Since 1953, the annual Hugo Awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention have been as coveted by SF writers as is the Oscar in the motion picture field--and SF fans recognize it as a certain indicator of the finest in science fiction. Now bestselling author Gregory Benford presents the Hugo winners for 1992, 1993, and 1994 in a book that will be a must-buy for all SF readers.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A mixed bunch but worth it on the whole,
This review is from: The New Hugo Winners IV (New Hugo Winners: Award-Winning Science Fiction Stories) (Mass Market Paperback)
This book contains the winners of three of the categories of Hugo awards (novella, novelette and short story) from the years 1992, 1993 and 1994.Most of the stories here were first published in Asimov's science fiction magazine. Thus, regular subscribers to that will find little new in this collection. I felt that the three short stories were not particularly good. The first, "A Walk in the Sun" by Geoffrey Landis is traditional SF involving an astronaut stranded on the Moon. I felt that this could have been written thirty or forty years earlier and, after the first four pages, it was simple to see how the rest of the story would progress. Only one writer, Connie Willis, featured twice and her two short stories were, for me at least, the weakest in the collection. While none of them stands out as being exceptionally good, the longer works do manage to redeem the collection. The first novelette, "Gold" by Asimov is not particularly memorable but the other two, "The Nutcracker Coup" and "Georgia on my Mind" together with the three novellas, "Beggars in Spain", "Barnacle Bill the Spacer" and "Down in the Bottomlands" tip the balance. All five of these were interesting stories in settings ranging from contemporary Earth through space adventure to alien worlds and races. TNC and BiS also had something interesting to say beyond their narrative. In summary then, a readable book which is worth the price of admission but there are better collections around.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where's New Hugo Winners, Vol V?, It's Been Ten Years Already.,
By Antinomian (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Hugo Winners IV (New Hugo Winners: Award-Winning Science Fiction Stories) (Mass Market Paperback)
The works presented in this volume are the Hugo Award short-fiction winners in the categories of Short Story, Novelette, and Novella for the years of 1992, 1993, and 1994. The short-fiction works of Short Story/Novelette/Novella as a rough rule of thumb follow 15/30/60 page-lengths, although there have been Short Stories as short as 3 pages, and Novellas as long as 120 pages as some presented here. Hugo Award Winners tend to be more traditional science-fiction/speculative-fiction stories than Nebula Award winners. Meaning that some stories may be a bit old fashioned such as A Walk in the Sun, but then usually tends to avoid awards on lesbianism, magic auras, faery handbags, and other topics that are not science fiction such as what the Nebulas award to.
The stories are: 1992 Short Story: A Walk in the Sun, Geoffrey Landis: a lunar orbiter crash lands on the moon and a survivor struggles to continue to survive. 1992 Novelette: Gold, Isaac Asimov: A writer is persuaded to attempt to convert a story to a screen play. 1992 Novella: Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress: Best story of the collection. This was eventually expanded into a novel and then a trilogy. A subculture of people arise that no longer depend upon sleep. For younger readers, society's reaction is similar as to the protagonists in the X-Men movies. 1993 Short Story: Even The Queen, Connie Willis: About the horrors of menstruation. After reading this I was asking women, is menstruation the absolutely horrible, soul wrenching experience as this story makes it out to be. Willis tries to make the story tongue-in-cheek. Yeah, right. Willis can write anything she wants, but to give a Hugo to this... This is just the type of story the Nebulas would also give an award to, and naturally they did. 1993 Novelette: The Nutcracker Coup, Janet Kagan: Dealing with the culture of an alien society. 1993 Novella: Barnacle Bill The Spacer, Lucius Shepard: Not a story about a Lensman-like hero, but rather about a shambling character intimidated by everyone. 1994 Short Story: Death on the Nile, Connie Willis: A sort of horror story. 1994 Novelette: Georgia on My Mind, Charles Sheffield: Good adventure story, but ends unfulfilled. 1994 Novella: Down in the Bottomlands, Harry Turtledove: Alternative history story where African nations are nuclear superpowers and a murder mystery ensues in a national park.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Is short fiction dying?,
By A Customer
This review is from: The New Hugo Winners IV (New Hugo Winners: Award-Winning Science Fiction Stories) (Mass Market Paperback)
I've noticed that even impressive collections like this have no reviewers. I want to think it is because the fact they won Hugos means no further recommendation is required, but that excuse doesn't really wash. Fortunately collectins of big name authors do slightly better, but anthologies like this that contain stories by big name authors aren't being read anymore it seems. Worse Hugo winning stories tend to come from magazines like asimov's, analog, f&sf, & SF Age which all are in decline. On the plus side the Hugo anthologies are generally good reading & I almost wish they did what the Nebulas do i.e. put out yearly collections of their nominees. Since I tend to prefer Hugo nominated stories to Nebula nominated stories I'd jump at it. Oh, well. Interstingly many of the great stories in this collection were first in magazines. Beggars in Spain is especially wonderful, but I bet the others are too. A good thing about anthologies like this is that we live in an age of bloated trilogies so this is a nice step in a different direction. I hope you enjoy this collection and I hope short fiction is in better shape than I think. P.S. If you like short fiction of any stripe give science fiction anthologies a chance, after all s.f. is perhaps the best place for short fiction nowadays.
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