NEBULA AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY NOVEL

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The Nebula Awards, established in 1966, are awarded each spring by the Science Fiction Writers of America, a professional organization of authors. The awards are dated by the year of publication of the winning work (for example Dune, the 1965 science fiction masterpiece, received its award in 1966). The Nebula Awards sometimes favor more experimental works than do the Hugo Awards.  The award is a glittery spiral nebula embedded within a transparent cube. 

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: The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel

2007 The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.  In an alternate history Alaska, which is now the homeland of the Jews, a washed-up detective tries to solve a murder that links to a conspiracy of Biblical proportions.

Buy on Amazon: Seeker

2006 Seeker by Jack McDevitt. A 9,000 year-old artifact leads two tomb-raiders to discover the bizarre secret of what happened to a long-lost colony.

Buy on Amazon: Camouflage (Ace Science Fiction)

2005 Camouflage by Joe Haldeman.  A marine biologist excavating an extraterrestrial object finds himself caught between two alien entities who have been secretly living on Earth for millions of years: the "changeling" who has slowly learned to love, and the "chameleon" who glorifies in violence.

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 2004 Hugo Award   

Buy on Amazon: The Speed of Dark

2003 The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon.  In a futuristic corporation, a 35 year-old autistic man and his autistic coworkers who are highly paid for their pattern-recognition skills find themselves pressured to undergo a new medical procedure that could "cure" them.

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 grifter. Together they embark on an American road trip to fight the "new gods" of internet and commerce. Also won the 2002 Hugo Award.

Buy on Amazon: The Quantum Rose (The Saga of the Skolian Empire)

2001 Quantum Rose (Skolian Empire 6) by Catherine Asaro. A young noblewoman who rules an isolated planet festooned with artifacts of ancient technology meets an offworlder and navigates the perils of political alliance-by-marriage.

Buy on Amazon: Darwin's Radio

2000 Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear. Two scientists find evidence that an ancient disease encoded in the DNA of humans is starting to wake up and infect pregnant women and their babies in what could be a dramatic evolutionary change that will alter the future of the human race.

1999 Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler. Sequel to Parable of the Sower.  A young woman fulfills her destiny to lead a group of people out of a desolate society by forming a new religion.

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 Hugo Award.

1997 The Moon and the Sun by Vonda McIntyre.  In this historical science-fiction novel, a woman in the court of Louis XIV finds her brother has returned with two sea monsters, one of which may hold the secret of immortality.

1996 Slow River by Nicola Griffith. A woman from a wealthy family that holds dark secrets is kidnapped into a violent world of hackers and bio-engineering.

1995 The Terminal Experiment by Robert Sawyer.  A doctor creates three different electronic versions of himself which all escape to the net; one is a killer.

1994 Moving Mars by Greg Bear.  A revolution and a technological breakthrough on Mars cause resentment and struggle on the new frontier of the red planet and back on Earth, which is eager to take advantage of the new technology.

1993 Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.  In a saga that opens with a murder, the first 100 settlers attempt to terraform Mars to make it habitable for humans.

1992 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.

1991 Stations Of The Tide by Michael Swanwick.  An impending disaster threatens an ocean world and its population of technological mages and the people who fight them, including a talking briefcase!

1990 Tehanu The Last Book Of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Tenar and Ged, now middle-aged hermits on Gont, tentatively rejoin forces to protect a mysterious young girl whose fate may shed light on the ancient origins of dragons. 

1989 The Healer's War by Elizabeth Scarborough. An army nurse in Vietnam is given a healing amulet that allows her to see the auras of others.

1988 Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold.  A secret project produces a new species of human that can work in outer space but fails to foresee the moral and sociological implications of such a discovery.

1987 The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy. A woman who can see into the past connects with an ancient Mayan priestess while trying to reconcile with her estranged daughter.

1986 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.

1985 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.

1984 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. 

1983 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.

1982 No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop. A man driven by dreams of a past so distant he cannot understand them joins a time traveling expedition to earth's past and the birth place of his ancestors.

1981 The Claw Of The Conciliator by Gene Wolfe. The second book in the epic Book of the New Sun series.  A haunted man who was an apprentice torturer travels the earth millions of years in the future in search of a final destiny for himself and mankind.

1980 Timescape by Gregory Benford.  A scientist fights to send a message back through time in order to save the earth from itself, while in the past another scientist tries to understand it all.

1979 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.

1978 Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre. Two villains pursue a young woman across a post-apocalyptic land as she heals people with an alien entity known as the dreamsnake. 

1977 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.

1976 Man Plus by Frederik Pohl. Humans are faced with the choice of becoming machines:  the only solution to enable them to colonize and explore Mars. 

1975 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.

1974 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.

1973 Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. An alien spacecraft enters Earth's orbit and reveals its secrets to a party of explorers.

1972 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.

1971 A Time Of Changes by Robert Silverberg.  A man struggles to implement permanent change on his world: a mind-bending place where there is no concept of self.

1970 Ringworld by Larry Niven. An epic adventure unfolds on a world constructed by mysterious aliens: a ring built around a star.

1969 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.

1968 Rite Of Passage by Alexei Panshin. A young woman on a colony planet must endure a dangerous coming-of-age trial

1967 The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany. A race of aliens colonize an abandoned Earth and try to piece together the story of humanity through our mythology.

1966 Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes.  A mentally impaired man volunteers for an experiment that brings him astounding leaps in intelligence with each passing day; soon he realizes he is locked into a terrifying fate. 

Also 1966  Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany. A poet helps decrypt an alien message that could lead to earth's victory in a deadly interstellar war.

1965 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.

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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