The Hugo Winners, Volume 4: Thirteen Prizewinning Stories 1976 - 1979

The Hugo Winners #4

by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Roger Zelazny (Contributor), Larry Niven (Contributor)

Stories Included: Home is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny; The Borderland of Sol by Larry Niven; Catch that Zeppelin! By Fritz Leiber; By Any Other Name by Spider Robinson; Houston, Houston, Do You Read? By James Tiptree, Jr. ; The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov; Tricentennial by Joe Haldeman; Stardance by Spider and Jeanne Robinson & several others.

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

561 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1985

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 4 out of 5]

This volume collects the short fiction that won Hugo Awards for the best stories of the year in three different length categories as presented at the World SF Conventions from 1976-1979. Isaac Asimov edited the book and provided introductions, as he did the previous volumes. Many people complained that he was too intrusive and egocentric in his comments, but I always found him clever and charming, usually erudite and amusing. Or vice versa. Anyway, the book includes two novellas by Spider Robinson, By Any Other Name and Stardance (written in collaboration with his wife, Jeanne), neither of which, curiously, is a Callahan's story. The first is the first part of his novel Telempath, and Stardance is also better known at novel length. There are two good stories from 1976 that commemorated the U.S. Bicentennial: Tricentennial by Joe Haldeman and The Bicentennial Man by Asimov himself. There's a good Fritz Leiber alternate history (Catch That Zeppelin!), one of my favorite Roger Zelazny novellas (Home is the Hangman), a good Known Space novelette by Larry Niven (The Borderland of Sol), and an excellent James Tiptree, Jr., story (Houston, Houston, Do You Read?) My favorite in the book in Jeffty Is Five, one of Harlan Ellison's best. The other writers include C. J. Cherryh, Poul Anderson, John Varley, and Joan D. Vinge. A book of real winners by definition!

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection with a few strong stories and a couple of duds for me. The Hugos being fan picks are often a mixed bag. Some writers while fan favorites (like Poul Anderson or Fritz Leiber) don't really do much for me. But Isaac Asimov's author/story intros are always entertaining and sometimes informative.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of science Fiction stories from the late 70s. Some probably undeserving of a prize, but thats what you get when you rely on fans to vote.

Others of these entries though are true classics and worthy of reading, they include Zelazny's "Home is the Hangman", Niven's "The Borderland of Sol", Triptree Jr's "Houston, Houston Do you Read", and finally Ellison's "Jeffty is Five".

[Jim Standridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

All great stories, of course. Hugo winners! Asimov is a great host/editor. I like how he talks about the authors and not the stories.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had a subscription to "F&SF" for, oh about thirteen years now, and I LOVE short stories. Occasionally I've purchased a back-issue, and concluded from these that I'm not all that fond of science fiction pre-1980's. Silly girl, it's sci-fi PULP that I don't enjoy so much. The winners of the Hugo awards are ALWAYS good, I don't care what the decade is.

This book surprised the heck out of me, because the stores are good, and by that I mean the stories are fantastic. They never quite go where I expect them to go, and each one of them brings to mind stories that I've read in my "World's Best Science Fiction" collection. Several of these I'd already read before, but they were all worth a re-read.

Only one quibble: Asimov was quite the egotistical bastard, wasn't he? He wrote an intro for each story in this collection, and every one was all Me Me Me, and complaints about getting older and tongue-in-cheek (I hope) comments about what a famous writer he is. I think in the last intro (for C.J. Cherryh's story) he managed to write two pages without mentioning ONE THING about the author, other than the fact that her chosen pen name is designed to get attention. It doesn't detract from the stories, but gee whiz, Isaac, self-centered much?

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a short hiatus, I'm back to indulging in my favorite genre, SF. Now I don't know if it was the short break or if the Hugo 4 pickings were slim, but you know something's off when Isaac Asimov's (lovable lecher--with ego to boot--lovable nonetheless, I don't doubt that) intros for each Hugo winner make for more compelling reading than the submissions. Good thing the stories pick up toward the middle down to the very end...it picks up just as Bicentennial Man enters the picture. Oh well, they can't all be Asimovs...Jeffty is Five is my idea of classic SF though (good one, Mr. Harlan Ellison)!

[Timothy]

(8/13 read)

13 stories:

**** Home Is the Hangman (1975) • Roger Zelazny
The Borderland of Sol (1975) • Larry Niven
** Catch That Zeppelin! (1975) • Fritz Leiber
By Any Other Name (1976) • Spider Robinson
***** Houston, Houston, Do You Read? (1976) • James Tiptree, Jr.
*** The Bicentennial Man (1976) • Isaac Asimov
**** Tricentennial (1976) • Joe Haldeman
*** Stardance (1977) • Jeanne and Spider Robinson
Eyes of Amber (1977) • Joan D. Vinge
** Jeffty Is Five (1977) • Harlan Ellison
**** The Persistence of Vision (1978) • John Varley
Hunter's Moon (1978) • Poul Anderson
Cassandra (1978) • C. J. Cherryh

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume, edited by the legendary Isaac Asimov, reproduces the Hugo Award winning works from 1976-1979.

Among the authors whose work is represented here: Roger Zelazny, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, James Tiptree, Isaac Asimov, Joe Haldeman, Harlan Ellison (with his terrific "Jeffty is five"), Poul Anderson, J. J. Cherryh, among others.

This is really a greatest hits work, with plenty of top notch stories represented. . . .

[Steve Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

another fun volume but seemingly fewer true classics from this batch. I really enjoyed Varley's Persistence of Vision about a commune of deaf and blind people and Ellison's Jeffty is Five.

[Katrin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to love science fiction 40 years ago and have Hugo Winners vols 1, 2, and 3. However, scifi from 1975 just isn't interesting any more! Just wanted to go back and see...
K.

[Frank Palardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these were better than others. I forgot how good Asimov is. I wasn't familiar with some of them. It's worth it just for that.

[Lori Nemitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read between January and June 1986.

Original notes on book from 1986: Good! Lots of short stories 1976 - 1979. Science fiction.