Nebula Awards 32


Nebula Awards 32 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Jack Dann. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt Brace in April 1998.

Summary

The book collects pieces that won or were nominated for the Nebula Awards for novella, novelette and short story for the year 1997, a profile of 1997 Damon Knight Memorial [Grand Master Award|Grand Master award winner] Jack Vance with a representative early story by him, and various other nonfiction pieces related to the awards, together with the Rhysling Award-winning poems for 1996 and an introduction by the editor. Not all nominees for the various awards are included, and one of the novella nominees included was actually for the 1996 award.

Contents

  • "Introduction"
  • "Keeping Up"
  • "Must Have Been Something I Ate"
  • "Interactive Science Fiction: 1996"
  • "The British Scene"
  • "The Road to 1996"
  • "Who Is Killing Science Fiction?"
  • "Abandoned Cities"
  • "Must and Shall"
  • "In the Shade of the Slowboat Man"
  • "Da Vinci Rising"
  • "Variants of the Obsolete"
  • "Future Present: A Lesson in Expectation"
  • "A Birthday"
  • "The Chronology Protection Case"
  • "Jack Vance: Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy"
  • "My Friend Jack"
  • "The Men Return'
  • "Yaguara"
  • "Science Fiction Films of 1996"
  • "Five Fucks"
  • "Lifeboat on a Burning Sea"
  • "Selected Titles from the 1996 Preliminary Nebula Ballot"
  • "Past Nebula Award Winners"
  • "About the Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America"

    Reception

Kirkus Reviews calls the anthology one to "read enjoy. Just don't mention 'franchising' if Norman Spinrad's within earshot." The fictional offerings are briefly noted, with most comment reserved for the essays; Warren "heroically watched all the year's movies," Shepard "gloomily records the death of literary science fiction," and Hand "growls that fiction itself has become 'a barrio of the entertainment industry.'"

The collection was also reviewed by Faren Miller and Gary K. Wolfe in Locus no. 447, April 1998, Brian Stableford in The [New York Review of Science Fiction], July 1998, and David A. Truesdale in SF Site, June 1998.

Awards

The anthology placed ninth in the 1999 Locus Poll Award for Best Anthology.