choice 4 edited by Harry Harrison
9.   Cosmic Laughter edited by Joe Haldeman

10. Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Third Annual Collection edited by Lester del Rey

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Edward L. Ferman

Other Nominees:
2.   Analog edited by Ben Bova
3.   Galaxy edited by Jim Baen
4.   Amazing Stories edited by Ted White
5.   If edited by Jim Baen
6.   Vertex edited by Don Pfeil
7.   Fantastic edited by Ted White
8.   The Alien Critic edited by Dick Geis
9.   Algol edited by Andy Porter
10. Universe edited by Terry Carr
11. Orbit edited by Damon Knight
12. New Dimensions edited by Robert Silverberg

Best Fanzine
Winner:
1.   Outworlds

Other Nominees:
2.   Yandro
3.   Karass
4.   (tie) Moebius Trip/SF Echo
      (tie) SF Commentary
6.   (tie) Prehensile
      (tie) Whispers
8.   Don-O-Saur
9.   Luna
10. Riverside Quarterly
11. Ash-Wing
12. Amra
13. Notes from the Chemistry Dept.
14. Starling
15. Fantasiae
16. Title
17. Amor de Cosmos

Best Critic
Winner:
1.   P. Schuyler Miller

Other Nominees:
2.   Dick Geis
3.   Theodore Sturgeon
4.   Dick Lupoff
5.   Lester del Rey
6.   Joanna Russ
7.   Harlan Ellison
8.   Dave Hartwell
9.   Baird Searles
10. Fritz Leiber
11. Buck Coulson
12. Brian W. Aldiss
13. Charlie Brown
14. Alexei Panshin and Cory Panshin
15. Paul Walker
16. Sidney Coleman
17. Ted White
18. Cy Chauvin
19. Don D'Ammassa

Best Hardback Publisher
Winner:
1. Science Fiction Book Club

Other Nominees:
2. Doubleday
3. Harper & Row
4. Putnam
5. Random House
6. Hyperion Press
7. Advent
8. Simon & Schuster
9. Donald M. Grant

Best Paperback Publisher
Winner:
1. Ballantine

Other Nominees:
2. DAW
3. Ace
4. Bantam
5. Berkley
6. Avon
7. Signet

Best Professional Artist
Winner:
1.   Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
2.   Tim Kirk
3.   John Schoenherr
4.   Frank Frazetta
5.   Rick Sternbach
6.   Jack Gaughan
7.   Steve Fabian
8.   George Barr
9.   Jeff Jones
10. Vincent Di Fate
11. Wendy Pini
12. Dean Ellis
13. Mike Hinge
14. Alicia Austin
15. Karel Thole
16. Paul Lehr
17. Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
18. Gahan Wilson
19. Ron Walotsky

Best Fan Artist
Winner:
1.   Tim Kirk

Other Nominees:
2.    Bill Rotsler
3.   Grant Canfield
4.   George Barr
5.   Alicia Austin
6.   James Shull
7.   Steve Fabian
8.   Jim McLeod
9.   Arthur Thomson
10. Helmut Pesch
11. Herb Arnold
12. Vincent Di Fate

Go to previous year's nominees: 1974
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1976

Book Award Reviews     Home

1975 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: Campbell Conference Awards Banquet in Lawrence, Kansas.

Comments: 1975 was the first year that the Campbell Awards didn't have an "odd" category, which was kind of an unusual development at this point in it's history. But other than noting the absence of a single-shot category, there's not much to say about it.

The results of the vote for Best Novel, on the other hand, leave me with something of a conundrum. While I'm a fan of Philip K. Dick, and I am always happy to see him having gotten the recognition that he clearly deserved despite commercial success always eluding him, I am somewhat disappointed that Ursula K. Le Guin didn't win. I like Philip K. Dick, and his work is always interesting, but I harbor a deep and abiding love for Le Guin's fiction, and The Dispossessed is one of her best.

Best Novel

Winner:

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick

Second Place:
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Go to previous year's nominees: 1974
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1976

Book Award Reviews     Home

1975 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown

Comments: Five years after they first appeared, the Mythopoeic Awards got around to giving their Best Adult Fantasy Award to a man, honoring Poul Anderson for his novel A Midsummer Tempest. One might be inclined to shout "misandry", but then again, all of the other genre awards being handed out in the mid-1970s were all heavily biased in favor of male authors, so the counterweight of the Mythopoeic Awards was sorely needed.

On another note, this was the last year that the Best Adult Fantasy Literature Award was handed out until 1981. The Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies was handed out in 1976, but the Fantasy Award was not. Between 1976 and 1981, no Mythopoeic Awards were bestowed. It is unclear as to why this interruption took place, the only thing I know is that it did.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson

Other Nominees:
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
How Are the Mighty Fallen by Thomas Burnett Swann
Merlin's Ring by H. Warner Munn
Prince of Annwn by Evangeline Walton
Watership Down by Richard Adams

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:
C.S. Lewis: A Biography by Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1974
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1976

Book Award Reviews     Home

1975 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Providence, Rhode Island

Comments: 1975 saw the debut of the World Fantasy Awards, intended as a fantasy themed alternative to the science fiction focused Hugo and Nebula Awards, and they got off on the right foot by honoring one of the best fantasy writers working at the time in Patricia McKillip for her novel The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and handing a lifetime achievement award to the brilliant fantasist Robert Bloch.

The overall array of the World Fantasy Awards was, as with most of the other awards, a little bit unsettled at the outset, with only awards for Best Novel, Best Short Fiction, Best Collection, Lifetime Achievement, Best Artist, and two Special Awards being handed out. This lineup would change, in some cases the categories would change very quickly. But the base consisting of the Best Novel and Best Short Fiction was set.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

Other Nominees:
Merlin's Ring by H. Warner Munn
A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Pages from a Young Girl's Journal by Robert Aickman

Other Nominees:
The Events at Poroth Farm by T.E.D. Klein
A Father's Tale by Sterling E. Lanier
Sticks by Karl Edward Wagner

Best Collection

Winner:
Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman

Other Nominees:
From Evil's Pillow by Basil Copper

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Robert Bloch

Other Nominees:
Robert Aickman
Frank Belknap Long
Donald Wandrei
Manly Wade Wellman

Best Artist

Winner:
Lee Brown Coye

Other Nominees:
Steve Fabian
Gervasio Gallardo
Jeff Jones
Tim Kirk

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Ian Ballantine and Betty Ballantine

Other Nominees:
Donald A. Wollheim

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Stuart David Schiff

Other Nominees:
Harry O. Morris, Jr.
Roy A. Squires

Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1976

Book Award Reviews     Home

1975 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Aussiecon One in Melbourne, Australia.

Comments: In 1975 Ursula K. Le Guin won the Hugo Award for Best Novel with one of my favorite science fiction novels, The Dispossessed. George R.R. Martin won his first Hugo for A Song for Lya, and Ellison added yet another trophy to his collection with Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W. Robert Silverberg took just enough time off from his editing duties to garner two Hugo nominations, and Larry Niven won a Hugo and was nominated for another with The Mote in God's Eye coauthored with Jerry Pournelle. None of these developments were particularly surprising.

The list of nominees for the Best Dramatic Presentation Award, however, was embarrassingly awful. The winner was Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks' send up of classic monster movies, which was a decent movie, and not a particularly awful winning entry. The other nominees, however, made this year's slate a truly awful field of candidates: Zardoz, which features Sean Connery in a diaper and an incomprehensible plot, Phantom of the Paradise, an indifferent and forgettable musical, and Flesh Gordon, a soft core porn parody of the Flash Gordon movie serials. The only worthwhile competitor for Young Frankenstein was the made for television movie The Questor Tapes, and that's setting the bar pretty low for a Hugo ballot.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
Fire Time by Poul Anderson
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
The Inverted World by Christopher Priest
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Best Novella

Winner:

A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
Assault on a City by Jack Vance
Born with the Dead by Robert Silverberg
Riding the Torch by Norman Spinrad
Strangers by Gardner Dozois

Best Novelette

Winner:

Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W by Harlan Ellison (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
After the Dreamtime by Richard Lupoff
A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls by Kate Wilhelm
Extreme Prejudice by Jerry Pournelle
Midnight by the Morphy Watch by Fritz Leiber
Nix Olympica by William Walling
-That Thou Art Mindful of Him! by Isaac Asimov

Best Short Story

Winner:

The Hole Man by Larry Niven (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
Cathadonian Odyssey by Michael Bishop
The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Four-Hour Fugue by Alfred Bester
Schwartz Between the Galaxies by Robert Silverberg

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Young Frankenstein

Other Nominees:
Flesh Gordon
Phantom of the Paradise
The Questor Tapes (television movie)
Zardoz

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Ben Bova

Other Nominees:
Jim Baen
Terry Carr
Edward L. Ferman
Robert Silverberg
Ted White

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
Steve Fabian
Tim Kirk
John Schoenherr
Rick Sternbach

Best Fanzine

Winner:

The Alien Critic edited by Richard E. Geis

Other Nominees:
Algol edited by Andrew Porter
Locus edited by Charles Brown and Dena Brown
Outworlds edited by Bill Bowers and Joan Bowers
SF Commentary edited by Bruce Gillespie
Starling edited by Hank Luttrell and Lesleigh Luttrell

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Richard E. Geis

Other Nominees:
John Bangsund
Sandra Miesel
Don C. Thompson
Susan Wood

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Bill Rotsler

Other Nominees:
George Barr
Grant Canfield
Jim Shull

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
P.J. Plauger

Other Nominees:
Alan Brennert
Suzy McKee Charnas
Felix C. Gotschalk
Brenda Pearce
John Varley

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1974
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1976

Book Award Reviews     Home

1975 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: New York City, New York.

Comments: In 1975, the SFWA changed the rules relating to Nebula Award nominations very slightly, limiting the number of finalists on the ballot to three in most categories. Starting in this year, a jury would select the three finalists from the preliminary ballot, and then the SFWA membership would vote on the overall winner. As a result, getting on the final ballot for the Nebula Awards in this year was almost as difficult as actually winning the award.

As to the awards themselves, Ursula K. Le Guin became the first author to win the Nebula Award for Best Novel twice with The Dispossessed, a brilliant book that is one of the many reasons I love her writing so much. Not only that, Le Guin also won the Best Short Story Nebula for The Day Before the Revolution, pulling off the impressive feat of winning two Nebulas in one year. Given his dominance of the 1970s thus far, it should come as no surprise that Robert Silverberg won the Best Novella Nebula for Born with the Dead. In fact, the only unusual Nebula winner this year was Woody Allen, who won for his screenplay for the movie Sleeper.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
334 by Thomas M. Disch
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
The Godwhale by T.J. Bass

Best Novella

Winner:

Born with the Dead by Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:
On the Street of the Serpents by Michael Bishop

A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Best Novelette

Winner:

If the Stars Are Gods by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford

Other Nominees:
The Rest Is Silence by Charles L. Grant
Twilla by Tom Reamy

Best Short Story

Winner:
The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:

After King Kong Fell by Philip José Farmer

The Engine at Heartspring's Center by Roger Zelazny

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:

Sleeper by Woody Allen

Other Nominees:

Fantastic Planet screenplay by René Laloux and Roland Topor; based on work by Stefan Wul

Frankenstein: The True Story teleplay by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy; based on the novel by Mary Shelley

Go to previous year's nominees: 1974
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1976

Book Award Reviews     Home

1974 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: Because the Locus Awards are determined by a poll of the readers of Locus magazine, they are, more than any other genre fiction award, a measure of the popularity of books and authors. The Hugo Awards, voted on by the attendees at the annual Worldcon, give a sense of what is most popular among the hard-core devoted fans. The Nebula Awards, voted on by judges selected from the ranks of the SFWA, give a sense of what is most highly regarded among professional genre fiction authors. But only the Locus Award, with its broad reach, gives a sense of what is most popular among science fiction and fantasy fandom in general. So if one wants to get a snapshot of the general state of science fiction and fantasy at a particular point in time, the best place to start is probably the Locus Award nominees.

Best Novel
Winner:
1.   Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Other Nominees:
2.   Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
3.   The People of the Wind by Poul Anderson
4.   Protector by Larry Niven
5.   The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
6.   Trullion: Alastor 2262 by Jack Vance
7.   The Far Call by Gordon R. Dickson
8.   To Die In Italbar by Roger Zelazny
9.   Today We Choose Faces by Roger Zelazny
10. The Cloud Walker by Edmund Cooper
11. Relatives by George Alec Effinger
12. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
13. Herovit's World by Barry N. Malzberg
14. Hiero's Journey by Sterling Lanier
15. The Doomsday Gene by John Boyd

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe

Other Nominees:
2.   The White Otters of Childhood by Michael Bishop
3.   The Feast of St. Dionysus by Robert Silverberg
4.   Sketches Among the Ruins of My Mind by Philip José Farmer
5.   Chains of the Sea by Gardner Dozois
6.   The Defenseless Dead by Larry Niven
7.   Death and Designation Among the Asadi by Michael Bishop
8.   Rumfuddle by Jack Vance
9.   The Safety Engineer by S. Kye Boult
10. In the Problem Pit by Frederik Pohl
11. Junction by Jack Dann
12. My Brother Leopold by Edgar Pangborn
13. 'Kjwalll'kje'k'koothailll'kje'k by Roger Zelazny
14. Case and the Dreamer by Theodore Sturgeon

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   The Deathbird by Harlan Ellison (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
2.    Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda N. McIntyre
3.   Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death by James Tiptree, Jr.

4.   The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

5.   Ms. Found in an Abandoned Time Machine by Robert Silverberg

6.   The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

7.   Wings by Vonda N. McIntyre
8.   With Morning Comes Mistfall by George R.R. Martin
9.   Mud Violet by R.A. Lafferty
10. In the Group by Robert Silverberg
11. (tie) The Field of Vision by Ursula K. Le Guin
      (tie) Many Mansions by Robert Silverberg
13. (tie) The Answer by Terry Carr
      (tie) Barnaby's Clock by R.A. Lafferty
      (tie) Brothers by Gordon R. Dickson
16. The World Is a Sphere by Edgar Pangborn
17. Epilog by Clifford D. Simak
18. The Women Men Don't See by James Tiptree, Jr.

Best Original Anthology
Winner:
1.   Astounding edited by Harry Harrison

Other Nominees:
2.   New Dimensions 3 edited by Robert Silverberg
3.   Universe 3 edited by Terry Carr
4.   An Exaltation of Stars edited by Terry Carr
5.   Orbit 12 edited by Damon Knight
6.   The Alien Condition edited by Stephen Goldin
7.   Chains of the Sea edited by Robert Silverberg
8.   Ten Tomorrows edited by Roger Elwood
9.   Nova 3 edited by Harry Harrison
10. Future City edited by Roger Elwood
11. Flashing Swords #1 edited by Lin Carter
12. Eros In Orbit edited by Joseph Elder
13. Showcase edited by Roger Elwood
14. Bad Moon Rising edited by Thomas M. Disch

Best Reprint Anthology or Collection
Winner:
1.   The Best Science Fiction of the Year #2 edited by Terry Carr

Other Nominees:
2.   The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2a & 2b edited by Ben Bova

3.   The 1973 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha

4.   Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home by James Tiptree, Jr.
5.   Jupiter edited by Carol Pohl and Frederik Pohl
6.   Those Who Can edited by Robin Scott Wilson

7.   The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume Two edited by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss

8.   Alpha 4 edited by Robert Silverberg
9.   The Book of Philip José Farmer by Philip José Farmer
10. Nebula Award Stories 8 edited by Isaac Asimov
11. Nebula Award Stories Seven edited by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
12. Science Fiction: The Great Years edited by Carol Pohl and Frederik Pohl
13. The Book of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick
14. (tie) The Flight of the Horse by Larry Niven
      (tie) The Star Road by Gordon R. Dickson

Best Magazine
Winner:
1. Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Edward L. Ferman

Other Nominees:
2. Analog edited by Ben Bova
3. Galaxy edited by Ejler Jakobsson
4. Amazing Stories edited by Ted White
5. Vertex edited by Don Pfeil
6. Fantastic edited by Ted White
7. If edited by Ejler Jakobsson

Best Fanzine
Winner:
1.   Locus edited by Charlie Brown and Dena Brown

Other Nominees:
2.   The Alien Critic edited by Richard E. Geis
3.   Algol edited by Andy Porter
4.   Outworlds edited by the Bowers
5.   SF Commentary edited by Bruce Gillespie
6.   Prehensile edited by Mike Glyer
7.   Yandro edited by Robert Coulson and Juanita Coulson
8.   Starling edited by the Lutrells
9.   (tie) Energumen edited by Mike Glicksohn and Susan Glicksohn
      (tie) Moebius Trip edited by Ed Connor
      (tie) Riverside Quarterly edited by Sapirol
12. (tie) Granfalloon edited by the Bushyagers
      (tie) Title edited by Donn Brazier
14. Speculation edited by Pete Weston

Best Critic
Winner:
1.   Richard E. Geis

Other Nominees:
2.   (tie) Joanna Russ
      (tie) P. Schuyler Miller
4.   Theodore Sturgeon
5.   Brian W. Aldiss
6.   Alexei Panshin and Cory Panshin
7.   Lester del Rey
8.   Dick Lupoff
9.   Dave Hartwell
10. James Blish
11. Charlie Brown
12. Harlan Ellison
13. Richard Delap
14. Buck Coulson
15. (tie) Tony Lewis
      (tie) Cy Chauvin

Best Book Publisher
Winner:
1.   Ballantine

Other Nominees:
2.   DAW
3.   Science Fiction Book Club
4.   Doubleday
5.   Ace
6.   Harper & Row
7.   Random House
8.   Signet (New American Library)
9.   Putnam
10. Bantam
11. Berkley
12. Avon
13. Donald M. Grant
14. Mirage Press
15. Dell
16. Sphere

Best Professional Artist
Winner:
1.   Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
2.   Jack Gaughan
3.   Vincent Di Fate
4.   John Schoenherr
5.   Frank Frazetta
6.   Tim Kirk
7.   George Barr
8.   Mike Hinge
9.   (tie) Jeff Jones
      (tie) Gahan Wilson
11. Gene Szafran
12. Don Davis
13. Alicia Austin
14. Karel Thole
15. (tie) David Hardy
      (tie) Dean Ellis

Best Fan Artist
Winner:
1.   Tim Kirk

Other Nominees:
2.    Bill Rotsler
3.   Grant Canfield
4.   ATom (aka Arthur Thomson)
5.   Alicia Austin
6.   George Barr
7.   James Shull
8.   Steve Fabian
9.   Steve Stiles
10. Jim McLeod
11. Helmut Pesch
12. Vincent Di Fate

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1974 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown

Comments: In 1974 Mary Stewart became the first two-time winner of the Mythopoeic Award, winning in the Best Adult Fantasy literature category with her book The Hollow Hills. When one considers the history of the Mythopoeic Awards through 1974, it isn't surprising that the first two-time winner of the award was a woman. On the other hand, when one considers the wider contemporaneous context of genre awards, it is somewhat astounding, but then again, by this point, I have come to expect nothing less from the Mythopoeic Awards.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart

Other Nominees:
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
Exaclibur by Sanders Anne Laubenthal
High Deryni by Katherine Kurtz
Hrolf Kraki's Saga by Poul Anderson

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christian by Kathryn A. Lindskoog

Other Nominees:
None

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1974 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Discon II in Washington, D.C.

Comments: After Isaac Asimov took home the Best Novel prize in 1973 for The Gods Themselves, the only one of the "Big Three" without a Best Novel Hugo Award was Arthur C. Clarke. As soon as the voters got the chance, they rectified this situation, handing the award to Clarke in 1974 for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. In an interesting twist, Clarke beat out fellow "Big Three" member Heinlein for the honor, with his novel topping Heinlein's Time Enough for Love. Perhaps the voters were nonplussed by the incest storyline in Heinlein's book. Robert Silverberg didn't have any novels or stories nominated this year, but does appear on the slate for the Best Professional Editor Award, although he lost the award to Ben Bova.

While Ursula K. Le Guin's win for The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas was heralded as another step towards breaking up the male-dominance of the Hugo Awards, one interesting note is that, although no one knew it at the time, two Hugo awards were won by women in 1974. No one knew it, because no one at the time knew that James Tiptree, Jr. was actually Alice B. Sheldon (well, no one other than Alice B. Sheldon).

The real oddity of the year's awards was in the Best Dramatic Presentation category where the Woody Allen comedy Sleeper beat out a collection of other, more deserving nominees. Perhaps it was the environment of the mid-1970s that made Allen's piece of sexual fluff seem more weighty than it actually is, but for it to beat out a movie like Soylent Green seems almost inexplicable now. Oddly, the set-up for Allen's movie is very similar to the set up for the also-nominated Genesis II. I suppose 1974 was just a year in which stories about cryogenicaly frozen humans being revived after sleeping for hundreds of years seemed like a good idea to production executives.

Best Novel

Winner:
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Other Nominees:
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
The People of the Wind by Poul Anderson
Protector by Larry Niven
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Best Novella

Winner:

The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
Chains of the Sea by Gardner Dozois
Death and Designation Among the Asadi by Michael Bishop
The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe
The White Otters of Childhood by Michael Bishop

Best Novelette

Winner:

The Deathbird by Harlan Ellison (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
The City on the Sand by George Alec Effinger
He Fell Into a Dark Hole by Jerry Pournelle
Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death by James Tiptree, Jr.
Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda N. McIntyre

Best Short Story

Winner:

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Other Nominees:
Construction Shack by Clifford D. Simak
Wings by Vonda N. McIntyre
With Morning Comes Mistfall by George R.R. Martin

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Sleeper

Other Nominees:
Genesis II (television movie)
The Six Million Dollar Man (television movie)
Soylent Green
Westworld

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Ben Bova

Other Nominees:
Terry Carr
Edward L. Ferman
Robert Silverberg
Ted White
Donald A. Wollheim

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
Vincent Di Fate
Frank Frazetta
Jack Gaughan
John Schoenherr

Best Fanzine

Winner:

(tie) Algol edited by Andrew Porter

(tie) The Alien Critic edited by Richard E. Geis

Other Nominees:
Locus edited by Charles Brown and Dena Brown
Outworlds edited by Bill Bowers and Joan Bowers

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Susan Wood

Other Nominees:
Laura Basta
Richard E. Geis
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Sandra Miesel

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Tim Kirk

Other Nominees:
Alicia Austin
Grant Canfield
Bill Rotsler
Arthur Thomson

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
(tie) Spider Robinson
(tie) Lisa Tuttle

Other Nominees:
Jesse Miller
Thomas F. Monteleone
Guy Snyder

What Are the Hugo Awards?

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1974 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California.

Comments: After winning the 1973 Best Novella Nebula for A Meeting with Medusa, Arthur C. Clarke followed up by winning the Best Novel Nebula in 1974 for what was probably his best book: Rendezvous with Rama. And after begin denied in 1972 and losing to "No Award" for Best Short Story, Gene Wolfe recovered and won the Best Novella Nebula in 1974 for The Island of Doctor Death.

But the real development of 1974 was the introduction of the Best Dramatic Presentation Nebula, designed to honor scriptwriters with the dystopian Soylent Green taking home the prize in this category's first year. Because the SFWA, which sponsors the Nebula Awards, is a writers' organization, the award is directed to the screenwriter, and sometimes to the novelist upon who an adapted work is based, rather than the producers of the film being honored.

Best Novel

Winner:
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Other Nominees:
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
4The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
The People of the Wind by Poul Anderson
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Best Novella

Winner:

The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe

Other Nominees:
Chains of the Sea by Gardner Dozois
Death and Designation Among the Asadi by Michael Bishop
Junction by Jack Dann
The White Otters of Childhood by Michael Bishop

Best Novelette

Winner:

Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda N. McIntyre

Other Nominees:
Case and the Dreamer by Theodore Sturgeon

The Deathbird by Harlan Ellison (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Best Short Story

Winner:
Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death by James Tiptree, Jr.

Other Nominees:

How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion by Gene Wolfe

Shark by Edward Bryant
A Thing of Beauty by Norman Spinrad
Wings by Vonda N. McIntyre
With Morning Comes Mistfall by George R.R. Martin

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:

Soylent Green by Stanley R. Greenberg, screenplay; based on a novel by Harry Harrison

Other Nominees:
Catholics (TV production) by Brian Moore
Steambath by Bruce Jay Friedman
Westworld by Michael Crichton

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1974 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: California State University in Fullerton, California.

Comments: In 1974, the Campbell Award for Best Novel resulted in not one, but two ties, which is odd, because technically, there is only one award given. But because they track second (and usually third) place finishers rather than simply list all of the shortlisted but non-winning nominees (like most other awards do), the award found itself with a tie for both first and second place.

The other odd thing about the 1974 Campbell Awards is that the judges saw fit to hand out an award for Best Nonfiction Book, which went to Carl Sagan's The Cosmic Connection. As with Silverberg's 1973 Special Award for Writing Excellence for his novel Dying Inside the year, this award category seems to have had no precedent at the Campbell Awards, and the category has not been repeated, making its appearance in this year all the more mystifying.

Best Novel

Winner:
(tie) Malevil by Robert Merle

(tie) Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Second Place:
(tie) The Embedding by Ian Watson
(tie) The Green Gene by Peter Dickinson

Best Nonfiction Book

Winner:
The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan

Other Nominees:
None

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1973 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: Campbell Conference Awards Banquet in Lawrence, Kansas.

Comments: In the first year for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the trophy was handed to Barry Malzberg for his novel Beyond Apollo, an entirely unsurprising result. The interesting thing this year was the decision to hand out a Special Award for Excellence in Writing to Robert Silverberg for his novel Dying Inside. It seems somewhat odd that in the inaugural year of the award the judges felt the need to create a special category and recognize a second work. I think Dying Inside is a good science fiction book, but I just don't see that it is good enough that there would be a compelling reason to create a special award category just to recognize it.

Best Novel

Winner:

Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

Second Place:
The Listeners by James E. Gunn

Third Place:
Darkening Island by Christopher Priest

Special Award for Excellence in Writing

Winner:
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:
None

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