I picked up this thick-as-a-brick anthology at a Library Book Sale for pennies. My favorite stories are “The Dragon Masters” and “The Last Castle” by Jack Vance, but there are plenty of first-rate stories between these covers. Harlan Ellison is well-represented. So is Poul Anderson. I remember reading Clifford Simak’s “The Big Front Yard” in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION way back in 1958 and loving it. Probably the most famous story included in The Hugo Winners is Daniel Keyes’s “Flowers for Algernon” which was later expanded into a novel and became a movie.
As an impressionable kid, I loved another story from 1958 (when I was a precocious 9-year-old): Robert Bloch’s “That Hell-Bound Train.” That triggered a search for other “Deal With the Devil” stories. I found dozens in various anthologies, but none were quite as good as Robert Bloch’s classic. I read most of the stories in VOLUME TWO in Real Time as I subscribed to GALAXY, IF, WORLDS OF TOMORROW, AMAZING, and FANTASTIC and would buy the occasional issue of Analog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction if one of my favorite SF writers was included in an issue on the newsstands.
These stories in The Hugo Winners brought back a lot of fond memories. Do they bring back memories for you? How many of these Hugo Winners have you read? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Hugo Winners, Volume 1 • [The Hugo Winners • 1] • (1962) • anthology by Isaac Asimov
x • Introduction (The Hugo Winners, Volume I) • (1962) • essay by Isaac Asimov
5 • The Darfsteller • (1955) • novella by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
64 • Allamagoosa • (1955) • short story by Eric Frank Russell
80 • Exploration Team • [Colonial Survey] • (1956) • novelette by Murray Leinster
123 • The Star • (1955) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke
132 • Or All the Seas with Oysters • (1958) • short story by Avram Davidson
145 • The Big Front Yard • (1958) • novella by Clifford D. Simak
193 • The Hell-Bound Train • (1958) • short story by Robert Bloch (variant of That Hell-Bound Train)
208 • Flowers for Algernon • (1959) • novelette by Daniel Keyes
236 • The Longest Voyage • (1960) • novelette by Poul Anderson
264 • Postscript (The Hugo Winners) • (1962) • essay by Isaac Asimov
266 • Appendix: The Hugo Awards (The Hugo Winners, Volume I) • (1962) • essay by uncredited
269 • The Hugo Winners, Volume Two • [The Hugo Winners • 2] • (1971) • anthology by Isaac Asimov
273 • Here I Am Again • (1971) • essay by Isaac Asimov
280 • The Dragon Masters • (1962) • novella by Jack Vance
363 • No Truce with Kings • (1963) • novella by Poul Anderson
421 • Soldier, Ask Not • [Childe Cycle] • (1964) • novella by Gordon R. Dickson
477 • “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman • (1965) • short story by Harlan Ellison
492 • The Last Castle • (1966) • novella by Jack Vance
546 • Neutron Star • [Known Space] • (1966) • novelette by Larry Niven
567 • Weyr Search • [Dragonriders of Pern short fiction] • (1967) • novella by Anne McCaffrey
618 • Riders of the Purple Wage • (1967) • novella by Philip José Farmer
681 • Gonna Roll the Bones • (1967) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
702 • I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream • (1967) • short story by Harlan Ellison
721 • Nightwings • [Nightwings] • (1968) • novella by Robert Silverberg
769 • The Sharing of Flesh • [Technic History] • (1968) • novelette by Poul Anderson
800 • The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World • (1968) • novelette by Harlan Ellison (variant of The Beast That Shouted Love)
813 • Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones • (1968) • novelette by Samuel R. Delany
847 • Appendix: Hugo Awards 1962-1970 (The Hugo Winners, Volume II) • (1972) • essay by uncredited