Nebula Awards 32: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year [Paperback]

Jack Dann (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1998 | Series: Nebula Awards Showcase

Works by Nicola Griffith, Elizabeth Hand, Jonathan Lethem, Paul Levinson, Jack Vance, and many others grace this volume of "the closest thing SF has to a literary yearbook" (Locus).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The annual Nebula Awards anthology has been a tradition since 1965, when Damon Knight edited the first in the line, Nebula Award Stories. The anthologies are a collection of the year's best SF&F stories, as selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. As the title suggests, the stories are taken from the winners and nominees of SFWA's annual Nebula Awards, the only awards given by SF professionals to their peers. 1998's anthology includes nine short stories, nine essays on the current state of SF by authors such as Lucius Shepherd, Norman Spinrad, and Elizabeth Hand, a survey of 1996 SF films, a short feature on SFWA grandmaster Jack Vance, the winners of the 1996 Rhysling Award for best SF poetry, and several appendices explaining what SFWA is and what the Nebulas are. The stories are the focus here and every one is worth the price of admission, but those interested in the SF field will find that the various essays make for some enlightening and entertaining reading as well. --Craig Engler

About the Author

Jack Dann is a contributor for the following Houghton Mifflin Company Title: Nebula Awards 32

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (April 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156005522
• ISBN-13: 978-0156005524
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,857,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My novel The Silk Code won the 2000 Locus Award for Best First Novel. I've since published Borrowed Tides (2001),The Consciousness Plague (2002), and The Pixel Eye (2003). The Plot To Save Socrates published in 2006 - Entertainment Weekly called it "challenging fun". My science fiction and mystery short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards. Nine nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009) have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and eight other languages. I appear from time to time on "The O'Reilly Factor," "The CBS Evening News," "Nightline," "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and other TV and radio programs - I like talking just as much as writing. I'm also a songwriter, and have been in several bands over the years - one had two records out on Atlantic Records in 1960s. My 1972 album Twice Upon a Rhyme (on HappySad Records) was re-issued on CD by Beatball/Big Pink Records in 2009, and on re-pressed vinyl by Whiplash/Sound of Salvation Records in 2010. I was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Top 10 Academic Twitterers" in 2009. And last but not least: I'm Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Science Fiction: Please -- More!, June 12, 2000

By 

Michael F Phebus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nebula Awards 32: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (Paperback)

The fiction is wonderful, from the breezy if forgettable "DaVinci Rising" to the earthy, cerebral yet wrenching "A Birthday", the writing is still as good as Science Fiction ever was, which is to say it's pretty terrific. But please, enter more fiction and cut out some essays! If I want essays, I'll hunt them down at a library (I doubt that I'd spend a great deal of money to read this many of them). The point of sci-fi is to read the stories. Some background on the authors and the stories is useful and enjoyable, and the balance is difficult to find, but this volume leaves you aching for more stories, which isn't altogether a bad thing (and may be the intent). Once you're there, though, don't miss the stories. Would you believe a near-future story on abortion that pulls no punches yet leaves you wondering just where the author is coming from? How about an alternate history that makes you believe that a Balkanized America was not only possible, but likely? How about a "protective" universe that kills those that get too close to the truth? You gotta buy this book, you'll like it a lot -- despite all the non-fiction, not because of it, because the fiction is that good. You'll wonder why you don't read more of this.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An decent addition to your sci-fi collection, June 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Nebula Awards 32: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (Paperback)

Having read several of the previous Nebula Awards compendiums, I expected nothing less than 350 pages of excellent sci-fi. While many of the pieces in this book were excellent (Silverberg's comes to mind) some of the essays also seemed somewhat pendantic and overly emphasized in the volume (it seemed that there were as many essays as short stories). If you haven't read a Nebula Awards book before, I suggest buying a previous volume. Even so, #32 was good enough to merit me purchasing it after borrowing it from a friend.

3.0 out of 5 stars Not The Best Year for Science Fiction, January 21, 2012

By 

George Duncan "verogolfer" (Lake Placid, Fla) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nebula Awards 32: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (Paperback)

Every reader - and I guess every writer - has some blind spots, and I guess this book may be one of mine. I just don't think "32" was a good year for science fiction. Most of the stories seem average at best. Nothing is particularly distinguished in this book. I enjoyed the essays in most Nebula Awards annual books and even the essays in this one don't seem all that thoughtful. (Writers complaining and whining and groaning...etc.) Of course some years are better than others and this seems like one of those down years. Suggest the reader try other years first before getting this collection.