I was just reading Evelyn Leeper’s ConFiction report. This is a little late of me, I admit, as ConFiction happened in 1990, and I couldn’t be there (though I had a supporting membership) because I was much too pregnant at the time, and I didn’t want Sasha to be born Dutch. Reading it, I noticed a report on a couple of panels, one on books that should have been nominated for the Hugo (in 1990) and one on books the panel felt would be remembered as classics from that time. The problem we usually have with arguing about what won awards is that we’re too close to them, or else too far away. 1990 is long enough ago that we should have some perspective, and with these lists, we also have the perspective of the people who were there. Looking at the lists, I thought it was interesting what I did remember. Also, I have a control. Sasha, who was born in October 1990, is now eighteen. He reads SF.
I’m just going to talk about novels here. The actual Hugo nominees for 1990 were (thanks to the wonderful Locus Awards database):
Dan Simmons, Hyperion
Poul Anderson, The Boat of a Million Years
George Alec Effinger, A Fire in the Sun
Sheri S. Tepper, Grass
Orson Scott Card, Prentice Alvin
All five of them are in print right now. I have read all of them, which isn’t even faintly surprising because I voted in the Hugos that year, but I’m pretty sure I’d have read all of them anyway. I haven’t reviewed any of them here, but three of them are on my “regular re-read” list which means they’ll likely get reviewed here eventually. Sasha hasn’t read any of them, but he has heard of Hyperion and read other work by Anderson and Card.
First, the books the panel thought would be classics. Not all of these were published in 1990.
Stephen Baxter, Raft
Greg Bear, Blood Music
Greg Bear, Queen of Angels
Terry Bisson, Voyage to the Red Planet
David Brin, Earth
Joe Haldeman, Buying Time
Dan Simmons, Hyperion
Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix
Sheri Tepper, Raising the Stones
Jack Womack, Terraplane
Of these, I’ve read all of them but Raft but reviewed none of them here, and except for Hyperion I’m not likely to. (I’d like to read Voyage to the Red Planet again but I read it from the library in the first place and I’ve never seen it since.)
Sasha has read none of them but Terraplane, which he feels should totally have won the Hugo. It may be some compensation that it’s still in print. He has heard of Earth, which is in print. Schismatrix is also in print. Blood Music is in print as an e-book None of the rest of this list are in print. Are they classics? Well, some of them are. I’d say that Schismatrix and Blood Music are part of the SF “canon.” Others are completely forgotten—Voyage to the Red Planet was a fun piece of fluff. I love Bisson, but classic? And I remember Buying Time, but what I remember is the nifty concept, not the characters or the story—I don’t think most people would list it with Haldeman’s best work.
This list is the things the panel thought should have been nominated for the Hugo:
Gregory Benford, Tides of Light
Ben Bova, Cyberbooks
Octavia Butler, Imago
Jacques Brussard, Les Eaux de Feu*
C.J, Cherryh, Rimrunners
Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee, Rama II
Lisa Goldstein, Tourists
Joe Haldeman, Buying Time
Michael Kandel, Strange Invasion
Pat Murphy, The City, Not Long After
Tim Powers, The Stress of Her Regard
Dan Simmons, Carrion Comfort
Dan Simmons, Phases of Gravity
Walter Jon Williams, Angel Station
Robert Charles Wilson, Gypsies
I can’t find a Jacques Brussard at all, and if it’s Jacques Brossard, the book’s called Les Oiseaux de Feu, but since this is done from notes taken at a panel, I think that’s a likely mistake. I also think it’s cool there was a book in French on the list at all, though at a con in the Netherlands it’s perhaps surprising that there’s only one non-English title mentioned.
This list has a lot more I haven’t read—the Benford and the Bova, though I have read other books by both of them. I haven’t read the Brossard, or Rama II, or Strange Invasion or Carrion Comfort. But in compensation (finally!) we get a couple I have already reviewed here, Tourists and Rimrunners. Of this list, Sasha has read only Rimrunners, but he’s read other books by Robert Charles Wilson (and comments “Was he already writing way back then?”) ,Walter Jon Williams, Tim Powers, and Arthur C. Clarke.
Imago is in print—it’s book three of Lilith’s Brood, which is definitely on my list of things to re-read before long. Rama II and The Stress of Her Regard are in print, The City Not Long After is available as an audiobook and Phases of Gravity, which is also on my imaginary list, is available as an e-book. The rest of these are out of print. Being in print isn’t necessarily a sign of quality, but remaining in print for twenty years, or being brought back into print is a sign of people continuing to want a book.
It’s hard when you look at the five nominees against these long lists. There are certainly arguments one could make—Tourists instead of Grass! Imago instead of Prentice Alvin! But while you can certainly play that kind of game, but there’s no denying that the five nominees are books that have stood the test of time, and a lot of the books on the long lists are not.
I looked at the Locus list of other awards for 1990.
Nebula: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s The Healer’s War. I haven’t read it, neither has Sasha. It isn’t in print. It was published in 1988 because of the Nebula weirdness, so that may explain why it isn’t on anyone’s list.
World Fantasy: Jack Vance’s Lyonesse: Madouc. Neither of us have read it, but that’s because I have a big gap around Vance. It’s in print as an e-book.
Stoker: Dan Simmons’s Carrion Comfort. Already mentioned.
Clarke and Campbell Memorial: Geoff Ryman’s The Child Garden. I’ve read it, Sasha’s read it, it’s on my list, it’s not in print. It’s a masterpiece, and it’s the first thing I’ve thought really should have been inarguably on the Hugo ballot. How could the Hugo voters and the panelists have overlooked this?
Locus Awards: SF: Hyperion; Fantasy: Prentice Alvin; Horror: Carrion Comfort.
I voted for Hyperion, nineteen years ago. It blew me away. I definitely thought it was the best book of the year. And while there are a lot of other books on these lists that I like, and even some I consider classics, I still think it was the best book of the year. So, for 1990 I can cheerfully conclude that the right book won.
This year? Did you know you can get a free download of all the nominees if you’re a member of Anticipation, and a supporting membership only costs $55? A supporting membership is what I had for ConFiction. But I’ll be attending Anticipation. And so will Sasha, who says he’d have liked to have been Dutch.
Well, Queen of Angels is on my frequent re-read list…. 1990 was a rough and near-bookless year for me, so I suppose I can forgive myself for never having heard of the Hugo nominated works for that year. Color me bemused.
Carrion Comfort is one of Simmons’ finest, at least as good as Hyperion, and significantly less of a fight to get through — the pages fly! A lot of Simmons can be characterized as mash-ups of other authors (in a good way, but sometimes I think Simmons likes his pastiches a bit too much), and CC probably falls as a Dean Koontz vampire novel (I’m not sure whose style vampire novel, but Koontz doesn’t write them, and it’s certainly not a King, Hamilton, or Rice). Deserving a Hugo nom? No, it’s not SF enough, and especially with Hyperion on there, it wasn’t going on the short list (heck of a year for Dan, though).
I’d be very interested to see what a “should have been nominated” list like this from several decades ago would look like. I suspect we’d see many more books on it that nobody remembers the further back we go.
One question, of course, is whether being nominated or winning the award is itself what grants a book some or all of its longevity.
The Stress of Her Regard is one of the best of Power’s works (and I constantly debate with myself which is better, Stress or Declare). I just received my nice, brand new trade paperback edition from Tachyon. If anyone out there hasn’t read it, you should, and if you are a fan of Byron, Shelley or Keats, it is a must read!
As far as 1990 goes, it was a mediocre year; IMNSHO only four of the novels JW lists really belong on any list of “award-worthy” novels. There’s a difference, to me, between “good” and “award-worthy,” and 1990 (and 1994) epitomize that difference. But then, I’m a cynical, sarcastic SOB who spent too much time in literary studies.
Perhaps what this points out more than anything else is that the awards calendar doesn’t match up well with reality. Bluntly, nominating works that are still working their way into bookstores and library hold lists is counterproductive; nominations should only open a few months after the end of the eligibility period, so that readers are not nominating based on first impressions. That’s one of the several reasons I’m in favor of juried nominations.
Sterling’s Schismatrix is in print, in an expanded form that includes related short stories, in the volume titled Schismatrix Plus.
Hyperion and its sequels are some of my favorite SF books. I think it deserved the Hugo without a doubt.
Joel Finkle: I’m sure Carrion Comfort is excellent, I still won’t be reading it. I don’t enjoy horror, and Hyperion is closer to horror than I usually go. You’re right though, what a great year for Simmons.
F Coppersmith: Yes, I’d be interested too. If I come across one, I’ll let you know.
Charlie Fog: I linked to Schismatrix Plus and I noted that it was in print.
One small correction: this year’s Hugo packet is the largest one yet, and while all the nominees in several categories are represented, it doesn’t include Anathem.
JoelFinkle says “No, it’s not SF enough”
Nothing in the Hugo rules says a work has to be SF “enough”. Merely that it needs to be science fiction or fantasy. What makes is SF or fantasy? If enough voters believe it to be in one of those categories (and some people see horror as a subset of fantasy), then most likely, the Hugo administrators would likely have followed their will.
@Jaws: I disagree. If you want a juried award, look at the Nebulas or the World Fantasy. Nominations are not there for a single person to pick the five nominees, they are there to allow all WSFS members to say “here are five works I’ve read that I think are worthy” from those lists, the administrators take the five most popular ones and voila! you have nominees. With enough nominators, there is no need for all of them to read every book that came out in a given year to decide which ones they preferred.
I remember reading Bova’s Cyberbooks when it came out. It was a fun read at the time and from what I remember he certainly hit the nail on the head with big publisher’s reactions to e-books, the way manufacturers would want to keep them proprietary, etc. Like much SF by Bova some of the details are off (20/20 hindsight gives us an unfair advantage over the author), but the gist of his predictions is amazingly accurate.
I agree that several decades is what we would need I really don’t think you CAN be to far away for a look back to see what should have won to be bad, to be a classic in my eyes something has to have survived 30 or forty years and have people still talk about it. SF classics are things like Jules Vern and Asimov. Heard of Hyperion never read it read the second Ranma book, was good was to bad the series ended terribly. Earth was the other one I have read and the only one I think should have been on the ballot. Earth was extrodinary and I think it started the whole idea of the gaia hypothesis didn’t it? I also think his vision of the future was very well made and believable.
Wow, 1990? It would have likely been the next year that Earth was released on paperback, I remember it was a new book on the shelf at the book store and I bought it because it was written by the same guy who did star tide rising. I would have been around 13 at the time I bought the book and probably because of that, it’s held a special place in my heart. I’ve never reread it, but then again, I don’t usually reread books.
I remember things like cryptographic systems in the open using spam messages because using encryption was just a way to attract attention to your communications. I remember armed environmentalists, singularities and a very strong Frankenstein feel to the whole thing (since the book begins after locals in a south american? village stormed one of the main character’s facilities because he was working on a way to harness singularities to generate power. Their attack caused the containment on the singularity to fail and the singularity tumbles into the planet).
I was actually talking to a friend about the book about a week or so back. Time has obviously blurred my memory of the novel, but I do remember it being very difficult to keep track of initially because of the huge numbers of characters. There were also a lot of secondary threads that didn’t really have much to do with the main plot, but introduced you to more of the society.
I fondly remember the story thread with the teenager (a sun cultist IIRC) and the old man. The details, as with the rest of the book, are fuzzy, but the whole thread seemed to be a demonstration of Brin’s essay on the Transparent Society. Basically about how when technology reach a certain point, privacy will be impossible. What he describes reminds me a lot of twitter and facebook these days and how betrayed the young man feels once he realizes the old man had so thoroughly violated his privacy.
In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, that’s why the book has stuck with me. It had a lot of interesting ideas of about where we as a people were headed (oh and incidentally the planet is going to be swallowed up by a black hole) and how technology would change (and not change) who we are as humans. A lot of the technologies he had described have come to past and I suspect the weird alien feel of this future world has lessened because of it. I’m kind of curious who the descriptions of the future internet have held up over the last 18/19 years.
Hmm, I might actually have to reread a novel. Thanks!
Carrion Comfort is definitely horror rather than SF, although I do guess the genres mix a bit, but it’s a great book. And interestingly, amazon is showing a reprint coming in November.
Looking back, that was a good year, I’d read all of the nominees except Grass. I’d read about half of the other ones listed.
1991 also holds up well, with the nominees being:
The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
Earth by David Brin
The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Quiet Pools by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
Queen of Angels by Greg Bear
I read 3 of the 5 at the time, and read the fourth afterwards, with the Quiet Pools being the only one I don’t recall.
1989, in my opinion, does not hold up as well.
Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
I read Cyteen and the two cyberpunk entries at the time, and the other two later, but I don’t happen to think that any of the 5 are amonth the authors best work, and in particular the last two I didn’t care for much at all. Now, I don’t know what else was published that year, but I have to think there had to be some stuff that was better.
BlueJo: Carrion Comfort is a fine book, mostly because it turns more than a few horror conventions (particularly Steven King everyman-as-hero tropes) on their collective heads precisely halfway through the book, but Hyperion is far more to my own tastes as well. I’d argue that Simmon’s best horror novel is Summer of Night. That’s the only horror story I’ve ever found which featured protagonist kids that actually think and behave like children instead of like little grownups (another reason I dislike many King books), yet the dangers they face aren’t dumbed down a bit. It is beautifully written, and Simmons went on to write sever other not-quite-sequels using those same kids as protagonists later in their lives.
As an aside: kudos for identifying Jacques Brossard’s “L’oiseau de feu”. While the quality of this books is undisputable, it’s quite puzzling as to how it came to be mentionned during the panel.
Carrion Comfort is an out and out horror novel – how likely are those to ever win the Hugo?
It isn’t as good as Hyperion, either.
Rama II? Who picked that? Were they sober? :)
In the UK, many of the books mentioned are no longer in print. Hyperion is. Grass, Blood Music and The Child Garden are all in the SF Masterworks series. (And Blood Music is also available in a Gollancz sf promotional edition – the ones with the non-sf covers.)
The Child Garden is a stunning novel.
I’ve read and loved Grass, Imago and Hyperion as well.
I’m fond of The Stress of Her Regard, though I don’t think it’s near to Powers’ best novel (I like Last Call, Declare, The Anubis Gates, and (though many would disagree) Dinner at Deviant’s Palace better).
I’m not sure that Blood Music, the novel, really belongs in the SF canon – the best part is the beginning, that is, “Blood Music” the short story, which is scary and creepy in an SFnal way, whereas the rest of the novel doesn’t really know where it’s going from that opening.
I paged down to read all of Jo Walton’s entry and was relieved to see that she voted for “Hyperion” and still believes she voted for the best work. I think 1990 was one of the few years in which the right answer for “best novel” is obvious.
As for 1989, which Artanian mentions, I remain bitter that Bruce Sterling’s “Islands in the Net” didn’t win.