The New Hugo Winners, Vol. 2 1986-1988

by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Greg Bear (Contributor), Roger Zelazny (Contributor)

An anthology of the best science fiction stories from 1986-1988 includes such topics as post-holocaust survival and friendship

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Collections

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

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 anthology, which was apparently actually edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and "presented" by Isaac Asimov, was the seventh and last volume in the series to appear with Asimov's name on the cover. He did not write notes on the individual years or stories or authors, just a brief general introduction in which he admits that he doesn't know or like much post-1960s science fiction, but he hopes that the reader will. After that depressing beginning, the book collects the Hugo-winning stories from 1986-'88. (The Hugos are the annual achievement awards voted on by the members of the World SF Convention and recognize the most popular choice for the best fiction published in the previous year.) Included in the book are stories by Frederik Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, Ursula K. LeGuin, and two very good ones by Roger Zelazny. My favorites were Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers by Lawrence Watt-Evans and Paladin of the Lost Hour by Harlan Ellison.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The notion of getting Isaac Asimov to introduce these collections must have seemed like a no-brainer: extra kudos and sales! But I'm sure Baen didn't predict an introduction like the one they got here, which is (whatever else it is) pretty entertaining. In summary, Asimov pretty much says 'I haven't read any SF for twenty years. Apparently this modern stuff is very literary and all, but personally I just like the kind of thing we used to write back in the day. Anyway, here are some stories that won the Hugo, and I'm sure they're very good.'

Luckily, they are very good. In fact, it's hard to imagine a collection with a better pedigree. Harlan Ellison, Ursula Le Guin, Roger Zelazny (twice), Robert Silverberg, Greg Bear... even the Orson Scott Card story is from the days when he could still write a decent yarn. (You can tell, because the closeted ultra-religious community in 'Eye for Eye' are actually the bad guys.) There's seriously not a bad story here, showing the strength of the Hugos in the late '80s. '24 Views of Mount Fuji', 'The Paladin of the Lost Hour', 'Tangents', all incredible stories. I have a particular fondness for Silverberg's 'Gilgamesh In The Outback', closet-case Robert E Howard and all.

The stories are presented in year order, then novella-novelette-short story, so the presentation takes care of itself, but I do enjoy how Lawrence Watt-Evan's 'Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers' caps the collection. The selection couldn't have been better on purpose, an excellent commentary on why we read SF.

[Jim Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had this book since it was published in 1991 and made a point to read it this summer, 27 years later. Procrastinator you say? Nah, I’ve been busy.

Of all the stories in this book, I enjoyed the last one best. ‘Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers’ was a fun read and made me think of MIB. But instead of aliens from other planets visiting earth, beings from parallel universes are stopping at a burger joint trying to get back to their homes in their own universes.

I thought it’d make a great TV series. I checked IMDb to see if maybe one had been produce and found that none had.

What I did find was that ‘Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers’ is in development and production rights are owned by Warner Bros. Yes! I can’t wait to see it.

Now, the other stories in this collection were good. A few were a challenge to read. One was just straight up weird.

I’m glad I finally read the book. 27 years later.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of Hugo winners for best Novella, Novellette, and Short Story for the years 1985, 1986, and 1987.

Short story collections, as I've said many times before, are a mixed bag. Award-winning ones can sometimes be better, or sometimes worse, if you just don't match the tastes of the majority, it can be painful to work through. And here, honestly, I don't know what 1985 was thinking, or much of 1986. I round roughly the first half of the collection to be a slog with stories that did virtually nothing for me or just went on too long or both. Each year had at least one story I kinda liked... in 1985 it was Harlan Ellison's "Paladin of the Lost Hour", in 1986 it was Greg Bear's "Tangents" (which was probably the best of the collection as a whole), and in 1987 I liked both Orson Scott Card's "Eye for Eye" and Lawrence Watt-Evans "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers."

The others ranged from 'not my thing but I can see how others might like it' to 'An okay story but I don't see why anyone thought this deserved an award.'

As a whole, I'd rate it a 2, just because some of the longest stories were the ones that were a slog for me.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved all the stories. Good stuff. No filler.

[Deborah Bridges]

Some very interesting stories.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his final association with the Hugo Winners Series, Isaac Asimov presented the 1986-88 winners for best novella, novelette and short story by writing a short essay about the four periods of science fiction writing. According to the master,the 1960s ushered in a period of shifting emphasis towards character development, sex, violence and fantasy worlds not necessarily based upon scientifi9c principles. It was too much for him so he started writing other books and strove to publish one book in each of the major Dewey Decimal System categories. In the late seventies, Asimov returned to writing syfy, but as he says, they were "fifties style books."

Of the nine stories, two, written by Roger Zelazny were not to my taste. After reading one current author's explanation of how the voting works, I wonder how much name recognition matters in these things. The best of the best were written in my opinion by Greg Bear ("Tangents"), Harlan Ellison ("Paladin of the Lost Hour") and Orson Scott Card ("Eye for Eye"). Card was on a roll winning best novel Hugos for "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" during the same three year window. The series of New Hugo winners continued as Asimov passed the torch on to Connie Willis.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

I stumbled across a copy of this in the free books bin. I was hoping it was Volume 3, though, so I tossed it back. This one has a rather odd introduction: it's basically Isaac Asimov saying the SF stories that readers vote for are too highbrow/literary/vulgar for him, so ... he really has nothing to say, so go read the stories.

[Tom Gau · Rating 5 out of 5]

great collection of sci-fi short stories.

Harlan Ellison's Paladin of the Lost Hour is a classic. One of Ellison's best stories.

Robert Silverberg's Gilgamesh in the Outback is wonderful. His writing flows off the page. A real pleasure to read.

My favorite short was Why I Left The All-Night Hamburger Place. Great story about interdimensional travelers. Like a great Twilight Zone episode.

[Steve Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

slightly less impressive crop than the last volume. this covers all the hugo winning short fiction from '86,'87, and '88. The standouts for me were definitely Ellison's "Paladin of the lost hour", and "Tangents" by Greg Bear.

[Michael B Tager · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good. If you like sci-fi, this is a must read. Amazing short stories and novellas from a bunch of great authors (Silverberg, Ellison, leGuin, Card before he became crazy). Every one is worth reading!

[Bruno Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muito bom com histórias interessantes de autores que ainda não tinha lido como Roger Zelazny, Orson Scott-Card e outros. Vale muito a pena ler

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. It's a great way to pass a few days reading. Just skip the first story in the book (or, you know, have more patience than I did with it). Good stuff.

[Katherine]

7/6/92. No library.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could not finish 24 mount fuji and gilamesh