The New Hugo Winners 1983-1985

by Isaac Asimov, Octavia E. Butler, Connie Willis

Contents:

Souls / Joanna Russ --
Fire watch / Connie Willis --
Melancholy elephants / Spider Robinson --
Cascade point / Timothy Zahn --
Blood music / Greg Bear --
Speech sounds / Octavia e. butler --
Press enter / John Varley --
Blood child / Octavia e. Butler --
The crystal spheres / David Brin

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

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

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 3 out of 5]

This is the sixth anthology of Hugo Award winning short science fiction as voted on by members of the World SF conventions that Asimov presented. The first five, numbered, volumes were published by Doubleday, but they elected to discontinue the series and this one was published by Wynwood, a press unknown by the genre. The cover they chose looks like leftover wrapping paper from a tie your distant uncle might give you for Christmas, and this is the only book in the series they printed. Asimov's notes indicate that he was happy with the idea of stopping but was convinced by Martin H. Greenberg to keep going as a partnership. Asimov seemed to be less familiar with the newer works and writers, and less fond of them in general, but he soldiered on in his usual brash, egotistical, amusing fashion. The winning stories from three years are again presented, 1983 through 1985. The authors include David Brin, Octavia E. Butler (twice), John Varley, Greg Bear, Timothy Zahn, Spider Robinson, Connie Willis (my favorite of the book, Fire Watch), and Joanna Russ (whose story Souls appeared in F & SF magazine, whereas all of the others were from Analog or Asimov's). The writers, styles, and themes all highlighted how much the field had changed from the early Hugo years, but I still enjoyed most of the stories.

[Cheryl]

Many of these I am familiar with from elsewhere, so it was pretty easy to get this off my shelf. Press Enter had some interesting aspects so I guess I'll check again to see if there's anything else by John Varley I'd like to consider reading, but that's about it.

[Naori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I cannot help but desire and gravitate towards all things Octavia Butler, in this collection from 1985 she published a version of the short story “Speech Sounds”, as well as “Bloodchild”, the titled short story to the collection we know today. Yes, both of these stories are scrumptious. (This high rating is based on Butler’s influences in the collection - without that that it would be a solid 2.5).

The rest of the anthology is a bit meh, but it is mostly just beige because it can’t stand up to creativity and singularity with which Butler writes at. If she was excised from the collection and it was left to stand alone it would have read completely differently, and probably would’ve garnished a higher score, keeping in mind the date/social politics it was being published under. Still, praise girl, praise.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still enjoying these collections, still marveling at Asimov's ego. His introductions are a little better than they were in the original Hugo series, with *slightly* more emphasis on the authors and the stories themselves. But Isaac still has that self-deprecating-but-not-really tone that says (to me, anyway) "I'm going to play up how egotistical I am to distract people from how egotistical I am." Don't get me wrong, the man had a LOT to be supremely proud of. But still, four of these books later and the tone wears a little thin.

The stories? Oh yes, the stories. Very good, very interesting. "Cascade Point" by Timothy Zahn was one of the best hard-sci-fi stories I've read, although like most really good sci-fi it isn't so much the science that's fascinating, it's the effect the science has on the characters. "Blood Music" by Greg Bear is a horrifying little story about an alien takeover. And "Press Enter" by Varley was, and is, one of my favorite stories in any genre. I've read it SEVERAL times before, and it still gives me shudders. It kind of overwhelms the rest of the stories in the collection, not that I'm complaining.

[LindaJ^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isaac Asimov introduces each of the 4 short story winners from 1983, 1984, and 1985. The introductions are interesting and the stories are uniformly excellent. I was familiar with most of the authors (e.g., Connie Willis, Octavia Butler, David Brin) and like them, so was not surprised at the quality of the short stories. I had only read one of the before, so it was a real treat!

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best sci fi collection I've read, but still pretty entertaining. The best titles in this collection are 24 Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai (by Roger Zelazny); Gilgamesh in the Outback (by Robert Silverberg); Tangents (by Greg Bear); Eye for Eye (by Orson Scott Card); and my favorite, Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight (by Ursula K. Le Guin). I'd give this book 3 1/2 stars if I could.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this specifically so I could read Fire Watch by Connie Willis, and then I just kinda read the ones I was interested in.

I have Souls by Joanna Russ in a little double paperback with "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" So I skipped that for now.

Fire Watch was wonderful, and well worth buying the book. The end is so heartwarming. I was glad I'd read Doomsday Book first so I knew who Kivrin and Dunwoody were, and what happened on Kivrin's practicum. 5 stars.

Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson - I've read nd enjoyed the first Callahan book so I gave this a shot. He convinced me with his argument that humans are "discoverers" rather than creators and that perpetual copyright is a bad idea. 4 stars.

Cascade Point by Timothy Zahn - I will read anything of his. I found this story engaging although I didn't understand a lot of the heavier science bits. 3 stars.

Press Enter by John Varley - My first experience with Varley. Will I look for more of his work? I dunno. I was intrigued by the premise. I was kinda put off by the outdated and racist terminology used to describe the Vietnamese programmer. She was some, I'm guessing, pretty rare rep of a Vietnamese immigrant who had a lot to say about the war, her experiences in and because of it, her experiences with (and feeling) racism as a product of wartime atrocity.... all of this shaped an interesting character but seemed kind of extraneous to the plotline of the actual murder mystery. Same with the protagonist's experiences in Korea. There was a lot said here that was important stuff, but then the main story was sort of thrown on top. The computer/murder story was interesting, but there could easily have been two separate short stories made out of this. It made the end that much worse to have spent so much time developing a fascinating character for.... that ending. It just seems a shame.

I liked this collection, and if I see other volumes of these Hugo Winner anthologies, I'll probably pick them up.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

someone close to me asked me to read this for the story cascade point, which probably was the best story in there, although octavia butler's bloodchild was really good too. it was nice to read connie willis' firewatch, having read a couple of her time travel novels with overlapping characters. there were only a couple out of the nine I didn't really care for and they were still well-written. I'm not much of a short story person but sci-fi makes it better. isaac asimov wrote short little blurbs plus an introduction. these are random, at times he says something horrible like how he wishes he met an author because she is tall and he likes to look at statuesque women. that's the early 80s for you though.

[Hadas Sloin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fashionably late, I enjoyed this collection. Not all of the stories were great, but they were all at least interesting. My favorite is definitely"Blood music", which is now one of my favorite short stories of all times, with "Press enter" being close second.

[Thomas Bloodgood jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. Timothy Zahn, Octavia Butler, and Spider Robinson are all great, but the predictions of John Varley are so close to the reality of today with the interconnected world we live in now you would think he was a time traveler.

[Norman Weatherly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am generally a fan of Mr. Asimov and his collections of stories but I felt this one fell a bit below what I have come to expect from him. A few good stories, but more not-so-good ones, IMHO.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up in LA for a dollar which is pretty good going even if the covers did break off soon after reading (it's a pretty old copy). Some of the listed details here are slightly wrong as the book itself says this is the fourth collection rather than the first, but the contents are the same.

I don't often read science fiction (though I have read the novel length Blood Music contained here) but after reading this collection of the Hugo winners (for novella, novellete and short story from 1983-1985) I'm more keen. The stories range over a variety of topics, from the fantastical to the hard science variety. They're for the most part interesting and worth reading with some great concepts and fun characters. It's amusing how quickly some things have changed from the early 80s, in particular the computer/evil internet story 'Press Enter' foreshadowing what is now part of everyday life.

Hard to argue for a dollar.

[Steve Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

and that takes my hugo short fiction reading up to 1985! This volume covers th 1983, 84, and 85 short fiction novellas, novellettes, and short stories. The novellettes were the strongest with all 3 winner being great (Connie Willis' "Fire Watch", Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild", Greg Bear's Blood Music"). Brin's short story "The Crystal Spheres" is a really interesting answer to why we haven't found any aliens yet. The novellas were a little disappointing although Varley's "Press Enter" had interesting characters.

[Mario · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of stories. Nothing life-changing (or even especially memorable), but sometimes you just want a little harmless distraction. I though Cascade Point was one of the more engaging stories, Blood Child and The Crystal Spheres were both solid worlds I would have happily read more about, but were each a little too short as is.

[Bruno Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tem algumas histórias interessantes como a confirmação de Jack Vance como um fantástico contador de histórias, mas depois não é consistente no conjunto global de histórias como o vol 2. De qualquer maneira uma leitura interessante

[L H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains a favorite short story: Souls, by Joanna Russ.

[Katherine]

8/23/91. No library.