2004 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: Noreascon 4 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Comments: Sometimes the Hugo awards will honor a good work, and yet still clearly fail to give the award to the most deserving nominee. That happened this year in the Short Form Dramatic Presentation category where Gollum's acceptance speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards won the prize. The acceptance speech was for the award "Best Digital Character", and knowing that the award was going to be given to Gollum ahead of time WETA Digital cooked up a routine where Andy Serkis started to accept the award but was interrupted by an incensed Gollum. If you have the extended edition DVD set of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, it is included as a hidden Easter egg at the end of the first disc's listing of scene selections. The bit was funny and well-done, but it was just a trivial piece of fluff. There is simply no real argument that can be made that it was a more deserving winner than either of the two Firefly episodes or the Buffy episode it was up against (not having seen Smallville, I can't offer an opinion one way or another on the quality of its nominated episode). I think the award should have gone to the Firefly episode The Message, but I didn't get to make the decision.

I can't be certain, but it seems plausible that Gollum's victory was a side effect of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King winning the Long Form Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award, which capped off a three year sweep for that category for Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, and company. In the print categories, Lois McMaster Bujold added yet another Hugo trophy to her already impressive collection, and Neil Gaiman won a Hugo Award for the third year in a row, with each victory coming in a different category.

Best Novel

Winner:
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Other Finalists:
Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
Humans by Robert J. Sawyer
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

Best Novella

Winner:

The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge

Other Finalists:
The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
The Green Leopard Plague by Walter Jon Williams
Just Like the Ones We Used to Know by Connie Willis
Walk in Silence by Catherine Asaro

Best Novelette

Winner:

Legions in Time by Michael Swanwick

Other Finalists:
Bernardo's House by James Patrick Kelly
The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
Hexagons by Robert Reed
Into the Gardens of Sweet Night by Jay Lake
Nightfall Charles Stross

Best Short Story

Winner:

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

Other Finalists:
Four Short Novels by Joe Haldeman
Paying it Forward by Michael A. Burstein
Robots Don't Cry by Mike Resnick
The Tale of the Golden Eagle by David D. Levine

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:

The Chesley Awards for Science Fiction & Fantasy Art: A Retrospective by John Grant and Elizabeth L. Humphrey, with Pamela D. Scoville

Other Finalists:
Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by Brian Herbert

Master Storyteller: An Illustrated Tour of the Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard by William J. Widder

Scores: Reviews 1993-2003 by John Clute

Spectrum 10: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner

The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Winner:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Other Finalists:
28 Days Later
Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
X2: X-Men United

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Winner:
Gollum's Acceptance Speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards

Other Finalists:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen
Firefly: Heart of Gold
Firefly: The Message
Smallville: Rosetta

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Other Finalists:
Ellen Datlow
David G. Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon van Gelder

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Bob Eggleton

Other Finalists:
Jim Burns
Frank Frazetta
Frank Kelly Freas
Donato Giancola

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, and Jennifer A. Hall

Other Finalists:
Ansible edited by David Langford
Interzone edited by David Pringle

The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin Maroney

The Third Alternative edited by Andy Cox

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Emerald City edited by Cheryl Morgan

Other Finalists:
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian, III
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Mimosa edited by Nicki Lynch and Rich Lynch
Plokta edited by Steve Davies, Alison Scott, and Mike Scott

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Jeff Berkwits
Bob Devney
John L. Flynn
Cheryl Morgan

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Frank Wu

Other Finalists:
Brad Foster
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Jay Lake

Other Finalists:
David D. Levine
Karin Lowachee
Chris Moriarty
Tim Pratt

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2003
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2005

2004 Hugo Longlist     Book Award Reviews     Home

1954 Retro Hugo Award Finalists (awarded in 2004)

Location: Noreascon 4 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Comments: A third round of Retro Hugos was handed out in 2004, another award was added to the shelf of John W. Campbell, Jr., and another slate of now-obscure fanzines were voted upon by a collection of people who probably more or less picked who they were voting for at random. That said, the fiction awards handed out in this round of Retro Hugos offer an example of the upside in this sort of award. Although the classic Fahrenheit 451 took home the award, all five of the nominated novels are exemplars of the very best that science fiction has to offer. The only real problem presented here is that only one award could be bestowed. The finalists in the remaining fiction categories were also all of high quality, and deserving of recognition.

Even so, honoring a collection of awardees fifty years after the fact seems pointless and self-indulgent. When the awards were handed out, the only authors remaining alive who had nominated stories were Arthur C. Clarke, Charles L. Harness, and Robert Sheckley. The only living editor on the list of nominees was Frederik Pohl. And while it is likely that the estates of the authors who had works on the list of finalists were appreciative, and the publishers who held the rights to reprint the works probably were too, it seems to me that honoring someone's work years or even decades after they had died is a somewhat useless and empty gesture. In the end, the Retro Hugos seem to be more about fans patting themselves on the back for their good taste in old fiction rather than any kind of meaningful honor for the recipients of the award, and from my perspective that is reason enough to be critical of the practice of handing out Retro Hugos, no matter how deserving we may think the works in question are.

Best Novel

Winner:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Other Finalists:
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

Best Novella

Winner:
A Case of Conscience by James Blish

Other Finalists:
. . . And My Fear Is Great by Theodore Sturgeon
The Rose by Charles L. Harness
Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson
Un-Man by Poul Anderson

Best Novelette

Winner:
Earthman, Come Home by James Blish

Other Finalists:
The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson
Sam Hall by Poul Anderson
Second Variety by Philip K. Dick
The Wall Around the World by Theodore Cogswell

Best Short Story

Winner:

The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke (reviewed in The Nine Billion Names of God and The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume I, 1929-1964)

Other Finalists:

It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby (reviewed in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume I, 1929-1964)

A Saucer of Loneliness by Theodore Sturgeon
Seventh Victim by Robert Sheckley
Star Light, Star Bright by Alfred Bester

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:
Conquest of the Moon by Wernher von Braun, Fred L. Whipple, and Willy Ley

Other Finalists:
Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future by Reginald Bretnor
Science-Fiction Handbook by L. Sprague de Camp

Best Dramatic Presentation¹

Winner:
The War of the Worlds

Other Finalists:
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
Duck Dodgers in the 24 ½^th Century
Invaders from Mars
It Came from Outer Space

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
John W. Campbell, Jr.

Other Finalists:
Anthony Boucher
H.L. Gold
Frederik Pohl
Donald A. Wollheim

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Chesley Bonestell

Other Finalists:
Ed Emshwiller
Virgil Finlay
Frank Kelly Freas
Richard Powers

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Slant edited by Walter Willis and James White

Other Finalists:
Hyphen edited by Chuck Harris and Walter Willis
Quandry edited by Lee Hoffman
Science Fiction Newsletter edited by Bob Tucker
Skyhook edited by Redd Boggs

Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Bob Tucker

Other Finalists:
Redd Boggs
Lee Hoffman
James White
Walter A. Willis

¹ This Retro Hugo Award was technically given for Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form, however, no Long Form Retro Hugo Award was selected at the 2004 Worldcon, leaving The War of the Worlds as the only winning Dramatic Presentation piece. For purposes of this index I am grouping this award with the generalized dramatic presentation award given prior to the 2003 split.

Go to previous year's finalists: 1953
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 1955

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Book Award Reviews     Home

2004 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Noreascon 4 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Comments: In 2004 the Best Art Book category was folded into the Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book category to create a new super-category that encompassed all four kinds of books. Why? As usual with decisions of this sort, I have no idea. I will say, however, that it seems entirely misguided to me. While there is some overlap between nonfiction and reference works, and "related" works are arguably similar as well, jamming art books into this category seems like trying to put elephant ears on a giraffe. I just don't see how, for example, one can fairly compare an author's biography with the latest edition of Spectrum. They are just too different for there to be any meaningful evaluation of one against the other, which made the merged category problematic at best, and in my estimation, nonsensical.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   Ilium by Dan Simmons

Other Nominees:
2.   Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
3.   Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
4.   Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
5.   The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
6.   Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds
7.   Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
8.   Omega by Jack McDevitt
9.   Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
10. Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson

11. The Golden Age: The Phoenix Exultant; The Golden Transcendence by John C. Wright

12. Nothing Human by Nancy Kress
13. Natural History by Justina Robson
14. Succession: The Risen Empire; The Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfeld
15. The Poison Master by Liz Williams
16. Sister Alice by Robert Reed
17. Felaheen: The Third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
18. Memory by Linda Nagata
19. The Lost Steersman by Rosemary Kirstein
20. The Line of Polity by Neal Asher

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Other Nominees:
2.   Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett
3.   The Light Ages by Ian R. MacLeod
4.   The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
5.   1610: A Sundial in a Grave by Mary Gentle
6.   The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
7.   The Briar King by Greg Keyes
8.   lost boy lost girl by Peter Straub
9.   Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb
10. The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
11. The Crystal City by Orson Scott Card
12. The Skrayling Tree by Michael Moorcock
13. The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker
14. In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A. McKillip
15. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
16. Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
17. Mortal Suns by Tanith Lee
18. The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan

Best Young Adult Book
Winner:
1.   The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Other Nominees:
2.   Abhorsen by Garth Nix
3.   The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
4.   Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
5.   A Stir of Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
6.   Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
7.   Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce
8.   Midwinter Nightingale by Joan Aiken
9.   The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
10. Firebirds edited by Sharyn November
11. New Skies edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
12. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
13. Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve
14. The Tears of the Salamander by Peter Dickinson
15. Stravaganza: City of Stars by Mary Hoffman

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.    Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Other Nominees:
2.   Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer
3.   The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4.   The Etched City by K.J. Bishop
5.   Paper Mage by Leah R. Cutter
6.   Spin State by Chris Moriarty
7.   Clade by Mark Budz
8.   The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker
9.   Star Dragon by Mike Brotherton
10. A Telling of Stars by Caitlin Sweet
11. Magic's Silken Snare by Elizabeth Gilligan
12. The Buzzing by Jim Knipfel

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge

Other Nominees:

2.   Just Like the Ones We Used to Know by Connie Willis

3.   The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
4.   The Sworn Sword by George R.R. Martin
5.   Ariel by Lucius Shepard
6.   The Bone Witch by R. Garcia y Robertson
7.   Dear Abbey by Terry Bisson
8.   The Green Leopard Plague by Walter Jon Williams
9.   Curator by Charles Stross
10. Liar's House by Lucius Shepard
11. Welcome to Olympus, Mr. Hearst by Kage Baker
12. Jailwise by Lucius Shepard
13. Off on a Starship by William Barton
14. Greetings by Terry Bisson
15. In Springdale Town by Robert Freeman Wexler
16. The Ice by Steven Popkes
17. A Crowd of Bone by Greer Gilman
18. The Albertine Notes by Rick Moody
19. Awake in the Night by John C. Wright

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

Other Nominees:
2.   The Monarch of the Glen by Neil Gaiman
3.   The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
4.   Only Partly Here by Lucius Shepard
5.   Breeding Ground by Stephen Baxter
6.   Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman
7.   The Chop Line by Stephen Baxter
8.   Almost Home by Terry Bisson
9.   The Hydrogen Wall by Gregory Benford
10. Legions in Time by Michael Swanwick
11. The Fluted Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
12. The Devils in the Details by James P. Blaylock
13. King Dragon by Michael Swanwick
14. The Bellman by John Varley
15. Nightfall by Charles Stross
16. The Door Gunner by Michael Bishop
17. Amnesty by Octavia E. Butler
18. The Census Taker by Dale Bailey
19. Pictures from an Expedition by Alex Irvine
20. Junk DNA by Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling
21. Clouds and Cold Fires by Paul Di Filippo
22. The Hortlak by Kelly Link
23. Dragon's Gate by Pat Murphy
24. Hexagons by Robert Reed
25. (tie) Catskin by Kelly Link
      (tie) Child of the Stones by Paul J. McAuley
27. Old Virginia by Laird Barron
28. Vandoise and the Bone Monster by Alex Irvine
29. Bernardo's House by James Patrick Kelly
30. Anomalous Structures of My Dreams by M. Shayne Bell

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   Closing Time by Neil Gaiman

Other Nominees:

2.   Four Short Novels by Joe Haldeman

3.   Castaway by Gene Wolfe
4.   The Tale of the Golden Eagle by David D. Levine
5.   Graylord Man's Last Words by Gene Wolfe
6.   A Night on the Barbary Coast by Kage Baker
7.   (tie) 555 by Robert Reed
      (tie) And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Paul Di Filippo
9.   (tie) The Hibernators by Brian W. Aldiss
      (tie) Rogue Farm by Charles Stross
11. Calling Your Name by Howard Waldrop
12. Flowers from Alice by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross
13. In Fading Suns and Dying Moons by John Varley

14. Smoke and Mirrors: Four Scenes from the Post-Utopian Future by Michael Swanwick

15. June Sixteenth at Anna's by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
16. Ancestor Money by Maureen F. McHugh
17. Boys: A Short Story by Carol Emshwiller
18. D=RxT by Howard Waldrop
19. Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove
20. The Trentino Kid by Jeffrey Ford
21. (tie) Deep in the Woods of Grammarie by Michael Swanwick
      (tie) Fairy Tale by Gardner Dozois
23. The Apocalaypse According to Olaf by Barth Anderson
24. Nimby and the Dimension Hoppers by Cory Doctorow
25. (tie) Big Ugly Mama and the ZK by Eleanor Arnason
      (tie) Of New Arrivals, Many Johns, and the Music of the Spheres by John Kessel
27. Daddy Mention and the Monday Skull by Andy Duncan
28. The Beautiful Gelreesh by Jeffrey Ford
29. Mother by James Patrick Kelly
30. (tie) Grey Star by Albert E. Cowdrey
      (tie) Wild Thing by Charles Coleman Finlay
32. EJ-ES by Nancy Kress
33. Birth Days by Geoff Ryman

Best Collection
Winner:

1.   Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:

2.   GRRM: A RRetrospective by George R.R. Martin

3.   Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury
4.   Custer's Last Jump and Other Collaborations by Howard Waldrop, et. al.
5.   Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg

6.   And Now the News . . . : Volume IX: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon

7.   Budayeen Nights by George Alec Effinger
8.   Transfinite: The Essential A.E. van Vogt by A.E. van Vogt
9.   Aye, and Gomorrah: Stories by Samuel R. Delany
10. Limekiller! by Avram Davidson
11. A Place So Foreign and Eight More by Cory Doctorow
12. Things That Never Happen by M. John Harrison
13. Brighten to Incandescence: 17 Stories by Michael Bishop
14. Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer
15. Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand

16. A New Dawn: The Don A. Stuart Stories of John W. Campbell, Jr. by John W. Campbell, Jr.

17. In for a Penny by James P. Blaylock
18. Ghosts of Yesterday by Jack Cady
19. The Resurrection Man's Legacy and Other Stories by Dale Bailey

20. The Selected Stories of Chad Oliver Volume 1: A Star Above It; Volume 2: Far From This Earth by Chad Oliver

21. Little Gods by Tim Pratt
22. More Tomorrow & Other Stories by Michael Marshall Smith
23. Unintended Consequences by Alex Irvine
24. The Two Sams: Ghost Stories by Glen Hirshberg
25. Greetings from Lake Wu by Jay Lake

Best Anthology
Winner:

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

Other Nominees:

2.   Legends II edited by Robert Silverberg

3.   The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

4.   McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
5.   The Dark: New Ghost Stories edited by Ellen Datlow
6.   Year's Best SF 8 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
7.   Live Without a Net edited by Lou Anders
8.   Mojo: Conjure Stories edited by Nalo Hopkinson
9.   Cities edited by Peter Crowther
10. Trampoline: An Anthology edited by Kelly Link
11. The Silver Gryphon edited by Gary Turner and Marty Halpern
12. (tie) Album Zutique #1 edited by Jeff VanderMeer

      (tie) Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian edited by Janis Ian and Mike Resnick

14. Gathering the Bones, Jack Dann edited by Dennis Etchison and Ramsey Campbell

15. Polyphony, Volume 2 edited by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake
16. New Voices in Science Fiction edited by Mike Resnick
17. Year's Best Fantasy 3 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
18. Nebula Awards Showcase 2003 edited by Nancy Kress

19. One Lamp: Alternate History Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Gordon van Gelder

20. Science Fiction: The Best of 2002 edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber

21. Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Latin America and Spain edited by Andrea L. Bell and Yolanda Molina-Gavilan

22. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Fourteen edited by Stephen Jones

23. The Dragon Quintet edited by Marvin Kaye
24. infinity plus two edited by Keith Brooke and Nick Gevers

Best Nonfiction, Art, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:

1.   The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman, et. al.

Other Nominees:

2.   The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

3.   Spectrum 10: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner

4.   Scores: Reviews 1993-2003 by John Clute
5.   Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams by M.J. Simpson
6.   Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by Brian Herbert

7.   The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn

8.   The Chesley Awards for Science Fiction & Fantasy Art: A Retrospective edited by John Grant, Elizabeth Humphrey, and Pamela D. Scoville

9.   (tie) Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance: Vol. I by Robin Furth

      (tie) Up Through an Empty House of Stars: Reviews and Essays 1980-2002 by David Langford

11. Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life by Terry Brooks
12. The Art of John Berkey by Jane Frank

13. (tie) Snake's-Hands: The Fiction of John Crowley edited by Alice K. Turner and Michael Andre-Driussi

      (tie) The True Knowledge of Ken MacLeod by Andrew M. Butler and Farah Mendlesohn

15. The Thomas Ligotti Reader edited by Darrell Schweitzer

16. Reference Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Second Edition edited by Michael Burgess and Lisa R. Bartle

17. The Novels of Kurt Vonnegut: Imagining Being an American by Donald Morse

Best Editor
Winner:
1.   Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
2.   Ellen Datlow
3.   Gordon van Gelder
4.   David G. Hartwell
5.   Peter Crowther
6.   Terri Windling
7.   Stanley Schmidt
8.   Patrick Nielsen Hayden
9.   Gavin Grant and Kelly Link
10. David Pringle
11. Jeff VanderMeer
12. Stephen Jones
13. Martin H. Greenberg
14. Jim Baen
15. Shawna McCarthy
16. Andy Cox
17. Laura Anne Gilman
18. Robert Silverberg

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Fantasy & Science Fiction

Other Nominees:
2.   Asimov's
3.   Analog
4.   Sci Fiction
5.   Interzone
6.   The Third Alternative
7.   Realms of Fantasy
8.   Emerald City
9.   Strange Horizons
10. SF Site
11. Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
12. (tie) Ansible
      (tie) The New York Review of Science Fiction
14. The Alien Online
15. Cemetery Dance
16. Black Gate
17. Science Fiction Weekly
18. Fantastic Metropolis
19. Infinity Plus
20. Weird Tales
21. Chronicle
22. Talebones

Best Book Publisher or Imprint
Winner:
1.   Tor

Other Nominees:
2.   Del Rey
3.   Baen
4.   DAW
5.   HarperCollins/Eos
6.   Ace
7.   Golden Gryphon
8.   PS Publishing
9.   Night Shade Books/Ministry of Whimsy
10. Gollancz
11. NESFA Press
12. Bantam Spectra
13. Subterranean Press
14. Small Beer Press
15. Meisha Merlin
16. SFBC
17. Roc
18. Warner Aspect
19. Penguin Group (USA)
20. Prime
21. Firebird
22. St. Martin's
23. Earthlight
24. Orbit
25. (tie) Voyager
      (tie) Wildside Press

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Bob Eggleton
3.   Jim Burns
4.   Donato Giancola
5.   Thomas Canty
6.   Frank Frazetta
7.   Frank Kelly Freas
8.   Kinuko Y. Craft
9.   Stephen Youll
10. Don Maitz
11. Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
12. Brom
13. Vincent Di Fate
14. Luis Royo
15. J.K. Potter
16. John Jude Palencar
17. Boris Vallejo
18. David Cherry

Go to previous year's nominees: 2003
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2005

Book Award Reviews     Home

2004 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: When I first noted that Jack McDevitt won the Campbell Award this year, my first thought was that this was the second win for him. But when I went back and looked, of course, he had not won the award before, he had only been nominated for the award in previous years. Despite the serious institutional problems of the Campbell Awards, this is one area that they seem to have gotten right insofar as have avoided honoring the same handful of authors over and over again, and instead have for the most part recognized different authors every year.

Best Novel

Winner:

Omega by Jack McDevitt

Second Place:

Natural History by Justina Robson

Third Place:

The X President by Philip Baruth

Finalists:

The Braided World by Kay Kenyon

The Changeling Plague by Syne Mitchell
The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper
Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Memory by Linda Nagata
Red Thunder by John Varley
Sister Alice by Robert Reed
Star Dragon by Mike Brotherton
Storyteller by Amy Thomson
Untied Kingdom by James Lovegrove
The Wreck of The River of Stars by Michael Flynn

Go to previous year's nominees: 2003
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2005

Book Award Reviews     Home

2004 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: In 2004 both Stephen Baxter and Gwyneth Jones were nominated for the Clarke Award. From a certain perspective, this is an inevitable development, as they are among the most-nominated authors for this award. On the other hand, having the two authors share the same ballot seems like the sort of thing that would cause a rift in the space-time continuum, as the combined weight of their nominations would simply be too much for reality to handle. leaving aside theories about the effect of multiple nominations on the fabric of our universe, this does touch on an interesting point about the Clarke Awards: While the award has a good track record of distributing the "wins" among numerous authors (there have only been three authors who have won the award more than once in its history), the nominee lists as a whole appear to be dominated by a cadre of seemingly perennial nominees.

Winner
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

Shortlist
Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Maul by Tricia Sullivan
Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2003
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2005

Book Award Reviews     Home

2004 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Seattle, Washington.

Comments: After winning the Best Novel Nebula in 2003 for American Gods, Neil Gaiman continued his winning streak in 2004 by claiming the Best Novella Nebula for the delightfully creepy Coraline. Since 2000, Gaiman has dominated the speculative fiction awards in a way that few other authors have in history, gathering in awards at a prodigious rate. The only other author I can think of who seems to have been so consistently honored is Harlan Ellison, and he spread his award winning stories out over a wider span of years than Gaiman has. At his current rate, by 2020 it seems like Gaiman will have more awards than every other author in the history of speculative fiction.

In the Best Script category I once again wind up scratching my head. Not because The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won the award - that was almost inevitable, and was a fairly well-deserved win. But rather because the movie Finding Nemo was on the final ballot at all. While I will agree that the movie Finding Nemo is a good movie, and I am rather fond of it, I cannot figure out how it is either science fiction or fantasy. Yes, the fish, whales, sea turtles, and crustaceans talk, but by that standard Bambi and The Lion King are also within the speculative fiction genre. And other than the anthropomorphized sea creatures, there's simply no speculative fiction element to Finding Nemo. There is simply no excuse that could make having this movie on the Nebula Award ballot justifiable.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

Other Nominees:
Chindi by Jack McDevitt
Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Light Music by Kathleen Ann Goonan
The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson

Best Novella

Winner:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Other Nominees:
Breathmoss by Ian R. MacLeod
The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
The Potter of Bones by Eleanor Arnason
Stories for Men by John Kessel

Best Novelette

Winner:

The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford

Other Nominees:
0wnz0red by Cory Doctorow
The Mask of the Rex by Richard Bowes
Of a Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs by Adam-Troy Castro
The Wages of Syntax by Ray Vukcevich

Best Short Story

Winner:
What I Didn't See by Karen Joy Fowler

Other Nominees:
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
Goodbye to All That by Harlan Ellison
Grandma by Carol Emshwiller
Knapsack Poems by Eleanor Arnason
Lambing Season by Molly Gloss
The Last of the O-Forms by James Van Pelt

Best Script

Winner:

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Peter Jackson

Other Nominees:
Finding Nemo by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds
Futurama: Where No Fan Has Gone Before by David A. Goodman
Minority Report by Scott Frank and Jon Cohen
Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt

Go to previous year's nominees: 2003
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2005

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2003 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: This is where I reveal what an inconsistent science fiction fan I am. I have not read any of the books that were nominated for the 2003 Clare Award. I am familiar with all of the authors, and have read books by most of them, in some cases a lot of books by them. But none of those books are the ones that were nominated for this year's edition of the Clarke Award. And this is what my long-term project to read all of the winners and nominees of the major genre fiction awards is about: Filling in these gaps and compiling a collection of reviews for this magnificent body of speculative literature.

Winner
The Separation by Christopher Priest

Shortlist
Kil'n People by David Brin
Light by M. John Harrison
The Scar by China Miéville
Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

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2003 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: As I have noted before, I simply don't understand how Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is connected to libertarianism, but the nomination of C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength might serve to give an indication as to why it was nominated. I suspect that, in more recent years, the Libertarian Futurist Society has become the home of a substantial number of religious conservatives, a phenomenon that seems to also be happening in the wider political landscape, at least in the United States. From my perspective, the conservative religious ideology is completely incompatible with libertarianism, and those who try to reconcile the two often end up espousing a twisted ideology that is even more reprehensible than what one would get if you stripped away everything of any positive value from organized religion and libertarianism and left them with nothing but their worst aspects. The combination seems to result in a unprecedented level of toxicity in excess of the level one would get simply by adding together the toxic levels already present in religion and libertarianism.

Best Novel

Winner:

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Other Nominees:

Dark Light by Ken MacLeod

Escape from Heaven by J. Neil Schulman
The Haunted Air by F. Paul Wilson
Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan

Hall of Fame

Winner:

Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) by J.R.R. Tolkien

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

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2003 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 2003, the data concerning where and when the Mythopoeic Awards seems to have gone missing again. For 2002, the information is readily available, but seems to have vanished once more by 2003. I suspect that the 2003 Mythopoeic Awards were handed out on or about July 25 through July 28 at Mythcon 34, but I can't find any confirmation of that. In fact, I suspect that all of the Mythpoeic Awards since the inception of the award have been handed out at the Mythopoeic Society's own convention Mythcon, but since I have no way to confirm this suspicion, I can't in good faith do anything more than speculate that this was the case.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip

Other Nominees:

The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman

A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Best Children's Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Summerland by Michael Chabon

Other Nominees:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

Beowulf and the Critics by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Michael D.C. Drout

Other Nominees:
C.S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse by Don W. King

Imagination and the Arts in C.S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds by Peter J. Schakel

J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances edited by George Makana Clark and Daniel Timmons

Myth and Fantasy Studies

Winner:

Fairytale in the Ancient World by Graham Anderson

Other Nominees:

A Charmed Life: The Spirituality of Potterworld by Francis Bridger

The Christian Imagination: G.K. Chesterton on the Arts by Thomas C. Peters
Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake by G. Peter Winnington

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

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2003 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: In 2003 Nancy Kress became only the third woman to win the Campbell Award with her novel Probability Space, a follow-on to her previously nominated novel Probability Sun. Of all of the major science fiction awards, the Campbell Award seems to be the most hostile to female authors overall, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Through the history of the award, very few women have been nominated - in 2003, out of ten finalists, only two were written by women - and even fewer have won, a result that seems problematic given the many excellent works of science fiction that have been produced by women during its existence.

Best Novel

Winner:

Probability Space by Nancy Kress

Second Place:

Kiln People by David Brin

Third Place:

Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer

Finalists:

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

Dark Ararat by Brian Stableford
The Golden Age by John C. Wright
Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
The Separation by Christopher Priest
The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper
Vitals by Greg Bear

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

Book Award Reviews     Home

2003 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Washington, D.C.

Comments: It should not surprise anyone that Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling were nominated in the Best Anthology category for the fifteenth installment of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. After all, they had been nominated for most of the previous volumes in this series. What is interesting, and perhaps surprising, is that they won in this category for their anthology The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, sharing the victory with the Jeff VanderMeer and Forest Aguirre edited anthology Leviathan, Volume Three. The oddity here is that Datlow and Windling selected what they clearly regarded as the best stories in the genre for one anthology, and somehow beat themselves with a completely different anthology.

Best Novel

Winner:
(tie) The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce
(tie) Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip

Other Nominees:
Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford
The Scar by China Miéville

Best Novella

Winner:
The Library by Zoran Zivkovic

Other Nominees:
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Least Trumps by Elizabeth Hand
Seven Wild Sisters by Charles de Lint
A Year in the Linear City by Paul Di Filippo

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Creation by Jeffrey Ford

Other Nominees:
The Essayist in the Wilderness by William Browning Spencer
Little Dead Girl Singing by Stephen Gallagher
October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman
The Weight of Words by Jeffrey Ford

Best Anthology

Winner:

(tie) The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

(tie) Leviathan, Volume Three edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Forrest Aguirre

Other Nominees:
The American Fantasy Tradition edited by Brian M. Thomsen
Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists edited by Peter Straub

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Best Collection

Winner:

The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories by Jeffrey Ford

Other Nominees:
City of Saints and Madmen: The Book of Ambergris [revised] by Jeff VanderMeer
Figures in Rain by Chet Williamson
The Ogre's Wife: Fairy Tales for Grownups by Richard Parks
Waifs and Strays by Charles de Lint
Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Donald M. Grant
Lloyd Alexander

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Tom Kidd

Other Nominees:
Kinuko Y. Craft
Gary Lippincott
Dave McKean
John Jude Palencar
Charles Vess

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Gordon van Gelder

Other Nominees:
Paul Barnett
Ellen Datlow
William K. Schafer
Gary Turner and Marty Halpern
Terri Windling

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Jason Williams, Jeremy Lassen, and Benjamin Cossel

Other Nominees:
Peter Crowther
Gavin Grant and Kelly Link
Sean Wallace
Michael Walsh

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

Book Award Reviews     Home

2003 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: TorCon 3 in Toronto, Canada.

Comments: In 2003 the Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo was split into two separate awards, one for Long Form and one for Short Form. The formal definition is that a "Long Form" dramatic presentation is one that is ninety minutes long or long, and a "Short Form" dramatic presentation is anything shorter than that. In practice this means that the "Long Form" award is mostly for movies, and the "Short Form" award is for pretty much anything else. As soon as the award split, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers walked away with the Long Form trophy, beating out a collection of movies that included the second Harry Potter movie the Chamber of Secrets, and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Conversations with Dead People won the short form award. This pattern more or less illustrates why the award was split, as the Buffy episode, like many television shows, simply had no feasible chance of competing against the collection of movies in the Long Form category, but when placed in a field against other works of its own media form its quality shines through.

In the other categories it was more or less business as usual for the Hugos. Robert J. Sawyer's serviceable Hominids won Best Novel over a field of solid but unspectacular competition. Neil Gaiman followed up his 2002 Best Novel win for American Gods with a Best Novella win for Coraline. And so on. One bad note regarding this year's nominees is just how male dominated the list is. In all of the the written fiction categories combined, there were only three works nominated that were written by women. This would have been sparse representation in the 1970s or 1980s, but for 2003 this is a travesty. It seems somewhat ironic that one of the nominees in this year for Best Nonfiction Work was Justine Larbelestier's The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, because looking at the numbers, it seems that even at this late date the battle is still, sadly, very one-sided.

Best Novel

Winner:
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer

Other Finalists:
Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick
Kiln People by David Brin
The Scar by China Miéville
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

Best Novella

Winner:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Other Finalists:
Breathmoss by Ian R. MacLeod
Bronte's Egg by Richard Chwedyk
In Spirit by Pat Forde
The Political Officer by Charles Coleman Finlay
A Year in the Linear City by Paul Di Filippo

Best Novelette

Winner:

Slow Life by Michael Swanwick

Other Finalists:
Halo by Charles Stross
Madonna of the Maquiladora by Gregory Frost
Presence by Maureen F. McHugh
The Wild Girls by Ursula K. Le Guin

Best Short Story

Winner:

Falling Onto Mars by Geoffrey A. Landis

Other Finalists:
Creation by Jeffrey Ford
'Hello,' Said the Stick by Michael Swanwick
Lambing Season by Molly Gloss
The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport by Michael Swanwick

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:

Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril by Judith Merril and Emily Pohl-Weary

Other Finalists:
The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction by Justine Larbalestier
Bradbury: An Illustrated Life by Jerry Weist
Dragonhenge by Bob Eggleton and John Grant

Spectrum 9: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner

Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form

Winner:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Other Finalists:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Minority Report
Spider-Man
Spirited Away

Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form

Winner:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People

Other Finalists:
Angel: Waiting in the Wings
Firefly: Serenity
Star Trek: Enterprise: A Night in Sickbay
Star Trek: Enterprise: Carbon Creek

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Other Finalists:
Ellen Datlow
David G. Hartwell
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon van Gelder

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Bob Eggleton

Other Finalists:
Jim Burns
David A. Cherry
Frank Kelly Freas
Donato Giancola

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, and Jennifer A. Hall

Other Finalists:
Ansible edited by Dave Langford
Interzone edited by David Pringle

The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin J. Maroney

Speculations edited by Kent Brewster

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Mimosa edited by Rich Lynch and Nicki Lynch

Other Finalists:
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian, III
Emerald City edited by Cheryl Morgan
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Plokta edited by Alison Scott, Steve Davies, and Mike Scott

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Bob Devney
John L. Flynn
Mike Glyer
Steven H. Silver

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

Sue Mason

Other Finalists:
Brad Foster
Teddy Harvia
Steve Stiles
Frank Wu

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Wen Spencer

Other Finalists:
Charles Coleman Finlay
David D. Levine
Karin Lowachee
Ken Wharton

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2002
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2004

2003 Hugo Longlist     Book Award Reviews     Home