HUGO AWARDS FOR SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY NOVEL

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The Hugo Award for science fiction achievement, established in 1956, is named for Hugo Gernsback who founded Amazing Stories magazine in 1926.  Unlike other literary awards bestowed by an author's peers, the Hugo Awards are voted on each year by science fiction fans who are members of the World Science Fiction Convention.  The award is a trophy shaped like a rocket ship.

Follow the links on the titles below to full book reviews. The links in the green boxes lead you to Amazon.com.

Buy on Amazon: Rainbows End

2007 Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge.  In the not-so-distant future of 2025, a cantankerous poet cured of Alzheimer's stumbles into an international espionage plot involving mind-control.

Buy on Amazon: Spin

2006 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. When a mysterious shield appears that freezes Earth in slow-time, humanity races to develop protection from the expanding sun while solving the mystery of the shield's purpose and origins.  

Buy on Amazon: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel

2005 Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.  A fussy British stage magician uses real magic to help his countrymen during the war against Napoleon only to have his more charismatic apprentice try to supplant him. Also won the 2005 World Fantasy Award.

Buy on Amazon: Paladin of Souls

2004 Paladin of Souls (Chalion 2) by Lois McMaster Bujold.  The middle-aged Queen Mother goes on a pilgrimage and finds herself menaced by invading barbarian hordes while trying to help an enchanted nobleman. Also won the 2005 Nebula Award.  

Buy on Amazon: Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax)

2003 Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer.  In a parallel universe, the Neanderthals evolved into the dominant civilization. Now one of their physicists is accidentally transported into our world.

Buy on Amazon: American Gods

2002 American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  A hapless ex-convict teams up with the "old god" Odin the All-Father, who is masquerading as an obnoxious con-man. Together they embark on an American road trip to fight the "new gods" of internet and commerce. Also won the 2002 Nebula Award.

Buy on Amazon: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4)

2001 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling. Harry, now 14, must compete for Hogwarts against two other magic schools in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. 

Buy on Amazon: A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought)

2000 A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. Spiderlike aliens struggle to develop a technology that will enable them to better withstand their world's long periods of freezing darkness; meanwhile, human starfleets fight over the chance to exploit them.

1999 To Say Nothing Of the Dog by Connie Willis.  An odd mix of time-travel, comedy, romance and mystery sparks this tale of a man sent on vacation to the Victorian era only to find adventure waiting for him. 

1998 Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman. Not a sequel to The Forever War. The Third World pits itself against the United States in constant uprisings to steal American nanotechnology as peace is sought through virtual reality. Also won the 1998 Nebula Award.

1997 Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. The final book in the Mars trilogy completes the story of the first 100 settlers on the red planet.

1996 The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.  A nanotech engineer living in 21st century Shanghai, a neo-Victorian world of rigid social classes, steals and then loses a device that can unmake his entire society.  

1995 Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Miles Vorkosigan fights to save himself and his cloned brother.

1994 Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.  In the second book in the Mars trilogy, the first 100 settlers attempt to terraform the red planet to make it habitable for humans.

1993 A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.  In an epic space opera spanning galaxies and thousands of years, two children lost on a savage world may hold the key to saving humanity.

1993 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.  A history student in 2048 goes back in time to research 14th century England where she faces the Black Plague. 

1992 Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold.  A spaceship captain marries into royalty and then must run for her life after a coup d'etat. 

1991 The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold.  A cadet gets his first posting to Kyril Island, where he fights to keep ahead of his commanding officers both on- and off-world. 

1990 Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Seven pilgrims journeying to a mysterious planet on the eve of intergalactic war tell their stories in a futuristic version of The Canterbury Tales; they are searching for an AI that threatens the existence of humanity. 

1989 Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh.  A murdered genetic scientist finds herself cloned in a novel exploring the sociological and cultural issues of the future.

1988 The Uplift War by David Brin.  The sequel to Startide Rising.  Humans, "uplifted" by an ancient race, seek answers on a mysterious planet.

1987 Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.  The sequel to Ender's Game. The hero travels into former enemy territory to colonize a distant planet and atone for his war crimes. 

1986 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  A child genius drafted into a brutal military school in space must lead a war of genocide against an insect species.

1985 Neuromancer by William Gibson. The pioneer cyberpunk novel. A data-thief double-crosses the wrong people who burn his talent out of his brain, barring him from cyberspace; his chance at redemption comes in a quest to free a dangerous AI. 

1984 Startide Rising by David Brin. Humans were "uplifted" by an ancient race and now must do the same for dolphins and chimps while fighting to understand the powerful patron race of the galaxy.

1983 Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov. In this ambitious merging of the Foundation trilogy and the famous Robot series, the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire is engineered as part of a sinister plot.

1982 Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. A space station orbiting a neutral world is caught in an epic struggle between old Earth and its independent colonies.

1981 The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. In a primitive world both supported and exploited by off-world technology, winter and summer seasons last for years; defying custom, the winter queen plans not to abdicate for the summer queen.

1980 The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke. An engineer constructs an elevator that connects a planet with its space station, thereby opening up space for exploration.

1979 Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre. Two villains pursue a young woman across a post-apocalyptic land as she heals people with an alien entity known as the dreamsnake.

1978 Gateway by Frederik Pohl.  In the first book of the Heechee saga, humans explore ancient alien artifacts and discover that the aliens have an even deeper secret.

1977 Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm. In a post-apocalyptic land, a community of infertile survivors starts cloning themselves to preserve the human species, but risk becoming a stagnant and dispensable society.

1976 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. In this powerful novel drawn from the author's Vietnam war experience, humans fight hopeless battles across space and time against a misunderstood enemy.

1975 The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. From their barren lunar utopia, anarchists regard the capitalist mother world with suspicion; then a scientist from this utopia makes a technological breakthrough that could bring the worlds together.

1974 Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.  An alien spacecraft enters Earth's orbit and reveals its secrets to a party of explorers.

1973 The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov. An unlikely gathering of scientists and rebels who are human and alien must fight to save Earth from annihilation.

1972 To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer. The explorer Sir Richard Burton and other famous people find themselves traveling on a million-mile river to which all of Earth's deceased have been summoned to experience a great adventure. 

1971 Ringworld by Larry Niven.  An epic adventure unfolds on a world constructed by mysterious aliens: a ring built around a star.

1970 The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.  A man who is a diplomat from a galactic empire struggles to survive deadly political intrigue on a winter world in a society without fixed genders.

1969 Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner. A businessman and a government agent clash on a world straining against overpopulation.

1968 Lord Of Light by Roger Zelazny.  Human colonists use technology and to pose as Hindu gods to the inhabitants of a primitive world.

1967 The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Colonists on the moon start a revolution against Earth's government.

1966 Dune by Frank Herbert. A nobleman's son exiled with his family to a harsh desert world takes the irrevocable first steps towards fulfilling a prophecy and becoming a messiah who will bring holy war to the galaxy.

1965 The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber.  Many different characters narrate the catastrophic effects that occur when an alien warship the size of a small planet emerges from deep space to supplant the moon in its orbit around the Earth. 

1964 Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.  A hermit from the Civil War provides an intergalactic way station for travelers, if only the neighbors and the government will stay out of the way!

1963 The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick.  An elderly Japanese man falls into a bizarre plot involving the I Ching and shifting timelines in a world where Japan and Nazi Germany won WW II and divided the U.S. into two occupied camps co-existing in mutual hatred.

1962 Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. A man raised by Martians returns to Earth, in complete ignorance of human society, as the only heir to a vast financial empire; he proceeds to share his psychic powers and become a free-love messiah.

1961 A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.   Religious scholars struggle to reclaim lost technological knowledge centuries after a nuclear holocaust. 

1960 Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.  In a society where citizenship must be earned through military service, a young man enthusiastically joins up to fight a space war against deadly aliens.

Noteworthy Links:   Wonderquest - Science Q/A! The Connection - Tech blog! Author site - John the Eunuch Historical Mystery series, Cozy Mystery List for all your cozy mystery needs, Obsidian Bookshelf - reviews of gay-themed fiction.
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