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Hugo Nominees: 1968

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Hugo Nominees: 1968

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Hugo Nominees: 1968

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Published on January 30, 2011

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The 1968 Hugo Awards were presented in Baycon in Oakland. (For earlier years, see the Index.) The novel winner was Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light (post). It’s science fiction in which the crew of a starship have taken on the attributes of Hindu gods to rule the planet populated by the descendants of passengers of the ship, and one of the original crew starts a new Buddhist religion as a rebellion. Many people love it. (I’m not one of them, see my post for details.) It’s in print in the SF Masterworks series, and it’s in my library in English and French, so I think we can say it has lasted.

There are four other nominees, and I’ve read three of them, and I’m really sorry but 1968 seems to be a “books I don’t like” year.

Let’s start with the one I do like, but which should never have been a nominee—were the voters all stoned? Chester Anderson’s The Butterfly Kid is that rare thing: hippie science fiction. It was 1968, and doubtless this was published right at the heart of the summer of love. It’s a charming book about drugs that really change reality. It’s part of the loose “Greenwich Village” trilogy with Michael Kurland’s The Unicorn Girl and T.A. Waters’s (much weaker) The Probability Pad, and the characters have the names of the authors. I read The Unicorn Girl first—indeed I read it very early, before I knew what SF was, and it’s surprising it didn’t warp me forever. The Butterfly Kid is very much of its time and I kind of like it, but it has all the depth of a twinkie. It isn’t in print and hasn’t been republished since 1980. It isn’t in the library and I think it’s fair to say that while some people remember it fondly it’s mostly forgotten.

The Einstein Intersection is my least favourite Samuel Delany science fiction novel. I tried re-reading it last year after I suddenly loved Nova, but clearly I’m still not old enough for it, dammit. It’s about far-future mutants, and it’s about searching for love, and it uses mythological imagery in the same way Delany did so brilliantly in Nova and Babel-17 but I can’t find anything to connect to and it always slips away from me. It’s another classic example of a story that doesn’t have a surface for you to skitter over. But I’m quite ready to admit that my problem with it is a problem with me—indeed, I’m longing for this problem with me to be fixed, and fairly confident that if I keep trying I’ll like it sometime in the future. Delany’s one of my favourite writers after all! (But… this has been my stance with reference to this book for the last thirty years.) This probably is a worthy nominee that I just don’t appreciate. It’s in print from Wesleyan University Press, and it’s in the library in English.

Robert Silverberg’s Thorns is brilliant but terrible. It’s the story of a future sadistic media tycoon getting two damaged people to fall in love for the entertainment of the masses. I read it in the early eighties and I’ve never re-read it, because it’s just too painful. Silverberg is a wonderful writer, but with a subject like this that’s not a plus. It’s just too much. Thorns definitely deserved the nomination. It’s not in print, though it was fairly recently reprinted in the Gollancz Masterworks series. It’s in the library in French only.

Last comes the one I haven’t read, Piers Anthony’s Chthon. It’s his first novel and apparently grim, about a prisoner in a horrific future—and also atypically cleverly structured. I have no opinion on it, and I’m unlikely to read it even though people say it’s better than the Anthony I have read. It’s neither in print and nor in the library.

So 1968’s nominees match my tastes least of any year yet! Was it just a year when everyone was writing books I don’t like, or what else might they have chosen?

The Nebula went to The Einstein Intersection and the nominees overlap except for the addition of The Eskimo Invasion by Hayden Howard instead of the Anderson. I know nothing about this book except that it’s a fix-up of shorter work that was briefly discussed in last week’s comment thread.

Books I’d have preferred to see on the ballot include: Ursula Le Guin’s City of Illusions (post), Thomas M. Disch’s Echo Round His Bones, Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, Robert Silverberg’s Gate of Worlds, Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop, Clifford Simak’s Why Call Them Back From Heaven? and Poul Anderson’s World Without Stars.

Other books published in that strike me as reasonable possibilities include: Norman Spinrad’s Agent of Chaos, Philip K. Dick’s Counter Clock World, Brian Aldiss’s Report on Probability A, Michael Moorcock’s The Jewel in the Skull, E.C. Tubb’s The Winds of Gath… oh all right, not really Hugo material, but I did enjoy those Dumarest books and this is the first one.

And YA books which wouldn’t have been considered eligible then but which totally are these days, Nicholas Fisk’s Space Hostages, and John Christopher’s The City of Gold and Lead, both of which are solid SF, and Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, which is fantasy and probably his best book.

Do I think the five nominees are the best five books of the year? Not a chance. Do I think they give a good picture of where the field was? I think they probably do. And I also think that despite all its problems, Lord of Light was the best of them.

There are people who say that the people who came into fandom via Star Trek shifted the balance of the Hugos. I don’t see any evidence of that in this novel list. What I do see here is the victory of the New Wave.

Other Categories

NOVELLA

  • (tie) “Riders of the Purple Wage,” Philip José Farmer (Dangerous Visions)
  • “Weyr Search,” Anne McCaffrey (Analog Oct 1967)
  • “Damnation Alley,” Roger Zelazny (Galaxy Oct 1967)
  • “Hawksbill Station,” Robert Silverberg (Galaxy Aug 1967)
  • “The Star Pit,” Samuel R. Delany (Worlds of Tomorrow Feb 1967)

Look, a novella category! And what a terrific one! You couldn’t ask for two more different winners, but they are both wonderful in their own ways… and I really love “Hawksbill Station” and “The Star Pit,” too. The Nebulas gave their novella award to Moorcock’s “Behold the Man.” Can’t argue with that. And (as well as some overlap) they also nominated Sturgeon’s “If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?” So if this was a bad year for novels it was one of the best years ever for novellas. I honestly would have had a hard time nominating just five and I don’t know how I would have voted.

NOVELETTE

  • “Gonna Roll the Bones,” Fritz Leiber (Dangerous Visions)
  • “Faith of Our Fathers,” Philip K. Dick (Dangerous Visions)
  • “Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes,” Harlan Ellison (Knight May 1967)
  • “Wizard’s World,” Andre Norton (If Jun 1967)

Dangerous Visions cleaning up in the awards, and not surprising. It really was an astonishing anthology. The Nebulas also have Niven’s “Flatlander,” and Zelazny’s “The Keys to December,” and “This Mortal Mountain.”

SHORT STORY

  • “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” Harlan Ellison (If Mar 1967)
  • “Aye, and Gomorrah…,” Samuel R. Delany (Dangerous Visions)
  • “The Jigsaw Man,” Larry Niven (Dangerous Visions)

Again, a hard choice. The Nebulas gave it to “Aye, and Gomorrah,” and also listed “Answering Service,” by Fritz Leiber, “Baby, You Were Great,” by Kate Wilhelm, “The Doctor,” by Ted Thomas, “Driftglass,” by Samuel R. Delany and “Earthwoman,” by Reginald Bretnor, inexplicably ignoring Ellison and Niven.

DRAMATIC PRESENTATION

  • Star Trek: “The City on the Edge of Forever,” Harlan Ellison
  • Star Trek: “Mirror, Mirror,” Jerome Bixby
  • Star Trek: “The Trouble with Tribbles,” David Gerrold
  • Star Trek: “The Doomsday Machine,” Norman Spinrad
  • Star Trek: “Amok Time,” Theodore Sturgeon

All Star Trek, all the time. I don’t think I’ve seen any of these episodes but I know a surprising amount about them, just by fannish osmosis. I didn’t, however, know that “Amok Time” was by Sturgeon. But of course it was. It all makes sense now. Who else could have put the sex in?

PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

  • If, Frederik Pohl
  • Analog, John W. Campbell, Jr.
  • F&SF, Edward L. Ferman
  • Galaxy, Frederik Pohl
  • New Worlds, Michael Moorcock

PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

  • Jack Gaughan
  • Chesley Bonestell
  • Frank Frazetta
  • Frank Kelly Freas
  • Gray Morrow
  • John Schoenherr

FANZINE

  • Amra, George Scithers
  • Australian SF Review, John Bangsund
  • Lighthouse, Terry Carr
  • Odd, Raymond D. Fisher
  • Psychotic, Richard E. Geis
  • Yandro, Robert Coulson & Juanita Coulson

FAN WRITER

  • Ted White
  • Ruth Berman
  • Harlan Ellison (nomination withdrawn)
  • Alexei Panshin (nomination withdrawn)
  • Harry Warner, Jr.

Panshin said in File 770 last year that he withdrew because he had won the year before and hoped to set a precedent. Ellison reportedly withdrew because he had won a Hugo and Nebula in the past.

FAN ARTIST

  • George Barr
  • Johnny Chambers
  • Jack Gaughan (nomination withdrawn)
  • Steve Stiles
  • Arthur Thomson
  • Bjo Trimble

Jo Walton is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s published two poetry collections and nine novels, most recently Among Others, and if you liked this post you will like it. She reads a lot, and blogs about it here regularly. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.

About the Author

Jo Walton

Author

Jo Walton is the author of fifteen novels, including the Hugo and Nebula award winning Among Others two essay collections, a collection of short stories, and several poetry collections. She has a new essay collection Trace Elements, with Ada Palmer, coming soon. She has a Patreon (patreon.com/bluejo) for her poetry, and the fact that people support it constantly restores her faith in human nature. She lives in Montreal, Canada, and Florence, Italy, reads a lot, and blogs about it here. It sometimes worries her that this is so exactly what she wanted to do when she grew up.
Learn More About Jo
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13 years ago

Chthon: ugh ugh ugh. I read it once in college because it was there, and the “ugh” is all I retain of the experience.

I loved the Tripods when I was 10, even though I noticed that the girls’ job was to be pretty and die; then I read them as an adult and discovered that they’ve been visited by the Homophobia Fairy. (Wow, that sounds wrong.) I’m shocked that they were republished, frankly. Did no one reread them beforehand?

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13 years ago

You are right, I am all about the novelettes this year and not the novels. While LOL probably was the best pick, I was not a big fan then or ever. I didn’t really like any of the others either. But I really liked the novelettes. I might have given a slight edge to Weyr Search which was the best thing McCaffery ever wrote.

I don’t have any arguments with any of the choices but I don’t know how 2001 A Space Oddessey doesnt get a nomination.

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13 years ago

The Einstein Intersection was either the first or second Delany I ever read (the other one being Babel 17). I know I borrowed Babel (in French) from my library, I just don’t recall exactly when. I know the exact summer I read The Einstein Intersection (it was 1981) and I loved it but forgot the title (this is typical for me, forget either the author or the title of a book) and was overjoyed when I “found” it again several years later. It’s still one of my favourite Delany’s

: Maybe becasue 2001 was released in 1968 and so was only eligible for a 1969 Hugo (which, IIRC, it won BTW)

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13 years ago

I read Lord of Light a very long time ago (I was maybe 16, priviledged to be taking part in a “science fiction literature”(!) seminar-style class and was spoiled on Zelazny from that point ’till now. Which means I’m basing what follows on a 30 year-old memory, but I’m going to say it anyway.

Lord of Light was interesting only because it was all dressed up in Hindu rags. Beneath the “daring” multi-cultural trappings was a pretty standard super-hero vs super-villain story that might have been fun as such, if it hadn’t gone to such hypocritical lengths to convince people it was really literature instead of just another power-fantasy.

Maybe I’ve been missing out on a lot of great work from Zelazny, but not even “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” stays enough in memory to make me bother finding out.

I find it interesting that you didn’t enjoy The Einstein Intersection. I know I’ve read it, and almost certainly more than once, but unlike just about any other novel of Delaney’s that I’ve read, I couldn’t tell you a damned thing about it.

Like you, since it’s Delaney I’m inclined to think the fault is mine and not his, but there you are …

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13 years ago

Regarding Anthony’s Chthon …. having read it when it came out (back when one could pretty much read almost all the SF published) … oh yes it’s grim & oh yes it’s cleverly constructed.

I can’t imagine what a reader of nothing but his Xanth novels would think when they stumble across this. Probably a bunch of brain cells will explode.

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Kevin Standlee
13 years ago

Why would the YA novels not have been eligible back then? I don’t think the eligibility rules were that much different than they are now.

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Doug M.
13 years ago

The late 1960s were Silverberg’s experimental period. He got out of SF after the magazine market collapsed in the late 1950s, and spent the next five or six years writing what passed for porn in the early 1960s. (“Racy” paperbacks with lurid covers that were sold from under a counter. They’re collectors items today.)

A number of SF authors did this around this time — Silverberg, Sturgeon, Farmer, Malzberg (briefly) and Mike Resnick. The pulp-sex market was cheek by jowl with SF, in many cases sharing distributors and agents, so it was an easy crossover. Both Resnick and Silverberg have written frank and funny retrospectives on their porn-writing days. Resnick’s is online —
http://novelspot.net/node/1519 — but Silverberg’s seems to have vanished into whatever limbo holds back issues of Omni.

Anyway. Silverberg made a remarkable amount of money in those years; that market paid well, if you could hack it, and he was extremely prolific. So by 1966 or thereabouts, he’d made enough to buy a large house, sans mortgage, and to have a fair pile of money in the bank. Not Larry Niven levels of wealth, but enough that he no longer needed to write for cash for a while.

To Silverberg’s credit, he responded to this newfound financial independence by trying all kinds of new stuff: stories about sex, religious SF, McLuhanesque dystopias, you name it. Some of it was good, some was less so, but he was definitely out there swinging for the fence.

(N.B., this is why a certain generation of New Wave fans can still get cranky about _Lord Valentine’s Castle_ . They’d come to think of Silverberg as a brilliant experimentalist, and then he went and wrote a gentle, comforting fantasy about a true prince reclaiming his throne, and it sold a million copies and then he wrote sequels. Unacceptable!)

Anyway. We’ll be seeing Silverberg again here.

Doug M.

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13 years ago

Wow, what a novella year. It’s too bad there couldn’t have been a five-way tie – and if only McCaffrey had stopped the dragon series after Weyr Search. Lessa was at her best here.

Piers Anthony will be on the Hugo list again – this was his starving-serious-author phase. I’m not sure I’d want to read Chthon again, though; I fear that the Squick Fairy has gotten to it.

I guess Thorns could be a prediction of reality TV.

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13 years ago

Silverberg is one of those rare writers who excelled both as a hack and in writing experimental highly literate work. At about this point he got bored of doing the fiirst and as Doug M. pointed out, made enough money from writng porn and other purely commercial work that he could afford to indulge himself, and started writing for himself, and the result was one of the strongest periods of any science fiction writer ever IMO. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he wrote so many excellent works of all kinds novels, short stories, novellas.

Thorns is an excellent novel, but I am not really eager to revisit it soon either.

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13 years ago

I’m one of those who “I think it’s fair to say that while some people remember it fondly” regarding Anderson’s The Butterfly Kid.

In fact, I just re-read it a week or so ago. If the Hugo voting constituency were more inclined to reward humor, (which they aren’t as evidenced by the prior year’s failure to give the award to Bill, The Galactic Hero) it might have stood a chance of winning; under any other regime, it’s kind of surprising to see that it made it to the ballot. Perhaps getting it there was a fannish vote in favor of the new culture (or maybe the ‘let’s piss Pournelle off’ crowd managed to get it together).

It reminds me greatly of Sturgeon’s ‘Pruzzie’s Pot’ (published in National Lampoon in, I think, 1977).

One can also almost define all of science fiction about drugs between the bookends of Anderson’s The Butterfly Kid and Disch’s Camp Concentration.

Hmmm. Maybe I’ll read them back to back and see if my brain explodes….

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