Monday, September 6, 1982

1982 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Chicon IV in Chicago, Illinois.

Comments: The 1982 Hugo ballot for Best Dramatic Presentation is the first slate in that category that I can say that I saw all of in the movie theater when they were initially released. And looking at the list, on which the western in space Outland was probably the weakest member, one can only marvel at how great a year this had been for genre fans. The victory by Raiders of the Lost Ark was probably inevitable given that film's box office popularity, but given that Raiders really only has one fantasy element that crops up at the very close of the movie, I would have preferred something more clearly rooted in the science fiction or fantasy genre to have taken home the trophy, and all the other nominees were clearly genre fiction. I have a soft spot for the surreal Time Bandits, but that may be just an idiosyncrasy of mine.

In the more traditional categories, C.J. Cherryh took home the prize for Best Novel for her book Downbelow Station, but her victory highlights a somewhat odd trend: a woman winning against a slate of other nominees who are all men. When one looks at the list of nominees across the categories, there are only a handful of women among them, which is a pattern that wasn't really new. A handful of women got on the Hugo ballots of this era, and seem to have had disproportionate success at winning awards. The only explanation that I can come up with is that while publishers and editors were willing to consider work by women, they would only let the best female writers through the gates, whereas mediocre male writers could much more easily get their work through the hoops necessary to get to the market.

Best Novel

Winner:
Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh

Other Nominees:
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
Little, Big by John Crowley
The Many-Colored Land by Julian May
Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak

Best Novella

Winner:
The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson

Other Nominees:
Blue Champagne by John Varley
Emergence by David R. Palmer
In the Western Tradition by Phyllis Eisenstein
True Names by Vernor Vinge
With Thimbles, With Forks and Hope by Kate Wilhelm

Best Novelette

Winner:
Unicorn Variation by Roger Zelazny

Other Nominees:
The Fire When It Comes by Parke Godwin
Guardians by George R.R. Martin
The Quickening by Michael Bishop
The Thermals of August by Edward Bryant

Best Short Story

Winner:
The Pusher by John Varley

Other Nominees:
Absent Thee from Felicity Awhile by Somtow Sucharitkul
The Quiet by George Florance-Guthridge
The Woman the Unicorn Loved by Gene Wolfe

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:
Danse Macabre by Stephen King

Other Nominees:
After Man by Dougal Dixon
Anatomy of Wonder, 2nd Edition edited by Neil Barron
The Art of Leo & Diane Dillon by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon, edited by Byron Preiss
The Grand Tour by Ron Miller and William K. Hartmann

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Raiders of the Lost Ark

Other Nominees:
Dragonslayer
Excalibur
Outland
Time Bandits

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Edward L. Ferman

Other Nominees:
Terry Carr
David G. Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt
George Scithers

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
Vincent Di Fate
Carl Lundgren
Don Maitz
Rowena Morrill

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown

Other Nominees:
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
Science Fiction Chronicle edited by Andrew Porter
Science Fiction Review edited by Richard E. Geis

Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Richard E. Geis

Other Nominees:
Mike Glyer
Arthur D. Hlavaty
Dave Langford

Best Fan Artist

Winner:
Victoria Poyser

Other Nominees:
Alexis Gilliland
Joan Hanke-Woods
Bill Rotsler
Stu Shiffman

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Alexis Gilliland

Other Nominees:
David Brin
Robert Stallman
Michael Swanwick
Paul O. Williams

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1981
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1983

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1982 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Chicon IV in Chicago, Illinois.

Comments: After lying dormant for three years, the Prometheus Awards returned in 1982, revived by the newly formed Libertarian Futurist Society which seems to have been created mostly to hand out this award on an annual basis. It may seem odd to some that I read the novels nominated for this award, since for the most part I consider libertarian political and economic thinking to be juvenile at best, and downright loathsome at times. However, because the actual instances of "libertarian" science fiction are so rare, the Libertarian Futurist Society has to stretch the definition of "libertarian science fiction" so broadly that many good writers whose works are vaguely, kind of, if you squint your eyes and wish real hard libertarian are nominated. And that fact makes reading the books that appear on the finalist lists for this award worthwhile.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith

Other Nominees:
Alongside Night by J. Neil Schulman
An Enemy of the State by F. Paul Wilson
Songs from the Stars by Norman Spinrad
Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany
The Watcher by Kay Nolte Smith

Go to previous year's nominees: 1979
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1983

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