Monday, December 31, 1973

1973 Campbell Award Nominees

Location: Campbell Conference Awards Banquet in Lawrence, Kansas.

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

Best Novel

Winner:
Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

Second Place:
The Listeners by James E. Gunn

Third Place:
Darkening Island by Christopher Priest

Special Award for Excellence in Writing

Winner:
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:
None

Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1974

Book Award Reviews     Home

1973 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown

Comments: For the third year in  row, a work by a woman won the Mythopoeic Award for Best Adult Fantasy Literature. In addition, half of the nominees on the short list were works written by women. I hate to sound like a broken record on this, but in an era while other genre awards were apparently flummoxed by the idea that women make up half of the population of the world, and perhaps might be responsible for a fair share of the quality genre literature that was published, the Mythopoeic Awards were cheerfully running the other direction and giving female-authored literature its due.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
The Song of Rhiannon by Evangeline Walton

Other Nominees:
The Dancer from Atlantis by Poul Anderson
Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Green Phoenix by Thomas Burnett Swann
The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:
Master of Middle-Earth by Paul H. Kocher

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1972
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1974

Book Award Reviews     Home

1973 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: The first thing to note about the 1973 Nebula Awards is that Isaac Asimov won the Best Novel Award this year for The Gods Themselves. There are many people who denigrate Asimov's writing, and at times he can definitely be a little dry, but those of us that love his books can always point to the fact that his peers awarded him the highest honor they could for the quality of his prose. Given that their two careers seem to have been inextricably intertwined, it seems fitting that Arthur C. Clarke also won his first Nebula in 1973, for the novella A Meeting with Medusa.

The second thing to note is that Robert Silverberg dominated science fiction of the the early 1970s in a way that few other writers have dominated an era. And he did it in a weirdly unobtrusive manner, with only one award for novel writing - his 1972 Nebula win for A Time of Changes. But although he didn't win any Nebula Awards in 1973, he was nominated for the Best Novel award twice, and also garnered a nomination for Best Short Story.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

Other Nominees:
The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
What Entropy Means to Me by George Alec Effinger
When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One by David Gerrold

Best Novella

Winner:
A Meeting with Medusa Arthur C. Clarke

Other Nominees:
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
The Gold at the Starbow's End by Frederik Pohl
Son of the Morning by Phyllis Gotlieb
With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Little Old New Alabama by Richard A. Lupoff
The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)

Best Novelette

Winner:

Other Nominees:
The Animal Fair by Alfred Bester
Basilisk by Harlan Ellison
The Funeral by Kate Wilhelm
In the Deadlands by David Gerrold
A Kingdom by the Sea by Gardner Dozois
Patron of the Arts by William Rotsler

Best Short Story

Winner:
When It Changed by Joanna Russ

Other Nominees:
Against the Lafayette Escadrille by Gene Wolfe
And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side by James Tiptree, Jr.
On the Downhill Side by Harlan Ellison
Shaffery Among the Immortals by Frederik Pohl
When We Went to See the End of the World by Robert Silverberg

Go to previous year's nominees: 1972
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1974

Book Award Reviews     Home

1973 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: The most pervasive form of sexism is subtle. Sexism does not prosper because women are barred from entry into men's clubs or similar overt exclusionary practices. No, sexism prospers because it lurks unseen until you start examining things closely. In 1973, the slate of Locus Award nominees was biased heavily in favor of male writers. Even so, a couple of works by women were nominated in the fiction categories, and those works placed at least reasonably well. So one might think that the balance was slowly tilting more towards equality.

But if one looks at the lists of nominated anthologies, one might notice the complete lack of any female editors. Male authors who were at best moderately successful as authors seem to have been routinely asked to edit anthologies, but even the most successful female authors were excluded from this role. In effect, when the time came for publishers to select editors for their anthologies, they seem to have simply bypassed women. If you asked the publishers, they likely would have said that they were in favor of women's equality, and they probably didn't exclude women intentionally, but the effect is still the same as if they had. This is how sexism persists.

Best Novel
Winner:
1.   The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

Other Nominees:
2.   The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg
3.   Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
4.   When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One by David Gerrold
5.   A Choice of Gods by Clifford D. Simak
6.   The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
7.   There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson
8.   The Listeners by James E. Gunn
9.   The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny
10 The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad
11. The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
12. What Entropy Means to Me by George Alec Effinger
13. The Pritcher Mass by Gordon R. Dickson
14. The Brave, Free Men by Jack Vance
15. Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz
16. Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg
17. (tie) Other Days, Other Eyes by Bob Shaw
      (tie) A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (aka Tunnel Through the Deeps) by Harry Harrison
19. Yesterday's Children by David Gerrold
20. The Castle Keeps by andrew j. offutt
21. Beyond the Resurrection by Gordon Eklund

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   The Gold at the Starbow's End by Frederik Pohl

Other Nominees:
2.   The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)
3.   The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
4.   Hero by Joe Haldeman
5.   Midsummer Century by James Blish
6.   With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Little Old New Alabama by Richard A. Lupoff
7.   The Merchants of Venus by Frederik Pohl
8.   Things Which are Caesar's by Gordon R. Dickson
9.   334 by Thomas M. Disch
10. Seventy Years of DecPop by Philip José Farmer
11. What Good Is a Glass Dagger? by Larry Niven
12. The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle
13. (tie) Collision Course by S. Kye Boult
      (tie) Common Denominator by David Lewis
      (tie) Solo Kill by S. Kye Boult
16. Love is a Dragonfly by Thomas Burnett Swann
17. In the Ocean of Night by Gregory Benford
18. Son of the Morning by Phyllis Gotlieb

Best Short Story
Winner:
1.   Basilisk by Harlan Ellison

Other Nominees:
2.    Patron of the Arts by William Rotsler
3.   Goat Song by Poul Anderson (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)
4.   And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side by James Tiptree, Jr.
5.   A Kingdom by the Sea by Gardner Dozois
6.   When It Changed by Joanna Russ
7.   The Second Kind of Loneliness by George R.R. Martin
8.   Painwise by James Tiptree, Jr.
9.   The Meeting by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth) (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)
10. The Funeral by Kate Wilhelm
11. Man's Reach by Anthony Boucher
12. Caliban by Robert Silverberg
13. On the Downhill Side by Harlan Ellison
14. (tie) Nobody's Home by Joanna Russ
      (tie) When We Went to See the End of the World by Robert Silverberg
      (tie) The Big Space Fuck by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
      (tie) Eurema's Dam by R.A. Lafferty (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)
      (tie) The Milk of Paradise by James Tiptree, Jr.
      (tie) (Now+n), (Now-n) by Robert Silverberg

Best Original Anthology
Winner:
1.   Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison

Other Nominees:
2.   Universe 2 edited by Terry Carr
3.   New Dimensions II edited by Robert Silverberg
4.   Orbit 10 edited by Damon Knight
5.   Nova 2 edited by Harry Harrison
6.   Orbit 11 edited by Damon Knight
7.   Generation edited by David Gerrold
8.   Infinity Four edited by Robert Hoskins
9.   The Day the Sun Stood Still edited by Robert Silverberg
10. Clarion II edited by Robin Scott Wilson
11. New Worlds Quarterly #4 edited by Michael Moorcock
12. New Worlds Quarterly #3 edited by Michael Moorcock
13. Infinity Three edited by Robert Hoskins
14. And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire edited by Roger Elwood
15. New Writings in SF 21 edited by Ted Carnell

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

Other Nominees:
2.   The 1972 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha
3.   A Science Fiction Argosy edited by Damon Knight
4.   Alpha Three edited by Robert Silverberg
5.   The Early Asimov by Isaac Asimov
6.   The Gold at the Starbow's End by Frederik Pohl
7.   Best Science Fiction for 1972 edited by Frederik Pohl
8.  (tie) The Hugo Winners, Volumes 1 & 2 edited by Isaac Asimov
     (tie) The Wind from the Sun by Arthur C. Clarke
10. A Day in the Life edited by Gardner Dozois
11. Best SF: 1971 edited by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss
12. First Person, Peculiar by T.L. Sherred
13. (tie) The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume One edited by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss
      (tie) Nebula Award Stories Seven edited by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
      (tie) Strange Doings by R.A. Lafferty

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Fantasy & Science Fiction

Other Nominees:
2.   Analog
3.   Amazing Stories
4.   Galaxy
5.   Fantastic
6.   If
7.   Orbit
8.   Universe
9.   New Dimensions
10. New Worlds Quarterly
11. Infinity

Best Fanzine
Winner:
1.   Locus

Other Nominees:
2.   Energumen
3.   Algol
4.   SF Commentary
5.   Granfalloon
6.   Richard E. Geis
7.   Outworlds
8.   Speculation
9.   Yandro
10. Luna
11. Riverside Quarterly
12. Nyctalops
13. (tie) Amra
      (tie) ERB-dom
15. Title
16. Is
17. Moebius Trip
18. Extrapolation
19. Starling

Best Fan Writer
Winner:
1.   Terry Carr

Other Nominees:
2.   Dick Geis
3.   Charlie Brown
4.   Harry Warner, Jr.
5.   Tony Lewis
6.   Sandra Miesel
7.   Paul Walker
8.   Bruce Gillespie
9.   Jack Gaughan
10. Rosemary Ullyot
11. Susan Glicksohn
12. Dave Hartwell
13. Mike Glicksohn
14. Buck Coulson
15. Ted White
16. John Bangsund

Best Book Publisher
Winner:
1.   Ballantine

Other Nominees:
2.   DAW
3.   Doubleday
4.   Ace
5.   Science Fiction Book Club
6.   NAL/Signet
7.   Scribners
8.   Berkley
9.   Lancer
10. Putnam
11. Avon
12. Harper & Row
13. Arkham House
14. Mirage Press

Best Paperback Cover Artist
Winner:
1.   Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
2.   Gene Szafran
3.   (tie) Jack Gaughan
      (tie) Frank Frazetta
5.   Jeff Jones
6.   Dean Ellis
7.   Paul Lehr
8.   George Barr
9.   Vincent Di Fate
10. Gervasio Gallardo
11. Karel Thole
12. Tim Kirk
13. John Schoenherr
14. Bob Pepper
15. Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
16. John Berkey
17. David Johnston
18. Richard Powers

Best Magazine Artist
Winner:
1.   Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
2.   John Schoenherr
3.   Jack Gaughan
4.   Vincent Di Fate
5.   Mike Hinge
6.   Jeff Jones
7.   Gahan Wilson
8.   Mike Kaluta
9.   David Hardy
10. Leo Summers
11. Don Davis
12. Ron Walotsky
13. Vaughn Bodé
14. (tie) Ed Emsh
      (tie) Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
16. Bert Tanner
17. Brian Boyle

Best Fan Artist
Winner:
1.   Bill Rotsler

Other Nominees:
2.   Tim Kirk
3.   Grant Canfield
4.   Alicia Austin
5.   Vincent Di Fate
6.   Arthur Thomson
7.   George Barr
8.   Jim McLeod
9.   Helmut Pesch
10. Jack Gaughan
11. Steve Fabian
12. Steve Stiles
13. James Shull
14. Mike Gilbert

Go to previous year's nominees: 1972
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1974

Book Award Reviews     Home