Hugos

Following some discussion at SF Signal (which led to more discussion at mabfan, Michael A. Burstein's site), I've decided to add a reading (or re-reading, as appropriate) to the winners in the short works category for the Hugo Awards to the 2006 Short Story Project. Now, even if I were to stick to published Hugo-only anthologies, this would be a fairly large pile of words, so this may stretch into and beyond the 2007 Short Story Project.

To start...here's the Wikipedia entry on the award. The official Hugo site, with awards by year and by category. Some Hugo history. Locus magazine on the award. Pictures of various Hugos. One famous appearance of a Hugo.

The anthologies that I either have or are aware of are:

The Hugo Winners (edited by Isaac Asimov, published by Nelson Doubleday & Co.). Available for years through the Science Fiction Book Club as a massive hardcover, this was also also split into two smaller volumes (as both hardcover and paperback). I have the single volume hardcover, so I'll be reviewing that version. The overall collection covers the period 1963 to 1970, with the individual first volume covering 1963 to 1967 and the individual second volume covering 1968 to 1970.

Made up of: Introduction and narrative material (Isaac Asimov); The Darfsteller (Walter M. Miller, Jr.); Allamagoosa (Eric Frank Russell); Exploration Team (Murray Leinster); The Star (Arthur C. Clarke); Or All the Seas with Oysters (Avram Davidson); The Big Front Yard (Clifford D. Simak); The Hell-Bound Train (Robert Bloch); Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes); The Longest Voyage (Poul Anderson); The Dragon Masters (Jack Vance): No Truce with Kings (Poul Anderson); Soldier, Ask Not (Gordon R. Dickson); "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (Harlan Ellison); The Last Castle (Jack Vance); Neutron Star (Larry Niven); Weyr Search (Anne McCaffrey); Riders of the Purple Wage (Philip Jose Farmer); Gonna Roll the Bones (Fritz Leiber); I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison); Nightwings (Robert Silverberg); The Sharing of Flesh (Poul Anderson); The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (Harlan Ellison); Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (Samuel R. Delany)

Walter M. Miller, Jr.: The Darfsteller: Miller's award-winning story is the tale of a former actor who just can't move far enough away from the stage. Theatre is now done by robots, controlled by a computer that is fed tapes of the abilities of various actors and actresses. While Miller may have missed the mark by putting robots on the stage, I wonder if this story will start to feel all too familar to the folks who are getting their body motions digitally captured for films such as the forthcoming Beowulf! (Re-read in 2008...)

Eric Frank Russell: Allamagoosa: Russell's winner is a comedic bit about the military and the silliness of spit-and-polish inspections on field units. I'll leave the definition of the title up as an exercise for the student. (Re-read in 2008...)

Murray Leinster: Exploration Team: If memory serves, this was part of a series of tales, but it has been too darn long since I read them to place the book title. (Hey! An excuse to read more Murray Leinster!) A man involved in an illegal colonization effort has to reveal himself in order to rescue a group of legal colonists on the planet he is settling. A bit pulpish here and there, it makes up for it in the rather unique exploration team of the title. (Re-read in 2008...)

Arthur C. Clarke: The Star: While some point to this story as proof that SF is not religious, I see the opposite. Clarke has declared himself to be at least non-religious at various times, but he writes a moving story with a well defined main character who is deeply religious. (Re-read in 2008...)

Avram Davidson: Or All the Seas with Oysters: Ever wonder why your desk has a ton of paperclips one week and a whole bunch of rubber bands the next? Davidson has the explanation! A great example of the kind of story that F&SF excelled in during the 1960's. (Re-read in 2008...)

Clifford D. Simak: The Big Front Yard: Reviewed previously here. So I read it again! Big deal! Get your own blog! It remains one of my favorite stories by one of my favorite authors. (Re-read in 2008...)

Robert Bloch: The Hell-Bound Train: A horror/fantasy story with a nice humorously evil twist.

Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon: Still packs a lot of impact. The tale of a mentally "challenged" (is that the term of the day?) man who is given (at first) normal and then greater than normal intelligence after an operation. Unfortunately it does not last. This version is better, in my opinion, than the expanded novel-length version.

The Hugo Winners, Volume 3 (edited by Isaac Asimov). Covers 1969 to 1974. Don't own this one...yet (update: copy located, on order!).

The Hugo Winners, Volume 4 (edited by Isaac Asimov). Covers 1975 to 1978. Don't own this one...yet (update: copy located, on order!).

The Hugo Winners, Volume 5 (edited by Isaac Asimov). Covers 1979 to 1981. Don't own this one...yet (update: copy located, on order!).

(I don't know why I never picked up those three volumes. I was a member of the SFBC for a long time as a kid through high school and then for several years after first getting married. The period of that gap was during the first, but it is possible that I got the books out of the library and never bought them through the SFBC. Time to haunt various second-hand shops, real and virtual, to fill in these gaps!)

The New Hugo Winners (edited by Isaac Asimov, Baen Books, ISBN 0-671-72081-3). Covers 1982 to 1984.

Made up of: Souls (Joanna Russ); Firewatch (Connie Willis): Melancholy Elephants (Spider Robinson); Cascade Point (Timothy Zahn); Blood Music (Greg Bear); Speech Sounds (Octavia E. Butler); Press Enter (John Varley); Blood Child (Octavia E. Butler); The Crystal Spheres (David Brin).

The New Hugo Winners, Volume II (edited by Isaac Asimov, Baen Books, ISBN 0-671-72103-8). Covers 1985 to 1987.

Made up of: 24 Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai (Roger Zelazny); Paladin of the Lost Hour (Harlan Ellison); Fermi & Frost (Frederick Pohl); Gilgamesh in the Outback (Robert Silverberg); Permafrost (Roger Zelazny); Tangents (Greg Bear); Eye for Eye (Orson Scott Card); Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight (Ursula K. Le Guin); Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers (Lawrence Watt-Evans).

The New Hugo Winners, Volume III (edited by Connie Willis, Baen Books, ISBN 0-671-87604-X). Covers 1988 to 1990.

Made up of: Kirinyaga (Mike Resnick); Schrodinger’s Kitten (George Alec Effinger): The Last of the Winnebagos (Connie Willis); Boobs (Suzy McKee Charnas); Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another (Robert Silverberg); The Mountains of Mourning (Lois McMaster Bujold); Bears Discover Fire (Terry Bisson); The Manamouki (Mike Resnick); The Hemingway Hoax (Joe Haldeman).

The New Hugo Winners, Volume IV (edited by Gregory Benford, Baen Books, ISBN 0-671-87852-2). Covers 1991 to 1993.

Made up of: A Walk in the Sun (Geoffrey Landis); Gold (Isaac Asimov); Beggars in Spain (Nancy Kress); Even the Queen (Connie Willis); The Nutcracker Coup (Janet Kagan); Barnacle Bill The Spacer (Lucius Shepard); Death on the Nile (Connie Willis); Georgia On My Mind (Charles Sheffield); Down in the Bottomlands (Harry Turtledove).

The Super Hugos (edited by Isaac Asimov). Covers both short and long works from 1955 to 1979.

(Wow. So the most recent "official" anthology ends with 1993. That's quite a few years of shorter works that could be anthologized. Hopefully they are all collected in the other annual collections that I have access to.)

Hmmmm...once I get through the Hugo winners, I should tackle Nebula winners that aren't covered by Hugo awards! Then there's the John W. Campbell award.

Nine stories towards the 2006 Short Story Project.

Remainder counts towards the 2007 Short Story Project.

Six stories towards the 2008 Year in Shorts.