1997 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1997 the Libertarian Futurist Society continued their idolization of Robert A. Heinlein by inducting fourth of his novels overall and the second one in two years into their Hall of Fame. This seems appropriate, as many of Heinlein's novel display something of a libertarian streak. But as more and more of Heinlein's novels are inducted into the Prometheus Awards' Hall of Fame, it becomes increasingly apparent just how much the subgenre of "libertarian science fiction" is defined by Heinlein's work - to the extent that what many people consider "libertarian science fiction" to be is "what Robert A. Heinlein wrote", despite the fact that this would be a terribly flawed definition.

Best Novel

Winner:

Kings of the High Frontier by Victor Koman

Other Nominees:

Firestar by Michael F. Flynn

Paths to Otherwhere by James P. Hogan
Sliders by Brad Linaweaver
Wildside by Steven Gould

Hall of Fame

Winner:

Methuselah's Children by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
Emphyrio by Jack Vance
Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
A Planet for Texans (aka Lonestar Planet) by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire

Go to previous year's nominees: 1996
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1998

Book Award Reviews     Home

1997 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, London, United Kingdom.

Comments: 1997 is a year that is interesting not because of who won, but rather because of who didn't win. Specifically, George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones lost in the Best Novel category to Rachel Pollack's Godmother Night. Given the popularity of Martin's series now, it seems almost inconceivable that it would not have won the Best Novel Award when it was published, but this reminds us that things that become heralded later are sometimes not regarded with quite as much adoration when they first hit the market. And the comparative current obscurity of Rachel Pollack's novel reminds us that sometimes things that are strong examples of a genre are not remembered as well as they should be.

On an entirely unrelated note, in 1997 the World Fantasy Awards dusted off the category of Special Convention Award and bestowed it upon Hugh. B. Cave. This award is in recognition of "peerless contributions to the fantasy genre", and had not been awarded since 1987, and has not been awarded since. Although Cave seems like a worthy recipient, it seems odd that the judges would pull this award out of mothballs to hand it to him rather than simply giving him a Lifetime Achievement Award, for which he also would have been well-qualified.

Best Novel

Winner:
Godmother Night by Rachel Pollack

Other Nominees:
The 37^th Mandala by Marc Laidlaw
The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle
Devil's Tower by Mark Sumner
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, and Kate Elliott
Shadow of Ashland by Terence M. Green

Best Novella

Winner:
A City in Winter by Mark Helprin

Other Nominees:
Beauty and the Opéra or The Phantom Beast by Suzy McKee Charnas
Blood of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin
GI Jesus by Susan Palwick
Hell Hath Enlarged Herself by Michael Marshall Smith

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Thirteen Phantasms by James P. Blaylock

Other Nominees:
The Dead Cop by Dennis Etchison
Underbed by Graham Masterton

Best Anthology

Winner:

Starlight 1 edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Other Nominees:
Dark Terrors 2 edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
The Shimmering Door edited by Katharine Kerr and Martin H. Greenberg

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

Best Collection

Winner:

The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem

Other Nominees:
Bad Intentions by Norman Partridge
Bible Stories for Adults by James Morrow
Conference with the Dead by Terry Lamsley
Midnight Promises by Richard T. Chizmar
The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti
The Pavilion of Frozen Women by S.P. Somtow

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Madeleine L'Engle

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Moebius (aka Jean Girard)

Other Nominees:
Thomas Canty
H.R. Giger
J.K. Potter

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Michael J. Weldon

Other Nominees:
Diana Wynne Jones
Stephen Jones
David Pringle
Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Barbara Roden and Christopher Roden

Other Nominees:
Fedogan & Bremer
Paula Guran

Special Convention Award

Winner:
Hugh B. Cave

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1996
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1998

Book Award Reviews     Home

1997 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: Time and again the Clarke Awards have made other genre awards look bad through the simple expedient of actually regarding women as half of the human race and selecting nominees and winners on that basis. And in 1997, the Clarke Award once again made other genre awards look bad by recognizing the existence of science fiction written by non-white authors, handing the award to The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh. While other awards were still exclusionary clubs dominated by white male writers, the Clarke Awards were busy handing out half of their awards to women, and now, handing awards to the superlative fiction being written by people with darker skin tones.

Winner
The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh

Shortlist
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
Gibbon's Decline and Fall by Sheri S. Tepper
Looking for the Mahdi by N. Lee Wood
Voyage by Stephen Baxter

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1996
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1998

Book Award Reviews     Home

1997 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: Coming in third in 1997, behind McAuley's Fairyland and Robinson's Blue Mars, was Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, one of the very few books by women that had even been nominated for the award. Whenever I need to be reminded of the pervasive sexism in the science fiction community, I need look no further than the history of its awards. By 1997, the Campbell Awards had been a going concern for twenty-four years. And in that time, only two women had won the award. Twenty-two men had earned the top honor compared with just a single pair of women. And a female nominee was almost as rare as a female victor. I'm sure that the panels of judges were not consciously discriminating against fiction by women, but the institutional bias is readily apparent.

Best Novel

Winner:

Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley

Second Place:

Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Third Place:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Go to previous year's nominees: 1996
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1998

Book Award Reviews     Home

1997 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: LoneStarCon 2 in San Antonio, Texas.

Comments: I think 1997 wins the award for the winning entry with the longest title, as Connie Willis' The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective took home the prize for Best Short Story.

1997 was also the year that the final book in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy won the award for Best Novel. An interesting note to this victory is that although the first book in the series, Red Mars, didn't win a Hugo award, the second and third books, Green Mars and Blue Mars, both did.

Also in 1997, Babylon 5 earned its second Hugo Award, this time for the stunningly brilliant episode Severed Dreams. Personally, I would have picked the two part story War Without End as the best of that season, but if they did that, the Hugo voters would have had to confront the fact that they ignored Babylon Squared and the rest of the first season of the series. And one could also make a case for the excellent episodes And the Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place and Zha'ha'dum. Given the overall strength of the third season of Babylon 5, one could list several more worthy episodes too and all would have been good choices, which makes it odd that only one was nominated. As a side note, Babylon 5's win this year meant that the show beat out not one, but two iterations of the Star Trek franchise, topping the Deep Space Nine episode Trials and Tribble-ations and the Next Generation movie First Contact, a fairly impressive feat.

Best Novel

Winner:
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Other Finalists:
Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer

Best Novella

Winner:

Blood of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin

Other Finalists:
Abandon in Place by Jerry Oltion
The Cost to Be Wise by Maureen F. McHugh
Gas Fish by Mary Rosenblum
Immersion by Gregory Benford
Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt

Best Novelette

Winner:

Bicycle Repairman by Bruce Sterling

Other Finalists:
Age of Aquarius by William Barton
Beauty and the Opéra or The Phantom Beast by Suzy McKee Charnas
The Land of Nod by Mike Resnick
Mountain Ways by Ursula K. Le Guin

Best Short Story

Winner:

The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective by Connie Willis

Other Finalists:
The Dead by Michael Swanwick
Decency by Robert Reed
Gone by John Crowley
Un-Birthday Boy by James White

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:

Time & Chance: An Autobiography by L. Sprague de Camp

Other Finalists:
The Faces of Fantasy by Patti Perret
Look at the Evidence by John Clute
The Silence of the Langford by David Langford
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Babylon 5: Severed Dreams

Other Finalists:
Independence Day
Mars Attacks!
Star Trek - Deep Space Nine: Trials and Tribble-ations
Star Trek: First Contact

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Other Finalists:
Scott Edelman
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Stanley Schmidt

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Bob Eggleton

Other Finalists:
Thomas Canty
David A. Cherry
Don Maitz
Michael Whelan

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown

Other Finalists:
Interzone edited by David Pringle

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

Science Fiction Chronicle edited by Andrew I. Porter
Speculations edited by Kent Brewster

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Mimosa edited by Dick Lynch and Nicki Lynch

Other Finalists:
Ansible edited by Dave Langford
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Nova Express edited by Lawrence Person
Tangent edited by Dave Truesdale

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Sharon Farber
Mike Glyer
Andy Hooper
Evelyn C. Leeper

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

William Rotsler

Other Finalists:
Ian Gunn
Joe Mayhew
Peggy Ranson
Sherlock

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Michael A. Burstein

Other Finalists:
Raphael Carter
Richard Garfinkle
Katya Reimann
Sharon Shinn

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's finalists: 1996
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 1998

Book Award Reviews     Home

1997 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Westercon, in Seattle, Washington.

Comments: Every world-wide phenomenon has to have a starting point, and for George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, that starting point was more or less here, at the 1997 Locus Awards where The Game of Thrones won the award for Best Fantasy Novel. The salient point to remember about this event is that it took fifteen years to get from the publication of the novel to the HBO television series. Even though the book was obviously fairly well-regarded when it was published, the series didn't become the titanic hit that it has become until much later. Things take time to build up steam, and A Song of Ice and Fire is a clear demonstration of this fact.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Other Nominees:
2.   Endymion by Dan Simmons
3.   Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
4.   Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold
5.   Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
6.   Idoru by William Gibson
7.   Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh
8.   Night Lamp by Jack Vance
9.   Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley
10. Exodus from the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
11. Voyage by Stephen Baxter
12. Beggars Ride by Nancy Kress
13. Excession by Iain M. Banks
14. The Ringworld Throne by Larry Niven
15. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
16. Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams
17. Dreamfall by Joan D. Vinge
18. Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
19. Distress by Greg Egan
20. Pirates of the Universe by Terry Bisson
21. River of Dust by Alexander Jablokov
22. Night Sky Mine by Melissa Scott
23. The Other End of Time by Frederik Pohl
24. Gibbon's Decline and Fall by Sheri S. Tepper
25. The Tranquillity Alternative by Allen M. Steele
26. Oaths and Miracles by Nancy Kress
27. Infinity's Shore by David Brin

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Other Nominees:
2.   Lunatics by Bradley Denton
3.   Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip
4.   Blameless in Abaddon by James Morrow
5.   Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
6.   A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
7.   Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
8.   Nadya: The Wolf Chronicles by Pat Murphy
9.   The Prestige by Christopher Priest
10. The Wood Wife by Terri Windling
11. One for the Morning Glory by John Barnes
12. Walking the Labyrinth by Lisa Goldstein
13. Ancient Echoes by Robert Holdstock
14. Clouds End by Sean Stewart
15. The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights) by Philip Pullman
16. Mother of Winter by Barbara Hambly
17. Fair Peril by Nancy Springer
18. Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind
19. Firebird by Mercedes Lackey
20. The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, and Kate Elliott
21. The Dragon and the Unicorn by A.A. Attanasio
22. Sea Without a Shore by Sean Russell

Best Horror or Dark Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Desperation by Stephen King

Other Nominees:
2.   Sacrament by Clive Barker
3.   Unknown Regions (aka The Fetch) by Robert Holdstock
4.   The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires by Brian Stableford
5.   Requiem by Graham Joyce
6.   The 37^th Mandala by Marc Laidlaw
7.   Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice
8.   The Green Mile by Stephen King
9.   The Pillow Friend by Lisa Tuttle
10. Stainless by Todd Grimson

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.   (tie) Reclamation by Sarah Zettel
      (tie) Whiteout by Sage Walker

Other Nominees:
3.   The Waterborn by J. Gregory Keyes
4.   The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter
5.   Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle
6.   Looking for the Mahdi by N. Lee Wood
7.   Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
8.   Mordred's Curse by Ian McDowell
9.   Mainline by Deborah Christian
10. Wind from a Foreign Sky by Katya Reimann
11. Shade and Shadow by Francine G. Woodbury
12. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
13. Mage Heart by Jane Routley
14. Commencement by Roby James
15. First Dawn by Mike Moscoe

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   Bellwether by Connie Willis

Other Nominees:

2.   Blood of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin

3.   Human History by Lucius Shepard
4.   The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle
5.   Kilroy Was Here by Jack Cady
6.   Gas Fish by Mary Rosenblum
7.   Immersion by Gregory Benford
8.   The Tree that Grew from the Sky by Robert Silverberg
9.   Chrysalis by Robert Reed
10. The Cost to be Wise by Maureen F. McHugh
11. Abandon in Place by Jerry Oltion
12. The Littlest Jackal by Bruce Sterling
13. Verglas by Ian R. MacLeod
14. Saddle Point Sequence by Stephen Baxter
15. Fugue on a Sunken Continent by G. David Nordley
16. (tie) Primrose and Thorn by Bud Sparhawk
      (tie) Saddle Point Dreamtime by Stephen Baxter

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   Mountain Ways by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
2.   The Edge of the Universe by Terry Bisson
3.   The Land of Nod by Mike Resnick
4.   Bicycle Repairman by Bruce Sterling
5.   Beauty and the Opéra or The Phantom Beast by Suzy McKee Charnas
6.   The Dog's Story by Eleanor Arnason
7.   A Dry, Quiet War by Tony Daniel
8.   The Flowers of Aulit Prison by Nancy Kress
9.   Radio Waves by Michael Swanwick
10. The Man in the Pepper Mill by Gene Wolfe
11. Age of Aquarius by William Barton
12. The First Law of Thermodynamics by James Patrick Kelly
13. Amends by John Brunner
14. After a Lean Winter by Dave Wolverton
15. Martian Valkyrie by G. David Nordley
16. Try and Kill It by Gene Wolfe
17. Kronos by Allen M. Steele
18. The Peacock Throne by Charles Sheffield
19. Out of the Mouths by Sheila Finch
20. Diana of the Hundred Breasts by Robert Silverberg
21. The Longer Voyage by Michael Cassutt
22. The Three Labors of Bubba by Bud Webster
23. Nonstop to Portales by Connie Willis
24. In the Upper Room by Terry Bisson

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   Gone by John Crowley

Other Nominees:

2.   Counting Cats in Zanzibar by Gene Wolfe

3.   The Last Homosexual by Paul Park
4.   The Dead by Michael Swanwick

5.   The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective by Connie Willis

6.   Forget Luck by Kate Wilhelm
7.   On Sequoia Time by Daniel Keys Moran
8.   Decency by Robert Reed
9.   Strings by Maureen F. McHugh
10. Appointment in Sinai by Ben Bova
11. Community by Gardner Dozois
12. A Silurian Tale by Steven Utley
13. Columbiad by Stephen Baxter
14. Un-Birthday Boy by James White
15. Invasion by Joanna Russ
16. The Spacetime Pit by Stephen Baxter and Eric Brown
17. Breakaway, Backdown by James Patrick Kelly
18. First Tuesday by Robert Reed
19. Death Do Us Part by Robert Silverberg
20. Under Pressure by Sarah Zettel

Best Collection
Winner:

1.   None So Blind by Joe Haldeman

Other Nominees:

2.   Unlocking the Air and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

3.   Quicker than the Eye by Ray Bradbury
4.   Bible Stories for Adults by James Morrow
5.   Dreamweaver's Dilemma by Lois McMaster Bujold
6.   All One Universe by Poul Anderson
7.   The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem

8.   Killdozer!: Volume III: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon, edited by Paul Williams

9.   Microcosmic God: Volume II: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon, edited by Paul Williams

10. The Panic Hand by Jonathan Carroll

11. Over the River and Through the Woods: The Best Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak by Clifford D. Simak

12. At the City Limits of Fate by Michael Bishop
13. Standard Candles by Jack McDevitt
14. Ribofunk by Paul Di Filippo
15. Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
16. Minor Arcana by Diana Wynne Jones
17. The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti
18. Before . . . 12:01 . . . After by Richard A. Lupoff
19. The Invisible Country by Paul J. McAuley
20. Synthesis and Other Virtual Realities by Mary Rosenblum

Best Anthology
Winner:

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

Other Nominees:

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

3.   Year's Best SF edited by David G. Hartwell
4.   Starlight 1 edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
5.   War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches edited by Kevin J. Anderson
6.   Nebula Awards 30 edited by Pamela Sargent
7.   Visions of Wonder edited by David G. Hartwell and Milton T. Wolf
8.   Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex edited by Ellen Datlow

9.   Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology edited by John Kessel, Mark L. Van Name, and Richard Butner

10. American Gothic Tales edited by Joyce Carol Oates

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:

1.   Look at the Evidence by John Clute

Other Nominees:

2.   Time & Chance: An Autobiography by L. Sprague de Camp

3.   The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
4.   H.P. Lovecraft: A Life by S.T. Joshi
5.   St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers edited by David Pringle
6.   Ash of Stars: On the Writing of Samuel R. Delany edited by James Sallis
7.   Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography by Herbert R. Lottman
8.   The Jules Verne Encyclopedia by Brian Taves and Stephen Michaluk, Jr.

Best Art Book
Winner:

1.   Spectrum 3: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Burnett and Arnie Fenner, with Jim Loehr

Other Nominees:
2.   The Faces of Fantasy by Patti Perret
3.   The World of Edward Gorey by Clifford Ross and Karen Wilkin; artist Edward Gorey
4.   Neurotica: The Darkest Art of J.K. Potter by J.K. Potter
5.   H.R. Giger's Film Design by H.R. Giger

6.   Maxfield Parrish: A Retrospective by Laurence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler; artist Maxfield Parrish

7.   Animal Farm: 50^th Anniversary Edition by George Orwell, illustrated by Ralph Steadman

8.   A City in Winter by Mark Helprin, illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
9.   The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Alan Lee

Best Editor
Winner:
1.   Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
2.   Kristine Kathryn Rusch
3.   Ellen Datlow
4.   David G. Hartwell
5.   Stanley Schmidt
6.   Patrick Nielsen Hayden
7.   Scott Edelman
8.   Terri Windling
9.   David Pringle

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Asimov's

Other Nominees:
2.   Fantasy & Science Fiction
3.   Analog
4.   Science Fiction Age
5.   Interzone
6.   Realms of Fantasy
7.   Century

Best Publisher
Winner:
1.   Tor/St. Martin's

Other Nominees:
2.   Bantam/Doubleday/Dell
3.   Ballantine/Del Rey/etc.
4.   Baen
5.   DAW
6.   Putnam Berkley/Ace
7.   HarperCollins/HarperPrism
8.   Avon/Morrow
9.   White Wolf
10. Warner
11. Penguin/Roc

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Bob Eggleton
3.   Don Maitz
4.   Thomas Canty
5.   Jim Burns
6.   J.K. Potter
7.   W.J. Hodgson

Go to previous year's nominees: 1996
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1998

Book Award Reviews     Home

1997 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Kansas City, Missouri.

Comments: After the nomination screw up in 1996 regarding Robert Charles Wilson's novelette The Perseids, the SFWA decided to try to make up for their counting error by renominating the story in the Best Novelette category in 1997. The story wasn't eliminated from the ballot this year, but it didn't win either, which made the renomination somewhat anticlimactic. One has to wonder whether the story would have fared better if it had been voted upon in the proper category in the proper year.

In happier news, Esther M. Friesner won the Nebula for Best Short Story for the second year in a row winning this year with her story A Birthday, and Nicola Griffith won the Nebula for Best Novel for the brilliant Slow River.

Best Novel

Winner:
Slow River by Nicola Griffith

Other Nominees:
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Expiration Date by Tim Powers
The Silent Strength of Stones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer
Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip

Best Novella

Winner:

Da Vinci Rising by Jack Dann

Other Nominees:
Blood of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin
The Cost to Be Wise by Maureen F. McHugh
The Death of Captain Future by Allen M. Steele
Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
A Woman's Liberation by Ursula K. Le Guin

Best Novelette

Winner:

Lifeboat on a Burning Sea by Bruce Holland Rogers

Other Nominees:
After a Lean Winter by Dave Wolverton
The Chronology Protection Case by Paul Levinson
Erase/Record/Play by John M. Ford
Mirror of Lop Nor by George Guthridge
Must and Shall by Harry Turtledove
The Perseids by Robert Charles Wilson

Best Short Story

Winner:
A Birthday by Esther M. Friesner

Other Nominees:
Five Fucks by Jonathan Lethem
In the Pound, Near Breaktime by Kent Brewster
In the Shade of the Slowboat Man by Dean Wesley Smith
The String by Kathleen Ann Goonan
These Shoes Strangers Have Died Of by Bruce Holland Rogers

Go to previous year's nominees: 1996
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1998

Book Award Reviews     Home

1996 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: 1996 represents a clear turnaround from 1994, when apparently no science fiction novel was good enough to win the Campbell Award, because in this year the first and the second place novels were both deserving of the top prize. Both Stephen Baxter and Neal Stephenson are brilliant, although very different, writers, and The Time Ships and The Diamond Age are both examples of them at the top of their respective games. Unfortunately for Stephenson, the judges didn't see fit to place his novel in a tie for first place, and Baxter walked away with the trophy.

Best Novel

Winner:

The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter

Second Place:

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Third Place:

Chaga (aka Evolution's Shore) by Ian McDonald

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

Book Award Reviews     Home

1996 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: Another year, another set of nominees in the Inklings Studies category that focus exclusively on Tolkien and Lewis. As a counterweight to this predictability, the two fantasy literature categories included both books by fantasy fiction royalty like Patricia A. McKillip, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper and relative newcomers like Sylvia Waugh and Sherwood Smith as well as a work by Kenneth Morris, an author who died in 1937. This variety, much more so than the hidebound obsession over two authors displayed in the Inklings Studies category, is what makes the Mythopoeic Awards interesting and keeps them fresh. Endless rehashing of the works of a single author, or a pair of authors, is a dead end path that leads to a moribund award, and the sooner the Mythopoeic Society realizes this, the better.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Waking the Moon (Revised) by Elizabeth Hand

Other Nominees:

All the Bells on Earth by James P. Blaylock

The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip
Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop
The Dragon Path by Kenneth Morris

Best Children's Fantasy Literature

Winner:
The Crown of Dalemark by Diana Wynne Jones

Other Nominees:
The Boggart by Susan Cooper
Falcon's Egg by Luli Gray
The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh
Wren's War by Sherwood Smith

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:

J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull

Other Nominees:
C.S. Lewis: A Reference Guide, 1927-1988 by Susan Lowenberg
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Patterning of a Fantastic World by Colin Manlove
The Fiction of C.S. Lewis: Mask and Mirror by Kath Filmer
The Hobbit: A Journey into Maturity by William H. Green

Myth and Fantasy Studies

Winner:

From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers by Marina Warner

Other Nominees:

The Seed and the Vision: On the Writing and Appreciation of Children's Books by Eleanor Cameron

T.H. White's The Once and Future King by Elisabeth Brewer

When Toys Come Alive: Narratives of Animation, Metamorphosis, and Development by Lois Rostow Kuznets

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

Book Award Reviews     Home

1996 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: After an absence of two years, the "runner-up" category returned to the Clarke Awards in 1996. Why? I have no idea. For the most part I have simply given up trying to figure out the rhyme or reason for the ever fluctuating methodologies used by genre awards.

On a more concrete note, 1996 was the year that Paul J. McAuley finally won a Clarke Award. As one of the most prominent British science fiction authors of recent years, he had been nominated multiple times for the award, but until 1996 he had always been a bridesmaid and never the bride.

Winner
Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley

Runner-Up
The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod

Shortlist
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Happy Policeman by Patricia Anthony
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

Book Award Reviews     Home

1996 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Schaumburg, Illinois.

Comments: Though the pace of change can be glacial, sometimes when the wheel turns, it turns in a hurry. And when it comes to female representation in the World Fantasy Awards, the turnaround, incomplete though it was, was rapid. Although the Awards had only gotten around to honoring Ursula K. Le Guin for her impressive body of work in 1995, and their track record of nominating and honoring women prior to that had been spotty at best, in 1996, the field was filled with contributions from female authors and editors. Gwyneth Jones won two awards, one for Best Short Fiction and one for Best Collection, and the Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women won in the Best Anthology category. Every fiction category had at least one female nominee, and more than one category had multiple female nominees. The only category devoid of women was the Best Artist category. Actual equity had not yet been achieved, but substantial steps in that direction had been taken.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Other Nominees:
All the Bells on Earth by James P. Blaylock
Expiration Date by Tim Powers
Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra
Requiem by Graham Joyce
The Silent Strength of Stones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Best Novella

Winner:
Radio Waves by Michael Swanwick

Other Nominees:
Ether OR by Ursula K. Le Guin
Home for Christmas by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom by Jonathan Lethem
More Tomorrow by Michael Marshall Smith
Where They Are Hid by Tim Powers

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
The Grass Princess by Gwyneth Jones

Other Nominees:
Angel Thing by Petrina Smith
Dragon's Fin Soup by S.P. Somtow
Loop by Douglas E. Winter
The Perseids by Robert Charles Wilson
The Singing Marine by Kit Reed

Best Anthology

Winner:

The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women edited by A. Susan Williams and Richard Glyn Jones

Other Nominees:
Dark Love edited by Nancy A. Collins, Edward E. Kramer, and Martin H. Greenberg
Dark Terrors edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
High Fantastic edited by Steve Rasnic Tem
She's Fantastical edited by Lucy Sussex and Judith Raphael Buckrich

Best Collection

Winner:

Seven Tales and a Fable by Gwyneth Jones

Other Nominees:
Death Stalks the Night by Hugh B. Cave
The Ivory and the Horn by Charles de Lint
The Panic Hand by Jonathan Carroll
The Secret of This Book (aka Common Clay) by Brian W. Aldiss

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Gene Wolfe

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Gahan Wilson

Other Nominees:
Thomas Canty
Alan M. Clark
Bob Eggleton
J.K. Potter

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Richard Evans

Other Nominees:
Stephen Jones
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Gordon van Gelder
Paul Williams

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Marc Michaud

Other Nominees:
Fedogan & Bremer
Robert K.J. Killheffer, Meg Hamel, and Jenna A. Felice
Steve Pasechnick
Robert Weinberg

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

Book Award Reviews     Home

1996 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1996, the Libertarian Futurist Society went back to its roots and inducted Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novel Red Planet into its Hall of Fame. This is one of the fortuitous circumstances in which the book inducted was both an decent example of the libertarian ideology and also a very good book. Red Planet also just happens to be one of my favorite of Heinlein's juvenile novels, so for me, that's an additional bonus.

Best Novel

Winner:

The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod

Other Nominees:

CLD (Collective Landing Detachment) by Victor Milán

Design for Great-Day by Alan Dean Foster and Eric Frank Russell
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Hall of Fame

Winner:

Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1995
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1997

Book Award Reviews     Home

1996 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: LAcon III in Anaheim, California.

Comments: The odd thing about Neal Stephenson's Best Novel win for The Diamond Age is not that he won the award - he deserved to. But rather, it is that this is the first time Stephenson appears on a Hugo list in any capacity. This is, I think, an important development. Traditionally, a writer would spend the early part of his career writing shorter fiction, getting it published in the various science fiction and fantasy oriented magazines, maybe garner a few nominations for their short work, and build their career for a while before tackling the challenge of writing a novel. But while Stephenson doesn't mark the end of that model, he certainly represents the changing nature of the publishing world. By the 1990s, short fiction, quite simply, wasn't as important as it had been in prior decades. I'm not certain, but it seems that leapfrogging the process of sharpening one's skills for a couple years with shorter fiction before tackling a novel-length work is problematic for genre fiction as a whole. It can work - witness the high quality of Stephenson's work - but I think something is being lost. For fans, there is less short fiction being produced, and for writers, there are fewer and fewer markets for them to make a living while honing their skills.

In happier news, 1996 was the year that my favorite television show of all time won its first Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation when Babylon 5 took home the rocket trophy for the season two episode The Coming of Shadows. As far as I'm concerned, Babylon 5 should have won the Hugo in every year that it was eligible, but didn't. In this cycle of Hugo voting Straczynski took the rather unusual step of suggesting that fans vote for one episode of the season so as to concentrate the fan vote into one bloc, which explains the absence from the ballot of other great season two episodes like Confessions and Lamentations, Comes the Inquisitor, and The Fall of Night. I also have to wonder why Apollo 13 is on the nominating ballot. Granted it is a great movie, and I love it as much as anyone, but it is decidedly not science fiction or fantasy, so why was it nominated for a Hugo Award?

Best Novel

Winner:
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Other Finalists:
Brightness Reef by David Brin
Remake by Connie Willis
The Terminal Experiment (serial title Hobson's Choice) by Robert J. Sawyer
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter

Best Novella

Winner:

The Death of Captain Future by Allen M. Steele

Other Finalists:
Bibi by Mike Resnick and Susan Shwartz
Fault Lines by Nancy Kress
A Man of the People by Ursula K. Le Guin
A Woman's Liberation by Ursula K. Le Guin

Best Novelette

Winner:

Think Like a Dinosaur by James Patrick Kelly

Other Finalists:
The Good Rat by Allen M. Steele
Luminous by Greg Egan
Must and Shall by Harry Turtledove
TAP by Greg Egan
When the Old Gods Die by Mike Resnick

Best Short Story

Winner:

The Lincoln Train by Maureen F. McHugh

Other Finalists:
A Birthday by Esther M. Friesner
Life on the Moon by Tony Daniel
TeleAbsence by Michael A. Burstein
Walking Out by Michael Swanwick

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:

Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia by John Clute

Other Finalists:
Alien Horizons: The Fantastic Art of Bob Eggleton by Bob Eggleton

Spectrum 2: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Burnett and Arnie Fenner

To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction by Joanna Russ
Yours, Isaac Asimov by Isaac Asimov, edited by Stanley Asimov

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Babylon 5: The Coming of Shadows

Other Finalists:
12 Monkeys
Apollo 13
Star Trek - Deep Space Nine: The Visitor
Toy Story

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Other Finalists:
Ellen Datlow
Scott Edelman
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Stanley Schmidt

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Bob Eggleton

Other Finalists:
Jim Burns
Thomas Canty
Don Maitz
Michael Whelan

Best Original Artwork

Winner:

Dinotopia: The World Beneath by James Gurney

Other Finalists:
Bob Eggleton for Dankden by Marc Laidlaw
Bob Eggleton for Tide of Stars by Julia Ecklar
George H. Krauter for Renascance by Poul Anderson
Gary Lippincott for Tea and Hamsters by Michael Coney

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:

Locus edited by Charles N. Brown

Other Finalists:
Crank! edited by Bryan Cholfin
Interzone edited by David Pringle

The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by David G. Hartwell, Ariel Haméon, and Tad Dembinski

Science Fiction Chronicle edited by Andrew Porter

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Ansible edited by Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Apparatchik edited by Andrew Hooper and Victor Gonzalez
Attitude edited by Michael Abbott, John Dallman, and Pam Wells
FOSFAX edited by Timothy Lane and Elizabeth Garrott
Lan's Lantern edited by George "Lan" Laskowski
Mimosa edited by Richard Lynch and Nicki Lynch

Best Fan Writer

Winner:

Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Sharon Farber
Andy Hooper
Evelyn C. Leeper
Joseph T. Major

Best Fan Artist

Winner:

William Rotsler

Other Finalists:
Ian Gunn
Teddy Harvia
Joe Mayhew
Peggy Ranson

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
David Feintuch

Other Finalists:
Michael A. Burstein
Felicity Savage
Sharon Shinn
Tricia Sullivan

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's finalists: 1995
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 1997

Book Award Reviews     Home

1946 Retro Hugo Award Finalists (awarded in 1996)

Location: L.A.Con III in Anaheim, California.

Comments: The "1946" Hugo Award ballot was actually composed and voted on in 1996, using the "Retrospective Hugo" voting rules. Under these rules a Worldcon held 50, 75, or 100 years after a Worldcon in which no Hugo Awards were handed out may choose to hand out Hugo Awards to works and individuals who would have been eligible in that year using the same rules as those used for regular Hugo Awards. Consequently, even though this round of awards has not handed out until 1996, the works represented in this list are currently the oldest works to have been honored with Hugo Awards.

The "Retro Hugos" are somewhat controversial, as there are questions about the validity of making assessments of the quality of a work fifty or more years after the fact. One has to wonder, for example, if voters actually thought The Mule was the best novel of 1946, or if they were actually honoring the Foundation series that it represented.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Mule by Isaac Asimov

Other Finalists:
Destiny Times Three by Fritz Leiber
Red Sun of Danger (aka Danger Planet) by Brett Sterling
That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
The World of Null-A by A.E. van Vogt

Best Novella

Winner:
Animal Farm by George Orwell

Other Finalists:
Dead Hand by Isaac Asimov
Giant Killer by A. Bertram Chandler
I Remember Lemuria by Richard S. Shaver

Best Novelette

Winner:

First Contact by Murray Leinster (reviewed in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume I, 1929-1964)

Other Finalists:
Into Thy Hands by Lester del Rey
The Mixed Men by A.E. van Vogt
Pi in the Sky by Fredric Brown
The Piper's Son by Lewis Padgett

Best Short Story

Winner:
Uncommon Sense by Hal Clement

Other Finalists:
Correspondence Course by Raymond F. Jones
The Ethical Equations by Murray Leinster
The Waveries by Fredric Brown
What You Need by Lewis Padgett

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
The Picture of Dorian Gray

Other Finalists:
Blithe Spirit
The Body Snatcher
The Horn Blows at Midnight
House of Dracula

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
John W. Campbell, Jr.

Other Finalists:
Sam Merwin, Jr.
Raymond F. Palmer
Donald A. Wollheim

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Virgil Finlay

Other Finalists:
Earle K. Bergey
Hannes Bok
Edd Cartier
Frank R. Paul

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Voice of the Imagi-Nation edited by Forrest J Ackerman

Other Finalists:
Acolyte edited by Francis Towner Laney
Chanticleer edited by Walt Liebscher
Fantasy Commentator edited by A. Langley Searles
Shangri L'Affaires edited by Charles E. Burbee and Gerald Hewett

Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Forrest J. Ackerman

Other Finalists:
Charles E. Burbee
Francis Towner Laney
Bob Tucker
Art Widner

Best Fan Artist

Winner:
William Rotsler

Other Finalists:
Joe Gibson
Lou Goldstone, Jr.
Alva Rogers
Jack Wiedenbeck

Go to previous year's finalists: 1945 (awarded in 2020)
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 1951 (awarded in 2001)

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Book Award Reviews     Home