Nebula Award Stories 4

Nebula Awards Showcases #4

by Poul Anderson (Editor), Richard Wilson (Contributor), Terry Carr (Contributor)

Book by Poul anderson

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

229 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]

Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.


Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Science Fiction Writers of America used to publish an annual volume that collected the winners of their short fiction Nebula Awards along with some of the runners-up and notes and commentary about the previous year and state of the field. There was a different editor each year, and this fourth annual volume from 1969, which included the 1968 winners, was edited by Poul Anderson. It was one of the most controversial of the series, because Anderson presented a remarkably negative attitude and conservative viewpoint for a genre that seemed predicated on welcoming change; the field was very divided on topics such as the Viet Nam War and the New Wave movement, and Anderson made his opinions quite blunt. The stories themselves, which had been chosen by vote of the membership obviously, are quite good. The three winners are Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider for novella (though I would have voted for Robert Silverberg's Nightwings, which isn't included), Richard Wilson's Mother to the World for novelette (I would have given the nod to Barry Malzberg's Final War, which appeared as by K. M. O'Donnell; it's not here either, though James E. Gunn's excellent The Listeners is), and the winning short story was a very good one by Kate Wilhelm, The Planners. (My favorite in that category was The Dance of the Changer and the Three by Terry Carr, which Anderson does include, as well as another runner-up, Sword Game by H.H. Hollis, which I honestly don't remember at all.) So, enjoyable for a handful of stories and interesting for the historical perspective and context.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a paperback edition of a December 1969 hardback edition. This features three of the 1968 Nebula Awards winners plus three runners-up in the Novella, Novelette and Short Story categories. The novel winner, Alexei Panshin's "Rite of Passage" I read in October 2012. It is a book in itself and not included.

This book is a time machine back to 1968-1969. In addition to the stories there is long introduction by Poul Anderson that acknowledges the new wave has been upon them but rambles a bit and includes a rather controversial defense of the old guard. Anderson took some flak for it and apparently later apologized that he had gone too far with his remark that science fiction was more interested in things other "than in the neuroses of some sniveling fagot."

There is a very lengthy foreword by college English professor Willis E. McNelly "The Science Fiction Novel of 1968" that discusses the major novels of the year including the winner by Panshin, which underwhelmed him compared to others he thought more deserving, but is also a detailed commentary on the state of the genre and writers. At the end of the collection is a lengthy "In Memorium" section where important writers and editors who had passed on in the preceding year+ are remembered by a wide variety of people.

The stories here are mixed; I expected better. The contents are as follows (adapted from ISFDB):

vii • Introduction (Nebula Award Stories 4) • (1969) • essay by Poul Anderson
• xiii • Foreword: The Science Fiction Novel in 1968 • (1969) • essay by Willis E. McNelly
• 1 • Mother to the World • (1968) • novelette by Richard Wilson (Hugo nominee and Nebula winner)
• 38 • The Dance of the Changer and the Three • (1968) • shortstory by Terry Carr (Hugo and Nebula nominee)
• 53 • The Planners • (1968) • shortstory by Kate Wilhelm (Nebula winner)
• 68 • Sword Game • (1968) • shortstory by H. H. Hollis (Nebula nominee)
• 77 • The Listeners • (1968) • novelette by James E. Gunn (Nebula nominee)
• 105 • Dragonrider • (1967) • novella by Anne McCaffrey (Hugo nominee and Nebula winner)
• 219 • In Memoriam essay by Poul Anderson
• 219 • In Memoriam - Anthony Boucher • (1969) • essay by J. Francis McComas
• 220 • In Memoriam - Rosel George Brown • (1969) • essay by Daniel F. Galouye
• 221 • In Memoriam - Bernard I. Kahn • (1969) • essay by by John W. Campbell
• 221 • In Memoriam - Groff Conklin • (1969) • essay by Isaac Asimov
• 222 • In Memoriam - Anna Kavan • (1969) • essay by Brian W. Aldiss
• 223 • In Memoriam - Gerald Kersh • (1969) • essay by Harlan Ellison
• 224 • In Memoriam - Edison Marshall • (1969) • essay by Alva Rogers
• 224 • In Memoriam - Frank Owen • (1969) • essay by Emil Petaja
• 225 • In Memoriam - Mervyn Peake • (1969) • essay by Michael Moorcock
• 225 • In Memoriam - Stuart Palmer • (1969) • essay by Karen Anderson
• 226 • In Memoriam - Arthur Sellings • (1969) • essay by John Carnell (as by Ted Carnell)
• 227 • In Memoriam - A. A. Wyn • (1969) • essay by Donald A. Wollheim
• 227 • In Memoriam - Harl Vincent • (1969) • essay by Forrest J. Ackerman

The first story here, Richard Wilson's "Mother to the World" ended up being one of the better, and maybe best story in this collection. One of those last man and woman on earth stories, but an interesting one. Terry Carr's "The Dance of the Changer and the Three" is very good at giving us some alien aliens. Gunn's "The Listeners" is also pretty good at capturing a small moment of a SETI project. "The Planners," the short story by Kate Wilhelm unimpressed me. Moody new wave type - it didn't seem the least bit special. Hollis's "Sword Game" was trying very hard to be hip and relevant to the 60's. It does have a clever construct, but ugh, It has not aged well. McCaffrey's Dragonrider takes up fully half the book. It and the novella "Weyr Search" would be joined together to create the novel "Dragonflight" the first in the long running Dragonriders of Pern series. This is a mixture of fantasy and science fiction. I can't say that I enjoyed it like I knew I did when I first read this forty or so years ago, but it was OK. A good example for me of the memory of something being better than the actual upon revisiting.

[Perry Middlemiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fourth in this ongoing series of short sf anthologies for the Science Fiction Writers of America, features works from 1968, specifically stories that either won or were nominated for the Nebula Award. Major and longest featured work is Dragonriders by Anne McCaffrey which won the Best Novella Nebula. I’m not a fan of this series as it features a setup that, to me, is blatantly one thing while trying to convince you it is something else, and not succeeding. Also included is “Mother to the World” by Richard Powers (Best Novelette) which I thought a really poor and predictable end-of-the-world scenario, and the Short Story winner, “The Planners” by Kate Wilhelm, which I did like. Only one out of three winners is not a good start. These stories are backed up with a novelette, “The Listeners” by James Gunn, which is much better that the novelette award winner, and two short stories “The Dance of the Changer and the Three” by Terry Carr, okay, and “Sword Game” by H. H. Hollis, not so good. We are never going to know why certain other stories were not chosen – anything by Delany who was at the top of his form in short fiction at that time; “Masks” by Damon Knight; or “Hawksbill Station” by Robert Silverberg – and we can only lament a missed opportunity. R: 2.4/5.0

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

6 stories:

*** Mother to the World (1968) • Richard Wilson
**** The Dance of the Changer and the Three (1968) • Terry Carr
**** The Planners (1968) • Kate Wilhelm
**** Sword Game (1968) • H. H. Hollis
** The Listeners (1968) • James E. Gunn
**** Dragonrider (1967) • Anne McCaffrey