Hugo Winner Book Review: The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

I found this novel rough going. I wanted to give up on it a few times, and I did set it aside for several weeks. But about half way through my interest picked up.

There is nothing wrong with the story or writing. For some reason the plot and characters did not particularly appeal to me and it is leans more towards "soft" science fiction where I am generally a fan of the "hard" genre.

It is very imaginative, and has some very poetic writing.

Hugo Winner Book Review: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Winner of the 1975 Hugo for best novel, this is a fascinating story about an unlikely hero and two planets with widely differing political systems. It fits into Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, like "The Left Hand of Darkness" a Hugo winner I previously reviewed.

Highly original and imaginative, It describes an anarchist utopian society that almost had me convinced that it could work.

Recommended reading, it is a standalone novel that doesn't require having ready any of the other novels in the series.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm

This was the 1977 Hugo award winner for best novel.

It is a near-future apocalyptic tale with some aspects that are disturbingly familiar today (e.g. pollution, climate change, new diseases, genetic engineering).

The writing style is quite different from most of the classic SF authors, with much focus on characters and their emotions. I found it somewhat reminiscent of John Wyndham's work.

An enjoyable novel, unpredictable and disturbing at times, I think it was well deserving of the award

Hugo Winner Book Review: Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov wrote the award winning Foundation trilogy, originally as a series of eight short stories published from 1942 through 1950, and then in the form of three novels. One portion, "The Mule", won the Hugo in 1946. The trilogy won a Hugo for "Best All-Time Series" in 1960.

Despite requests from fans, he wrote no more books in the series until 1982 with the publication of Foundation's Edge. The novel, winner of the Hugo award in 1983, continued the series and took place after the events of the first three books.

I believe what got Asimov motivated into writing a sequel was the challenge to tie the Foundation series in to many of the other novels he had written subsequently. He is able to weave into this novel references and themes from his novels The Stars, Like Dust, The Currents of Space, Pebble in the Sky, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The End of Eternity, and his robot stories.

Like the original series, the book is not for everyone. It is heavy on dialog, has many characters, and a plot that has many unexpected twists and turns. Readers looking for space battles, monsters, and aliens will be left wanting.

I read this novel some time ago, but read it again as part of the Hugo award reading challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Asimov subsequently wrote more novels in the series, but he never again won a Hugo for best novel.

Hugo Winner Book Review: The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

I started this journey of reading Hugo award winning novels with books that were written well before I was born. Over 30 novels in, I'm now up to the Hugo award for best novel in 1980, the year that I got married.

Isaac Asimov is my favorite science fiction writer, but when Arthur C. Clarke was writing at his best, I think he was a better writer. This novel is Clarke at the top of his form. Based on the idea of a "space elevator" (one which is theoretically possible and likely to happen some day) it has all the hallmarks of his writing including an exciting and imaginative story with many excellent little details. The characters are also a little more developed than in most of his stories.

A hallmark of his writing seems to be contact with extraterrestrials, often highly advanced. This was not part of this story but he adds a subplot plot on this topic that gets weaved into the main story.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

Winner of the Hugo award for besr novel of 1979, this is a touching and beautiful story with an original and imaginative plot, well developed characters, and a fascinating science fiction setting. It is science fiction at its best, where the plot and characters are primary. Earlier dominated by men, by 1979 the Hugo awards were being won about half the time by women, and in recent years women have almost entirely dominated the best novel awards. This is highly recommended ready for anyone, whether science fiction fans or not.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Gateway by Frederik Pohl

This novel won the Hugo award for best novel of 1978.

I enjoyed it, finding it an eclectic mix of science fiction themes with interesting characters and a very imaginative premise. It later became part of a series of novels and stories around a similar theme: the mysterious alien Heechee race.

The novel makes use of an interesting device in that many pages contain standalone text for signs, legal documents, classified ads, and even some kind of BASIC-like computer programming.

Pohl was a life-long friend of Isaac Asimov, and even acted as his literary agent for a period of time. The book has some references to a "Dr Asmenion" who was an expert on explaining science and astronomy and likes to tell off-colour jokes and was apparently from somewhere near Smolensk, Russia. This is clearly a little jab at Asimov. Another letter is written by a "Harry Hellison" that sounds suspiciously like science fiction writer Larry Ellison.

Pohl had a long career as a science fiction writer and editor, active right up to the time of his death in 2013 at age 93, but this was his only Hugo award winning novel (he did won some more Hugos in other categories).

Hugo Winner Book Review: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

This won the Hugo for best Science Fiction novel in 1976.

It is about a long running war that is far away, fought by conscripted soldiers who don't want to be there, and ultimately turns out to be pointless and unnecessary. While definitely science fiction, it has many parallels with the Vietnam war that the author served in.

Not a humorous or particularly pleasant novel, it is highly imaginative and makes one think about war and even the future of mankind. The Earth depicted in the early 21st century has many disturbing parallels to the world of today and where it might be headed.

In summary, a fascinating read that was well deserving of the Hugo, particularly as the author went through 18 publishers before he found one willing to publish it.

Hugo Winner Book Review: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

This novel won the Hugo award for 1973.

I had read it before, but it is one of Asimov's best novels and as it had been some years since reading it, I decided to read it again.

I remember reading in Asimov's autobiography that the genesis of this novel was a criticism that his stories didn't feature non-human aliens or sex, so he was determined to write a novel with very alien aliens and (alien) sex.

The novel is in three distinct parts: the first takes place on Earth, the second in a different (parallel) universe, and the third takes place on a future colonized moon.

It is a standalone novel that doesn't fit into his robot or Foundation series, and in my opinion was Asimov in his prime. There were some similarities in his depiction of lunar colonies with books by Robert A. Heinlein, but I think this just reflected the general thinking of most science fiction authors of that era about where future colonization of the moon could go.

He also put in some political intrigue among scientists, vying for fame and backstabbing each other, that is likely based on some of his experiences as a scientist and academic.

Hugo Winner Book Review: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer

Another thoroughly enjoyable novel, this won the 1972 Hugo award for best novel.

It was an easy read that I completed in just a few sittings. The style reminds me somewhat of older authors like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, perhaps because the hero was a man from the late 19th century. In fact the main character is a man of so many abilities, like speaking dozens of languages, that I would have said it was a flaw in the book that made him unbelievable if it were not for the fact that Richard Francis Burton was an actual historical character.

The book has a novel premise, interesting characters, gripping plot, and ended up becoming a series of five novels and several short stories.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Ringworld by Larry Niven

This was the Hugo award winner for best novel in 1971.

Considered a classic, the Ringworld is a mysterious alien megastructure millions of miles in size. This first novel spawned a number of sequels and prequels.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, particularly the concept of the Ringworld, but also the plot and characters.

The first edition had a number of technical errors in it, most notably the idea of travelling eastward around the Earth in order to extend the date of a  birthday, when in fact one would need to travel west to do this. Regarding this, Niven wrote, "If you own a first paperback edition of Ringworld, it's the one with the mistakes in it. It's worth money." Sure enough, my copy (pictured above) is indeed a first edition paperback.

Hugo Winner Book Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

This was the winner of the Hugo Award for best novel of 1970, and the first Hugo won by a woman author. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel - it is highly imaginative and original with a gripping plot and well-developed characters. The author describes an entire planet in great detail, with a detailed culture and even describing their calendar and time system. The people of the novel are androgynous, and it raises many interesting questions about the concept of gender, something that is very timely today.

This was the first Le Guin novel I recall reading, and I look forward to reading her 1975 Hugo winning novel in the future.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law states: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This book is based on a similar premise: Any being with sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a god.

The book was the winner of the Hugo Award for best novel in 1968. An interesting mixture of science fiction and Hindu and Buddhist mythology, it is never really explained where or when the events happen.

I found it an interesting concept, but I didn't fully buy into it and didn't find any characters that I really liked or felt that I understood. I found it rough going to get through, despite being extremely well written and very poetic in places.

It is an interesting and imaginative concept that defies categorization as science fiction, fantasy, or something else.

Hugo Winner Book Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

The winner of the Hugo for best novel in 1967, this was the sixth (and last) Hugo won by Heinlein.

It is pretty much classic Heinlein fare, with a good adventure story, interesting characters, and some bold predictions about the future. He also used it as a vehicle to promote some of his ideas on politics, the military, and marriage, but keeps it a little more restrained and less preachy than some of his earlier (and later) novels. It also has a little more humour than his earlier novels.

I had read it some time ago, but enjoyed it on re-reading. In some ways it seems more like his stories written prior to Stranger in a Strange Land, despite being written later. My only complain was that it used a strange plot device: the narrator speaks in a dialect of English influenced by Russian. The use of some Russian words was fine, but his speech takes on some features of Russian grammar, most notably omitting the use of the article "the". Find it makes for annoying read after while.

The novel also helped popularize the expression TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, although it was apparently in use before the book used it.

Reviewing Heinlein's bibliography, I would also say that this marked the last of his books that I really enjoyed. His later works (1970 and later) seemed to me to either repeat similar themes, and/or seemed to be written merely to shock the reader.

Hugo Award Winner: The Wanderer, by Fritz Leiber

Winner of the Hugo for best novel in 1965, this is a story about a mysterious moon-like object that encounters the Earth and causes major destruction. I found the novel rough going -- it has a style with more than ten sub-plots occurring simultaneously, and switching between them very quickly, almost every paragraph. The many different characters in different locations were hard to follow. I didn't really buy into the story until close to the end where I found it more interesting, but much like novels by Arthur C. Clarke, it never fully explains what was happening. It has some in-jokes that give nods to other science fiction stories and authors, and pokes fun at a group of flying saucer enthusiasts, but I would not describe it as a humorous novel.

I had similar feelings about his novel "The Big Time", so I won't be adding Leiber to my list of favourite SF authors.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Originally published as Here Gather the Stars, this novel won the Hugo for best novel in 1964.

It starts with the premise of a man that appears not to age, a rather common plot in science fiction, but soon expands into a much more complex and interesting story.

The plot and characterization were excellent, and the author has a very readable and relaxed style of writing, which sometimes became quite poetic.

Stylistically, I found it much like Asimov and Clarke, two of my favourite authors. Simak, in fact was a friend of Asimov and an influence on him.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, was hooked after the first page, and read it over a weekend (the paperback was under 200 pages).

Hugo Winner Book Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Winner of the Hugo Award for best novel in 1963, this is an alternate history story in which Germany and Japan won the second world war.

An unusual novel, the plot concerns a number of characters whose lives intersect. Taking place in the 1960s, it paints a believable picture of a possible future. An interesting twist is the existence in the story of a fictional novel that depicts a world where Germany and Japan lost the war.

It has an number of unusual and unexpected plot twists, but no satisfying ending.

Readers may be more familiar with the author's novel do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which was made into the film Blade Runner.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Dune by Frank Herbert

This novel won the Hugo award for best novel in 1966 and has been called the world's best-selling science fiction novel.

A sweeping novel, Herbert invented an entire universe with depth and detail like few other novels. It is alien, yet strangely familiar and could have taken place in another universe, or maybe in ours some time in the past or the distant future.

It spawned a series of novels. I first first read it in the 1970s, and remember seeing the spectacular failure of the 1984 film version by David Lynch.

I recall trying to read at least one of the sequels and was not able to finish it. Maybe I will give make another attempt.

The novel held up well on re-reading and, while long, is definitely a must-read for science fiction fans.

Hugo Winner Book Review: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

This is another Hugo award winner by Heinlein (who won the award for best novel six times, more than any other author). Written in 1961, it won the award for 1962.

The inspiration for the book was said to come from an offhand comment Heinlein made in a speech (and later in one of his books) about the fact that no one ever wrote a book about a Martian named Smith.

Other than the premise of a human raised on Mars, the book is not heavy science fiction. The book was incredibly popular, becoming the first science fiction novel to make the New York Times best-seller list and had sold 5 million copies by 1997 and is still in print.

It's depiction of free love and commune living made the book controversial. The beliefs and politics in the book were substantially different from those in his previous novels. Friends of Heinlein have remarked that it reflected turning point in his personal beliefs from conservative to liberal values, which apparently also coincided with his marriage to his third wife. Heinlein claimed that he had planned and worked out the novel for years, but had to wait until society was ready to accept it. It was certainly in line with many of the societal changes that happened in the 1960s.

The book was even responsible for adding a new word, "grok", to the English language (and is recognized in the Oxford English Dictionary).

I've read the novel several times in the past, and enjoyed reading it again. I don't personally agree with many of the ideas in the story, but the goal of the author was to make the reader think and questions their values, and I fee that he succeeded.

I would rate this as the peak of Heinlein's career. Some of his later novels seemed to try to a similar approach but in my opinion came across as just trying to shock the reader. Overall this is an ideal novel for the non-science fiction reader.

Hugo Winner Book Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

The winner of the Hugo award for best novel of 1961 (the year I was born), I found this an interesting novel that is hard to categorize. Is it post apocalyptic science fiction? Black comedy? Does it make a statement about where the world may have been headed during the cold war (and maybe in the future)? Is it for or against religion?

Written in three parts, each separated by several hundred years but taking place in the same location, it is a long and sweeping novel. I'll need some time to absorb it.

Recommended, even for non-fans of science fiction. But be prepared to look up some Latin words and phrases.