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Nebula Awards 27: Sfwa's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (Nebula Awards Showcase) Paperback – January 1, 1993

by James Morrow (Editor)

4.9 4 ratings

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Presents the winning stories for best science fiction and fantasy of 1991, featuring works by Bruce Sterling and Joe Haldeman, and appreciations of the late Isaac Asimov

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harcourt; First Edition (January 1, 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 331 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0156654717
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0156654715
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,210,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,314 in Fantasy Anthologies
- #7,000 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Books)
- #30,854 in Short Stories Anthologies

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K. M. Harrell

excellent anthology. I always enjoy reading from the best ...

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

excellent anthology. I always enjoy reading from the best in the field. I would like the Nebula's to be around forever.

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Antinomian

1991 Short Fiction Nebula Awards Anthology

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2005

It's the year the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) officially change their name to the Science fiction AND FANTASY Writers of America (with the F in SFWA changing from Fiction to Fantasy), but unofficially it had already occurred four years earlier in 1987. This means if your hoping to read science fiction in these anthologies after 1987, it's hit or miss. Fortunately the SF collections still have a few good science fiction stories for the following few years. Starting in 1993 or so the anthologies are to be avoided because by this time the SFWA unofficially changes their name yet again to the Speculative Fiction Writers of America (and it could be the official name now for all I know). Do you know what qualifies for speculative fiction... basically anything fictional. Pride and Prejudice has a protagonist and events speculated by the author, thus it's speculative fiction. Thus if you're looking to read science fiction, not literature or just plain old fiction, then the Nebula awards winners and anthologies are no longer a guide. But the anthology of this year, 1991, is good.

However, with that being said, this anthology is almost superfluous since the key science fiction story of this collection, Beggars in Spain, and the only reason I still have my copy, can be found elsewhere. This novella can be found in New Hugo Winners IV currently in print and offered by Amazon.com. Included in that book are the novella, novelette, and short story winners of the Hugo awards for three complete years, a much, much better value than the Nebula anthologies which are for only one year and the winners are HUGO winners which considerably increases their chances of being actual science fiction. So if you're able to get a copy of that, then you've obtained the basic necessary story. Nebula Awards 27 is out of print anyway, but if one gets their hands on it and has some extra time, there are a few stories that are worthwhile reading.

The Nebula short story winner, "Ma Qui" by Alan Brennert, is fantasy not science fiction and falls under the Vietnam subgenre fantasy. From the late 80's to early 90's were a flurry of fantasy stories on Vietnam. This subgenre was so influential it even culminated in giving the 1989 Nebula award for NOVEL to The Healer's War, which is absolutely not science fiction and is to be avoided. The thing about reading this story, even though it's not science fiction, is that it's a good representative of this subgenre in the history of the Nebula Awards and doesn't take a lot of time to read (as opposed to a novel.) So you get to read what all the fuss is about. If the subgenre is still interesting definitely read "The Dark" also included in this anthology which is a good story to read anyway. Of course trying to understand the Vietnam War is worthy and there are several documentaries that one can probably find at a movie rental store or local library. However, if you want to *read* science fiction there are other stories out there.

"Guide Dog" by Mike Connor, the Nebula novelette winner, is again another Nebula winner that's disappointing to read the first, but is better the 2nd time once your expectations are lowered. It's about a human who is basically the `guide dog' for an impaired alien. It is also about asymmetric power relationships. There's a lot about art, painting, etc that I thought was a bit dragged out making the story seem longer than necessary. The part I found frustrating the first time was that it was difficult to imagine the alien race since so little information was given. What helped immensely the 2nd time was imagining the creatures looking like the flying bugs and their interactions shown at the end of the movie Star Wars II.

The novella Nebula winner, Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, is a tour de force and I would say is almost necessary reading for any science fiction reader. The title is a bit misleading, although philosophically important, in that the story is about a Sleepless race, genetically modified humans, that have the need to sleep removed as well as having other modified advantages, some expected and later a key unexpected offshoot from the lack of the need to sleep. The story then evolves into a conflict of envy from the Sleepers to the Sleepless. Personally, I've found that when there's a subgroup that's considered better/higher in status many people don't necessarily want to destroy them but rather become them. It's when a subgroup is considered to be a lower social status that a lot of ugliness can come in. Also the Sleepless is Corporate America's dream/fantasy/wish come true. In reality, every relevant company would be scrambling against each other to snap up the Sleepless into their employee rolls. It's not unknown in the corporate world that the main cost of an employee to a company is paying their medical insurance, vacation days, and sick days (if they can use them) and thus once that's paid, every minute more they squeeze out of an employee to work more is almost pure 100% profit. But Nancy Kress's world is certainly believable enough and works as a cautionary tale. Kress did expand the novella into a full length novel, which was nominated as a Nebula finalist a few years later. I'm not sure if the novella is the first few chapters or so, but the novella does end in the middle of events and one almost wants to read more, so the novel may be worth picking up. However I've just read that there's now a Beggars in Spain trilogy so there could be a lot more reading involved, may or maybe not worthwhile. Certainly though, this novella is a minimum requirement. This story keeps reminding me of some other story, but I just can't place offhand anyone else that wrote about sleepless people, which is amazing since it's a relatively straightforward idea. The general tone of the struggle between the Sleepers and Sleepless though mildly reminds me of the conflict in the Planet of the Apes.

"Standing in Line With Mister Jimmy" could be called a pseudo-cyberpunk story. You can take it or leave it. The most interesting part of the story, and maybe it's main reason for being, is it's parody of rock songs, and the hilarious band names, Barking Fish, Round Women Square Men, Vinnie's Ear, which is well taken to point since they could very well be rock band names. The title of the story is taken from an actual rock song (the Rolling Stones maybe), but in the story Mister Jimmy is the protagonist's musical Walkman, instant access computer, personal assistant, and self-serving friend.

"The Dark" by Karen Joy Fowler, a short story finalist, is a fascinating story. It touches upon a lot of topics, a sign of a great story: the several plague epidemics, fleas as disease carriers, the tunnel rats of Vietnam, the worth of actual rats, even teenage attitudes. I learned more about the tunnel system and tunnel rats of Vietnam, the soldiers who searched the incredibly extensive tunnel system used by the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese) soldiers, than all other sources combined (that is if it's factual). And it's not like I shun info on the Vietnam War, it just seems that moderately available sources of information on them is lacking and in it's place is yet another movie/PBS documentary/news story on Columbine High School or something similar. In the story the author asks if you've ever heard of the Vietnamese district Cu Chi, and if not why not? Yes the answer is, *why not*. If it was the most bombed district in the history of warfare, then why was it bombed, why was it worth bombing? In the story is yet again another statement: "Maybe you think the CIA would never have killed a policeman or tried to use a little child in a black war, even though the CIA has done everything else you've ever been told and refused to believe." It's frustrating to read yet again statements like this over and over, directly or indirectly, when there is full access to information contained in libraries full of the incredibly atrocities committed by and by order of the Communist Russians during the Soviet Regime. The Liberals backed the side of this horrible, brutal system, despite what beautiful ideology they may think is contained at it's heart, and don't have the guts to admit this openly and willingly in anywhere near the same level of exposure as anything on the CIA or Columbine and thus continues the rift between themselves and those that Understand this aspect of world history. However, with that aside, this is still a fascinating story and is the next best story after "Beggars In Spain."

"They're Made Out Of Meat" by Terry Bisson clocks in as one of the shortest SF story I've read at 3 pages, and yet it still felt like a waste of time to read. Basically it's about contact made with an alien race made entirely of meat. That's all you really need to know about it.

The essay, "Precessing The Simulacra For Fun and Profit" by Bruce Sterling is one of a continuing number of essays on the comparison between SF and mainstream writers. Sterling writes perhaps most honestly and forwardly about SF attitudes on this that I've gleaned from many other essays written over the years since at least 1979. He comes right out and writes: "...the traditional SF attitudes toward `the mainstream': pugnacious defensiveness, sneaking suspicions of inferiority, chest-pounding overcompensation..." The essay has also the only direct critical statement on Marxism I've read in the Nebula anthology series and I almost fell out of my chair in astonishment. I reread and reread the few sentences over and over looking for a trace of sarcasm, which is often the case when something like this is written, and I could detect none. This gives hope in some SF writers that there are those that openly recognize and iterate this acknowledged aspect of history.

The three remaining fictional shorter stories are John Kessel's "Buffalo", a story of a meeting between his father and H.G. Wells (which didn't happen), Susan Shwartz's "Getting Real" a 1980's-ish tale on temporary employees (temps) being semi-real people, barely noticeable in the `real' world, and W.Gregory Stewart's "the button, and what you know", a somewhat part poetry, part prose science fiction story and enjoyable to read.

There is a summary of the movies released in 1991, and the SFWA reestablishing an award for best movie script, which the winner for this year is Terminator 2. The winners of the short and long SF poems are included which for this year are good and, um, quite poetic. Lastly are excerpts from the Nebula award winning novel, Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick which is a phenomenal actual science fiction novel.

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