Nebula Awards 24: Sfwa's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 1988

by Bruce Boston, Jane Yolen, Lois McMaster Bujold

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151649324
• ISBN13: 9780151649327
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.13 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Stellar (Nebular?) Collection

This is one of the books written every year to commemorate the nominees and award recipients for the Nebula awards, essentially the Oscars of science fiction. These awards which are chosen every year by the Science Fiction Writers of America seem to do a pretty good job of recognizing the most outstanding contributions of that year. This series was put together to publish some of the shorter fiction that won each year and to also mention some outstanding things that happened that year. For awhile this series was edited by Michael Bishop, and this is one of them, published to recognize the 1988 awards.I bought this book several years back on a bargain table at Borders or Barnes & Nobles. I really love short fiction and I love science fiction, so this is a great combination. I actually had several of these stories already ("Last of the Winnebagos" was printed in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and I had a subscription for awhile), but I decided it would still be interesting to read what others had to say about the works. Anyway, I finally got around to reading it.The anthology starts out with an introduction by Michael Bishop where he essentially explains his philosophy and how he wants to try and recognize all of the works that won awards but also just to emphasize major accomplishments from that year. He also lists the winners and nominees, the winners were:Novel-Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (some controversey surrounded this selection since many considered it a juvenile) Novella-"The Last of the Winnebagos" by Connie Willis Novelette-"Schrodinger's Kitten" by George Alec Effinger Short Story-"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge" by James MorrowIan Watson continues the anthology with a piece that basically summarizes and analyzes each of the pieces nominated, and he mentions his disapproval with the choice of a juvenile for novel. Since the full novel can't be reproduced, Lois McMaster Bujold then talks about Falling Free, and responds to Ian's allegations, basically stating that the novel deals with universal themes and therefore whether or not it is a juvenile is irrelevant. Both of these are interesting in there discussion of science fiction themes but of course somewhat dated and don't seem very relevant nowadays.Ray Bradbury was also immortalized with a Grand Master award (essentially a lifetime achievement award). Greg Bear talks about Ray Bradbury's contributions to the field. This is a very personal look at Ray and not very in-depth but provides a side we usually don't see. Ray himself contributes an original poem, "The Collector Speaks" which is interesting and definitely an example of Ray's style of art. There is also a reprint of Ray's nonfiction piece, "More Than One Way To Burn A Book" which warns about the dangers of censorship in any form. It's something everyone should read at least once.At this point we start to look at some of the winners and nominees. "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen is actually