FORGOTTEN (?) BOOKS: THE HUGO WINNERS/THE NEW HUGO WINNERS

For an impressive look at some of the best science fiction writing in shorter form from the years 1955 through 1992, it's hard to beat the seven-book, Isaac Asimov-edited series of anthologies The Hugo Winners.

The Hugos are yearly awards for the "best" science fiction (in a number of categories) as voted by members of the World Science Fiction Convention.  Science fiction fans can be a persnickety lot, so the winners may or may not represent the very best of any given year* (there can be quite a bit of politicking and sentiment behind the voting) -- but the winners here are certainly deserving of recognition as some of the best.

The Hugos (named for Hugo Gernsback, the pioneering science fiction editor) began in 1953 (for works published the year before) but did not begin being awarded for novelettes and short stories until 1955.

Here are the winners from each anthology:

The Hugo Winners, Volume 1, edited by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1962)

• "Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell (from Astounding Science Fiction, May 1955) {Best Short Story]
• "The Darfsteller" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (from Astounding Science Fiction, January 1955) [Best Novelette]
• "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke (from Infinity Science Fiction, November 1955) [Best Short Story]
• "Exploration Team" by "Murray Leinster" (Will F. Jenkins) (from Astounding Science Fiction, March 1956) [Best Novelette]
• "Or All the Sea with Oysters" by Avram Davidson (from Galaxy Science Fiction, May 1958)[Best Short Story]
• "That Hell-Bound Train" by Robert Bloch (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1958) [Best Short Story]
• "That Big Front Yard" by Clifford D. Simak (from Astounding Science Fiction, October 1958) [Best Novelette]
• "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1959) [Best Short Fiction]
• "The Longest Voyage" by Poul Anderson (from Analog Science Fact -> Fiction, December 1960) [Best Short Fiction]

Notes:  1)  The qualifying dates of publication for the early Hugos were a little bit loose, as you can see.  2) Ditto what constitutes a short story and what constitutes a novelette.  3) There were no fiction awards presented in 1957.  4) In 1958, the awards for best novel and best novelette were combined and was won by Fritz Leiber for The Big Time, as serialized in Galaxy Science Fiction.  5) "That Hell-Bound Train" was fantasy, not science fiction; from then on, the Hugos -- while going mostly to science fiction stories -- would occasionally go to a fantasy story.  6) Beginning in 1960, there was a single short fiction award.

The Hugo Winners, Volume Two edited by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1971)

• "The Dragon Masters" by Jack (John Holbrook) Vance (from Galaxy Magazine, August 1962) [Best Short Fiction]
• "No Truce with Kings" by Poul Anderson (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1963) [Best Short Fiction]
• "Soldier, Ask Not" by Gordon R. Dickson (from Galaxy Magazine, October 1964) [Best Short Fiction]
• "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktock Man" by Harlan Ellison (from Galaxy Magazine, December 1965) [Best Short Fiction]
• "Neutron Star" by Larry Niven (from If, October 1966) [Best Short Story]
• "The Last Castle" by Jack (John Holbrook) Vance (from Galaxy Magazine, April 1966) [Best Novella]
• "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison (from If, March 1967) [Best Short Story]
• "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber (from Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, 1967) [Best Novelette]
• "Riders of the Purple Wage" by Philip Jose Farmer (from Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, 1967) [tied - Best Novella]
• "Weyr Search" by Anne McCaffrey (from Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, October 1967) [tied - Best Novella]
• "The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" by Harlan Ellison (from Galaxy Magazine, June 1968) [Best Short Story]
• "The Sharing of Flesh" by Poul Anderson (from Galaxy Magazine, December 1968) [Best Novelette]
• "Nightwings" by Robert Silverberg (Galaxy Magazine, September 1968) [Best Novella]
• "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" by Samuel R. Delaney (from New Worlds #185, December 1968) [Best Short Story]

Notes:  1) The 1962 best short fiction award went to the "Hothouse" series of five short stories by Brian W. Aldiss and is not included in this volume.  2) In 1967 the short fiction category was again replaced with separate categories for novelette and short story.  3) The 1970 best novella, Fritz Leiber's "Ship of Shadows," was not included in this volume, but was moved over to Volume Three; the best novelette category was eliminated.

The Hugo Winners, Volume Three edited by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1977)

• "Ship of Shadows" by Fritz Leiber (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1969) [Best Novella]
• "Slow Sculpture" by Theodore Sturgeon (from Galaxy Magazine, February 1970) [Best Short Story)
• "Ill Met in Lankhmar" by Fritz Leiber (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1970) [Best Novella]
• "Inconstant Moon" by Larry Niven (from All the Myriad Ways, 1971) [Best Short Story]
• "The Queen of Air and Darkness" by Poul Anderson (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1971) [Best Novella]
• "Eurema's Dam" by R. A. Lafferty (from New Dimensions II:  Eleven Original Science Fiction Stories, edited by Robert Silverberg, 1971) [tied - Best Short Story]
• "The Meeting" by Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1972) [tied - Best Short Story]
• "Goat Song" by Poul Anderson (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1972) [Best Novelette]
• "The Word for the World Is Forest" by Ursula K. Le Guin (from Again, Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, 1972) [Best Novella]
• "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin (from New Dimensions 3, edited by Robert Silverberg, 1973) [Best Short Story]
• "The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1973) [Best Novelette]
• "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" by "James Tiptree, Jr." (Alice Shelton) (from New Dimensions 3, edited by Robert Silverberg, 1973) [Best Novella]
• "The Hole Man" by Larry Niven (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, January 1974) [Best Short Story]
• "Adrift Just Off the Islet of Langerhans:  Latitude 38 (degrees] 54' N Longitude 77 [degrees] 00' 13" W" by Harlan Ellison (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1974) [Best Novellette]
• "A Song for Lya" by George R. R. Martin (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1974) [Best Novella]

Notes:  1) The best novelettte award was reinstated in 1973.

The Hugo Winners, Volume 4 edited by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1985)

• "Catch That Zeppelin!" by Fritz Leiber (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1975) [Best Short Story]
• "The Borderland of Sol" by Larry Niven (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, January 1975) [Best Novelette]
• "Home Is the Hangman" by Roger Zelazny (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1975) [Best Novella]
• "Tricentennial" by Joe Haldeman (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, July 1976) [Best Short Story]
• "The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov (from Stellar 2, edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey) [Best Novelette]
• "By Any Other Name" by Spider Robinson (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1976) [tied - Best Novella]
• 'Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" by "James Tiptree, Jr." (Alice Sheldon) (from Aurora:  Beyond Equality, edited by Susan Janice Anderson & Vonda N. McIntyre, 1976) [tied - Best Novella]
• "Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1977) [Best Short Story]
• "Eyes of Amber" by Joan D. Vinge (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1977) [Best Novelette]
• "Star Dance" by Spider Robinson & Jeanne Robinson (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, March 1977) [Best Novella]
• "Cassandra" by "C.J. Cherryh" Carolyn Cherry) (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1978) [Best Short Story}
• "Hunter's Moon" by Poul Anderson (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1978) [Best Novelette]
• "The Persistance of Vision" by John Varley (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1978) [Best Novella]

The Hugo Winners, Volume 5: 1980-1982 edited by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1986)

• "The Way of Cross and Dragon" by George R. R. Martin (from Omni, June 1979) [Best Short Story]
• "Sandkings" by George R. R. Martin (from Omni, August 1979) [Best Novelette]
• "Enemy Mine" by Barry B. Longyear (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, September 1979) [Best Novella]
• "Grotto of the Dancing Bear" by Clifford D. Simak (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, April 1980) [Best Short Story]
• "The Cloak and the Staff" by Gordon R. Dickson (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1980) [Best Novelette]
• "Lost Dorsai" by Gordon R. Dickson (from Destinies, Volume 2 #1,  February-March 1980) [Best Novella]
• "The Pusher" by John Varley (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1981) [Best Short Story]
• "Unicorn Variation" by Roger Zelazny (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, April 13, 1981) [Best Novelette]
• "The Saturn Game" by Poul Anderson (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, February 2, 1981) [Best Novella]

The New Hugo Winners: Award-Winning Science Fiction Stories edited by Isaac Asimov & (uncredited) Martin H. Greenberg (Wynwood Press, 1989)

• "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1982) [Best Short Story]
• "Firewatch" by Connie Willis (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, February 15, 1982) [Best Novelette]
• "Souls" by Joanna Russ (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1982) [Best Novella]
• "Speech Sounds" by Octavia E. Butler (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Mid-December 1983) [Best Short Story]
• "Blood Music" by Greg Bear (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1983) [Best Novelette]
• "Cascade Point" by Timothy Zahn (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, December 1983) [Best Novella]
• "The Crystal Spheres" by David Brin (from Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, January 1984) [Best Short Story]
• "Bloodchild" by Octavia E. Butler (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1984) [Best Novelette]
• "Press Enter []" by John Varley (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, May 1984) [Best Novella]

The New Hugo Winners: Volume II edited by Isaac Asimov & (uncredited) Martin H. Greenberg (Baen, 1992)

• "Fermi and Frost" by Frederik Pohl (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1985) [Best Short Story]
• "Paladin of the Lost Hour" by Harlan Ellison (from Universe 15, edited by Terry Carr, 1985) [Best Novelette]
• "24 Views of Mr. Fuji, by Hokusai" by Roger Zelazny (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1985) [Best Novella]
• "Tangents" by Greg Bear (from Omni, January 1986) [Best Short Story]
• "Permafrost" by Roger Zelazny (from Omni, April 1986) [Best Novelette]
• "Gilgamesh in the Outback" by Robert Silverberg (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Julu 1986) [Best Novella]
• "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers" by Lawrence Watt-Evans (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1987) [Best Short Story]
• "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight?" by Ursula K. Le Guin (from Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences, 1987) [Best Novelette]
• "Eye for Eye" by Orson Scott Card (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, March 1987) [Best Novella] 

There you have it. all the Hugo-winning short fiction through 1988 -- a wide variety of stories well worth you time.  Highly recommended.

*For an alternate view, there are three anthologies edited by Richard A. Lupoff, What If?  Volumes 1-3, which gives the stories that should have-could have won Hugo Awards, beginning with the first awards in 1953.  Good stuff and recommended.