FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #490: AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE HUGOS: A PERSONAL LOOK BACK AT THE HUGO AWARDS, 1953-2000 By Jo Walton

Between 2010 and 2013, Jo Walton wrote a series of posts for Tor.com. Those posts have been collected in An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000. Jo Walton reviews the Hugo finalists and winners from the Hugo’s inception up to the year 2000. Walton asserts that each year’s finalists gives us a clear picture about the state of science fiction during those years. I’m a fan of Jo Walton’s SF novels and I praised her What Makes This Book So Great. You can read my review here. An Informal History of the Hugos is clearly a labor of love. If you’re a science fiction fan, this is a must-buy! Highly recommended! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction 11
1953 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 17
Essay: “Telepaths, Murder, and Typographical Tricks: Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man” 21
1954 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 24
1955 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 25
1956 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 29
Essay: “Parliamentary Democracy with Martians: Robert A. Heinlein’s Double Star” 32
1957 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 35
1958 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 40
1959 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 44
Essay: “Every Outward, Robert A. Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit—Will Travel” 50
1960 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 56
Essay: “Over the Hump: Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers” 60
1961 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 64
Essay: “Dark Ages and Doubt: Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz” 69
Essay: “Really Good Fun: Poul Anderson’s The High Crusade” 72
1962 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 75
Essay: “Smug Messiah: Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land” 82
1963 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 87
Essay: “A Future That Never Came: Arthur C. Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust” 94
1964 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 98
Essay: “I Think I’ll Go for a Walk and Think About Aliens: Clifford Simak’s Way Station” 104
1965 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 106
Essay: “Telepathy and Healing: John Brunner’s The Whole Man (aka, Telepathists}” 112
1966 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 114
Essay: Wisecracking, Aliens, and Hot Places: Roger Zelazny’s This Immortal” 124
Essay: In League with the Future: Frank Herbert’s Dune” 125
1967 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 129
Essay: “A Self-Aware Computer and a Revolution on the Moon: Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” 138
1968 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 142
Essay: “Fantasy Disguised as Science Fiction Disguised as Fantasy: Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light” 152
1969 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 155
Essay: “Growing Up for Real: Alexei Panshin’s Rite of Passage” 165
1970 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 168
1971 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 176
1972 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 188
Essay: “Effective Dreaming: Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven” 198
1973 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 200
Essay: “Great Aliens, Rubber Humans: Isaac Asimov’s The Gods Themselves” 213
Essay: “Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg” 214
1974 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 217
Essay: “Menopause, Aliens, and Fun: Larry Niven’s Protector” 227
1975 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 230
Essay: “Clear-sighted Utopia: Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed” 242
1976 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 244
1977 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 256
1978 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 266
1979 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 278
1980 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 288
Essay: “Sunlit Clouds Beyond the Iron Grating: Thomas M. Disch’s On the Wings of Song” 298
1981 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 300
1982 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 312
1983 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 322
1984 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 332
Essay: The Tea, the Statue, the Dragon, and You: R. A. MacAvoy’s Tea With the Black Dragon” 342
1985 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 344
1986 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 357
Essay: “Who is Alien? C. J. Cherryh’s Cuckoo’s Egg” 369
1987 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 371
1988 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 382
1989 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 395
Essay: “Designing People and Societies: C. J. Cherryh’s Cyteen” 408
Essay: “The Most Expensive Plumbers in the Galaxy: Louis McMaster Bujold’s Falling Free” 411
1990 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 413
1991 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 426
1992 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 439
1993 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 452
Essay: “The Net of a Million Lies: Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep” 465
Essay: “Time Travel and the Black Death: Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book” 468
1994 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 475
1995 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 487
1996 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 499
1997 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 513
1998 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 525
Essay: “Transformative in This as Everything Else: Walter Jon Williams’s Metropolitan and City on Fire” 535
1999 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 538
2000 Hugo Award Winners and Nominees 552
Essay: “So High, So Low, So Many Things to Know: Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky” 565
Conclusion 571

24 thoughts on “FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #490: AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE HUGOS: A PERSONAL LOOK BACK AT THE HUGO AWARDS, 1953-2000 By Jo Walton

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    I bought a copy online but haven’t received it yet. Read a lot of these at Tor.com. She usually is right on , but has a few prejudices. She doesn’t like Philip K. Dick for one and is very fond of C.J. Cherryh and Lois Bujold. The later two writers I have always found unreadable. I envy the fact she can read 3 books in an afternoon. I usually only average 3 a week.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, I’m with you on Cherryh and Lois McMaster Bujold. I’ve found Philip K. Dick to be a very uneven writer. PKD wrote the amazing MARTIAN TIME-SLIP and the perplexing THE ZAP GUN. Hard to believe the same writer wrote two wildly different books!

      Reply
  2. Jeff Meyerson

    This has been on my radar since I first heard about it. I loved her WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT (and like Steve, I envy how fast she reads), and I’ve enjoyed several of her other books, including her Alternate History/Small Change trilogy: Farthing, Ha’penny, and Half a Crown.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I like Jo Walton’s novels, too. Walton did an astonishing amount of research to produce AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE HUGOS!

      Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        Jeff Smith likes Bujold. Walton sure praises her books a lot in WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT, but they don’t appeal to me.

    1. george Post author

      Wolf, I remember reading Philip Jose Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971–the first Riverworld novel–and being completely blown away!

      Reply
      1. wolf

        Me too!
        Incredible!
        And “World of Tiers” like Dayworld also were unbelievable – out of the ordinary …
        He really was special – and his sexy novels … 🙂

  3. Rick Robinson

    I’m reading it now, in ebook. I just started 1994.

    You failed to mention that the Nebula, Campbell, Locus and other awards are also discussed for each year they were given, and compared to the Hugo lists. Also, there are significant comments by both Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton, both very knowledgable about the field and the awards, on the novel, novelette and novella awards and lists as well as the short story awards and what may have been missed by the nomination committees. It’s these discussions that keep this book from just being a book of lists.

    Walton certainly does have her prejudices, or preferences, if you prefer. In almost every case she tells us the work she’d vote for is by a woman. She won’t read a nominee if she didn’t like a previous book by that author. So this is a very subjective look at the nominations and awards given. All that said, I have put holds on a few things at the library after reading (mostly Horton’s) the comments.

    Overall, interesting as much of it is, I’d give this a B.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, you make good points about the comments of Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton in AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE HUGOS. Jo Walton provides a very subjective assessment of the stories. You’re right about there being plenty to disagree with in her personal opinions. But all in all, this an important book that will generate controversy and debate about some great stories.

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Rick, I for one would love to read your review of AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE HUGOS either as an FFB or otherwise. There’s no rule that only one person can review a specific title.

  4. Jerry House

    I haven’t read a Hugo (or Nebula) winning novel in years. I know that has made miss a lot of great books, but I suspect it also made me miss quite a few turkeys. Awards…hah!

    And get off my lawn!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jerry, back in the 1960s and 1970s I read all the Hugo Award winners. Later, I read the Nebula Award winners, too. But sometime around the 1990s, I stopped because many of the Award winners disappointed me. Like you, I’ve become more skeptical about Award winners.

      Reply
  5. Rick Robinson

    It was clear to me when I read this (finished an hour ago) when it was that I started reading a lot less SFF and a lot more mystery fiction. Suddenly I didn’t recognize as many of the authors. I still think it’s worth trying the shortlisted Hugo and Nebula books, but U always ready to bail out if I’m not enjoying them. The book makes it clear the shorter works, Novelettes and Novellas, are where a lot of the quality lies, and those are harder to go back and find.

    Reply
    1. wolf

      Totally agree with you re the higher quality of shorter works!

      Often I had the feeling that publishers and editors kind of forced authors to expand a novella/novelette into a novel – and that often meant a lot of filling …

      PS and rather OT:
      I found the terms novella/novelette when I started to read SF – they weren’t used in German … 🙂
      we just said “short story”.

      Reply
  6. tracybham

    Even though ( read much less fantasy or science fiction than mystery novels, I read all of WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT, so I am sure I will enjoy this one too. I have read the books in the Small Change trilogy and I read Among Others. I am wondering if I should try her dragon series.

    Reply

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