Sunday, December 31, 2000

2000 Campbell Award Nominees

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

Comments: After four years of "normal" (or what passes for normal for the Campbell Awards), the judges decided they were not content with just reporting the first, second, and third place finishers, but that they needed to throw yet another procedural curveball and add a category of "honorable mentions". Why? I have no idea. The two novels that appear in this reinstated category are both decent, but neither is compelling enough that it's existence would demand a change to how the award results are reported. I can only chalk this change up to the judges deciding that it is yet again time to screw with everyone's head.

Best Novel

Winner:
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

Second Place:
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear

Third Place:
Greenhouse Summer by Norman Spinrad

Honorable Mention:
The Silicon Dagger by Jack Williamson
Starfish by Peter Watts

Go to previous year's nominees: 1999
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2001

Book Award Reviews     Home

2000 Mythopoeic Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 2000 the Mythopoeic Awards reached a new height in incestuous self-referential nominations when not one, but two works by J.R.R. Tolkien were nominated in the Inklings Studies category. Granted, the Mythopoeic Society exists to honor the members of the Inklings and to award scholarship about their work and their lives, but it always seems to me like a massive conflict of interest when they nominate works that are actually written by members of the Inklings, even if they include some amount of scholarly commentary by other authors.

Best Adult Fantasy Literature

Winner:
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle

Other Nominees:
The Book of Knights by Yves Meynard
Dark Cities Underground by Lisa Goldstein
Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice by A.S. Byatt
The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr

Best Children's Fantasy Literature

Winner:
The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley

Other Nominees:
The Circle of Magic (Sandry's Book, Tris's Book, Daja's Book, and Briar's Book) by Tamora Pierce
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Kingdom (Jackaroo, On Fortune's Wheel, The Wings of a Falcon, and Elske) by Cynthia Voigt
Skellig by David Almond

Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Winner:
Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull

Other Nominees:
C.S. Lewis: Writer, Dreamer & Mentor by Lionel Adey
Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
Tolkien: Man and Myth - A Literary Life by Joseph Pearce

Myth and Fantasy Studies

Winner:
Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness by Carole G. Silver

Other Nominees:
King Arthur in America by Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack
Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum by Michael O. Riley
The Quest for the Grail: Arthurian Legend in British Art 1840-1920 by Christine Poulson
When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition by Jack Zipes

Go to previous year's nominees: 1999
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2001

Book Award Reviews     Home

2000 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Corpus Christi, Texas.

Comments: Gender equity is a slippery thing. An array of nominees can look, at first glance, to be somewhat equitable, but as we've been conditioned to see actual equality as domination by women, appearances can be deceiving. The 2000 World Fantasy Award ballot is a case in point. Twenty-nine different people were nominated for fiction awards in this year, but only eight of those people were women. Granted, Terry Windling and Ellen Datlow were nominated twice, so one might argue that the proper ratio of women nominees to total nominees is actually ten and thirty-one. Either way, this ratio should have embarrassed the World Fantasy Awards. There had certainly been improvement from the dark days of the 1970s when the entire female sex would often be represented by a single nomination, but when women only make up one-quarter to one-third of your nominees in the year 2000, you still have a way to go.

Best Novel

Winner:
Thraxas by Martin Scott

Other Nominees:
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
The Rainy Season by James P. Blaylock
A Red Heart of Memories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
A Witness to Life by Terence M. Green

Best Novella

Winner:
(tie) Sky Eyes by Laurel Winter
(tie) The Transformation of Martin Lake by Jeff VanderMeer

Other Nominees:
Crocodile Rock by Lucius Shepard
Scarlet and Gold by Tanith Lee
The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis
The Wizard Retires by Michael Meddor

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
The Chop Girl by Ian R. MacLeod

Other Nominees:
Amerikanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue by Kim Newman
The Dynasters Vol. 1: On the Downs by Howard Waldrop
The Grammarian's Five Daughters by Eleanor Arnason
Human Bay by Robert Reed
Naming the Dead by Paul J. McAuley
The Parwat Ruby by Delia Sherman

Best Anthology

Winner:
Silver Birch, Blood Moon edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Other Nominees:
999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense edited by Al Sarrantonio
Dark Detectives: Adventures of the Supernatural Sleuths edited by Stephen Jones
Northern Frights 5 edited by Don Hutchison
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Best Collection

Winner:
(tie) Moonlight and Vines by Charles de Lint
(tie) Reave the Just and Other Tales by Stephen R. Donaldson

Other Nominees:
Deep Into That Darkness Peering by Tom Piccirilli
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
Necromancies and Netherworlds: Uncanny Stories by Darrell Schweitzer and Jason van Hollander

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Michael Moorcock

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Jason van Hollander

Other Nominees:
Les Edwards
Bob Eggleton
Stephen E. Fabian

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Gordon van Gelder

Other Nominees:
John Betancourt
Seamus Heaney
Stephen Jones
Warren Lapine
Kim Newman

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
The British Fantasy Society

Other Nominees:
Ken Abner
Rosemary Pardoe
Philip J. Rahman and Dennis E. Weiler
R.B. Russell
William K. Schafer

Go to previous year's nominees: 1999
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2001

Book Award Reviews     Home

2000 Clarke Award Nominees

Location: United Kingdom.

Comments: One interesting thing about the Clarke Awards is how much the nominees lists seem to favor hard science fiction. Stephen Baxter, one of the hardest of hard science fiction authors, holds the record for the most nominations. This year's nominee's include Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, a hard science fiction story about code breakers, and Vernor Vinge's hard science fiction space opera A Deepness in the Sky. This year's winner - Bruce Sterling's Distraction - is also an example of hard science fiction. I suppose this is fitting, as much of Clarke's work can best be described as being part of this subgenre.

Winner
Distraction by Bruce Sterling

Shortlist
The Bones of Time by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Silver Screen by Justina Robson
Time: Manifold 1 by Stephen Baxter

What Are the Arthur C. Clarke Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1999
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2001

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2000 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 2000 the Libertarian Futurist Society reached further back than it ever had before and inducted the Hans Christian Andersen story The Emperor's New Clothes into its Hall of Fame. The oddity here is that, due to its longevity, Andersen's story has been subjected to so many different interpretations that asserting that it supports a libertarian view is not particularly illuminating - as the story has, for example, been cited as an example of the labor theory of value, a basic underpinning of Marxism. When a story is open to numerous different interpretations, it seems like something of a desperate stretch to try and formally claim it as supporting one's own.

Best Novel

Winner:
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

Other Nominees:
The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod
Cradle of Saturn by James P. Hogan
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
The Martian Race by Gregory Benford

Hall of Fame

Winner:
The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen

Other Nominees:
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
The Mirror Maze by James P. Hogan
Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson
The Wardove by L. Neil Smith

Go to previous year's nominees: 1999
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2001

Book Award Reviews     Home

Saturday, September 2, 2000

2000 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: Chicon 2000 in Chicago, Illinois.

Comments: 2000 was a great year for science fiction. Just look at the list of nominees for Best Novel: A Deepness in the Sky, A Civil Campaign, Cryptonmicon, and Darwin's Radio would all have been clear winners in most other years. The only book that sticks out as misplaced on this list is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and that's not because it is a bad book, but rather because it just isn't nearly as good as the rest of the field.

The other categories were similarly strong, most notably the Best Dramatic Presentation field, in which the hilarious Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest beat out a field that included The Matrix and The Iron Giant. It does, however, seem somewhat ironic that at this point Star Trek parody movies have won more Hugo awards than actual Star Trek movies have.

The other noteworthy thing about the 2000 Hugo Awards is Michael Swanwick's win for his short story Scherzo with Tyrannosaur, which was his second win in and many years, and the middle of four year run in which he won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story three times.

Best Novel

Winner:
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

Other Finalists:
A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Best Novella

Winner:
The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis

Other Finalists:
The Astronaut from Wyoming by Adam-Troy Castro and Jerry Oltion
Forty, Counting Down by Harry Turtledove
Hunting the Snark by Mike Resnick
Son Observe the Time by Kage Baker

Best Novelette

Winner:
1016 to 1 by James Patrick Kelly

Other Finalists:
Border Guards by Greg Egan
The Chop Girl by Ian R. MacLeod
Fossil Games by Tom Purdom (reviewed in Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons)
The Secret History of the Ornithopter by Jan Lars Jensen
Stellar Harvest by Eleanor Arnason

Best Short Story

Winner:
Scherzo with Tyrannosaur by Michael Swanwick

Other Finalists:
Ancient Engines by Michael Swanwick
Hothouse Flowers by Mike Resnick
macs by Terry Bisson
Sarajevo by Nick DiChario

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:
Science Fiction of the 20th Century by Frank M. Robinson

Other Finalists:
Minicon 34 Restaurant Guide by Karen Cooper and Bruce Schneier
The Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano
The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen
Spectrum 6: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Galaxy Quest

Other Finalists:
Being John Malkovich
The Iron Giant
The Matrix
The Sixth Sense

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

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

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Michael Whelan

Other Finalists:
Jim Burns
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola
Don Maitz

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, Ariel Haméon, David G. Hartwell, and Kevin J. Maroney
Science Fiction Chronicle edited by Andrew I. Porter
Speculations edited by Kent Brewster

Best Fanzine

Winner:
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

Other Finalists:
Ansible edited by Dave Langford
Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian III
Mimosa edited by Nicki Lynch and Richard Lynch
Plokta edited by Alison Scott, Steve Davies, and Mike Scott

Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Dave Langford

Other Finalists:
Bob Devney
Mike Glyer
Evelyn C. Leeper
Steven H. Silver

Best Fan Artist

Winner:
Joe Mayhew

Other Finalists:
Freddie Baer
Brad W. Foster
Teddy Harvia
Taral Wayne

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Cory Doctorow

Other Finalists:
Thomas Harlan
Ellen Klages
Kristine Smith
Shane Tourtellotte

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's finalists: 1999
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 2001

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Sunday, July 2, 2000

2000 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Westercon in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Comments: There are some authors who are so prolific over such a prolonged period of time that they seem almost inhuman. As examples of this phenomenon I point to Robert Silverberg and Ursula K. Le Guin. Silverberg started his career in the 1950s, Le Guin in the 1960s. Both became dominant voices in the science fiction world in the 1970s, and have continued to turn out fantastic work to this day. In the 2000 Locus Awards ballot, Silverberg's name appears three times, while Le Guin's appears twice. Unlike many authors who turned increasingly towards exclusively writing novels in their later careers, both Silverberg and Le Guin have continued to produce works of all lengths throughout theirs. How they produce such a vast amount of brilliant fiction is a mystery to me, but I'm certainly glad that they do.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
1.   Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Other Nominees:
2.   Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
3.   A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
4.   A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
5.   Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
6.   Forever Free by Joe Haldeman
7.   Precursor by C.J. Cherryh
8.   On Blue's Waters by Gene Wolfe
9.   The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton
10. Teranesia by Greg Egan
11. The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod
12. The Martian Race by Gregory Benford
13. Waiting by Frank M. Robinson
14. Time: Manifold 1 (aka Manifold: Time) by Stephen Baxter
15. All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson
16. Bios by Robert Charles Wilson
17. The Far Shore of Time by Frederik Pohl
18. Greenhouse Summer by Norman Spinrad
19. Finity by John Barnes
20. (tie) Ancients of Days by Paul J. McAuley
      (tie) Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen
22. Singer from the Sea by Sheri S. Tepper
23. The Extremes by Christopher Priest
24. (tie) The Conqueror's Child by Suzy McKee Charnas
      (tie) Tower of Dreams by Jamil Nasir

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
1.   Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Other Nominees:
2.   The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
3.   Fortress of Owls by C.J. Cherryh
4.   Dark Cities Underground by Lisa Goldstein
5.   Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
6.   The Eternal Footman by James Morrow
7.   Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
8.   Mr. X by Peter Straub
9.   A Calculus of Angels by J. Gregory Keyes
10. The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll
11. Dragonshadow by Barbara Hambly
12. A Red Heart of Memories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
13. The Rainy Season by James P. Blaylock
14. Black Light by Elizabeth Hand
15. The Stars Compel by Michaela Roessner
16. The Sub by Thomas M. Disch
17. Saint Fire by Tanith Lee
18. The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr
19. Sea Dragon Heir by Storm Constantine
20. Rhapsody by Elizabeth Haydon

Best First Novel
Winner:
1.    The Silk Code by Paul Levinson

Other Nominees:
2.   The Shadow of Ararat by Thomas Harlan
3.   Starfish by Peter Watts
4.   Code of Conduct by Kristine Smith
5.   The Thief's Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna
6.   King Rat by China Miéville
7.   Shiva 3000 by Jan Lars Jensen
8.   Prospero's Children by Jan Siegel
9.   Time Future by Maxine McArthur
10. Rhapsody by Elizabeth Haydon
11. Nocturne for a Dangerous Man by Marc Matz
12. Silver Screen by Justina Robson
13. The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco
14. The Chosen by Ricardo Pinto
15. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

Best Novella
Winner:
1.   Orphans of the Helix by Dan Simmons

Other Nominees:
2.   Crocodile Rock by Lucius Shepard
3.   The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis
4.   Old Music and the Slave Women by Ursula K. Le Guin
5.   The Way of All Ghosts by Greg Bear
6.   Hunting the Snark by Mike Resnick
7.   The Actors by Eleanor Arnason
8.   Argonautica by Walter Jon Williams
9.   The Executioners' Guild by Andy Duncan
10. Baby's Fire by Robert Reed
11. (tie) Forty, Counting Down by Harry Turtledove
      (tie) The Wedding Album by David Marusek
13. Son Observe the Time by Kage Baker
14. The Exile of Evening Star by Allen M. Steele
15. The Astronaut from Wyoming by Adam-Troy Castro and Jerry Oltion
16. Twenty-One, Counting Up by Harry Turtledove
17. Hatching the Phoenix by Frederik Pohl
18. Andy Warhol's Dracula by Kim Newman
19. The Gateway of Eternity by Brian Stableford
20. Leningrad Nights by Graham Joyce
21. Once Upon a Matter Crushed by Wil McCarthy

Best Novelette
Winner:
1.   (tie) Border Guards by Greg Egan
      (tie) Huddle by Stephen Baxter

Other Nominees:
3.   A Hunger for the Infinite by Gregory Benford
4.   Sleeping Dogs by Nancy Kress
5.   Mount Olympus by Ben Bova
6.   A Martian Romance by Kim Stanley Robinson
7.   (tie) The Chop Girl by Ian R. MacLeod
      (tie) Darkrose and Diamond by Ursula K. Le Guin
      (tie) A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows by Gardner Dozois
10. Vessel by Orson Scott Card
11. A Hero of the Empire by Robert Silverberg
12. Dapple: A Hwarhath Historical Romance by Eleanor Arnason
13. Stellar Harvest by Eleanor Arnason
14. How to Make Unicorn Pie by Esther M. Friesner
15. The Secret History of the Ornithopter by Jan Lars Jensen
16. Green Acres by Allen M. Steele
17. 1016 to 1 by James Patrick Kelly
18. Smart Alec by Kage Baker
19. Game of the Century by Robert Reed
20. Nodaway by Robert Reed
21. The Last Man on the Moon by Scott Edelman
22. Getting to Know the Dragon by Robert Silverberg
23. Pocketful of Dharma by Paolo Bacigalupi
24. Daddy's World by Walter Jon Williams
25. Vultures by Stephen L. Burns
26. Fossil Games by Tom Purdom (reviewed in Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons)
27. The Queen of Erewhon by Lucy Sussex

Best Short Story
Winner:
1.   macs by Terry Bisson

Other Nominees:
2.   Ancient Engines by Michael Swanwick
3.   Scherzo with Tyrannosaur by Michael Swanwick
4.   Spindrift by Stephen Baxter
5.   Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
6.   People Came from Earth by Stephen Baxter
7.   The Dynasters Vol. 1: On the Downs by Howard Waldrop
8.   Fish in a Barrel by Jonathan Carroll
9.   Sexual Dimorphism by Kim Stanley Robinson
10. Jennifer, Just Before Midnight by William Sanders
11. Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz by David Marusek
12. (tie) Everywhere by Geoff Ryman
      (tie) Her Own Private Sitcom by Allen M. Steele
14. Human Bay by Robert Reed
15. Smoother by Terry Bisson
16. Shiva by Barry N. Malzberg
17. Ashes and Tombstones by Brian Stableford
18. (tie) An Apollo Asteroid by Brian W. Aldiss
      (tie) Into the Blue Abyss by Geoffrey A. Landis
20. Suicide Coast by M. John Harrison
21. Alien TV by Paul J. McAuley

Best Collection
Winner:
1.   The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson

Other Nominees:
2.   A Good Old-Fashioned Future by Bruce Sterling
3.   Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis
4.   The Compleat Boucher by Anthony Boucher
5.   Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
6.   (tie) Baby is Three: Volume VI: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon, edited by Paul Williams
      (tie) Rainbow Mars by Larry Niven
8.   Moonlight and Vines by Charles de Lint
9.   The Dragons of Springplace by Robert Reed
10. Apostrophes and Apocalypses by John Barnes
11. The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume One: The Metal Man and Others by Jack Williamson
12. Sex and Violence in Zero-G by Allen M. Steele
13. What Ho, Magic! by Tanya Huff
14. Reave the Just and Other Tales by Stephen R. Donaldson
15. The Robot's Twilight Companion by Tony Daniel
16. Are You Loathsome Tonight? (aka Self-Made Man) by Poppy Z. Brite
17. Really, Really, Really, Really, Weird Stories by John Shirley
18. Dragon's Fin Soup by S.P. Somtow

Best Anthology
Winner:
1.   Far Horizons edited by Robert Silverberg

Other Nominees:
2.   The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixteenth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois
3.   Year's Best SF 4 edited by David G. Hartwell
4.   The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
5.   The Good New Stuff edited by Gardner Dozois
6.   Moon Shots edited by Peter Crowther and Martin H. Greenberg
7.   999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense edited by Al Sarrantonio
8.   Silver Birch, Blood Moon edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
9.   The SFWA Grand Masters: Volume One edited by Frederik Pohl
10. The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction: The Fiftieth Anniversary Anthology edited by Edward L. Ferman and Gordon van Gelder
11. My Favorite Science Fiction Story edited by Martin H. Greenberg
12. Nebula Awards 33 edited by Connie Willis
13. Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction edited by David G. Hartwell and Damien Broderick
14. Dark Detectives: Adventures of the Supernatural Sleuths edited by Stephen Jones
15. Not of Woman Born edited by Constance Ash
16. Northern Suns edited by David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant
17. Northern Frights 5 edited by Don Hutchison
18. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Ten edited by Stephen Jones

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:
1.   Sixty Years of Arkham House by S.T. Joshi

Other Nominees:
2.   The Twinkling of an Eye or My Life as an Englishman by Brian W. Aldiss
3.   Pioneers of Wonder: Conversations with the Founders of Science Fiction by Eric Leif Davin
4.   Deconstructing the Starships: Science, Fiction and Reality by Gwyneth Jones
5.   Fantasy and Horror: A Critical and Historical Guide to Literature, Illustration, Film, TV, Radio, and the Internet by Neil Barron
6.   When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition by Jack Zipes
7.   The Road to Castle Mount: The Science Fiction of Robert Silverberg by Edgar L. Chapman
8.   Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction by Russell Blackford, Van Ikin, and Sean McMullen
9.   The Fantasy Literature of England by C.N. Manlove
10. The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana by J. Neil Schulman
11. A Chesley Bonestell Space Art Chronology by Melvin H. Schuetz
12. Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ/Feminism/Science Fiction by Jeanne Cortiel

Best Art Book
Winner:
1.   Science Fiction of the 20th Century by Frank M. Robinson

Other Nominees:
2.   Spectrum 6: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner
3.   Legacy by Frank Frazetta
4.   Transluminal: The Paintings of Jim Burns by Jim Burns
5.   The Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano.
6.   Maxfield Parrish, Maxfield Parrish 1870-1966 by Sylvia Yount; art by Maxfield Parrish
7.   Fantasy Art of the New Millennium (aka Fantasy Art Masters) by Dick Jude
8.   Soft as Steel: The Art of Julie Bell by Nigel Suckling; art by Julie Bell
9.   The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by Gary Gianni
10. Wind Child by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, illustrated by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
11. The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan

Best Editor
Winner:
1.   Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
2.   David G. Hartwell
3.   Gordon van Gelder
4.   Stanley Schmidt
5.   Ellen Datlow
6.   David Pringle
7.   Patrick Nielsen Hayden
8.   Robert Silverberg
9.   Scott Edelman
10. Martin H. Greenberg
11. Terri Windling
12. Shawna McCarthy

Best Magazine
Winner:
1.   Asimov's

Other Nominees:
2.   Fantasy & Science Fiction
3.   Analog
4.   Interzone
5.   Science Fiction Age
6.   Realms of Fantasy
7.   The New York Review of Science Fiction
8.   Amazing Stories
9.   Science Fiction Chronicle
10. Cemetery Dance

Best Book Publisher or Imprint
Winner:
1.   Tor

Other Nominees:
2.   Avon Eos
3.   Del Rey
4.   Bantam Spectra
5.   Baen
6.   DAW
7.   Ace
8.   HarperPrism
9.   St. Martin's
10. NESFA Press
11. Warner Aspect
12. Science Fiction Book Club
13. Gollancz/Millennium
14. Voyager
15. Golden Gryphon Press
16. Meisha Merlin
17. Roc

Best Artist
Winner:
1.   Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
2.   Bob Eggleton
3.   Jim Burns
4.   Don Maitz
5.   Thomas Canty
6.   Frank Frazetta
7.   Donato Giancola
8.   Julie Bell
9.   Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon

Go to previous year's nominees: 1999
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2001

Book Award Reviews     Home

Saturday, May 20, 2000

2000 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: New York, New York.

Comments: Fresh off of their experiment of reviving the Ray Bradbury Award in 1999 to honor Babylon 5, in 2000, the SFWA decided to pull the Best Script category out of mothballs and vote on a slate of nominees. The winner was M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, and while I might have preferred the award go to The Devil's Arithmetic or The Iron Giant, who won isn't really as important as the fact that the category was voted on at all. After decades of ignoring dramatized speculative fiction and then hemming and hawing about whether to honor it, the SFWA finally decided that refusing to acknowledge the most popular form of fictional entertainment was not in the organization's best interests.

While it is nice that the SFWA begrudgingly decided to start honoring dramatic speculative fiction, one wonders why they flailed about regarding exactly how they would do this. In 1999, the SFWA bestowed the Ray Bradbury Award to honor a work of dramatic fiction. In 2000, they switched to including the Best Script on the Nebula Award ballot, which would remain on the ballot for several years before the Ray Bradbury Award was brought back. The fact that the SFWA started honoring dramatized fiction should only be surprising to the extent that it took so long for them to get around to it. But one has to wonder why they waffled so much over exactly how to do it.

Best Novel

Winner:
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

Other Nominees:
The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Mission Child by Maureen F. McHugh
Mockingbird by Sean Stewart

Best Novella

Winner:
Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang

Other Nominees:
The Astronaut from Wyoming by Adam-Troy Castro and Jerry Oltion
The Executioners' Guild by Andy Duncan
Living Trust by L. Timmel Duchamp
Reality Check by Michael A. Burstein
The Wedding Album by David Marusek

Best Novelette

Winner:
Mars Is No Place for Children by Mary A. Turzillo

Other Nominees:
Five Days in April by Brian A. Hopkins
Good Intentions by Stanley Schmidt and Jack McDevitt
How to Make Unicorn Pie by Esther M. Friesner
The Island in the Lake by Phyllis Eisenstein
Taklamakan by Bruce Sterling

Best Short Story

Winner:
The Cost of Doing Business by Leslie What

Other Nominees:
Ancient Engines by Michael Swanwick
Basil the Dog by Frances Sherwood
The Dead Boy at Your Window by Bruce Holland Rogers
Flower Kiss by Constance Ash
Radiant Doors by Michael Swanwick

Best Script

Winner:
The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan

Other Nominees:
The Devil's Arithmetic by Robert J. Avrech
The Iron Giant by Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies
The Matrix by Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski
The Uranus Experiment: Part 2 by John Millerman

Go to previous year's nominees: 1999
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2001

Book Award Reviews     Home