As a side project, I am reading all of the short stories that have won the Hugo Award in science fiction. This page houses my thoughts on the short stories that have won the Hugo.The stories are listed in order of their Hugo win. I am not reading the stories in order though, so there may be gaps as I work on reading everything.Post Format
Title by Author (Hugo Win Year)Read DateEntrySources - First source listed is where I read the story. I am trying to read these stories in as close to their original format as possible, primarily in The Hugo Winners series edited by Isaac Asimov or The New Hugo Winners series after Asimov's death.A complete bibliography for the resources is available at the end of the page.Jump to An Entry
1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1985Bibliography
February 2025One of the first books I found in the adult section of the library was Major Ingredients: The Selected Short Stories of Eric Frank Russel. I appreciated that Russel focused on humor rather than the drama common to his contemporary golden age science fiction authors. The big three being Asimov, Heinlein and Clark. For a young me, it was exciting to learn that the obscure Russel won the very first short story Hugo and made me imagine winning the award one day😊Allamagoosa is the perfect summary of Russel’s humorous style with hijinks ensuing when the crew of a space cruiser are up for review. The plot is very reminiscent of a lighter Twilight Zone episode, but is a fun read to occupy 30-45 minutes. Many commentators have often wondered why Allamagoosa won the first Hugo given its lack of substance and retelling of a common urban legend at the time, but I am glad that it did. This story’s Hugo win is a fitting memorial for one of the golden age’s lesser-known authors who’s fame has fade with time.
March 4, 2025Like many people, I was first introduced to the work of Arthur C. Clarke through Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. For a time when I was a boy, my local PBS station frequently showed 2001 and I felt very adult watching this serious film that my parents (especially my engineer father) had stories of seeing when they were young. I particularly remember the first New Years when my parents let me stay up until midnight 2001 was on (probably for the 2000 New Year😊) and we stayed up late watching it. That was where my troubles with Clarke started though as I struggled to stay awake through the whole film.Clarke is definitely a good writer who can weave an interesting story and he makes up for a number of golden science fiction’s shortcomings. At the end of the day though he is not an author who will keep you awake until midnight. This in many ways comes from the fact that while Clarke did integrate religion and philosophy into his work it was often second to the scientific accuracy of his stories. The end result being that his stories are mostly about some sort of engineering or scientific breakthrough or achievement with various amounts of philosophy or religion thrown in for some spice. Over time, Clarke matured in his work to an engineer or scientist slice of life style that brings a warmth to this work, but does more to put one to sleep than keep you on the edge of your seat, which is good in its own way.Taking The Star as an example, it starts out with an interesting premise that one of the last Jesuits is serving as the navigator on board a star ship sent on a mission to explore the remnants of a supernova. This has revealed a terrible truth that has led the priest to question his faith. This religious aspect is quickly lost to an in-depth explanation of how stars explode, supernovas and a detailed description of the supernova remnant they are approaching. The story ends with the quote-on-quote shocking revelation that the star system had an alien race before the supernova and that this supernova was the Start of Bethlehem. The priest wonders how he, or anyone, could remain faithful after this terrible revelation.The story, like many of Clarke’s works, feels like an excuse to relay technical or scientific information in a way that is interesting yet at the end of the day feels forced. Indeed, the priest’s horror at this discovery seems a bit overblown in our current age as people have speculated that the Star of Bethlehem was a supernova for a while now and in this distant future where people can travel between stars it seems likely this would have been known long before the story started. It also reads like an atheist’s idea of what a loss of faith would look like where reason triumphs over superstition.With that said, Clarke was a very prolific writer of digestible and fun science fiction stories and novels. My favorite, and Clarke’s too, was his 1986 novel The Songs of Distant Earth. A starship is fleeing the destruction of Earth due to the sun’s stellar evolution and stops at one of humanity’s colonies for resupply. The colony long ago lost contact with Earth and has evolved into what we today might call a solarpunk utopia that retains knowledge of advanced technologies but has chosen to live a simpler existence for the benefit of humans and the planet. The pleasure of the story is that there is no grand conflict except the need to restock the starship. There is a subplot where some of the colonist fear the starship is there to conquer them, but as in most of Clarke’s stories this resistance is easily overcome. This gives us ample time to meet the characters and watch as their personal and cultural dynamics play out.This slice of life approach to science and engineering is really where Clarke shines and becomes much more prominent after Clarke’s move to Sri Lanka in the latter part of his life. After this move, one can really see Clarke softening in his fiction from hardened engineer (Rama, The Fountain of Paradise) into a more relaxed grandpa figure enjoying life on a beach (The Songs of Distant Earth). While Clarke’s work may be easy to forget, it ultimately brings warmth and humanity to science and engineering and reminds us that the greatest achievement is building a simple life with the people you meet while working wonders.
1957 - No Hugo awarded for short stories
March 5, 2025One reason I appreciate reading material based on some arbitrary selection criteria (hugo winners, nobel prize winners, book club selections) is that I am inevitably exposed to new writers who I have never encountered before. I have never heard of Avram Davidson before. He seems to be in that HP Lovecraft school of writers who are intellectual and well-read but then go down a rabbit hole of reactionary fear of the other. The result is a reminder of the United State’s conspiratorial shadow side that fears science.Reading this story, I got the sense that the character Ferd was a stand-in for Davidson. His nose buried in a book on biology, he concludes that if something did not eat the oyster larvae in the sea the entire ocean would fill up with oysters (queue our title). He then extends this to conclude that the everyday objects that you always seem to have too many or not enough of must be living creatures. This is obviously a generalization fallacy where biological principles are applied in a context they are not meant for.This is a story of conspiracy though, so while the story is presented logically the reason driving its plot is inherently emotional. At the end when it is revealed that Ferb was found strangled with a clothes hanger in his closet my first thought was that he had committed suicide. I then realized the implication is that the living clothes hangers had killed Ferd. Considering Ferb as a stand in for Davidson would suggest an underlying fear of science for Davidson and an underlying conspiracy.This story very much reflects the conspiracy loving side of the United States and its opposition to anything the America psyche experiences as other. While not outright racists like Lovecraft, this story exudes a similar fear of the unknown (in this case science) and a sense that the other is the death of the American individual. All of which leads me to wonder why the science fiction society would award the Hugo to a work that seems to find science horrifying.
March 17, 2025It is interesting to think that the same year that this won the Hugo for Robert Block he was also publishing Psycho, which would become the celebrated Alfred Hitchcock film that helped to launch slasher films as a genre. Yet I did not know who Robert Block was before reading this story. Block, like many early Hugo winners, started his literary career writing in a variety of genres (including science fiction) before settling into writing outside of the science fiction genre. As a result, many early Hugo winners (like Block) vanished from my radar as a science fiction reader.Of the early Hugo winners, The Hell-Bound Train seems the least like science fiction. Outside of an admiration for trains and railroads this story is completely devoid of science. A man makes a deal with the devil that inevitably leads to an important life lesson while allowing the man to weasel his way out of going to hell. The story is well written and puts its own unique spin on this story. Plus, the writing is quite contemporary with many fun 1950s pop culture references.My favorite was a reference to someone looking like Kim Novak, who was the female lead in Vertigo, which was the film Hitchcock made before Psycho. While Block could not have known that Hitchcock would adapt his work in two years this is a nice bit of synchronicity. It also illustrates how Block’s writing really seems appropriate for television, where he eventually settled for most of his writing career. Indeed, this entire story reads like an episode from The Twilight Zone.All of this does not take away from Block’s excellent writing or legacy. Blocks win also serves as an interesting illustration of how little recognition there was for works of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc.) in the 1950s. As a result, a variety of speculative fiction found its way into the early Hugos unlike today’s Hugos that are focused on science fiction.
March 7, 2025Of all the Stories in The Hugo Winners Ed. Issac Asimov, the one I dreaded reading was Flowers for Algernon. I read the novel version in middle school or high school, and I mostly remembered that it was depressing. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the story was very absorbing and is probably the best story in this collection. Reading the Hugo winners in order this really feels like the first truly great story among the bunch. Prior to this the stories always had a pulpy feel. There was some movement toward sophistication in writing and ideas with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Block, but their stories still felt like they could have been an episode of The Twilight Zone or Original Star Trek.Daniel Keyes really kicks us off into the New Wave Movement in Science Fiction with Flowers for Algernon though. He employees a literary prose styling and has well-rounded characters that allow us to see the impact of the speculated scientific advancement. The science itself is pretty minimal and is mostly hand waved away. Indeed, one critique of this story would be that how an operation could increase someone’s intellect is not really believable and at the end the explanation that Charlie has developed a proof for his theory on why enhanced intelligence will be lost is pretty unscientific. The use of the word proof in this case sounds more like Charlie has developed a mathematic proof, but this would not have anything to do with psychology or neurology. Scientific accuracy was not the focus of New Wave authors though.Indeed, one gets the sense that Daniel Keyes was a teacher who enjoyed writing on the side. He spent the 1950s working as an editor for comic book magazines, including Marvel Comics with Stan Lee. At the same time, he was also earned a Masters of English, taught high school English and wrote stories on the weekends that he would sell to the comic book magazines he worked for. He thought the idea that became Flowers for Algernon was too good for a comic book story and he kept it for himself. He worked it into this novelette, which won the Hugo Award in 1960. He would expand the novelette into a full novel in 1966, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in science fiction. In 1966, Keyes also accepted a professorship with Ohio University and his science fiction career pretty much ended there. In 1968, he published his second and last science fiction novel and the film adaptation of Flowers of Algernon came out.It is easy to call Keyes a one hit wonder. In Asimov’s introduction to this short story, he recalls saying in his speech delivering the award that he was not sure how Keyes had produced such a great story. Keyes responded, “Listen, when you find out how I did it, let me know, will you? I would like to do it again.” In the spirit of so many early science fiction writers, I think Keyes was simply writing as a hobby while he had his day job teaching and editing. The fact that his first story was such a huge success really seems like he was in the right place at the right time. I cannot really fault Keyes for returning to his passion after the excitement for this story had died down and wanting to leave the science fiction space on a high note as he headed off to his true passion in academia.
March 8, 2025So my soft spot for this story is that it was award the short story Hugo at the 1961 WordCon for Science Fiction, which was held in my hometown of Seattle. And in a bit if synchronicity, WorldCon will be returning to Seattle in the same year I am reading this story (2025). I will see if I am fortunate enough to attend WorldCon while it is in Seattle this year. Now you might be wondering why I am starting this entry with so much talk about Seattle and WoldCon and the reason is that this is an okay story that I do not have much to say about.The Longest Voyage is a standard adventure story with the twist of being set on an alien moon. This results in it have some unusual stellar phenomenon that informs the religious beliefs of our crew of adventures while having basically no impact on the story and taking up about the first quarter of the text to establish. Indeed, the part of the opening relevant to the conclusion took up all of about 1-2 pages and the rest could probably have been considered to the waste paper basket.With that said, Poul is a good writer and this story was certainly entertaining. Poul strikes me as a classic working writing who earns his daily bread. While he brings much skill to the task the story sounds like many that have come before and after. Indeed, this story reads much like a watered-down version of Heart of Darkness with some astronomy and an inspirational moral about needing to discover things for ourselves added on. And there have been many updated and improved versions of this story since. My suggestion would be the Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer.This story in many ways brings us back to the golden age of science fiction where the story is a vehicle for conveying science. Yet Poul, while obviously knowledgeable in this area, does not seem particularly interested in the science since it is relegated to the opening and then quickly forgotten in favor of watching the characters interact and confront the challenge of what alien technology could offer them. There is one more Poul short story on the Hugo list (No Truce with Kings, 1964). My hope for it is that Poul ditches the science and sticks to showing us his characters and their moral quandaries.
1962 - Short story Hugo awarded to the short story series "Hothouse" by Brian Aldiss
I am doing this project to read single short stories, so skipping this one since it is multiple short stories. Also, Asimov did not include in The Hugo Winners Vol. 2, so feel like Asimov would approve
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April 26, 2025With Jack Vance’s “The Dragon Masters,” we enter an odd period where the Hugo was won by war stories for three years straight. The Dragon Masters is filled with extensive descriptions of terrain, troop movements, and tense conversations between commanders. In between there are aliens, spaceships and dragons (that are bread from the aliens apparently) thrown in, but ultimately this is a story about armies and their operations. This military focus would continue in the Hugos for the next two years.Of course, given the time-period (early to mid-1960s) this focus is not surprising. The threat of armed conflicted between the USA and the USSR was at its peak and the USA was heading towards direct involvement in Vietnam. So it is understandable that the more conservative members of the science fiction writing community would respond with tales of battles and heroics. Yet these tales have not aged well and are generally not really remembered now.
With that said the pro-military stories that won the Hugo in this three year period (1963-1965) do get progressively better. “No Truce for Kings” features an army rebelling against an dubious government and most of the characters come to loath the war by the end. “Soldier, As Not” introduces us to the Dosadi universe, which is probably the second best military science fiction world after “Starship Troopers” by Robert Heinlein.“The Dragon Masters” was the worst of these military stories from the 1960s though. It was hard to keep track of where anything was in the story due to the plethora of place names thrown around. I felt like I needed a map of the setting to really make sense of anything. In addition, I had a hard time keeping track of the action as there was so much going on. There are non-sentient dragons, which were bread from captured sentient aliens. Meanwhile, a pacifist faction of humans is doing something underground. And the aliens conquering space are doing something to humans to make them like the dragons the humans have created.Suffice it to say that I was confused and bored by this story, which is a bad combination in pretty much anything. I contemplated not finishing it several times but powered through for the sake of reading all the Hugo short story winners. I would not suggest anyone except a die-hard science fan or completionist read this story though. It is interesting for its place in the military science fiction trend of the 1960s. It is also interesting for its place in the struggle between the science fiction traditionalists with hard science (Larry Niven with “Ringworld”) and adventure stories (Poul Anderson’s “The Longest Voyage” from the 1961 Hugos and "No Truce with Kings" from the 1964 Hugo) and the New Wave writers with their focus on soft sciences (LeGuinn’s focus on anthropology), prose and style (Harlan Ellison’s flare in stories like “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”), and the development of complex characters and settings (like we find in Frank Herbert’s “Dune”).Source
The Hugo Winners: Vols I & II, Edited by Isaac Asimov
May 1, 2025Isaac Asimov’s introduction to "No Truce with Kings" is quite revealing of the sentiment at the time in the science fiction community. Asimov notes that he was always an advocate for peace in Vietnam and he had signed a petition at the WorldCon calling for peace. In response, conservative science fiction fans had countered with a petition for intervention (war) in Vietnam to counter communism, which Poul Anderson signed. Asimov’s quaint summary of the situation was that he and Anderson agreed to disagree. Yet this anecdote fittingly illustrates the divides forming in the science fiction community, and United States society in general, during the mid-1960s and illustrated by this story."No Truce with Kings" is an interesting story that follows a colonel and his forces as they rebel against the president of a government administering the western coast of North America. Apparently the United States collapsed following some vague apocalyptic event. The president was elected in dubious circumstances after the former president was voted out. As a result, this story on the one hand is a celebration of the military with lots of battles and on the other a questioning of authority and a call to resist tyranny. How one is meant to resist an authority unless you are in the military is not addressed though.Besides questioning political authority this story is also oddly anti-intellectual. There are a group of pacifist psychics that help the poor and are aligned with the president who took power. The rebels route one of the psychic’s settlements after they refuse to cooperate with them and the rebels discover that the psychic’s abilities are really advanced technology provided by aliens. This adds an element of technology and expertise to the tyranny portrayed in the story. Yet also does not really seem needed in a story about clashing armies where the upstart president’s relation to the psychics is never made clear. One could imagine a retelling of this story in which the upstart president and the psychics are over throwing a tyrannical military dictatorship that they view as repressive to the poor and displaced members of this society.“No Truce with Kings” continues the triology of conservative stories from the mid-1960s that celebrated the military during the ramp up to the Vietnam war and escalating tensions in the Cold War between the USA and USSR. They are really a celebration of the military, the will to power and an illustration of the growing distrust of political and intellectual that has continued to this day. Unlike the first story in this conservative moment (“The Dragon Masters” by Jack Vance), “No Truce with Kings” at least has engaging characters and a geography you can follow. It also at least takes the time to question some authorities and illustrate the horrors of war.Overall, this story is well told and an interesting illustration of the culture and thinking of the time it was written. At the same time I don’t know that anyone outside of diehard science fiction fans and people reading the Hugo winners needs to read this story.Source
The Hugo Winners: Vols I & II, Edited by Isaac AsimovHarlan Ellison - Dangerous Visions - Extra Science Fiction, You TubeHarlan Ellison's Greatest Hits Part 3 Review, Geek's Guide to the Galaxy, You Tube
May 4, 2025I am finally at the last, and best, of the military science fiction short story Hugo winners in the 1960s. “Soldier, Ask Not” is part of the Childe Cycle, which is one of the great military science fiction series. Oddly though the main characters of the series, the Dorsai, did not come into this story until a fair way through, so while I thought this story sounded familiar it took some time for me to realize this is part of the Childe cycle. I have read the original book in the series (“Dorsai!”), but was not terribly impressed with it and have not read any of the other books in the Childe Cycle. Reading “Soldier, Ask Not” reminded me of how this series is well written, but is overshadowed by better work before and since.Like the previous 1960s military science fiction, we follow a battle, in this case on an alien planet. Our perspective is not from a commander or officer, but from a journalist sent to report on events. The journalist also happens to have a grudge against one of the group of mercenaries fighting in the battle and wants to see them defeated. Thus, rather than detailed explanations of battle movements, we have what the journalist is told plus what the journalist observes in the field. This gives us a grounded level view of the battle that emphasizes the actions of individuals rather than the grand strategies and tactics of command.This is augmented by Dickson’s world building and complex characters. Multiple factions are vying for power on the planet that embody various aspects of the human psych. There are the Dorsai who are expert warriors. The Friendlies who are religious fanatics. And the Exotics that embody intellect. This is mostly explained through the characters interactions, especially the Friendlies since the Journalist is determined to see them defeated. The one awkward piece of world building was an info dump at the end when the mastermind behind the whole situation explains their plan.The problem I have with this story is that many of the ideas and concepts are either lifted from better works or have been handed better in stories since, making “Soldier, Ask Not” and the Childe Cycle extraneous. For example, there is the idea of a faction of humans able to predict and guide humanity’s fate, which really sounds like the Foundation in Asimov's Foundation series. In the Childe Cycle, this is even being done under the guise of a universal encyclopedia just like in the Foundation series. Likewise, the idea of factions with specially honed abilities and training is better handled in “Dune” by Frank Herbert, which won the Hugo for best novel in the same year as “Soldier, Ask Not.” Some better military science fiction since includes “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card and the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.The other problem with this story, like the rest of the military science fiction in the 1960s, is its blind faith in the military. The warrior faction in this story are ultimately presented as the good guys with the fanatics (aka communists) presented as the bad guys. This has not aged well given the abuses of military power revealed in the late 1960s and 1970s. At the same time this is revealing of the attitude of the time.Glad this story won a Hugo given the importance of the Childe Cycle in science fiction history. Yet at the same time, I cannot help but feel that this story is rather stale and that I would rather read the works it is drawing from or inspired. This novella was expanded into a novel, but this really does not seem like it was needed. Sure, there are some added scenes to fill in the protagonist's backstory, but we already knew this from flashbacks in the novella. As I am finding reading the short story Hugo winners, and was noted in "An Informal History of the Hugos," often times the short stories and novellas are better than the novels in science fiction.Sources
The Hugo Winners: Vols I & II, Edited by Isaac AsimovAn Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton
May 5th, 2025In terms of my reading order for the Hugo winning short stories, I first came to Harlan Ellison’s 1978 winning short story “Jeffty is Five” and very much enjoyed it. So I was very much looking forward to reading the rest of Ellison’s Hugo winning short stories from his height in the 1960s. Ellison is odd as I cannot say he has really entered my consciousness before this, though I can find places where we is mentioned that I know I have watched or read before like Extra Histories YouTube video on "Dangerous Visions." Yet despite these numerous places where Ellison has entered my life, he has oddly not registered for me before now, which is shocking given the way his stories really hook you. That has probably been the issue though, as my exposure to Ellison has always been through secondary or tertiary sources before this. Thus my interest to experience the Hugo short story winners in as close to their original format as possible.“‘Repent, Harlequin’ Said the Ticktockman” has the fascinating premise that society has become so regimented, and the ability to track people has become so all encompassing, that people’s tardiness and their impact on time being lost can be tracked down to the minute by an AI system called the Ticktockman. When someone’s tardiness and delays have used up their expected life span they are executed. Into this system comes a masked anarchist called Harlequin who intentionally causes delays and tardiness, but the Ticktockman is not able to determine who Harlequin is and cannot meter out an appropriate metric or punishment for him.This is a fascinating premise. The problem is that Ellison only dedicates seven pages to this story and mostly tells us what is happening instead of showing us. For example, when the Ticktockman finally captures Harlequin, Ellison simply says that the Ticktockman did a 1984 on Harlequin so he would proclaim the Ticktockman good. Having read 1984 I get the idea, but it would have been nice to see what happened. Though I did not particularly enjoy reading, maybe more accurately enduring, "1984", so perhaps Ellison really did me a favor here.As a result, this story feels more like a concept sketch than a true story, especially coming off reading “Jeffty is Five” prior to this, which has some great characters and atmosphere. I would have loved to have seen this idea expanded upon; an unusual request for the Hugo short story category. More often a Hugo short story winner was expanded into a novel (“Flowers for Algernon”, “Soldier, Ask Not”) that really does not feel needed. Unfortunately though, Ellison was a believer in writing a story in a single session and not editing it after wards. As noted in “The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy” episode 591, Ellison is great at creating intriguing concepts and writing fascinating characters, but his plotting often suffers.“Repent Harlequin…” is both an exiting and disappointing entry for Ellison. Having read all of Ellison’s Hugo winning short stories at this point, I know it gets better, but this seems like one of the weaker Hugo wins for Ellison. This story is more of a sketch that could have used some fleshing out instead of being left after its first draft. While this was uniquely Ellison’s style, and it produces many great stories after this, it does not seem to have worked particularly well in this case. With that said, this style of writing would have been quite new in the world of 1960s science fiction, and I appreciate the Hugo voters breaking away from the conservative military science fiction that had dominated the Hugos for something new and fresh.Sources
The Hugo Winners: Vols I & II, Edited by Isaac AsimovHarlan Ellison - Dangerous Visions - Extra Sci Fi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STfZLOK7h6gHarlan Ellison's Greatest Hits, Geek's Guide to the Galaxy https://geeksguideshow.com/2025/04/06/ggg591-harlan-ellisons-greatest-hits-part-3/
May 5th, 2025This story is interesting for its introduction of the cowardly Puppeters and Niven’s Known Space universe. Yet this story also feels a bit under baked. Our main character is mostly a walking stereotype of the down on his luck man who is presented with a dangerous, but lucrative, opportunity to pay off his debts. Likewise, the story is well written, but the world building is not as well fleshed out as in later Known Space stories like Ringworld.As mentioned in my commentary on Niven’s other Hugo short story win (Inconsistent Moon, 1972), Niven is a skilled writer, but his writing is too literal and self-serious. This is particularly noticeable in this story where the story is rather ridiculous, but Niven plays it completely straight. For example, the aliens in the story are called Puppeteers because they manipulate (puppeteer) events from the shadows, which has all of the naming subtle of a teenager making up an alien for their fan fiction or role-playing game. This campy quality could work to Niven’s favor if he embraced it like the golden age authors who won the Hugo like Erick Frank Russel (1955) or Author C. Clark (1956), but Niven seems too serious for that.The way this campiness does work in later Known Universe stories is that it is swept away by the sheer scale of the story Niven is telling. For example, the silly nature of the Puppeteers is quickly forgotten against the sublime scale of epic space adventures like Ringworld. Unfortunately, this story is not being told at that scale, but rather at the scale of investigating the cause of an unexplained accident. As a result, we are really left with the humor of the situation in a story that is a little to self-serious.This story is also notable for its conservative interruption to Ellison’s New Wave domination of the Hugos in the late 1960s (Ellison won 3 of the 5 short story Hugos from 1965 to 1969). Niven was a staunch Republican, serving as a scientific advisor to Ronald Reagan, and was also conservative in his writing. He was very much of the school that science fiction needed to be scientifically plausible to count as science fiction and this story’s Hugo win does point to a swing back towards this older interpretation of science fiction by the Hugo voters. With that said, Niven did write a story for Ellison’s avant-garde anthology “Dangerous Visions” in 1968, and this story does not return to the military chauvinism of the early 1960s.So overall, this is a decent story, but not one I will probably hurry back to. This story reads like an episode of the Outer Limits or Star Trek rather than the grand space adventures Niven would take us on in later works from Known Space. The next short story Hugo winner (“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”) simply makes you forget about this tale and want to jump straight to it instead.Sources
The Hugo Winners: Vols I & II, Edited by Isaac Asimov
May 6th, 2025
Demonstrating that I have at least had a subconscious awareness of Harlan Ellison is the fact that when I watched the “Lower Decks” episode “I Have No Bones, and I Must Run” I was vaguely aware that it was a pun on a famous science fiction story. This is a nice homage to Ellison since he was the writer on several original Star Trek episodes such as “The City of the Edge of Tomorrow.” I also appreciate that this “Lower Decks” episode introduces one of my favorite Star Trek monsters, the moopsy. Putting “Lower Decks” aside for now though, we come to my favorite Hugo short story winner so far, Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.”In the distant future, the AIs built to fight humanity’s wars have merged into a single consciousness called AM in the deep warrens dug to protect them. AM has come to hate humanity for creating it and has wiped out all of humanity except for 5 humans it keeps alive to torment. One of these humans discovers a way he can kill his compatriots such that the AM cannot revive them and thus release them from their torment. AM stops the last human before he can commit suicide though and transforms him into a sluglike creature cursed to ooze through the corridors beneath the Earth; forever without a mouth, but wanting to scream.Admittedly not a very pleasant story, but it really gets you at a visceral level and taps into a deep primal fear about science and technology, which is really missing from the numerous stories inspired by this one like “The Terminator” or “The Matrix.” Unlike other stories about AI out to kill humanity this one really taps into the cosmic horror of its premise and captures the truly alien nature of the AM. With that said it is fascinating to read this story given how much it has obviously impacted the science fiction that followed it. Besides the films mentioned, I think of the AIs in “The Hyperion Cantos” that use the tunnels beneath the labyrinthine worlds as part of their scheme or the Alien (1979) tag line, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”Each of these stories is really an extension of one of the many levels to Ellison’s story though, which is what makes “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” so great. There is the body horror of the transformations the AI forces on the humans that can be found in “Alien.” And the cyborg element of the mechanical replacing the human until only the machine is left like in “The Matrix” or “The Hyperion Cantos.” And there is the feminist perspective of the lone woman in the group forced to pleasure the four remaining men. Suddenly Ellison’s appearance on The Simpsons saying people are stealing his ideas makes more sense.This story is worthy of the Hugo short story award based on the impact it has obviously had on science fiction. What made it so impactful though is the many levels this story works on and its exploration of something deeper than mere human nature. The horror of this story is not the torments the humans are put to, but the sheer unknowable nature of the AM itself. And Ellison does a great job of presenting this through the numerous layers of meaning, which makes this an eminently readable story.Sources
The Hugo Winners: Vols I & II, Edited by Isaac AsimovHarlan Ellison on the Simpsons
May 11, 2025And so I come to the last, and most confusing, of Harlan Ellison’s short stories to win the Hugo. This was the first Hugo winner I felt like I needed to re-read before writing about the story. The basic plot is that an advanced alien society is able to remove evil from people and then send it elsewhere (surprise they send their evil to Earth:0). One of the aliens has a crisis of conscious about sending their evil somewhere else in the universe though and tries to stop the process, but they are captured and executed as a traitor.This idea of removing evil, or isolating it, is not actually that original. This is the basic idea of Robert Louise Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jerkyll and Mr. Hyde” published in 1886 after all. Ellison chooses to tell this story is a very disjointed, or more charitably a deconstructed, way where we jump between various points in time and experience the story from various perspectives. For example, the story starts out with far future humans finding a sculpture of a human on a distant planet then jumps to a man finding a box (that we later learn contains the evil sent by the aliens) and unleashing World War 3 when he opens the box.It is not clear to me though why Ellison chose to tell this story in this way. This mostly seems like a story where Ellison is experimenting, and it does not seem to really work. What would be interesting is a story more focused on the advanced civilization and how they extract evil from their subjects. The philosophical question on how to even define evil seems worth exploring. In Ellison’s “‘Repent Harlequin,’ Said the Ticktock Man” for example we can see how the society has come to prioritize efficiency over all else to the extreme of executing people who cause too much delay. This sort of world building is sorely missing in this story though and is where I would have refocused this sketch if I wrote or edited this.Of course, Ellison was not one for rewrites, so this talk of were to refocus the story is kind of pointless. This story nicely illustrates the limitations of Ellison’s style though as this story seems very unfocused and slapdash. In listening to “The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy” episode 586 one of the commentators made the interesting observation that this story seemed very personal to Ellison and that it might reflect how we saw himself. Reviled for his blunt nature, but only wanting to share his love with the world. I found this an interesting observation as it would help to explain why the story feels so idiosyncratic.None the less, this story really seems like something that only die hard science fiction fans and academics would find useful. The basic plot of evil, or some other social ill, being redirected somewhere else has been handled better in many of stories such as the 1974 Hugo short story winner “Those Who Walk Away from Omlesa” By Ursula K. LeGuinn, “His Dark Materials” series by Philip Pullman and Fullmetal Alchemist (2003). And within Ellison’s own body of work there are substantially better stories such as “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” or “Jeffty was Five.”Sources
The Hugo Winners: Vols 1 & 2, Edited by Isaac AsimovHarlan Ellison's Greatest Hits Part 2 Review, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKaXO1v-4)
May 12, 2025Samuel R. Delany is another author who I am aware of but have not read before this. Like many science fiction authors, Delany rode his popularity as a science fiction author to a second career in academics, similar to Daniel Keyes. While Delany produced a larger body of science fiction than Keyes, much of this work has faded from popular consciousness. The peak of Delany’s career came in 1966 and 1967 when his novels “Babel-17” and “The Einstein Intersection” won the Nebula award. While these novels were nominated for a novel Hugo they did not win it, so this award feels like an acknowledgement of past accomplishments rather than the quality of this particular story. This backward-looking theme at the Hugos would continue throughout the 1970s.Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones falls into this interesting category of science fiction where humans have developed special abilities beyond what humans are currently capable of, but what these abilities are and how they work is left vague. Dune by Frank Herbet is the best example of this type of story with the Bene Gesuit voice, the Space Navigator’s ability to bend space, and Paul's prescience. This style of science fiction was popular in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly with the New Wave writers. While this style can be done well (another author in this style that I like, but unfortunately never won a Hugo, is Lloyd Biggle Jr) it more often than not ends up muddling what is possible in the story and leaves the resolution unsatisfactory since you cannot follow how it was reached.In this story, for example, there is a lot of talk of security and security capabilities, but what this security consists of is not clear as it is almost never used. Instead we get lots of characters sitting around talking about what they could do and then resolving their differences without ever really engaging these capabilities. And when an altercation happens in the story it is unclear exactly what happened or why the characters were able to escape. From this story, I have the feeling that Delany was much better at dialogue and character development than action.This story and the previous short story Hugo winner see New Wave science fiction reach its peak of stylization. These are dense, convoluted stories with many layers to them that call for a second or third reading to realty understand. The issue with this story though is that it lacks the attention-grabbing transgression of a Harlan Ellison story. “The Beast that Shouted at the Heart of the World” is about the source of all evil, while “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” is about a small-time thief going straight to run an ice cream shop. While generally interesting, this premise is not enough to hold me for a second reading of this story and I would guess this is what ultimately held Delany back as an author.Sources
The Hugo Winners: Vols 1 & 2, Edited by Isaac Asimov
March 21, 2025Fun fact about Thoedore Sturgeon is that he lived his last years in the Eugene Springfield area in Oregon. Then 22 years after Sturgeon’s death, I moved to Eugene to attend the university there. It is easy to forget what a literary hub Eugene was at one point with Jack Kerouac as its prime mover and other literary figures like Sturgeon moving to the area as a result.Unfortunately, this is the extent of my relationship with Sturgeon. He is a writer who is often mentioned in science fiction circles, but I cannot remember reading his work before this. And I can see why as I learn more about Sturgeon. He mostly produced short fiction, which I have not really found an appreciation for until the last few years, and his novels do not seem to be particularly well regarded. Finally, Sturgeon won a surprisingly low number of accolades in his lifetime despite the popularity and influence of his work.Slow Sculpture was an interesting story. A mysterious woman meets a man in an orchard and reveals she has discovered a lump in her breast. The man says he can cure her by rebalancing her body’s magnetic field. The woman agrees to the treatment and the man’s only ask they she does not ask that he share his discovery with the world as he expects that the powers that be will buy him out to suppress the discovery. The woman agrees, but asks that the man have patience with humanity like he has towards his bonsai collection.Sturgeon was involved in the foundation of scientology and its operations after and you can really see that in this story. The magnetic rebalancing in this story is similar to the initiation process that Scientology initiates go through. The man’s claim that he could be prosecuted for providing medical services without a medical license is a real claim made against Scientology in its early form. And the sense of the lone genius who has made a momentous discovery that the rest of the world is not ready for is also very much in the general ethos of Scientology.Overall, this story’s portrayal cancer was probably pretty revolutionary for its time and the dream of a miracle cure for cancer is still with us today. This story’s impact has really been blunted with time given how many portrayals of cancer have been created since this story came out. Also, its veer into pseudoscientific solutions simply feels uncomfortable these days and smacks of cult like initiation rather than scientific exploration. This explains why Sturgeon was popular in his time by addressing subjects (like cancer) that had not been widely portrayed and why he has faded with time given his tendency to pseudoscience.
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The Hugo Winners: Vol 3, Book 1 Edited by Isaac Asimov
March 18, 2025Larry Niven has always been one of those authors I enjoy but do not return to. His stories are hard science fiction at its best. They are serious about scientific accuracy given the understanding at the time that story was written while also having interesting and engaging characters. At the end of the day though there is rarely anything meaningful in terms of philosophical or spiritual ideas in Niven’s work, which leaves them feeling a bit dull without the charm of the golden age hard science fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov.Inconsistent Moon was a fun read about a man and woman who realize that the sudden brightening of the moon means a massive solar event is about to lead to the destruction of the Earth. They go out for one final night on the town before retreating to the woman’s apartment on the 14th floor of an apartment tower to ride out the end of the world. I was glad that the solar event was not a supernova as this did not seem realistic since a supernova would have vaporized the earth shortly after the light from the supernova reached the earth. The explanation that events are being fueled by a solar flare or sudden increase in solar output still seems weak given our current understanding of the sun but is a more reasonable explanation for the events in the story.Overall, the story is fun and engaging with interesting characters and a solid science premise driving the story. I can see why this story won the Hugo in 1972. At the same time this story has little to offer outside being a solid piece of entertainment. Despite facing the end of the world and their potential deaths the characters are surprisingly lacking in personal or philosophical reflection, especially given their level of education. In addition, there is little discussion of how we might prepare for such an event until the very end of the story. This story is also not helped by the fact that our understanding of how the sun works has advanced in the last 50 years and this premise seems unlikely now, though a well-placed solar flare could do potentially serious damage to the electrical grid and electronics.So, a solidly written story with interesting characters and a well thought out premise for the time. It does not offer much in the way of ideas though and so at the end of the day I have to wonder why read this outside of needing some entertainment in a moment of boredom. In the pre-internet age this would have had a place, but in our interconnected world this story does not seem to have a purpose outside of serving as streaming and AI training fodder. While the golden age science fiction writers had their flaws they at least had charm. Niven’s writing often comes across as the white bread version of the classic hard science fiction of the golden age.
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The Hugo Winners: Vol 3, Book 1 Edited by Isaac Asimov
March 10, 2025This short story actually came to my attention when Linsey Ellis made a reference to it in the title of her YouTube retirement essay (Walking Away from Omelas) where she shared the many challenges that had led her to leave the platform. Ironically, the title is the only reference to this story in the essay, leaving one to wonder what we are supposed to make of this title. I had not heard on the story before, though LeGuinn herself noted in a 2012 short story collection containing the tale that school teachers often love to assign it to spark debate on morality and ethics. My teachers had neglected, or perhaps spared me, this experience and Ellis’ essay was my introduction to this relatively short story that has many free copies available online.This work definitely deserves to be part of the Hugo short stories as an exemplar of LeGuinn’s writing given her massive impact on the science fiction genre. At the same time, it also reminds me of why I have never really enjoyed LeGuinn’s writing. LeGuinn famously came from an anthropologic background and much of her fiction is written like we are reading an anthropologist’s report from the future. While this was revolutionary at a time that science fiction was written more like a technical report from the future it comes across to me today as stale given the much more dynamic, character driven science fiction stories that started coming out in the 1980s and 1990s, building on the work of authors like LeGuinn.LeGuinn fans would point out that there are many memorable characters in her novels such as Left Hand of Darkness (the 1970 Hugo and Nebula winner for best novel) and Earthsea. Yet I always found that LeGuinn’s characters tend to become subsumed by the exploration of the culture that LeGuinn wants to show us. For example, in Left Hand of Darkness the protagonist is on a mission to establish contact with the human settlers on the planet Hanish, which conveniently allows the protagonist, and us with them, to visit all of the cultures on Hanish and learn about them. I never thought that there was anything particularly special about the protagonist though and we could have had the same experience with pretty much any character able to move around Hanish.I also think LeGuinn suffers from writing to share big ideas or pushing on taboos to teach a moral lesson rather than telling an interesting story. This is very much the case in this story where we are shown a utopian society and the dark secret that keeps it all going. As LeGuinn’s comment about teachers assigning this work illustrates, the story in many ways is about causing outrage and sparking argument. While undoubtedly effective in its time, this sort of story is not particularly unique as illustrated by the multiple similar stories before LeGuinn wrote this story and the numerous retellings that other science fiction authors have generated since.Overall, LeGuinn is a writer who has had an enormous impact on the field of science fiction and at the same time feels like a steppingstone in science fiction’s development that you can skip if you want. Reading her work is undoubtedly interesting for the dedicated reader (like moi) but probably holds little appeal outside of literary circles. When I am finished with The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas I have to wonder what the point of this story, much like Ellis’ reference to it, really was, which is perhaps the point😊 At the end of the day an ambiguous ending can feel rewarding, but I find LeGuinn’s ending feels like a teacher looking over your shoulder waiting for you to give a good answer.
Sources
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuinn, Internet ArchiveWalking Away from Omelas by Lindsey Ellis, Internet ArchiveThe Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Wikipedia
March 22, 2025Wow, another author I have not heard of because his primary work is outside of science fiction😊. Franz Leiber is best known for his work in fantasy though he also wrote some science fiction. This story is more magical realism used to explore an alternative history where Germany has become a bastion of scientific humanism after World War 1.This story is interesting for its odd combination of techno optimism and steampunk fantasy. In Leiber’s ideal world electric cars dominate thanks to a battery developed by the son of Thomas Edison and Madame Currie (though she goes by her maiden name, which requires a long digression to explain). Meanwhile zeppelins are the dominate form of air travel filled with helium (queue our title). While the portrayal of electric cars is rather cutting edge for the time the idea that people would still be traveling by blimp seems odd. The issue of limited helium for zeppelins was not the only limiting factor for airships as a method of air travel.In "An Informal History of the Hugos," several commentators note this is a weaker story from Leiber’s later career. Without any prior experience with Leiber’s work, I am not sure of the quality of this story compared to his other works, but it did seem ham handed with a few nice parts, like the metaphor of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building or the Hasidic Jew that follows the protagonist throughout the story. Overall it would have been much nicer to experience this alternative world than have it explained to us by a historian in a fancy German restaurant on top of the Empire State Building.Leiber was a past favorite at the Hugos, winning for best novel in 1965 and best novella and novelette several times. I would guess that this story’s win was fueled more by nostalgia than anything. Indeed, many of the 1970s short story winners seem more about celebrating past Hugo winners than finding the next great thing, which really is a shame. The only author to win their first Hugo from a short story in the 1970s was CJ Cherryh in 1979.
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The Hugo Winners Vol 4 Edited by Isaac AsimovAn Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton
March 22, 2025"An Informal History of the Hugos" attributes this story, and Asimov’s Bicentennial Man’s, Hugo win to a fit of patriotism amongst the fans voting for the Hugo in 1977 on the United States’ bicentennial. I could see this as this story does seem run of the mill even for the time it was published. Also, Joe Haldeman had just won the Hugo for best novel the year before, so he was a familiar name. This also continues the trend in the 1970s for the Hugo voters picking safe, rather than new or original, winners. Overall this is a decent story in a vein I enjoy, and I could see it being chosen based on its title and author more than its merits as a story😊This is a pretty standard story of a group of space settlers breaking away from the bureaucratic and increasingly tyrannical control of Earth. The most interesting point of this story is how the engines of the settle’s ship malfunction and the settler’s cannot turn them off. This results in the settler’s traveling 1500 light years before they can turn off their engines. This results in the settlers unintentionally saving humanity as it is revealed that humans are now extinct on the Earth in the 1500 years that have passed there compared to the 10 years that have passed aboard the ship traveling at relativistic speeds. The story ends with the settlers heading towards an Earth like planet.All of this is interesting enough for a dedicated science fiction fan, but has been done better before and since. “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein (1966) is the original story, as far as I am aware, of a bunch of space settlers turning libertarians and anarchists and breaking away from the tyranny of Earth. Another interesting take on this idea is “The Grand Tour” series by Ben Bova that sees a group of settlers on the moon and asteroid belt rebel against Earth. Most recently, James S.A. Correy’s “Expanse” series incorporates the idea of moon and asteroid settler’s breaking away from Earth as an important element of its plot.Even the most interesting idea in this story, the spaceship time traveling 1500 years into the future thanks to time dilation, has been done better in Liu Cixin’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy. In Cixin’s story, some civilizations escape extermination by other species on massive generation ships that accelerate up to the speed of light with enough fuel to stay at the speed of light until the end of the universe. Cixin’s series also has the nice synchronicity with Tricentennial that the main alien protagonists in Remembrance of Earths Past are called the Trisolarans.So overall a decent story, and I am a fan of stories about space settlers rebelling against earth. Yet this also does not seem like a terrible original story, outside of the time dilation element. It’s patriotic title combined with coming from the prior year’s Hugo novel winner probably gave it the leg up to win in 1977. While I have not read the other Hugo short story nominees for 1977, I must wonder if there was a more original or innovative short story choice for 1977.
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The Hugo Winners Vol 4 Edited by Isaac AsimovAn Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton
March 24, 2025This story initially had me worried as the whole story seemed to be summed up in the first 1-2 pages with 16 pages to go. I kept reading though and the next time I wondered how many pages were left I was astounded to find I had only 3 pages left. I am coming to Ellison at an odd time as I want to read these stories as close to their original medium as possible. As a result, I am coming to this story first in my reading order because I found a collection of Hugo winners from the late 1970s before I found a collection of Hugo winners from Ellison’s golden age in the late 1960s. So I wonder if this is truly Ellison’s best, and yet it still blows me away with how good this story is.Unbeknownst to me, I have encountered Ellison’s work before through the Original Star Trek series, which he wrote some episodes for. My sense is that Ellison is one of those pivotal figures remain relative unknown outside their field. This is my first time reading Ellison though and I can see why he is so revered. I would say this is the best short story I have read so far in the Hugo short story winners. It definitely makes me want to read Ellison’s work that won the Hugo back in the 1960s when he was at his peak.This story unfortunately falls into the nostalgia that seems to have been the theme of the 1970s Hugo short story winners. First there is the nostalgia in the text for the pop culture of the 1930s and 1940s. Interestingly this resonated with me as this pop culture was having a revival during my own childhood in the 1990s. I also find myself at a life stage (mid-30s) were I am experiencing a longing for simpler days similar to the feeling in this story. Second, there is the nostalgia of giving the award to Ellison as a previous Hugo winner. Indeed, this win seems more a celebration of Ellison’s past achievements rather than the merits of the story. Several commentators in "An Informal History of the Hugos" note that a short story titled “Air Raid” by Herb Bochm (pseudonym for Jack Vance) was a much more worthy nomination to win in 1978.Conclusion, Ellison is worth the hype and I look forward to reading his peak work from the late 1960s. With that, this work and award have the heavy feel of nostalgia about them and I fully believe the commentators in "An Informal History of the Hugos" when they say there was story that was more deserving of the Hugo short story award in 1978. The next Hugo winner for short story (Cassandra by CJ Cherryh) marks a break with this backward looking trend in the Hugos and I head into reading this story with much excitement.Sources
The Hugo Winners Vol 4 Edited by Isaac AsimovAn Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton
March 23, 2025I was excited to read this story as CJ Cherryh is the first Hugo short story winner who was at the peak of their career in my lifetime. As previously mentioned, this is also the first short story Hugo to go to someone who had not previously won a Hugo since 1979, so was excited to see something new from the Hugos. At the same time, I have a mixed experience with CJ Cherryh.I have enjoyed Foreigner, and its sequels, but I have gotten into the rest of Cherryh’s work. One reason for this is the way that Cherryh throws you right into the middle of the action with no explanation, which is a style of writing I usually do not really enjoy. I need a little exposition at the start of a story to get me going that is not ham-fisted. A good recent example was the opening of the film Saturday Night (2024). The other issue with Cherryh I find is that she tends to set up a fictional world and then churn out an endless stream of books in that setting that quickly grow a bit predictable after 3 to 5 books.So, my first praise for this story is that it is a stand-alone story with no connection to any of Cherryh’s expanded universes. I also appreciate that it is a nice retelling of the myth of Cassandra in a modern setting. As in the myth, most people dismiss Casandra’s prophecies, but now they consider Casandra insane and give her sedatives to shut her up. The story is also honestly a shorty story at seven pages long. For a long time at the Hugos the short story category only meant a story shorter than a novel, so you find novellas and novelettes in this category. Cassandra appeared at the end of the collection I was reading and I was honestly wondering if I had missed this story.The problem with this story is that retelling classic myths and stories with a science fiction or modern twist has been done to death and there are plenty of examples better than this. At the time this was written (1979) it probably was still relatively original, which is what I would guess it won on. Yet the story seems dated by today’s standards. Dan Simmon’s “Hyperion” (the Hugo winner for best novel in 1990) is a far better execution of this device, retelling the Canterbury Tales in space with the Terminator😊.In “An Informal History of the Hugos” Jo Walton notes of Cassandra, “I don’t remember the Cherryh, though I am sure I’ve read it.” This seems like the best summation of this story and Cherrhy’s work. Cherryh is a solid writer who can turn out engaging stories, but they do not stick with you. For me, this was particularly prominent since I read Cassandra immediately after the Ellison story that won the year prior (Jeffty is Five). An Ellison story really sticks in your head. It’s the difference between a good story and a great story.Sources
The Hugo Winners Vol 4 Edited by Isaac Asimov
An Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton
Saturday Night (2024)
April 22, 2025David Brin is the second author contemporaneous to me to win the Hugo after Octavia Butler’s win in 1984. Unfortunately, David Brin seems to have faded from public consciousness. He was not a particularly prolific writer, and his writing does not easily fit into current discourse. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, I still very much enjoy David Brin and regularly return to his Uplift novels as a reminder of the sublime nature of time and our place in the universe.While reading up on David Brin, it was interesting to see how many sources now group him with hard science fiction. I first came across Brin in the early 2000s as part of the space opera revival of the 1980s and 1990s. While Brin was trained and practiced as a scientist, his writing was never dogmatic in the application of science like you might find in a Larry Niven story. Indeed, it incorporates many fantastical and speculative elements as metaphors for the excitement and wonder of time while having only a slight connection to our current understanding of science.This story is a good example. All M class stars (like our sun) are surrounded by a crystal sphere that stops anything from entering the star system. This is a fun call back to the belief in ancient astronomy that the plants, stars and sun were held up in the sky by crystal spheres. There is no scientific reason to think this is the case now though. These crystal spheres serve as a metaphor for the challenges humans face in exploring the universe. This device also touches on several reoccurring themes in Brin’s work: the need for laws and traditions that protect ecosystems, the Fermi Paradox, and the legacy of sentient life passed down through deep time.The greatest theme of Brin’s work is the sense of time and how strange it truly is. In this story, for example, humanity has developed 5 different means of faster than light travel due to the immense amount of time covered since our current day. Our protagonist has lived over 3000 years since the sphere around the sun was shattered by a departing ship, dropping into suspended animation for extended periods. This theme reaches its climax in Brin’s Uplift series where recorded galactic history goes back billions of years and the last 100,000 years is considered recent history.The colossal scope and fantastical elements of Brin’s stories are not well received in our current culture though with its emphasis on realism and literalism. Instead of seeing these fantastical elements, like crystal spheres around solar systems, as metaphors, many contemporary readers take them literally and laugh at their implausibility. This really is a shame as Brin’s writing reminds us that planets and the universe work at different scales and speeds than our frantic human race to achieve. Brin invites us to consider that what might seem small, or insignificant, from our human perspective may in fact be an important element of something much larger and grander than our scale. That we are all part of a web of life that is truly mind boggling, beautiful and sublime.Source
The River of Time by David Brin, thanks to the Friends of the Corvallis Library for having this in their book sale room😊
Note: This bibliography seeks to provide complete MLA citations for the resources listed in the source sections for each story. It is a work in progress and may not include all resources listed in the sources section for a story.
Anderson, Poul. "The Longest Voyage." Asimov, The Hugo Winners, pg. 301-333.Asimov, Isaac, editor. The Hugo Winners. Penguin Science Fiction, 1964.Block, Robert. "The Hell-Bound Train." Asimov, The Hugo Winners, pg. 249-262.Brin, David. "The Crystal Spheres." The River of Time by David Brin. Bantam Spectral Book, 1990, pg. 3-23.Clark, Arthur C. "The Star." Asimov, The Hugo Winners, pg. 163-171.Davidson, Avram. "Or All the Seas with Oysters." Asimov, The Hugo Winners, pg. 177-186.Keys, Daniel. "Flowers for Algernon." Asimov, The Hugo Winners, pg. 267-296.Russel, Erik Frank. "Allamagoosa." Asimov, The Hugo Winners, pg. 93-107.Walton, Jo. An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000. Tor, 2018.