Amph The Hugo Awards By Year: 1962--Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

A Thread for the well read - We're going to go through the Novels, Novellas, Novelettes, and Short Stories that have won the prestigous Hugo Award. We'll go year by year.
Some of these I'm familiar with, some I'm not, so hopefully some people will be able to fill in the gaps.

The full list is here: http://www.hugo.org/hy.html

To start off with, going back to 1946, of which were awarded in the year 1996.

Novel: The Mule by Isaac Asimov
Novella: "Animal Farm" by George Orwell
Novelette: "First Contact" by Murray Leinster
Short Story: "Uncommon Sense" by Hal Clement

I've read both Animal Farm and First Contact.

Animal Farm is a fantastic little book about a group of animals who take over the farm, but corruption sets in with the pigs, and everything goes downhill from there. It's a wonderful satire on humans and society.

First Contact is one of my favorite short stories, taken right down to the basics. Two ships, one human, one alien comes across each other. Thus, they're in a fix. They can try and run away, but neither are sure of the other's intentions, and they could be destroyed by the other while fleeing. They could open up talks, but they can't talk to each other, and they're not sure if they should let each other on the other's ship. Basically, both sides are terrified of the other, for exactly the same reasons. Are these guys going to follow us home and take over our planet? It's a great story on how first contact will probably be, and some things to be taken into consideration, and about what we are. The ending, basically, each side swaps ships, after making sure that the other can't follow the other back, destroying data and maps, and returning home in each other's ship.

 

Nice.

The Mule, if I remember correctly, was a part of Asimov's Foundation series-- which is the only place I've read it, of course, collected into one of the books. And interesting twist and departure from much of the series, I would say, showing how people can be decieved and even the best laid plans can not always go as you want. As opposed to the idea that the direction of a large society can be predicted-- ie, psychohistory.

 

Interesting, I didn't make the connection there, because the Mule is one of the characters that breaks down the carefully laid plans in Foundation.

 

Ah, i didn't recognize the Mule, but if it's in the Foundation series, that's why. I've read a lot of Asimov, I really should go read the Foundation series!!

EDIT: neat idea for a thread Pm me anytime you want the title changed!

 

I don't trust the honesty of the awards, any award. Not after Heirs of Earth and Geodescia Ascent were Aurealis finalists. How do you know these American ones are any better? I've undertaken some private reearch into this. I'll see what I can dig out.

 

Just because the nominees might be from another country, that doesn't mean that they're better than any other books based on nationality.

 

The eariler awards actually cheated, like Star Wars. It was the first sci fi movie to have such effects; naturally it became duracreted into people's hearts. Same for the older novelists, when such books were not widely available, and society's tech was failry primative, the space race rockets not withstanding. Had their books been published now, today, I don't think they'd be given a passing thought more than anyone else. Tolky, Donaldson, and other old veterans. They were the . . . colonisers, so to speak.

 

Let's stick with the books and stories for this year. We've got a similar thread in Movies/TV for that.

 

I was contrasting and exampling why those early-bird winners made the lists. When you are the first on a mainstream market, with little or no competitors, you will be specially remembered to heart. I then went on to say would Donaldson etal be anything special now, if published last year?

Winning a finalist cadre is politically intriguing.

 

I'm sure that they were looking at the best from the time. Things change with time and the awards aren't indicitive to stories that are going necessarily compare to stories of today.

Moving on, skipping a couple years to 1951:

Awarded in 2001:
Novel: Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
Novella: "The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert A. Heinlein
Novelette: "The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth
Short Story: "To Serve Man" by Damon Knight

The only one that I've read out of these was The Little Black Bag, but I can't remember much about it.

 

I have read some Robert A. Heinlein stuff, but not either of those books. Maybe I'll have to check those out now!

 

I've heard of the second Heinlin thing, but haven't read it.

 

OK:I will cite To Serve Man, first.This was done on the Twilight Zone.Had the same ending.I won't reveal it .Think about the word serve.Man who sold the moon is about D.D. Harriman and his effort to get space travel going.Heinlein did a sequel called Requiem.Both IMO should be read in order- The man who.. first and then the sequel.

 

Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth was done on Night Gallery.It is about a down and out doctor who finds a medical kit from the future.A bad bum joins up with him and both work the bag.Bad end comes to the bum.In the story the second person was a young teenage girl.

 

Okay, moving on to the next award year, 1953. Only one lit award was granted, and that was for a novel:

Novel: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

I haven't read this book, but I have read Alfred Bester's stories, and they are extremely good.

 

Now that's a book I've never even heard of! Here's amazon's review:

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In a world policed by telepaths, Ben Reich plans to commit a crime that hasn't been heard of in 70 years: murder. That's the only option left for Reich, whose company is losing a 10-year death struggle with rival D'Courtney Enterprises. Terrorized in his dreams by The Man With No Face and driven to the edge after D'Courtney refuses a merger offer, Reich murders his rival and bribes a high-ranking telepath to help him cover his tracks. But while police prefect Lincoln Powell knows Reich is guilty, his telepath's knowledge is a far cry from admissible evidence.

Sounds pretty interesting though!

 

Does sound very interesting. I'm afraid that I haven't read a lot of the really old stuff, but some of the Hugos that are coming up, I have.

 

Short Story: "To Serve Man" by Damon Knight

I've read that, a long time ago, in some anthology, I think. The ending's stayed with me ever since, so it must have been at least some good . . .

 

Do you remember what it's about?

 

Moving ahead to 1954, presented in 2004.

Novel: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Novella: "A Case of Conscience" by James Blish
Novelette: "Earthman, Come Home" by James Blish
Short Story: "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
Related Book: Conquest of the Moon by Wernher von Braun, Fred L. Wipple, and Willey Ley

I actually have read some of these. Fahrenheit 451 is one of my all time favorite books. I read it for an english class and was hooked on Ray Bradbury's stuff afterwords. The book is so deep and very eligant. Definently deserces to be on this list.

I don't remember if I've read the novella or the novelette, but I have read the short story, The Nine Billion Names of God. This one is amazing. Really makes you question what we're doing here in the universe, and it's really led to some changes in the way that I think of things. Also a great one.

Related book, I haven't read, but it looks interesting.

 

Yay, Fahrenheit 451. I read this is HS, and it was one of the few i enjoed reading despite having teachers pick it apart. I also read it in college for a poly sci class, and i enjoyed it even more the second time around. Guy is such an interesting character. I just love the plot.

I haven't read the Nince Billion Names of God, but I have read a bunch of other short stories by Arthur C. Clarke. They were fascinating, really thought provoking. I should read more

 

It's well worth reading. A true classic.

 

Re To Serve Man: As far as I remember, it concerns a group of aliens arriving at Earth. They make various incredible gifts to the human race (including I think some kind of inexhaustible clean energy source) and eventually invite a human deputation to come back and visit their home.

During the later stages of this, a couple of scientists sceptical of these altruistic aliens have been working feverishly to translate a text one of the alien visitors accidentally dropped.

They crack the translation hours after the human deputation have left for the alien world, and find out . . . something.

No spoilers, but take another look at the title and think of colons . . .

Novel: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I'm doing F451 for my English Lit coursework, and I'm convinced it's not as well known as it should be. A masterpiece. I agree with your assessment of "a true classic" - it genuinely is, if only for the prescience of Bradbury's future America. Ever more vicious entertainment? All-pervading advertising? Little white things that plug into your ears and deliver a constant stream of music and chatter? It's a frighteningly short jump from looking at the world as is to looking at Bradbury's hallucinatory hell.

On top of that, it's written in a style that comes closer to poetry than prose in a lot of places. I'm not sure I've read anything else of Bradbury's, so don't know if it's his usual style, but it works perfectly.

I love Fahrenheit 451.

 

451 is pretty well known. A lot of people have read it, and it's still widely regarded as a classic.

 

A lot of people have read it, and it's still widely regarded as a classic.

Ideally, this should be "everyone" and "universally"