The Hugo Winners Vol. 3 1971-1975

The Hugo Winners #3

by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Fritz Leiber (Contributor), Harlan Ellison (Contributor)

Contents:

Ship of shadows / by Fritz Leiber --
Ill met in Lankhmar / by Fritz Leiber --
Slow sculpter / by Theodore Sturgeon --
The Queen of Air and Darkness / by Poul Anderson --
Inconstant moon / by Larry Niven --
The word for world is forest / by Ursula K. Le Guin --
Goat song / by Poul Anderson --
The meeting / by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth --
Eurama's dam / by R. A. Lafferty --
The girl woh was plugged in / by James Tiptree, Jr. --
The Deathbird / by Harlan Ellison --
The ones who walk away from Omelas / by Ursula K. Le Guin --
A song for Lya / by George R. R. Martin --
Adrift just off the islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38 [degrees] 54' N, 77 [degrees] 00' 13" W / by Harlan Ellison --
The Hole Man / by Larry Niven.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

603 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This third volume of Hugo-winning short fiction covers the years 1971-1975, with one "left-over" novella from 1970 that was inadvertently left out of the previous volume, Fritz Leiber's Ship of Shadows. (Asimov charmingly suggests it was Samuel R. Delany's fault for having a title that was too long in the previous book that caused him to miss it.) Leiber has another winner, Ill Met in Lankhmar, that features Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, perhaps the most elegant duo in all of the swords & sorcery genre. Ursula K. LeGuin also has two, including the wonderful The Word for World Is Forest, as does Poul Anderson (The Queen of Air Darkness is my favorite of his), Larry Niven (I liked Inconstant Moon the best), and Harlan Ellison (The Deathbird has always been a favorite.) Other writers include Theodore Sturgeon, Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth (a posthumous collaboration), the quirky R.A. Lafferty, James Tiptree, Jr., and George R.R. Martin, who contributes a dandy science fiction story, before he got all bogged down by the weather. It seems to me that the Hugos had more cachet in the '70s than they did in later years, but in any case, this a good volume of winners in all senses of the word.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, great stories. Skipped a few I had read already.

Novellas (for the Doc Challenge)
The Queen of Air and Darkness, Poul Anderson, 1971, novella
A Song for Lya, George R. R. Martin, 1974, novella

Stories (for the Grumpy Challenge)
Ship of Shadows, Fritz Leiber, 1970, novelette
Slow Sculpture, Theodore Sturgeon, 1971, short story
Goat Song, Poul Anderson, 1973, novelette
Eurema's Dam, R. A. Lafferty, 1973, short story
The Girl Who Was Plugged In, James Tiptree, Jr., 1974, novelette
The Deathbird, Harlan Ellison, 1974, novelette
Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W, Harlan Ellison, 1975, novelette
The Hole Man, Larry Niven, 1975 short story

And those I skipped:
Ill Met in Lankhmar, Fritz Leiber; Inconstant Moon, Larry Niven; The Word for World Is Forest, Ursula K. Le Guin; The Meeting, C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl; The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula K. Le Guin

[Timo Pietilä · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ship of Shadows • (1969) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
A man wakes up extremely hungover in a bar which seems to be a strange place. A talking cat is nearby and they eventually become friends. There seem to be vampires and other mythical creatures around, and everything seems a bit blurred and surreal. Eventually, a pretty mundane explanation is given, but until then the story is muddled and surreal. It is pretty well written, but this storytelling style is not my cup of tea. ***+

The Queen of Air and Darkness • (1971) • novella by Poul Anderson

Humans live on a planet that is still largely uninhabited. A woman loses her son. She believes that he was captured by the original, intelligent beings who are living covertly in more desolate places on the planet. The officials are not believing that and think that the boy simply got lost in the woods and died there. She hires a private investigator of sorts and together they try to find her son. The original inhabitants have been capturing humans for a long time and they seem to be elf-like. But that isn’t the whole truth. An okay story that had some good in it but was pretty past its time in other places. The mind control trope felt very '60s-like. The long lecture at the end of the story was also boring and felt forced. ***

The Word for World Is Forest • [Hainish] • (1972) • novella by Ursula K. Le Guin

A human colony is using an alien planet for timber and local natives as slave labor. One day, the natives decide to fight back. About 2000 humans against a few million natives, how will it end?

A thinly disguised allegory of the Vietnam war, fairly black-and-white, and very rooted in the attitudes and even customs of the late sixties. Most of the characters are crude stereotypes. The book also has some totally ridiculous premises - transporting logs across light-years as on Earth "wood is more valuable than gold." It is hard to think about any application where wood would be so irreplaceable. Also, if all trees on Earth died and no new trees could be grown, the ecosphere would be irreplaceably destroyed anyway. The natives are supposed to have some kind of dreaming ability, which is emphasized in the blurb of the book, but it isn't really used for any real purpose other than for some hippy nonsense about alpha waves. Moreover, one person uses ergots for his migraine; apparently, medical treatments haven't advanced at all after the sixties... or the author severely lacks extrapolation skills :-). In a nutshell, a well-written book that is so tied to its time that it feels pretty old and fashionable.***½

A Song for Lya • [Thousand Worlds] • (1974) • novella by George R. R. Martin

The native inhabitants have a religion that involves committing suicide by letting a parasite eat them alive. There are no other religions on the planet and every alien on the planet, without exception, professes that religion and follows the same rules. Also, every alien on the planet seems to be content and very happy. And now humans are turning to that religion in increasing numbers. A husband and wife, both telepaths, arrive on a planet to investigate that problem. The husband is an empath, mainly able to feel emotions; Lya, the wife, is a very sensitive telepath and is able to read minds. The plot goes where you might expect it to, but the writing is very good and the story is really excellent. ****

Slow Sculpture • (1970) • novelette by Theodore Sturgeon

A woman meets a man who is making tests with electrostatic equipment. She tells him that she has breast cancer. The man tells her that he can cure it with his apparatus, and proceeds to do so. During the process, the woman faints and regains her consciousness a few days later. She first runs away but returns for a philosophical conversation. An okay story, but I fail to get the whole point of it. ***-

Goat Song • (1972) • novelette by Poul Anderson

In a utopian future, automated systems and a central computer control everything. Souls and personalities are supposedly recorded and the computer promises to bring back everyone who has died when the “situation is right.” So far it hasn’t been right, and as nothing ever seems to change it is unsure when the situation will ever be right. There isn’t supposed to be individual love, but one man and his wife have formed a pair. As the wife is killed, the man asks the representative of the computer, Dark Queen, to resurrect the wife. The Dark Queen at first doesn’t listen, but the man sings so eloquently that he is taken to the main compound and eventually his wife is resurrected, under reserve. Not everything works well and the computer wants to use the man as an antagonist to learn more about humanity. The man ends up becoming some kind of messiah, mainly because he can sing so well. The writing is pretty good and eloquent, but somehow the story felt very naive. ***

Ill Met in Lankhmar • [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] • (1970) • novella by Fritz Leiber

Two thieves meet more or less by accident and straight away recognize each other as kindred spirits. They meet with their girlfriends, and after some friendly boozing, they decide to find out what the local thieves guild (they aren’t members) is up to, as one of the girlfriends has a serious wish for revenge against them. After a very eventful trip, they return to find tragedy. This is a very smoothly written action fantasy that is written partly in poetic language. Fantasy aspects arise towards the end, whereas the beginning is fairly straight action. This is a nice novella that well deserved the award. ****-

Inconstant Moon • (1971) • novelette by Larry Niven

The moon seems to shine brighter than normal, and it seems to become slowly brighter and brighter. A man starts to wonder what could cause this. He can think of only one possible cause: the sun has gone nova, and the dayside of the Earth is already boiling. What to do on the last night of your life—and on the last night of anyone’s life? Have the night of your life, of course. This is an excellent story that felt only slightly dated, and was enjoyable to reread. ****½

The Meeting • (1972) • short story by C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl

Two parents have transferred their severely developmentally challenged son to a new school. They have had, apparently, very unrealistic expectations. The school costs more than they can afford, and there is a need for "voluntary" money donations as well. They have received an offer for a brain transplant and are thinking about it. A very mundane story until the plot twist at the end, which is left open (?). An okay story, but perhaps not Hugo-winner material? ***

Eurema's Dam • (1972) • short story by R. A. Lafferty

Albert is very stupid, so stupid that he can hardly do anything by himself. Even at school, he has trouble writing, so he has had to build a machine that can write for him. He makes a fortune with his designs, as he is so bad at everything that he always needs to build machines to do things he can’t. A pretty good story, but I am not sure about the ending. ***½

The Girl Who Was Plugged In • (1973) • novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.

Advertising is strictly forbidden. “Ad” is a dirty word. How are companies able to market new products? Through “influencers,” of course. The mind of an ugly, deceased young woman is used to control the cloned body of a beautiful young woman who has no mind of her own. She becomes very popular, with huge numbers of followers, and everything goes well until a young man falls in love with her. A pretty good story which is even more current now than when it was written, so much so that it could very well be a nominee or Hugo winner even today. The worst part of the story was the middle, which felt fairly slow. ****

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

15 stories:

***** Ship of Shadows (1969) • Fritz Leiber
***** Ill Met in Lankhmar (1970) • Fritz Leiber
***** Slow Sculpture (1970) • Theodore Sturgeon
**** The Queen of Air and Darkness (1971) • Poul Anderson
** Inconstant Moon (1971) • Larry Niven
***** The Word for World Is Forest (1972) • Ursula K. Le Guin
**** Goat Song (1972) • Poul Anderson
* The Meeting (1972) • C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl
***** Eurema's Dam (1972) • R. A. Lafferty
***** The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973) • James Tiptree, Jr.
* The Deathbird (1973) • Harlan Ellison
***** The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973) • Ursula K. Le Guin
** A Song for Lya (1974) • George R. R. Martin
** Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W (1974) • Harlan Ellison
** The Hole Man (1974) • Larry Niven

[Cheryl]

The only story I truly liked from this was The Word for World is Forest, but even that was flawed, too earnest, and too cliched (just once I'd like to see humans try to go all conquistador on natives that aren't small & cute & childlike).

'Eurema's Dam' was interesting. Parts of me made me think that if Albert had been named Steve, Mark, or Elon the author would have been truly prescient. "Nothing rises without a leaven, but the yeast is itself a fungus and a disease.... When there are no longer any deprived or insufficient, who will invent?"

A Song for Lya makes me wish Martin hadn't gotten involved in epic fantasy. I've no interest in his juggernaut, but this was good and so was Tuf Voyaging, imo. This has an interesting variant of a 'grok' thing going.

I tried to read almost everything, but of course there were a few I skipped because they were familiar from other anthologies. Which is good, because now it's off my shelf, and also I don't have to decide how to round 1.5 star rating because it's a DNF and I have a policy to avoid rating those.

[Oleksandr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Гарна збірка з чудовими оповіданнями. Але щось я їх довго мучив. І вина цьому скоріше моя лінь, ніж якість історій, бо тут вони були на диво трохи складнішими як лексично, так і сюжетно, ніж у попередніх томах.
Але, я радий що відкрив для себе нових, з нового ракурсу оцінив знайомих авторів, а також насолодився оповіданнями від уже знайомих майстрів.
Єдиний мінус - оці дотепні вставки від укладача Азімова перед кожним оповіданням. Якщо у попередніх 2 томах вони були справді дотепними, то тут вони бісили своєю "мудакуватістю".
Обіцяю собі надалі знайомитися з історіями-переможцями цієї премії.

[Steve Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bunch of completely amazing stories in here and then some that haven't aged as well. Highlight include GRRM's A Song for Lya. Tiptree's The Girl who was Plugged In. I actually even really liked Niven's Inconstant Moon even though I don't usually like his stuff. Ellison's The Deathbird will not be to everyone's taste but I found it pretty affecting. Le Guin's Omelas is one of those perfect 10 page masterpieces.

[Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

In any anthology series, given readers are inevitably going to like some stories better than others. However, when I read the first two volumes of Hugo Winners some time ago, I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed virtually all of them. I guess my expectations were heightened for volume 3, but the result is that I felt pretty let down.

A housekeeping note before I go on: this volume, at around 600 pages, is the complete volume 3. There are also other versions of this text available that are further split into book I and II, but seem to be much more expensive. If you are looking to get the whole thing in one book, this version is the one you want.

Isaac Asimov once again edits this science-fiction collection, bringing the same glib and annoying voice to this volume as the previous ones. He brief introductions to each story are intended to be humorous, but I found them tiresome. He offers no attempt at insight into any story, instead telling us whether he personally knows the author or not, and generally making himself the main subject of every introduction.

The first several stories I am sad to say did not connect with me at all. The two lengthy Fritz Leiber stories which kick off the book both left me cold. It was a very rough start and made me wonder how I was going to slog my way through the rest of the volume. While it wasn't all as dire as that, and things did begin to pick up after the slow start, in the end it was hard for me to muster a lot of enthusiasm for most of what I was reading.

There are bright spots: I very much liked Larry Niven's "Inconstant Moon." The volume also contains two very excellent Ursula Le Guin stories, "The Word for World Is Forest" and "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas." George R.R. Martin's "A Song for Lya" is another very intriguing and worthwhile story.

So these four stories are quite good, but they make up only a fraction of our running time. The other 11 stories range in quality from mildly interesting to actively off-putting, and they certainly don't feel like the very best the genre has to offer.

[Bert Corluy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third volume edited by the witty and learned Isaac Asimov is an absolute delight. You get to know the best short stories and novellas of the great SF writers of the age handily combined in one volume for your convenience. Asimov gives you a very wide taste of the winners and of course a full list of winners should you want to dive deeper after this book. Well recommended for both new readers who want to discover the depth an breadth of science fiction literature as for experienced readers who wish to take a plunge in the golden past of the genre.

[Ami · Rating 4 out of 5]

With all the respect to 40-50 SF golden age, I have a feeling that SF stories are getting better through the years. Some of the stories were excellent, and the rest were mostly decent.
I especially liked Andersons stories - "The Queen of Air and Darkness" and "The Goat", Le Guin's "The ones who walk away from Omelas", and Martin's "A song for Lya".

[Mark Edlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science Fiction short stories - short stories and novellas from 1970 to 1975 as edited by the legendary Isaac Asimov. One of my favourites was Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest". It is an interesting condemnation of environmental disasters written way ahead of its time. Great stories.
Canadian reference - mention of the Toronto conference in 1973.

[Jim Standridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection. As editor Isaac Asimov notes in this volume, there are many different categories of SF. Not all readers are drawn to all of them. He is one, and I am another. But for the most part they were good stories. On to Volume 4.

[Hayley Shaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tour de force. Quite worth the two bucks I paid for this book at the thrift store.

[Michael]

The following is a list of the book's contents, with my commentary on each story/section:

Introduction: Third Time Around by Isaac Asimov (5 stars) - Entertaining, sarcastic, and informative, in typical Asimov fashion.

1970: 28th Convention, Heidelberg

Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber

1971: 29th Convention, Boston

Ill Met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber
Slow Sculpture by Theodore Sturgeon

1972: 30th Convention, Los Angeles

The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson
Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven

1973: 31st Convention, Toronto

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
Goat Song by Poul Anderson
The Meeting by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
Eurema's Dam by R. A. Lafferty

1974: 32nd Convention, Washington

The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr.
The Deathbird by Harlan Ellison
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

1975: 33rd Convention, Los Angeles

A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin
Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38 tr' N, Longitude 77 00' 13" W by Harlan Ellison
The Hole Man by Larry Niven

Afterword

Appendix: The Hugo Awards 1971-75

[JT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, they give Hugo awards because, well, they feel like they have to, and the stories aren't that good. This was not one of those times. Some of these are the best of the best. "Those Who Walk Away for Omelas", "The Queen of Air and Darkness", "The Girl Who Was Plugged In", "Deathbird", "Eurema's Dam", all of them are a cut above even that top slice you'd expect to see, and there isn't a dog in the pack.

[Frank McGirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read an abbreviated edition of this book...not all these stories are in it.

All were good solid stories though.

Inconsistant Moon was interesting for me. Read it the day after watching Melancholia, so had a good dose of end of the world fiction.

[Meg]

*caveat* I only read the James Tiptree story because of the Book Club for Masochists Dystopian challenge this month " The girl who was Plugged in " and the intro, Asimov is a funny guy.

In a future world where ads are banned the only recourse company's have is product placement with a form of celebrity reality stars.

There is core truthiness to this settup, would recommend.