Nebula Awards 22: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy. edited by George Zebrowski. 1986
NEBULA AWARDS 22
RATED 81% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 3.75 OUT OF 5
8 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 4 GOOD / 1 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
Nebula Awards 22 covers stories published in 1986 and are selected by the Science Fiction Writers of America. I’ve reviewed five previous volumes to quirky and mixed results often because the editor plays silly games with how they structure the anthology. George Zebrowski plays it pretty straight. You get all the winners and a sampling of a few other finalists.
Other Reviews of Nebula Awards Anthologies:
This was the year that Isaac Asimov was selected as Grand Master and this book includes the essay, “Seven Steps to Grand Master.” One of Asimov’s more famous essays about himself, it was written specifically for this anthology.
There is also some award winning poetry and a long review of the science fiction films of 1986. For once, it isn’t a derogatory hit piece.
Two Stories Make The All-Time Great List:
Tangents • (1986) • short story by Greg Bear
Awe-inspiring story of a mathematician trying to connect with multi-dimensional beings. Another story in conversation with the great book Flatland, but this story brings great characters and literary flair.
R & R • (1986) • novella by Lucius Shepard
A masterpiece of war fiction, not just scifi war fiction. In the near future battle between the USA and Cuba in Guatemala, a solider who maybe has some psychic powers takes some R&R. Not interested in the drinking and whoring of the other soldiers, he takes walks trying to decide whether or not to desert to Panama. This is visceral, bloody, intense and very personal. It is full of images that will last in my head for a long time. A coked-up soldier fights a jaguar to the death in a pit. Running and fighting room to room in a complex known as the Ant Farm. This is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time.
NEBULA AWARDS 22
8 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 4 GOOD / 1 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
Robot Dreams • [Susan Calvin] • (1986) • short story by Isaac Asimov
Good. A robot that has a different kind of positronic brain is starting to dream. And that worries Susan Calvin.
Tangents • (1986) • short story by Greg Bear
Great. Awe-inspiring story of a mathematician trying to connect with multi-dimensional beings. Another story in conversation with the great book Flatland, but this story brings great characters and literary flair.
Surviving • (1986) • novelette by Judith Moffett
Good. A Sapphic take on the Tarzan story. A young girl is believed dead after a plane crash, but shows up alive. She has been living with apes. After being integrated into ‘proper’ society, a middle-aged woman who has been obsessed with studying her because of the Tarzan similiarities starts the relationship both sexual and about climbing trees.
The Girl Who Fell Into the Sky • (1986) • novelette by Kate Wilhelm
Good. I love this creepy fantasy about the horrors hidden in the history of mundane objects. A middle aged man arrives at an abandoned farm house to buy a player piano from the heirs and finds a young woman there. She has been recording people tell their stories of the supernatural. Weird dreams and creepy ruins in the valley of wheat lead to a dark family past. Note: Would have been rated Great but that is reserved for Science Fiction on this blog.
Listening to Brahms • (1986) • novelette by Suzy McKee Charnas
Good. A very small number of humans are brought out of cryo-sleep after all the rest of humanity has killed itself. The alien culture they are in is obsessed with human culture. It is traumatic for human and alien alike.
R & R • (1986) • novella by Lucius Shepard
Great. A masterpiece of war fiction, not just scifi war fiction. In the near future battle between the USA and Cuba in Guatemala, a solider who maybe has some psychic powers takes some R&R. Not interested in the drinking and whoring of the other soldiers, he takes walks trying to decide whether or not to desert to Panama. This is visceral, bloody, intense and very personal. It is full of images that will last in my head for a long time. A coked-up soldier fights a jaguar to the death in a pit. Running a fighting room to room in a complex known as the Ant Farm. This is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time.
Salvage • (1986) • novelette by Orson Scott Card
Average. A vulgar young man with a 6th card education takes people out to explore a Mormon church that is submerged beneath the Mormon Sea and is moved by the experience.
Newton Sleep • (1986) • novelette by Gregory Benford
DNF. A man dies in a plane crash and goes to hell. He died a bunch more times over about 1/4 of the story and nothing interesting was happening.
