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

Book Award Reviews     Home

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

Book Award Reviews     Home

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

Book Award Reviews     Home

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

Book Award Reviews     Home

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

2003 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Westercon in Seattle-Tacoma, Washington.

Comments: In 2003 the Locus Awards introduced the Best Young Adult Book category, which, given the prevalence of strong young adult genre fiction was probably inevitable, and was certainly called for. The category was promptly won by Neil Gaiman with the creepy story Coraline. Gaiman also won in the Best Short Story category with October in the Chair, setting the author up for his magnificent run of victories over the next several years.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

Other Nominees:
2.   Kiln People by David Brin
3.   Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick
4.   Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
5.   Coyote by Allen M. Steele
6.   Light by M. John Harrison
7.   Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card
8.   Chindi by Jack McDevitt
9.   The Separation by Christopher Priest
10. Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan
11. The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
12. Probability Space by Nancy Kress
13. Guardian by Joe Haldeman
14. Engine City by Ken MacLeod
15. Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove
16. (tie) Evolution by Stephen Baxter
      (tie) Vitals by Greg Bear
18. Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
19. The Impossible Bird by Patrick O'Leary
20. The Sky So Big and Black by John Barnes
21. The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper
22. Light Music by Kathleen Ann Goonan
23. Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
24. Permanence by Karl Schroeder
25. The Praxis by Walter Jon Williams
26. Spaceland by Rudy Rucker
27. The Omega Expedition by Brian Stableford

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   The Scar by China Miéville

Other Nominees:
2.   Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
3.   A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
4.   White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
5.   Kushiel's Chosen by Jacqueline Carey
6.   Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
7.   Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip
8.   The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford
9.   The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
10. A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
11. The Alchemist's Door by Lisa Goldstein
12. Voyage of the Shadowmoon by Sean McMullen
13. The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce
14. The Iron Grail by Robert Holdstock
15. The Isle of Battle by Sean Russell
16. A Bed of Earth by Tanith Lee
17. The Lady of the Sorrows by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
18. Castles Made of Sand by Gwyneth Jones

Best Young Adult Book
Winner:
1.   Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Other Nominees:
2.   Abarat by Clive Barker
3.   Summerland by Michael Chabon
4.   A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane
5.   The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
6.   The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
7.   Protector of the Small: Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
8.   City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende
9.   The Storm Weaver and the Sand by Sean Williams
10. Feed by M.T. Anderson

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.    A Scattering of Jades by Alexander C. Irvine

Other Nominees:
2.   The Golden Age by John C. Wright
3.   Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
4.   Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge
5.   The Atrocity Archive (serial) by Charles Stross
6.   Warchild by Karin Lowachee
7.   The Summer Country by James A. Hetley
8.   Fires of the Faithful by Naomi Kritzer
9.   The Red Church by Scott Nicholson
10. The God Who Begat a Jackal by Nega Mezlekia
11. Just Like Beauty by Lisa Lerner
12. The Eye of Night by Pauline J. Alama

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   The Tain by China Miéville

Other Nominees:

2.   Paradises Lost by Ursula K. Le Guin

3.   A Year in the Linear City by Paul Di Filippo
4.   Seven Wild Sisters by Charles de Lint
5.   Stories for Men by John Kessel
6.   Riding the Rock by Stephen Baxter
7.   Breathmoss by Ian R. MacLeod
8.   The Human Front by Ken MacLeod
9.   Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds
10. The Potter of Bones by Eleanor Arnason
11. The Political Officer by Charles Coleman Finlay
12. (tie) Bronte's Egg by Richard Chwedyk
      (tie) Over Yonder by Lucius Shepard
14. Router by Charles Stross
15. The Drive-In Puerto Rico by Lucius Shepard
16. Veritas by Robert Reed
17. El Dia de los Muertos by Brian A. Hopkins
18. Singleton by Greg Egan
19. The Least Trumps by Elizabeth Hand
20. In Spirit by Pat Forde
21. In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers by Caitlín R. Kiernan
22. Ring Rats by R. Garcia y Robertson
23. Unseen Demons by Adam-Troy Castro
24. A Speaker for the Wooden Sea by Ian Watson
25. Ransom by Albert E. Cowdrey
26. Doctor Pretorius and the Lost Temple by Paul J. McAuley
27. Jury Service by Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   The Wild Girls by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
2.   Liking What You See: A Documentary by Ted Chiang
3.   A Walking Tour of the Shambles by Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman
4.   Slow Life by Michael Swanwick
5.   Halo by Charles Stross
6.   Lull by Kelly Link
7.   The Clear Blue Seas of Luna by Gregory Benford
8.   A Martian Theodicy by Paul Di Filippo
9.   Tourist by Charles Stross
10. In for a Penny or The Man Who Believed in Himself by James P. Blaylock
11. The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Andy Duncan
12. Lying to Dogs by Robert Reed
13. Something by the Sea by Jeffrey Ford
14. The Weight of Words by Jeffrey Ford
15. Madonna of the Maquiladora by Gregory Frost
16. Presence by Maureen F. McHugh
17. Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel by Michael Moorcock
18. The Likely Lad by Kage Baker
19. Little Red's Tango by Peter Straub
20. V.A.O. by Geoff Ryman
21. The Hidden Place by Ian McDonald
22. We Come Not to Praise Washington by Charles Coleman Finlay
23. Chichen Itza by Alex Irvine

24. The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars by Ian McDonald

25. The Passenger by Paul J. McAuley
26. A Flock of Birds by James Van Pelt
27. The Real Story by Alastair Reynolds
28. Look Away by Stephen L. Burns
29. The Most Famous Little Girl in the World by Nancy Kress
30. Watching Matthew by Damon Knight
31. Our Friend Electricity by Ron Wolfe
32. Pavane for a Prince of the Air by Elizabeth Hand
33. The Children's Crusade by Robert Reed

Best Short Story
Winner:

1.   October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman

Other Nominees:

2.   Creation by Jeffrey Ford

3.   Familiar by China Miéville
4.   The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport by Michael Swanwick
5.   (tie) The Hunters of Pangaea by Stephen Baxter
      (tie) In Paradise by Bruce Sterling
7.   The Hanging Curve by Gardner Dozois
8.   The Waif by Gene Wolfe
9.   Social Dreaming of the Frin by Ursula K. Le Guin
10. 'Hello,' Said the Stick by Michael Swanwick
11. What I Didn't See by Karen Joy Fowler
12. Shields of Mars by Gene Wolfe
13. The Seasons of the Ansarac by Ursula K. Le Guin
14. Candy Art by James Patrick Kelly
15. Her Father's Eyes by Kage Baker
16. If Lions Could Speak: Imaging the Alien by Paul Park
17. I Saw the Light by Terry Bisson
18. Lambing Season by Molly Gloss
19. (tie) Hunter's Moon by Patricia A. McKillip
      (tie) The Long Chase by Geoffrey A. Landis
      (tie) She Sees My Monsters Now by Robert Reed
22. Droplet by Benjamin Rosenbaum
23. Knapsack Poems by Eleanor Arnason
24. The Invisible Empire by John Kessel
25. (tie) Dirty Little War by Michael Swanwick
      (tie) The War of the Worldviews by James Morrow
27. At Dorado by Geoffrey A. Landis
28. Some Other Time by Ray Vukcevich
29. Flight Correction by Ken Wharton

Best Collection
Winner:

1.   Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Other Nominees:

2.   The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

3.   Worlds Enough & Time by Dan Simmons
4.   The Collected Stories of Greg Bear by Greg Bear
5.   Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
6.   The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories by Jeffrey Ford
7.   Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers by Kage Baker

8.   Bright Segment: Volume VIII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon

9.   Strange But Not a Stranger by James Patrick Kelly
10. Waifs and Strays by Charles de Lint
11. Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories by Carol Emshwiller
12. Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick

13. Martians and Madness: The Complete SF Novels of Fredric Brown by Fredric Brown

14. Little Doors by Paul Di Filippo
15. Phase Space by Stephen Baxter
16. Smoke Ghost & Other Apparitions by Fritz Leiber
17. Going for Infinity by Poul Anderson
18. (tie) Counting Up, Counting Down by Harry Turtledove
      (tie) Toast and Other Rusted Futures by Charles Stross
20. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet by Richard Matheson
21. Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek by John Sladek

Best Anthology
Winner:

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

Other Nominees:

2.   The Hard SF Renaissance edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

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

4.   Mars Probes edited by Peter Crowther

5.   The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

6.   Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists edited by Peter Straub
7.   Year's Best SF 7 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
8.   Leviathan, Volume Three edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Forrest Aguirr

9.   30^th Anniversary DAW: Science Fiction edited by Elizabeth R. Wollheim and Sheila E. Gilbert

10. Year's Best Fantasy 2 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
11. Polyphony, Volume 1 edited by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake
12. Dark Terrors 6 edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton

13. Robert Silverberg Presents The Great SF Stories (1964) edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg

14. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Thirteen edited by Stephen Jones

15. Nebula Awards Showcase 2002 edited by Kim Stanley Robinson
16. The Mammoth Book of Science Fiction edited by Mike Ashley
17. Worlds That Weren't edited by Laura Anne Gilman

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:

1.   Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years by Bruce Sterling

Other Nominees:

2.   Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever by Ellen Weil and Gary K. Wolfe

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

4.   The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction by Justine Larbalestier
5.   Clive Barker: The Dark Fantastic by Douglas E. Winter
6.   The Age of Chaos: The Multiverse of Michael Moorcock by Jeff Gardiner

7.   Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror, Second Edition, Volumes I & II edited by Richard Bleiler

8.   John W. Campbell's Golden Age of Science Fiction by Eric Solstein
9.   (tie) Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold: A Life by Malcolm Yorke
      (tie) The Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith by Karen L. Hellekson
11. L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz by Katharine M. Rogers

12. Starlight Man: The Extraordinary Life of Algernon Blackwood (aka Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life) by Mike Ashley

13. A.E. van Vogt: Science Fantasy's Icon by H.L. Drake

Best Art Book
Winner:

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

Other Nominees:

2.   Dragonhenge by Bob Eggleton and John Grant

3.   Bradbury: An Illustrated Life by Jerry Weist
4.   The Science Fiction Art of Vincent Di Fate by Vincent Di Fate
5.   The Art of Jeffrey Jones by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner; art by Jeffrey Jones
6.   Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc and Edward Gorey
7.   Paper Tiger Fantasy Art Gallery edited by Paul Barnett

8.   Fantasy Art Masters: The Best in Fantasy and SF Art Worldwide (aka More Fantasy Art Masters: The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Artists Show How They Work) by Dick Jude

9.   Richard Wagner's The Ring of The Nibelung, Volume One by P. Craig Russell
10. Richard Wagner's The Ring of The Nibelung, Volume Two by P. Craig Russell

Best Editor
Winner:
1.   Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
2.   Gordon van Gelder
3.   David G. Hartwell
4.   Peter Crowther
5.   Stanley Schmidt
6.   Patrick Nielsen Hayden
7.   Terri Windling
8.   David Pringle
9.   Martin H. Greenberg
10. Gavin Grant and Kelly Link
11. Shawna McCarthy
12. Stephen Jones
13. Jim Baen
14. Ellen Datlow

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Fantasy & Science Fiction

Other Nominees:
2.   Asimov's
3.   Analog
4.   Interzone
5.   Sci Fiction
6.   Realms of Fantasy
7.   The Third Alternative
8.   Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
9.   The New York Review of Science Fiction
10. Cemetery Dance
11. Strange Horizons
12. Spectrum SF
13. Black Gate
14. Science Fiction Weekly
15. Weird Tales
16. Science Fiction Chronicle
17. The Infinite Matrix
18. Ansible

Best Book Publisher or Imprint
Winner:
1.   Tor

Other Nominees:
2.   Baen
3.   Del Rey
4.   Eos
5.   DAW
6.   Golden Gryphon Press
7.   Ace
8.   Bantam Spectra
9.   NESFA Press
10. PS Publishing
11. Gollancz
12. Subterranean Press
13. Small Beer Press
14. Meisha Merlin
15. HarperCollins
16. Roc
17. Warner Aspect
18. Penguin Putnam
19. SFBC
20. St. Martin's

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Bob Eggleton

Other Nominees:
2.   Michael Whelan
3.   Thomas Canty
4.   Jim Burns
5.   Frank Kelly Freas
6.   Vincent Di Fate
7.   Kinuko Y. Craft
8.   Donato Giancola
9.   J.K. Potter
10. Jeffrey Jones
11. Chesley Bonestell
12. John Jude Palencar
13. Frank Frazetta
14. Alan M. Clark
15. Luis Royo
16. Don Maitz
17. (tie) Ron Walotsky
      (tie) Shaun Tan
19. Stephen Youll

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

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2003 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Comments: 2003 was the year that Neil Gaiman laid down the Nebula gauntlet with his book American Gods. Even though the year's Nebula ballot was very strong, with many brilliant science fiction novels, there was still no doubt that American Gods was head and shoulders above its competition. And even though I love both Ursula K. Le Guin and Kelley Eskridge, I have to concede that Gaiman's work was simply better than theirs.

2003 was also the year that the Lord of the Rings juggernaut got rolling, with a win for The Fellowship of the Ring. Given the steamroller like nature of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings phenomenon, it was almost inevitable that the movie would win, but it seems a shame that it happened in the same year that the brilliantly subversive anti-fairy tale Shrek was released.

Best Novel

Winner:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Other Nominees:
Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick
The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Picoverse by Robert A. Metzger
Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge

Best Novella

Winner:

Bronte's Egg by Richard Chwedyk

Other Nominees:
The Chief Designer by Andy Duncan
Magic's Price by Bud Sparhawk
The Political Officer by Charles Coleman Finlay
Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl's by Adam-Troy Castro

Best Novelette

Winner:

Hell is the Absence of God by Ted Chiang

Other Nominees:
The Days Between by Allen M. Steele
The Ferryman's Wife by Richard Bowes
Lobsters by Charles Stross
Madonna of the Maquiladora by Gregory Frost
The Pagodas of Ciboure by M. Shayne Bell

Best Short Story

Winner:
Creature by Carol Emshwiller

Other Nominees:
Creation by Jeffrey Ford
Cut by Megan Lindholm
The Dog Said Bow-Wow by Michael Swanwick
Little Gods by Tim Pratt
Nothing Ever Happens in Rock City by Jack McDevitt

Best Script

Winner:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson

Other Nominees:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling by Joss Whedon
The Dead Zone: Unreasonable Doubt by Michael Taylor
Shrek by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio

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

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2002 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: Gwyneth Jones shares a common characteristic with Stephen Baxter: They have both been nominated for the Clarke Award seven times. Jones has one accomplishment that Baxter does not have; She has won a Clarke Award. Baxter has a distinction that Jones does not; I have read two of Baxter's books, and none of Jones'. I don't know why I haven't read any of Gwyneth Jones' books, but this is clearly an oversight that I need to rectify as soon as practicable.

Winner
Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones

Shortlist
Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson
Pashazade: The First Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Passage by Connie Willis
The Secret of Life by Paul J. McAuley

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 2001
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2003

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2002 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: After years of wildly fluctuating formats for reporting the results of the Campbell Awards, the judges finally decided to catch up to the point that every other major award had been by the 1970s and provide a list of the winner along with all of the shortlisted finalists for the award. The Campbell Awards, unlike other major genre awards, has continued the practice of listing the second and third place finishers (although in a bout of sanity, they listed only the two books tied for first place and the third place finisher as having "placed"), but from this point forward they would also list the nominated novels that didn't place first, second, or third in the voting. And it only took the Campbell Awards until 2002 to do this, arriving at the same point that the Hugos got to in the 1950s.

Best Novel

Winner:

(tie) The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson

(tie) Terraforming Earth by Jack Williamson

Third Place:

Probability Sun by Nancy Kress

Finalists:

Dark Light by Ken MacLeod

Deepsix by Jack McDevitt
Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
Hammerfall by C.J. Cherryh
The House of Dust by Paul Johnston
The Meek by Scott Mackay
Nekropolis by Maureen F. McHugh
Pashazade: The First Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Passage by Connie Willis

Go to previous year's nominees: 2001
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2003

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2002 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: There are some choices made by the Libertarian Futurist Society that simply mystify me. I can understand why they would want to honor The Prisoner. The themes reflected in A Clockwork Orange and It Can't Happen Here are certainly ones that would be of interest to someone of a libertarian bent. And the Libertarian Futurist Society seems to have never met a Heinlein work that they didn't want to honor. But the presence of The Lord of the Rings on the list of Hall of Fame nominees simply mystifies me. I cannot see how Tolkien's work related in any way to libertarianism. I suppose one might consider it "libertarian" that the heroic characters in the trilogy seek to resist Sauron's efforts to enslave the "free peoples of Middle-Earth", but that seems like an awfully tenuous connection even if one regards it in its most favorable light.

Best Novel

Winner:

Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald M. Kingsbury

Other Nominees:

The American Zone by L. Neil Smith

Enemy Glory by Karen Michalson
Falling Stars by Michael F. Flynn
Hosts by F. Paul Wilson

Hall of Fame

Winner:

The Prisoner written and produced by Patrick McGoohan

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

Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein

Go to previous year's nominees: 2001
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2003

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2002 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Comments: Already in possession of a Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2002 Ursula K. Le Guin proved that she was still at the top of her game by winning the Best Novel Award for The Other Wind, and earning another nomination for her novella The Finder. I'm not sure how often a writer earns an award honoring their entire career and then goes on to garner even more top-level recognition, but the fact that Le Guin did exactly that is yet more evidence of her extraordinary talent.

That said, I think that Neil Gaiman's American Gods was a superior novel to The Other Wind, and a more inventive fantasy. On the other hand, Gaiman has no shortage of awards on his trophy shelf, including several for American Gods, so I'm not really going to feel sorry for him losing out here.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Brown Harvest by Jay Russell
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint
The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll

Best Novella

Winner:
The Bird Catcher by S.P. Somtow

Other Nominees:
Cleopatra Brimstone by Elizabeth Hand
Eternity and Afterward by Lucius Shepard
The Finder by Ursula K. Le Guin
Karuna, Inc. by Paul Di Filippo
Struwwelpeter by Glen Hirshberg

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
Queen for a Day by Albert E. Cowdrey

Other Nominees:
His Own Back Yard by James P. Blaylock
The Honeyed Knot by Jeffrey Ford
Legerdemain by Jack O'Connell
Something to Hitch Meat To by Nalo Hopkinson

Best Anthology

Winner:

The Museum of Horrors edited by Dennis Etchison

Other Nominees:
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Twelve edited by Stephen Jones
The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women edited by Stephen Jones
Stigmata edited by Jerad Walters

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

Best Collection

Winner:

Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson

Other Nominees:
Dark Universe: Stories 1951-2001 by William F. Nolan

The Essential Ellison: A 50-Year Retrospective: Revised and Expanded by Harlan Ellison; edited by Terry Dowling with Richard Delap and Gil Lamont

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
Talking in the Dark by Dennis Etchison

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
George Scithers
Forrest J Ackerman

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Allen Koszowski

Other Nominees:
Donato Giancola
John Jude Palencar
Douglas Walters
Gahan Wilson

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
(tie) Stephen Jones
(tie) Jo Fletcher

Other Nominees:
Randy Broecker
Ellen Datlow
Douglas E. Winter

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Raymond Russell and Rosalie Parker

Other Nominees:
Peter Crowther
Paula Guran
Jerad Walters
Michael Waltz

Go to previous year's nominees: 2001
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2003

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