Celebrating its 35th year with Showcase 2001, the Nebula Awards anthology series once again offers a fine snapshot of the world of science fiction. Edited by former Nebula Award winner Robert Silverberg, the anthology mixes stories, excerpts, and poetry with essays from speculative fiction notables. Silverberg introduces the collection with a hazy nonexplanation of why works from both 1998 and 1999 are considered for the 1999 Nebula Awards, along with the story of Damon Knight, how SFWA began, and what happened during that first Nebula banquet.

Of course, the reason for the anthology is the winning stories, and they are on display with nice introductions from Silverberg and a bit from each writer on how the story came to be. Featured stories include Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" (best novella), Mary A. Turzillo's "Mars Is No Place for Children" (best novelette), Leslie What's "The Cost of Doing Business" (best short story), and an excerpt from Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents (best novel). Other stories include two nominees, David Marusek's "The Wedding Album" and Michael Swanwick's "Radiant Doors," as well as 2000 Grand Master Brain W. Aldiss's 1958 story "Judas Danced."

The most notable essay in the Nebula Showcase comes from Gary K. Wolfe, who examines the field of science fiction and publishing from several different angles, although Wolfe's take on SF movies seems to be thrown in as an afterthought. Winding up the anthology is a thoughtful and enlightening excerpt from Author Emeritus 2000 Daniel Keyes's memoir, Algernon, Charlie, and I: A Writer's Journey, which is about how he wrote Flowers for Algernon, and poetry from Rhysling Award Winners Bruce Boston and Laurel Winter.

For anyone serious about science fiction, the Nebula Awards Showcase 2001 provides an invaluable look at how the professionals view their field. --Kathie Huddleston


From Library Journal
Presented annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), the Nebula Awards highlight the year's best contributions to the genre. Selections include Ted Chiang's novella Story of Your Life, Mary A. Turzillo's novelette "Mars Is No Place for Children," an excerpt from Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Talents, and other award-winning stories as well as essays on the state of the genre and an appendix of past winners of the Nebula Awards. A good addition to most libraries' sf collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The Washington Post Book World
"Where Silverberg goes today, Science Fiction will follow tomorrow."-Isaac Asimov "[He] seems capable of amazements beyond those of mere mortals."


From Booklist
Invariably a worthwhile addition for most sf collections, this annual could be characterized as "how the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America view the field." For, as always, it presents the complete texts of the three works of short fiction to which the membership of the SFFWA has given the latest Nebula awards, as well as a usually inadequate excerpt from the winning novel (this time, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents). Along with the latest winners--Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life"(novella), Mary A. Turzillo's "Mars Is No Place for Children" (novelette), and Leslie What's "Cost of Doing Business" (short story)--two also-rans and a recent piece by the year's Grand Master honoree, Brian Aldiss, appear. Aldiss is idiosyncratically profiled by Harry Harrison; editor Silverberg and Gary K. Wolfe contribute commentaries; and Barry Malzberg remarks on Daniel Keyes, the designated Author Emeritus 2000, who speaks eloquently for himself about the origins and history of his sf masterpiece, Flowers for Algernon (1965). Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Edited by the widely acclaimed SF author Robert Silverberg, the Nebula Awards series is "the pulse of modern science fiction" (The New York Times Book Review)

The Nebula Awards are the Academy Awards of science fiction, the finest works each year in the genre as voted by the members of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

The Nebula Awards anthology series has now reached its thirty-fifth year. This edition contains the complete award-winning texts by Ted Chiang, Mary A. Turzillo, Leslie What, and Octavia E. Butler (an excerpt from her novel The Parable of the Talents); a report on the field ("still inarguably dynamic") by Gary K. Wolfe; runner-up stories by David Marusek and Michael Swanwick; an early story by 2000 Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss; and 2000 Author Emeritus Daniel Keyes's account of how he wrote Flowers for Algernon.

In his introduction, editor Robert Silverberg looks back wryly at Damon Knight, the beginnings of SFWA, and the first Nebula banquets.

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

This compilation includes various 1999 Nebula Award winners: a novella, "Story of Your Life," by Ted Chiang; a novelette, "Mars is No Place for Children," by Mary A. Turzillo; a short story, "The Cost of Doing Business," by Leslie What; and epilogue from a novel, "Parable of the Talents," by Octavia E. Butler. It also includes essays discussing SF's literary role, some of the other novelettes and short stories from the final ballot, the Rhysling Award-winning poems, an essay by Daniel Keyes as author emeritus, and one of Brian W. Aldiss's stories. (He was the winner of the Grand Master award.) The stories the writers themselves feel are the best and brightest for the past year are compiled here. There is less literary discussion in this volume than in previous years, and a breezier tone in Silverberg's introduction, which will endear this volume to its teen readers. As always, some of the runner-ups strike me as better than the winners. The appended listing of past Nebula Award winners is convenient as a reading list for budding SF fans. KLIATT Codes: JSA—Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2001, Harcourt, 252p., $14.00. Ages 13 to adult. Reviewer: Sherry S. Hoy; Libn., Tuscarora Jr. H.S., Mifflintown, PA , September 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 5)

Library Journal