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Nebula Awards Showcases #5
Nebula Award Stories 5
Contents
A Boy and His Dog (Vic and Blood #2) (1969) by Harlan Ellison
Nine Lives (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin
Passengers (1968) by Robert Silverberg
Not Long Before the End (Magic Goes Away series) (1969) by Larry Niven
Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (1968) by Samuel R. Delany
The Man Who Learned Loving (1969) by Theodore Sturgeon
The SF Novel in 1969 (1970) essay by Darko Suvin
Short SF in 1969 (1970) essay by Alexei Panshin
Nebula Awards 1965-1969 (1970) essay
A Boy and His Dog (Vic and Blood #2) (1969) by Harlan Ellison
Nine Lives (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin
Passengers (1968) by Robert Silverberg
Not Long Before the End (Magic Goes Away series) (1969) by Larry Niven
Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (1968) by Samuel R. Delany
The Man Who Learned Loving (1969) by Theodore Sturgeon
The SF Novel in 1969 (1970) essay by Darko Suvin
Short SF in 1969 (1970) essay by Alexei Panshin
Nebula Awards 1965-1969 (1970) essay
171 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1972
About the author
James Blish
457 books331 followersJames Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling Jr.
In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians.
Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the U.S. Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer.
He is credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story "Solar Plexus" as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. (The story was originally published in 1941, but that version did not contain the term; Blish apparently added it in a rewrite done for the anthology, which was first published in 1952.)
Blish was married to the literary agent Virginia Kidd from 1947 to 1963.
From 1962 to 1968, he worked for the Tobacco Institute.
Between 1967 and his death from lung cancer in 1975, Blish became the first author to write short story collections based upon the classic TV series Star Trek. In total, Blish wrote 11 volumes of short stories adapted from episodes of the 1960s TV series, as well as an original novel, Spock Must Die! in 1970 — the first original novel for adult readers based upon the series (since then hundreds more have been published). He died midway through writing Star Trek 12; his wife, J.A. Lawrence, completed the book, and later completed the adaptations in the volume Mudd's Angels.
Blish lived in Milford, Pennsylvania at Arrowhead until the mid-1960s. In 1968, Blish emigrated to England, and lived in Oxford until his death in 1975. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of Kenneth Grahame.
His name in Greek is Τζέημς Μπλις"
In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians.
Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the U.S. Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer.
He is credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story "Solar Plexus" as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. (The story was originally published in 1941, but that version did not contain the term; Blish apparently added it in a rewrite done for the anthology, which was first published in 1952.)
Blish was married to the literary agent Virginia Kidd from 1947 to 1963.
From 1962 to 1968, he worked for the Tobacco Institute.
Between 1967 and his death from lung cancer in 1975, Blish became the first author to write short story collections based upon the classic TV series Star Trek. In total, Blish wrote 11 volumes of short stories adapted from episodes of the 1960s TV series, as well as an original novel, Spock Must Die! in 1970 — the first original novel for adult readers based upon the series (since then hundreds more have been published). He died midway through writing Star Trek 12; his wife, J.A. Lawrence, completed the book, and later completed the adaptations in the volume Mudd's Angels.
Blish lived in Milford, Pennsylvania at Arrowhead until the mid-1960s. In 1968, Blish emigrated to England, and lived in Oxford until his death in 1975. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of Kenneth Grahame.
His name in Greek is Τζέημς Μπλις"
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 10, 2022
This is the fifth annual anthology of Nebula Award winning stories (and three runners-up) as selected by vote of the membership of The Science Fiction Writers of America. The awards are for stories in the calendar year of 1969, and the members voted to include fantasy as well as science fiction for the first time. The winning stories are A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison, Passengers by Robert Silverberg, and Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones by Samuel R. Delany, all now regarded as classics, though not necessarily well-liked. The runners up include stories by Theodore Sturgeon, Larrry Niven, and Ursula K. Le Guin, and there were a couple of summary essays by supposed expert critics and an introduction by Blish, none of the three which I thought worthwhile.
March 15, 2018
Overall: 3/5. A mildly interesting collection of stories from a pivotal point in sf's history, i.e. the New Wave between the Golden Age and the wretched era of doorstoppers that began in the 80s and that plagues us to this day. Skip Niven and the essays, and use discretion when approaching Le Guin, Sturgeon, and Delany, but the Ellison and Silverberg here are fantastic.
A Boy And His Dog (Ellison): 4.5/5. Gripping and dark but ultimately satisfying on a deep level. Contrary to Blish’s amusingly quaint warning, it is the sexually depraved protagonist rather than the occasionally blue language that will put off modern readers. But if that doesn’t throw you off, you’re in for a tightly written, idiosyncratic, and paradoxically humane parable about the dangers of repressing one’s more animalistic motivations.
Nine Lives (Le Guin): 2/5. An interesting premise that never really goes anywhere. The “message” is banal and on-the-nose. Skippable.
Passengers (Silverberg): 4/5. A slow start gives way to an aching, archetypal portrayal of the vicissitudes of fate and determinism. The ending seems slightly off, but it’s well worth the journey. Fantastic fiction.
Not Long Before the End (Niven): 2/5. A reasonably engaging but ultimately shallow and trivial tale, too cute and on-the-nose to be taken seriously. It’s clear Niven has no interest in the possible depths of storytelling, and just says words that paint mildly interesting images. There is a serious disconnect between his work and the human soul, and it is troubling.
Time Considered...Helix (Delany): 2/5. A lot of sizzle and not a lot of steak - about what you’d expect for Delany. The start is propulsive, with eyeball kicks on every line and wonderfully evocative worldbuilding. Then it all kind of meanders around and trails off - perhaps because the New Wave cares not for satisfying endings. An interesting product of its time, but not worth the read now.
The Man Who Learned Loving (Sturgeon): 3/5. A fun little morality play with some exploration of male/female archetypes. Compelling but not overly so.
Essays: 1.5/5. Pretentious gatekeeping by two seemingly unqualified experts. Still, there's some mild value to be had - one gets a view of sf's past and future in 1969 that seems quaint and parochial now. It also usefully introduces the interesting definition of sf as "the literature of cognitive estrangement," which is thought-provoking
A Boy And His Dog (Ellison): 4.5/5. Gripping and dark but ultimately satisfying on a deep level. Contrary to Blish’s amusingly quaint warning, it is the sexually depraved protagonist rather than the occasionally blue language that will put off modern readers. But if that doesn’t throw you off, you’re in for a tightly written, idiosyncratic, and paradoxically humane parable about the dangers of repressing one’s more animalistic motivations.
Nine Lives (Le Guin): 2/5. An interesting premise that never really goes anywhere. The “message” is banal and on-the-nose. Skippable.
Passengers (Silverberg): 4/5. A slow start gives way to an aching, archetypal portrayal of the vicissitudes of fate and determinism. The ending seems slightly off, but it’s well worth the journey. Fantastic fiction.
Not Long Before the End (Niven): 2/5. A reasonably engaging but ultimately shallow and trivial tale, too cute and on-the-nose to be taken seriously. It’s clear Niven has no interest in the possible depths of storytelling, and just says words that paint mildly interesting images. There is a serious disconnect between his work and the human soul, and it is troubling.
Time Considered...Helix (Delany): 2/5. A lot of sizzle and not a lot of steak - about what you’d expect for Delany. The start is propulsive, with eyeball kicks on every line and wonderfully evocative worldbuilding. Then it all kind of meanders around and trails off - perhaps because the New Wave cares not for satisfying endings. An interesting product of its time, but not worth the read now.
The Man Who Learned Loving (Sturgeon): 3/5. A fun little morality play with some exploration of male/female archetypes. Compelling but not overly so.
Essays: 1.5/5. Pretentious gatekeeping by two seemingly unqualified experts. Still, there's some mild value to be had - one gets a view of sf's past and future in 1969 that seems quaint and parochial now. It also usefully introduces the interesting definition of sf as "the literature of cognitive estrangement," which is thought-provoking
February 6, 2023
It's an anthology paperback and fragile. I don't remember where I found it but it isn't one I read back in the day.
First up was the novella I've avoided for fifty years, "A Boy and His Dog" and after reading the first pages of the story here, I will continue to avoid it. "Strangely romantic" it's described on the back cover. Well. It takes all kinds.
The second story was that years' second place winner by Ursula K. Le Guin and I knew that story from one of her story collections. She won best novel that years for Left Hand of Darkness. [I need to reread that novel; at the time I read it for the first time I objected to the use of masculine pronouns, but more to the point I simply could not buy the premise that at least 20% of the population was in Kimmer at any one time.]
The next stories were good, all surprising one way or another. Except for Le Guin, all the authors, including the front and back matter, are white males. All the POV characters in the stories are white males. Sex is always an issue, sometimes the focus of the stories. Le Guin included people of color, another author included other races as disguise. No animals. A few women as romantic others.
This was a great year, 1969, for SF and Fantasy. The previous year was great too, when several favorite authors won, including my favorite SF novel, Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin, who wrote the essay at the end of this collection. Panshin makes observations about the dwindling number of short stories published each year. He is skeptical that television is the prime reason that "pulp stories" had lost venues. I am just old enough to remember when most magazines featured short fiction, later that the women's magazines and others still publishing short stories in the late '60s were cutting fiction. Panshin suggests that the only people reading "literary stories" were the family members of the authors. Ouch. (And I have thought that too, though my family do not.) But the market for SF was growing in 1969, and this is somewhat true even today. A recent talk by author Molly Gloss at the Pacific University MFA residency took pains to explain why so many mainstream realist writers are writing SF and Fantasy and why students might want to follow suit.
First up was the novella I've avoided for fifty years, "A Boy and His Dog" and after reading the first pages of the story here, I will continue to avoid it. "Strangely romantic" it's described on the back cover. Well. It takes all kinds.
The second story was that years' second place winner by Ursula K. Le Guin and I knew that story from one of her story collections. She won best novel that years for Left Hand of Darkness. [I need to reread that novel; at the time I read it for the first time I objected to the use of masculine pronouns, but more to the point I simply could not buy the premise that at least 20% of the population was in Kimmer at any one time.]
The next stories were good, all surprising one way or another. Except for Le Guin, all the authors, including the front and back matter, are white males. All the POV characters in the stories are white males. Sex is always an issue, sometimes the focus of the stories. Le Guin included people of color, another author included other races as disguise. No animals. A few women as romantic others.
This was a great year, 1969, for SF and Fantasy. The previous year was great too, when several favorite authors won, including my favorite SF novel, Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin, who wrote the essay at the end of this collection. Panshin makes observations about the dwindling number of short stories published each year. He is skeptical that television is the prime reason that "pulp stories" had lost venues. I am just old enough to remember when most magazines featured short fiction, later that the women's magazines and others still publishing short stories in the late '60s were cutting fiction. Panshin suggests that the only people reading "literary stories" were the family members of the authors. Ouch. (And I have thought that too, though my family do not.) But the market for SF was growing in 1969, and this is somewhat true even today. A recent talk by author Molly Gloss at the Pacific University MFA residency took pains to explain why so many mainstream realist writers are writing SF and Fantasy and why students might want to follow suit.
May 7, 2026
3 of 6 (2,3,6) stories were good so those are worth a read. This is from 1969 but it is still hard to forgive a story that includes repeated sexual assault describing itself as “romantic”.
September 11, 2017
As always, an anthology has a mix of good and bad. Some of these...did not age well at all. Harlan Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog" for example--I realize the sexism is partly of its time and partly a deliberate artistic effect. But the fact that it's pretty well established that Ellison is an asshole that treats women terribly made reading this story make my skin crawl. Others are excellent, or just kind of forgettable at this point. Le Guin's "Nine Lives" is lovely, and you have to give Delany credit for a great title at the very least in "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones." Good for knowing the history of the genre.
November 3, 2017
I found the introduction to the winning novella, "A Boy and His Dog" by Harlan Ellison, more disturbing than the story. Both are products of their 60's era. The introduction commented on how shocking the story was, but by "shocking" meant the coarse language, not the rape of a woman or the ridiculously unbelievable presentation of the female character. At least she had some cunning and a plan. The story is riveting and sad, also compelling and thought-provoking as are all the tales in this collection.
August 18, 2023
I bought this book for the Ursula K LeGuin story - which was excellent. As well as several other stories.
However, Harlan Ellison’s A Boy and His Dog belongs in the TRASH. It’s 50 pages of rape. Absolute garbage.
However, Harlan Ellison’s A Boy and His Dog belongs in the TRASH. It’s 50 pages of rape. Absolute garbage.
January 15, 2023
Really strong collection of stories, including what I think is my favorite Le Guin I've read so far.
February 13, 2025
6 stories:
**** A Boy and His Dog (1969) • Harlan Ellison
***** Nine Lives (1969) • Ursula K. Le Guin
**** Passengers (1968) • Robert Silverberg
***** Not Long Before the End (1969) • Larry Niven
**** Time Considered As a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (1968) • Samuel R. Delany
***** The Man Who Learned Loving (1969) • Theodore Sturgeon
**** A Boy and His Dog (1969) • Harlan Ellison
***** Nine Lives (1969) • Ursula K. Le Guin
**** Passengers (1968) • Robert Silverberg
***** Not Long Before the End (1969) • Larry Niven
**** Time Considered As a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (1968) • Samuel R. Delany
***** The Man Who Learned Loving (1969) • Theodore Sturgeon
December 7, 2016
I really liked Passengers and Nine Lives, disliked A Boy and His Dog, and was rather indifferent to the others.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews