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TIMELINE 1970-1980

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TIMELINE 1970-1980
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What happened in the world of Science Fiction between 1970 and 1980? There are 30 hotlinks here to authors, magazines, films, or television items elsewhere in the Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide or beyond.

Most recently updated: 1 November 1998

Executive Summary of the Decade Major Books of the Decade Major Films of this Decade Other Key Dates and Stories of this Decade Major Writers Born this Decade {to be done} Major Writers Died this Decade Hotlinks to other Timeline pages of SF Chronology Where to Go for More: 51 Useful Reference Books

Executive Summary of the Decade 1970-1980

It is still too soon to brand the decade with a catchy title such as "the Disco years" in any way meaningful to the world of science fiction. Although few trumpeted the notion, it was a golden age of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing, with more good authors than ever before, and most of them able to earn at least a marginal living in the field. Yet David Hartwell comments [Age of Wonders, New York: Walker, 1984, p.192]: The 1970s was a decade of fatigue and retrenchment and disillusionment in our culture, no new energy sources, and an exhaustion of the old ones, literally or figuratively. A twelve-year-old can no longer enter the SF field and become an influential, world-famous Big Name Fan by the age of eighteen -- the field is too large now, the numbers too large.... 'Let's get science fiction back into the gutter where it belongs'." I see just the opposite. Here's why: Most of the "grandmasters" of science fiction were still alive and working, while a generation of younger authors gained confidence and polished their techniques. Major new talents appeared as if from nowhere, such as Gregory Benford, Terry Brooks with "The Sword of Shannara", John Crowley with "The Deep", Stephen R. Donaldson with "Lord Foul's Bane", Gardner Dozois with "Strangers", Joe Haldeman with "The Forever War", Steven King with "Salem's Lot", Vonda MacIntyre with "Dreamsnake", George R. R. Martin, Tom Reamy with "Blind Voices", James Tiptree, Jr. [Alice B. Sheldon], John Varley with "The Ophiuchi Hotline", Ian Watson with "The Embedding", and Gene Wolfe. The 1970s was not a decade of stylistic revolution such as the "New Wave" of the late 1960s, but perhaps a decade of consolidation, where the lessons learned from maninstream literature, "New Wave" experimentalism, and the classics of science fiction were melded into a healthy hybrid. For example, leading author of the literature of paranoia Thomas Pynchon published a mainstream bestseller which used experimental techniques and was unquestionably science fiction: "Gravity's Rainbow." Samuel R. Delany, who had astonished readers with his adventurous works written while he was still a teenager absorbed academic theories and Semiotics to produce massive and puzzling works such as "Dhalgren." E. L. Doctorow blurred the line between history, fiction, and fantasy with Nebula finalist "Ragtime." Italo Calvino wowed his native Italian audiences, and critics, then the world at large with hypermodern fantasy and science fiction which was nonetheless solidly based on his study of Italian folktales. Kingsley Amis, known for many mainstream and satirical novels, also wrote science fiction and was a useful critic of its literary history. William Kotzwinkle was marketed as mainstream, but his giddy fantasies such as "Doctor Rat" were embraced by our genre. Important novels appeared from authors such as: Richard Adams, Brian W. Aldiss, Kingsley Amis, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, J. G. Ballard, T. J. Bass, Gregory Benford, Donald Benson, Alfred Bester, Michael Bishop, James Blish, Robert Bloch, Ben Bova, Ray Bradbury, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Terry Brooks, John Brunner, Edward Bryant, Algis Budrys, Italo Calvino, Ramsey Campbell, Terry Carr, Angela Carter, Jack Chalker, Paddy Chayefski, C. J. Cherryh, Arthur C. Clarke, D. G. Compton, Basil Cooper, Arthur Byron Cover, Michael Crichton, John Crowley, Les Daniels, Avram Davidson, Samuel R. Delany, Lester del Rey, Philip K. Dick, Peter Dickenson, Gordon Dickson, Thomas M. Disch, E. L. Doctorow, Stephen R. Donaldson, Gardner Dozois, Gordon Eklund, George Alec Effinger, Philip Jose Farmer, David Gerrold, Charles L. Grant, James Gunn, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, William Hjortsberg, Stephen King, William Kotzwinkle, R. A. Lafferty, Sterling E. Lanier, Keith Laumer, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le Guin, Fritz Leiber, Staislaw Lem, Ira Levin, Frank Belnap Long, Richard Lupoff, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Vonda MacIntyre, Katherine MacLean, Barry N. Malzberg, Richard Matheson, Anne McCaffrey, Patricia McKillip, Robert Merle, Michael Moorcock, H. Warner Munn, Larry Niven, Robert Carroll O'Brian, Edgar Pangborn, Frederik Pohl, Thomas Pynchon, E. Hoffman Price, Christopher Priest, Marta Randall, Tom Reamy, Spider & Jeanne Robinson, Joanna Russ, Bob Shaw, Robert Sheckley, Charles Sheffield, Robert Silverberg, Clifford D. Simak, Norman Spinrad, Robert Stallman, John Steinbeck, Boris & Arkady Strugatski, Walter Tevis, James Tiptree, Jr. [Alice B. Sheldon], J. R. R. Tolkein, Arthur Wilson Tucker, John Varley, Gore Vidal, Joan D. Vinge, Karl Edward Wagner, Ian Watson, Manley Wade Wellman, Kate Wilhelm, Gene Wolfe, Patricia Wrightson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and Roger Zelazny. For more on the books by these authors in this decade, jump now to: Major Books of the Decade. In the world of magazines: "Galaxy" and "If", under Universal Publishing and Distributing Company, and Ejler Jakobsson, slip from monthly to bimonthly (1970); "Venture" magazine dies a second time (1970); "Vision of Tomorrow", a British/Australian joint venture magazine, collapses after three issues in 1969 and six in 1970; the British magazine "New Worlds", under Michael Moorcock, dies after being kept afloat by an Arts Council grant, and Moorcock transforms the remnants into a remarkable book series (1970); John W. Campbell dies, the most influential magazine editor in science fiction, and Ben Bova steps in to fill his shoes (1971); The Japanese "SF Magazine" which had, since 1960, published Japanese translations of stories in the American "Fantasy & Science Fiction", starts printing original Japanese fiction (1974); the last issue of "If" magazine, thereafter nominally folded into "Galaxy", Jim Baen had replaced Ejler Jakobsson as Editor, and then left to edit Ace Books, leaving John J. Pierce at the helm (1974); the French science fiction anthology series "Univers" is launched by the publisher "J'ai lu" (1975); California-based "Vertex" magazine went tabloid format on cheap newsprint, and then dissolved (1975); "Odyssey Science Fiction" magazine is launched, but only survives for a couple of issues (1976); "SF Digest" is launched, but only the debut issue is published (1976); "Science Fiction Monthly" dies (1976); 50th anniversary of Science Fiction magazines ("Amazing Stories" being the first) and yet not one of the original pulp magazines survived to this date -- In fact, there were just two monthly Science Fiction magazines in good shape: "Analog" and "The Magazine of Fantasy & Scioence Fiction" (1976); Semi-professional magazine "Galileo" launched in 1976 (only to last 15 issues and die in 1980); "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine" is launched (1977); Bob Guccione launches the heavily-capitalized visually sophisticated "Omni Magazine" (1978); the French magazine "SF et quotidien" is launched (1980); an enormous number of good stories and serials are run in these various magazines. Science Fiction movies were certainly a major part of the field, with higher budgets, better special effects, more box office clout, greater in numbers, and included a number of obvious instant classics. I consider the best of the best to be "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), "A Boy and His Dog" (1975), "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976), "Alien" (1979), and, of course, the huge blockbusters of 1977: "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Other notable films of the 1970s included: "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970), "The Andromeda Strain" (1971), "THX 1138" (1971), "Silent Running" (1972), "Slaughterhouse-Five" (1972), "Sleeper" (1973), "Soylent Green" (1973), "West World" (1973) and its sequel Futureworld (1976), "Young Frankenstein" (1974), "Zardoz" (1974), "The Land that Time Forgot" (1975), Rollerball (1975), "The Stepford Wives" (1975), "Logan's Run" (1976), and a few that I'd rather forget, such as the remake of "King Kong" (1976), "The Food of the Gods" (1976), and "Demon Seed" (1977). There were also some films with both good and bad inextricably intertwined, such as "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1977), "The People that Time Forgot" (1977), "Wizards" (1977), "Superman: The Movie" (1978), the remake of "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1978), "Lord of the Rings", and "Watership Down" (1979). Jump to the movies part of this page for hotlinks and more information on all of these film: Major Films of this Decade. I have information listed about, and hotlinks to, some 52 Science Fiction Television of the 1970s. This is up significantly from 35 such shows in the 1960s. It had finally penetrated the brains of network TV executives that maybe this science fiction stuff was commercially viable after all. Science Fiction television began to have influence on the book publishing industry, with the first "spin-off" novels being published beyond the cult fascinations of the previous decade's "Star Trek" and "Man from U.N.C.L.E." But this trend was to continue in later decades even more strongly. In the mundane world: cosmonauts who have successfully docked with the space station "Salyut" die in their "Soyuz" space capsule on descent to Earth (1971); the American space station "Skylab" is launched and crewed (1973); the war in Vietnam comes to a bloody end (1973) and waves of refugee "boat people" begin; the OPEC cartel double the price of crude petroleum (1973); American president Nixon resigns under threat of impeachment (1974); the American "Apollo" and Soviet "Soyuz" spacecraft rendezvous and dock in orbit as first suggested in the science fiction novel and film "Marooned" (1975); Mao Tse Tung dies and China is convulsed by political change (1976); nuclear leak at Three Mile Island (1979); a wave of conservatism and anti-Communism sweeps major nations as Maggie Thatcher becomes Prime Minister and reorients Great Britain (1979), the trade union Solidarity is founded in Poland, and Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States (1980). Return to Top of Timeline 1970s Page

Major Books of the Decade

1970 Poul Anderson: "Tau Zero" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) The greatest novel based on Einstein's Theory of Relativity and a modern conception of cosmology 1970 Terry Carr [editor]: "New Worlds of Fantasy, No.2" (New York: Ace) anthology combining fantasy, science fiction, and horror 1970 Lin Carter [editor]: "The Magic of Atlantis" (New York: Lancer) thematic anthology of fantasy 1970 D. G. Compton: "The Steel Crocodile" Nebula finalist (ranked #6) 1970 L. Sprague de Camp [editor]: "Warlocks and Warriors" (New York: Putnam) Good anthology of heroic fantasy 1970 Robert A. Heinlein: "I Will Fear No Evil" (New York: Putnam) 1970 R. A. Lafferty: "Fourth Mansions" Nebula finalist (ranked #5) 1970 Staislaw Lem: "Solaris" (London: Faber & Faber) {film hotlink to be done} 1970 Ira Levin: "This Perfect Day" (New York: Random House) Cyberdystopia 1970 Larry Niven: "Ringworld" Won the 6th annual Nebula Award 1970 Marge Piercy: "Dance the Eagle to Sleep" [first novel] 1970 Joanna Russ: "And Chaos Died" tied for 2nd as Nebula finalist 1970 Robert Silverberg: "Tower of Glass" (New York: Scribners) tied for 2nd as Nebula finalist 1970 Robert Silverberg: "Downward to the Earth" Nebula finalist 1970 Robert Silverberg [editor]: "The Mirror of Infinity: A Critic's Anthology of Science Fiction" (New York: Harper & Row) 1970 Robert Silverberg [editor]: "Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. I" Garden City NY: Doubleday) 1970 Wilson Tucker: "The Year of the Quiet Sun" Nebula finalist (ranked #4). Retroactively won the 1976 (!) John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1970 Roger Zelazny: "Nine Princes of Amber" [Fantasy] 1971 Poul Anderson: "Operation Chaos" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) [Fantasy] Magic is taken for granted as witch and werewolf meet while on military duty, then rescue their child from Hell. Brilliant juxtapositions of magic and urban grit. 1971 Poul Anderson: "The Broken Sword" (New York: Abelard-Schuman) [fantasy] Revision of 1954 Elf/Troll/Changeling fantasy 1971 Poul Anderson: "The Byworlders" Nebula finalist 1971 T. J. Bass: "Half Past Human" Nebula finalist 1971 James Blish: "... And All the Stars a Stage" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) When parents choose the sex of their yet-unborn children, too many families have boys, leaving the women in greater and greater leveraged power over society. Protagonist Jorn Birn, another useless man, flees the Matriarchy and the forthcoming nova of the Sun. But every planet visited is unsuited to Life As We Know It... 1971 James Blish: "Doctor Mirabilis" (New York: Dodd Mead) [Fantasy] pretends to be a biography of Roger Bacon, this theological fantasy rips the lid off 13th century paranoia 1971 James Blish: "The Day After Judgment" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) [Fantasy] Sequel to "Black Easter" (1968) when history has ended, Hell comes to Nevada, with the final battle against Satan 1971 John Brunner: "The Traveler in Black" [Fantasy] Linked set of stories, mysterious figure makes his punishment fit the crime 1971 Terry Carr [editor]: "New Worlds of Fantasy, No.3" (New York: Ace) anthology combining fantasy, science fiction, and horror 1971 Lin Carter [editor]: "New Worlds for Old" (New York: Ballentine) thematic anthology of imaginary worlds fantasy 1971 Lester del Rey: "Pstalemate" (New York: Putnam) Protagonists's later self time-travels back to his earlier self to help him adjust to developing psionic powers without going nut. 1971 Gordon Dickson: "Sleepwalker's World" (Philadelphia: Lippincott) The dawn of star-travel slips later and later in schedule, a leading biophysicist disappears, sleep becomes more and more perturbed as a side-effect of geothermal powerplants, and so the ideal man (cosmonaut Rafe Harold) sets out to save the world, with his disabled sister and a talking wolfe as companions. They encounter evil, and evil behind that evil, at a terrible cost. 1971 Thomas M. Disch [editor]: "The Ruins of Earth: An Anthology of Stories of the Immediate Future" (New York: Putnam) Eco-catastrophe and dystopia, disturbing and original treatments collected by a brilliant author not known for rose-colored glasses. 1971 Philip Jose Farmer: "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" (xxx: yyy) One of the wildest and most promising plot set-ups: everybody who ever lived is resurrected by the shores of a million-mile-long river winding in a loxendrome around an artificial planet. The famous, infamous, and obscure join forces in adventures against new and old cultures, and the mysterious beings who have orchestrated the resurrection. Winner, 1971 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1971 William Hjortsberg: "Gray Matters" (New TYork: Simon & Schuster) Human brains can be implanted in new bodies, promising both immortality and total mind-control, except for those neurotics whose personalities survive brain washing. 1971 R. A. Lafferty: "The Devil is Dead" Nebula finalist (ranked #3) 1971 Keith Laumer: "Dinosuar Beach" (New York: Scribner) Jurassic era boy loses girl, boy meets girl, in time-travel epic with breakthroughs in the nature of consciousness. 1971 Ursula K. Le Guin: "The Lathe of Heaven" (New York: Scribner) George Orr's dreams modify objective reality, and his psychiatrist tries to manipulate George to create a world that fits his personal agenda, until an alien intervenes. This received low-budget TV movie adaptation {hot link to be done} Nebula finalist (ranked #2). Nominee, 1971 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1971 Anne McCaffrey: "Dragonquest" Nominee, 1971 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1971 Robert Silverberg: "The World Inside" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Humans exult in an overpopulated world, in giant skyscraper "urbmons" [Urban Monads], each a city until itself. They think everything is fine; we become increasingly chilled by the artificiality and dehuminzation. 1971 Robert Silverberg: "A Time of Changes" Won the 7th annual Nebula Award Nominee, 1971 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1971 Robert Silverberg [editor]: "New Dimensions I" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Original anthology of 14 very good stories, three of which were nominated for Hugo or Nebula awards. 1971 Kate Wilhelm: "Margaret and I" Nebula finalist 1971 Roger Zelazny: "Jack of Shadows" a world where magic works on one hemisphere and science works on the other, and one man can operate on both sides. Nominee, 1971 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1972 Richard Adams: "Watership Down" (London: Rex Collings) Ultimate bunny fantasy 1972 Poul Anderson: "There Will Be Time" 1972 Hugo Award nominee. 1972 Isaac Asimov: "The Gods Themselves" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Unlimited energy found by a scientific fraud, truly alien beings in a parallel universe with different laws of phsyics, and the strange results of the two unverses leaking into each other. Asimov considers this his most sexual writing of all, but it is not our kind of reproduction, to be sure. Fascinating Hugo Award winner, which also picked up the 8th annual Nebula Award. 1972 Isaac Asimov: "The Early Asimov or, Eleven Years of Trying" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) First-time republished pulp fiction by the modern master. For any lesser author, I could not recommend a collection of cast-offs, finger-exercises, and ambitious failures, and yet the stories still thrill, and the scholarly apparatus of introductions is transmuted by The Good Doctor into a fascinating personal account of how he grew, and of his intellectual friendship with the field's predominant editor (John W. Campbell). 1972 James Blish: "Midsummer Century" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Millennia from now, a giant brain (the Qvant) helps primitivized humans confront paranormal birds, when a 20th Century scientist has his mind accidently projected into the Qvant, and must quest to Antarctica. Oddly dreamlike and surreal for Blish, outside his usual hyper-rationality. 1972 John Brunner: "The Sheep Look Up" (New York: Harper & Row) Artfully plotted masterpiece of eco-catastrophe. Not an American, Brunner excels at skewering American politico-corporate culture and warning about pollution through the most graphic and gut-wrenching drama. Nebula finalist. 1972 Angela Carter: "The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman" (London: Rupert Hart-Davis) Sex drives machines, society goes bonkers. American title: "The War of Dreams" 1972 Lin Carter [editor]: "Discoveries in Fantasy" (New York: Ballentine) anthology of little-known fantasy from 1900-1931 1972 Lin Carter [editor]: "Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy" Volume 1 (New York: Ballentine) anthology of little-known fantasy from 1856-1953 1972 Arthur C. Clarke: "The Wind from the Sun" (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) Marvellous single-author collection of 1960s short stories, of which I most admire the title story, a splendid telling of a yacht race around the moon by Solar Sails. I ended up co-editing a book with Clarke years later, under the title "Project Solar Sail", and so I cannot be objective now, can I? 1972 Michael Crichton: "The Terminal Man" (New York: Knopf) The second novel by the doctor who'd hit the big time with "The Andromeda Strain" (1969) and would later hit the even bigger time with "Jurassic Park" and "ER." Like most of his work, unforturnately the theme is "there are some things mankind was not meant to mess with" -- in this case, brain control by surgically-installed electrodes. 1972 Lester del Rey [editor]: "Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year" (New York: E. P. Dutton) Super-editor Lester del Rey sticks to no theme, but simply chooses the stories he most enjoyed reading, and his good taste shows. 15 stories worth reading, and a fascinating overview of science fiction in the prior year (1971) in terms of authors, books, magazines, and themes... "In sum, science fiction has never previously been as active, healthy or generally accepted as it is now..." and he makes you believe it. 1972 George Alec Effinger: "What Entropy Means to Me" Nebula finalist. 1972 Harlan Ellison [editor]: "Again, Dangerous Visions" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) 46 stories in the sequel to the irreplaceable anthology of its era, including 2 later Hugo winners and a future Nebula. These are stories too weird, controversial, experimental, or deranged to have appeared elsewhere, for the most part. 1972 David Gerrold: "When Harlie Was One" Artificial Intelligence through a computer growing up in its social interactions. Nebula finalist (ranked #2). 1972 Hugo Award nominee. 1972 Donald M. Grant [editor]: "Swordsmen and Supermen" (New York: Centaur) Good anthology of "swords an sorcery" fantasy 1972 James E. Gunn: "The Listeners" 2nd place for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Search for Extraterestrial Intelligence, nicely presented in believable fiction. 1972 Harry Harrison: "Tunnel Through the Deeps" (New York: Putnam) In this alternate history, the Moors kept Spain, the sun has still not set on the British Empire, George Washington was executed for treason, and in a neo-Victorean world of gosh-wow superengineering, it seems only reasonable to build a Transatlantic Tunnel from New York to England. A parody that dares to take its subject seriously, which makes it even more fun. 1972 Barry N. Malzberg: "Beyond Apollo" Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1972 Christopher Priest: "Darkening Island (Fugue for a Darkening Plain)" John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalist (ranked #3). 1972 Robert Silverberg: "Dying Inside" (New York: Scribner) This is my favorite of all his many novels, as "Silverbob" poignently paints the life of a telepath who is morally blocked from exploting his immense skill, and reorts to writing term papers for a living. My wife and I both especially love the powerful scenes of his tapping into other minds, and being at one point overwhelmed by the heavenly rich internal life of a humble dirt farmer. Deep awareness that super-power may lead only to super-loneliness. Nebula finalist (ranked #3). 1972 Hugo Award nominee. Special John W. Campbell Memorial Award for excellence in writing. 1972 Robert Silverberg: "The Book of Skulls" Nebula finalist 1972 Clifford Simak: "A Choice of Gods" 1972 Hugo Award nominee. 1972 Norman Spinrad: "The Iron Dream" (New York: Avon) A vry unsettling twisted fantasy, eminating from an alternate world where Hitler's beer hall putsch fails, he flees to New York, and becomes a hack sci-fi writer, ultmately beating Robert Heinlein for a Hugo Award. Disguised as that book by Hitler, this novel is a "Mein Kampf" as space opera, with readers being seduced into cheering the battle against mutants and aliens among us, while we have to remind ourselves that these villains are thinly disguised Jews and Communists. Controversial is an understatement. This book was banned in Germany, unbanned, and then banned again. Read it and see why! Nebula finalist. 1973 Brian W. Aldiss: "Frankenstein Unbound" (London: Jonathan Cape) Reality snaps from space-war, and different times meet each other on earth (as in "October the First Is Too Late" by Fred Hoyle). But the 1816 that our protagonist meets from 202 happens to have a real Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his unhappy monster. Who can help? Why, of course, Mary Shelley, who wrote "Frankenstein" in the first place, and Lord Byron as well, except that she hasn't written the book yet and, well, then things get complicated. Aldiss has a private agenda: to get you to believe him that Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is the birthplace of modern Science Fiction. He somehow succeeds, in this post-modernist romp, imprefectly adapted to the big screen {hot link to be done} 1973 Brian W. Aldiss: "Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction" [nonfiction] 1973 Poul Anderson: "The People of the Wind" Nebula finalist. 1973 Hugo Award nominee. 1973 Ben Bova [editor]: "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volumes IIA and IIB" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Ben Bova is an under-rated author (hurt by steely rationality, engineering know-hoe, and prolific output) and an under-rated editor (sandwiched between John W. Campbell and Stan Schmidt at "Analog" and then helming the fiction at the chaotic "Omni") but here neatly he assembles 22 of the greatest novellas ever written, each of which had been (a story in itself) retroactively awarded Nebulas by the Science Fiction Writers of America. 1973 Lin Carter [editor]: "Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy" Volume 2 (New York: Ballentine) anthology of little-known fantasy novellas from 1858-1923 1973 Arthur C. Clarke: "Rendezvous With Rama" (London: Gollancz) Not his best book, yet his first Hugo Award for Best Novel, this gives us a spectacularly huge spaceship zooming through our solar system, from the point of view of the explorer team who tries, and fails, to comprehend its mysteries. For years, fans and editors alike clamored fo a sequel, and then ... but that is another story. Also won 9th annual Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1st Jupiter Award. Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1973 Peter Dickenson: "The Green Gene" (New York: Pantheon) Mr. Green Jeans was a recurring character on the American kiddy TV show "Captain Kangeroo", and this has nothing to do with that but, hey, I'm the webmaster here. Anyway, in order to fight cancer, a gene resurfaces that makes caucasian women bear black-skinned babies, and racist sets the world aflame. Politically correct or not, one wonders today, but the novel was quite sincere and makes some good points well. Tied for 2nd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1973 George Alec Effinger: "Relatives" (New York: Harper & Row) Haunting post-modernist interweaving of three related stories of alternate realities with the same man in each, or is he? One reality has a 1984-ish city, one is a Eurocentric decadence, one is filled with heroic Communists as an underground fighting a Germany that won World War I and just kept growing. The protagonist is unhappy in each reality, and helps us to dispose of some of our misconceptions. 1973 Roger Elwood [editor]: "Future City" (New York: Trident) Theme anthology with 19 often pessamistic stories and 3 strong poems, plus a forword by Clifford Simak (a pastoralist who knows cities well) and afterword by Frederik Pohl, a futurist with heart who takes his cities very seriously. Essential collection for this theme, so important to the science fiction vision and to our genuine future in an increasingly urbanized and megalopolisized planet. 1973 Howard M. Fast: "A Touch of Infinity" (New York: Morrow) Howard Melvin Fast is slightly more famous for having penned "Spartacus" {hotlink to be done} but here we see that he could have been a big name in fantasy and science fiction as well. His next collection (see 1975) is even better, though, and explicit about the influence of Zen Buddhism on his life. 1973 David Gerrold: "The Man Who Folded Himself" (New York: Random House) This man, who wrote and sold one of the most popular Star Trek episodes while still in High School (!) does his best to out-Heinlein Heinlein in the ultimate time travel tale of a man who travels into his own past repeatedly, as both male and female, and falls in and out of love with him/herself in an increasingly bizarre tangle. Nebula finalist, and Jupiter Award finalist (ranked #3). 1973 Hugo Award nominee. 1973 Robert A. Heinlein: "Time Enough for Love" (New York: Putnam) Robert Heinlein was the greatest and most quintessential science fiction author, and yet he missed his audience with this novel, by following his heart. He wanted children of his own, but couldn't have them, and so perhaps he became obsessed with trying to understand sex and love in a unique way, far different from that of America's greatest short-story author (Theodore Sturgeon) who also returned to this theme again and again. Heinlein develops his libertarian philosophy here, and experiments with the point-of-view of an old mind cohabiting a young body of the opposite sex. Nebula finalist. Jupiter Award finalist. 1973 Hugo Award nominee. 1973 Damon Knight [editor]: "The Golden Road: Great Tales of Fantasy and the Supernatural" (New York: Simon & Schuster) Anthology which gives good survey of the fantasy field 1973 Sterling E. Lanier: "Hiero's Journey" (Radnor PA: Chilton) 7476 A.D. is a time of mutated animals who have acquired telepathy, in post-nuclear-holocaust North America. Canadian scientist/monks quest south for the secrets of vanished civilization, with Moose and Bear rampant. Much more exciting and carefully imagined than this sounds, and should have been more successful in its sales... 1973 Stanislaw Lem (translated by Wendayne Ackerman): "The Invincible" (New York: Seabury) The Spaceship Invincible is captured by a planet of robots, and its humans jailed, so that the spaceship's computer must save them. Sound dumb, but Lem surprises at every turn with the ingenuity of of philosophical examination of the nature of life, thought, and free will. 1973 Barry N. Malzberg: "Herovit's World" (New York: Random House) Agony and ecstasy of a science fiction author as protagonist, in a world of sneaky editors, chaotic science fiction conventions, seductive hostesses, ironic self-loathing, and social satire that cuts deeper than a samurai sword. Jupiter Award finalist. 1973 Robert Merle: "Malevil" Tied for 1st place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1973 Larry Niven: "Protector" A root extinct on earth because of a lack of the trace element Thallium can turn humans into "Protectors" -- super-strong, super-fast machivallian manipulators of breeding groups of humans; Earthlings turn out to be related to humans on other planets as well. 1973 Hugo Award nominee. 1973 Thomas Pynchon: "Gravity's Rainbow" Nebula finalist, and runner-up for the 1st Jupiter Award. 1973 Robert Silverberg [editor]: "Deep Space" (New York: Nelson) Theme anthology of 8 strong stories of strange suns and stranger worlds, and then men and women who live and die to see them. Close to the heart of Hard SF, and close to the heart of these writers: Terry Carr, Gordon Dickson, Harlan Ellison, Damon Knight, Chad Oliver, Robert Silverberg, Jack Vance, and A. E. Van Vogt. 1973 Boris & Arkady Strugatski (translated by Wendayne Ackerman): "Hard to Be a God" Communist theory dictates that Medieval feudal serfdom inevitably gives rise to Capitalism, which inevitably becomes Socialism, and ultimately reaches the crowing glory of Communism. The Strugatski brothers have their doubts, but have to tread carefully, living as they did in the U.S.S.R. -- and so here they critique the underpinnings of Marxism from a safely fictional perspective, with competing teams of humans manipulating a feudal society on another world, and botching the process massively. Good fun! 1974 Richard Adams: "Shardik" (London: Allen Lane) Starts out seeming to be a fantasy about a bear-god, but turns into a realistic socio-theological novel 1974 Poul Anderson: "A Midsummer's Tempest" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) [Fantasy] First, assume that all the works of Shakespeare were nonfiction! Then write a novel set in the vivid and anachronistic world, but set in blank verse, typeset to conceal that fact, and watch the war between the paradigms of science and magic. Spectacular work of imagination. Nebula finalist. World Fantasy Award finalist. 1974 Poul Anderson: "Fire Time" Correctly predicted (20 years in advance!) that a supernova could boil away most of a Jupiter-type gas giant planet, leaving a metal-rich core behind. Suppose we know that a primitive culture's planet is about to experience a super-nova -- how can we access their political/economic infrastructure well enough to help them save their civilization from the radiation deluge alluded to in the title? 1974 Hugo Award nominee. 1974 T. J. Bass: "The Godwhale" Nebula finalist (ranked #4). 1974 Basil Cooper: "From the Earth's Pillow" [fantasy] Runner-up for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1974 Philip K. Dick: "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) TV star enmeshed with drug-zonked daughter of police-state top cop, the protagonist must struggle with his identity and survival in a twisted world not of his own making, which is the hallmark of almost every Dick novel. Informed by his own drug experiences and paranoia, this works better than it sounds. Poor Phil. "Even if you're paranoid," as Henry Kissenger said, "sometimes they really are after you." Nebula finalist (ranked #2). Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1974 Hugo Award nominee. 1974 Thomas M. Disch: "334" Nebula finalist (ranked #3). 1974 Gordon Eklund: "All Times Possible" Jupiter Award finalist. 1974 Joe Haldeman: "The Forever War" (New York: St.Martin) Breakthrough novel by talented science-educated author who was the only survivor of his platoon in Vietnam, that hellish experience is spun into science fiction gold here. William Mandella is drafted just before the 21st century sets in, and fights through an interstellar war unmatched in its believeable atmosphere and detail, from a grunt's-eye view. Due to Einsteinian Relativity, and travel via black holes, the hero lives many centuries while aging only a few years, and is more and more alienated from home. Humanity becomes more and more like the alien civilization it is fighting, and the morally ambiguous setting does not prevent a powerful love story from a plausibly complex conclusion. Won the 11th annual Nebula Award. 1975 Hugo Award winner. 1974 Ursula K. Le Guin: "The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia" (New York: Harper & Row) Deservedly won both Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, as did her previous "The Left hand of Darkness." Also 2nd annual Jupiter Award winner. 2nd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The Einsteinian inventor of a puzzling faster-than-light communicator (the "ansible", an anagram of "lesbian"), Shevek is caught between two cultures, one a dictatorial urban consumer pseudo-paradise (America squared), and one a Taoist libertarian pseudo-impovershed planet of exile (Australia through the looking-glass). Her socio-cultural analysis is shown through action, and her language is poetry harnessed to science fiction drama. Some love this book, some hate it, but none can stay neutral. 1974 Stanislaw Lem (translated by Michael Kandel): "The Futurological Congress" (New York: Seabury) A convention of futurists is the wacky venue for a sidesplitting and intelligent put-down of the very idea of futurism. The funniest ideas are told with a straight face, by stuffed-shirt pseudo-experts. For instance, can one really predict the future by making up new words, and then trying to figure out what they might mean some day? Of course not. But isn't that what hundreds of less educated and less ironic authors do all the time? 1974 Patricia McKillip: "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld", [fantasy] won 1st annual World fantasy Award for best novel 1974 H. Warner Munn: "Merlin's Ring" World Fantasy Award finalist. 1974 Larry Niven: "The Mote in God's Eye" Nebula finalist (ranked #2). Jupiter Award finalist (ranked #2). 1974 Hugo Award nominee. 1974 Edgar Pangborn: "In the Company of Glory" Jupiter Award finalist. 1974 Christopher Priest: "Inverted World" (London: Faber & Faber) Very strange universe with a world topologically inverted into a hyperboloid, where a city must keep moving or else be distorted in space and time. Or is there an even deeper strangeness? Technology and the individual are in conflict, order and mystery, and the protagonist's literally hanging by his fingers from the edge of the world make for a unique novel. 1974 Hugo Award nominee. 1974 Robert Silverberg: "Born With the Dead": (New York: Random House) Silverbob links three novellas here, to probe the the meaning of death, resurrection, and religion. Bleak, and unforgettable. 1974 Cordwainer Smith: "Nostrilia" Jupiter Award finalist. 1974 Arthur Wilson Tucker: "Ice and Iron" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) The New Ice Age is coming, and the Matriarchy might not be the best system to fight it. Time travel, totalitarianism, cryonics, and am implicit critique of theories of cultural history meet in a strange embrace. 1974 Manley Wade Wellman: "Worse Things Than Waiting" [fantasy] Won World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1975 Alfred Bester: "The Computer Connection" (New York: Berkley) Alfred Bester was king of the heap in the mid-1950s with the unbelieveably hot "Demolished Man" (1953) and "The Stars My Destination" (1957). Unfortunately, he held a dream job for two decades, and was injured by his very success, hit bitterness about inability to sell his mainstream work, the demon of alcohol, and other plagues. He re-entered the field with this novel, which would have made the reputation, but for Bester, we all hoped for so much more. Slick, ingenious, but somewhat hollow, in its pitting of man versus machine. The field he invigorated moved past him. Oh, how he might have succeeded if only he had failed earlier... Nebula finalist. 1975 Hugo Award nominee. 1975 Michael Bishop: "A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire" Nebula finalist. 1975 Ben Bova: "Notes to a Science Fiction Writer" (New York: Scribner) Want to learn how to write this stuff? Ben Bova, then at the helm of "Analog", can teach you how, and illustrate his theories with his prolonged experience and his own fiction. 1975 Marion Zimmer Bradley: "The Heritage of Hastur" Nebula finalist. 1975 John Brunner: "The Shockwave Rider" (New York: Harper & Row) Begat from Alvin Tofler's nonfiction "Future Shock", this profound satire pits individualism against the computer network, and predicts in astonishing the war between State and Hacker in which we now live. Brunner invented the concept of the compuyter virus, and the even more insidious "Worm" software, which not only came tru, but even bears the name he invented. Progress versus Freedom, vividly and memorably etched. 1975 Italo Calvino: "Invisible Cities" Nebula finalist. 1975 Lin Carter [editor]: "The Year's best Fantasy Stories" (New York: Daw) sword & sorcery-biased anthology fantasy 1975 Arthur C. Clarke: "Imperial Earth: A Fantasy of Love and Discord" (London: Gollancz) In the year 2276, a clone of a billionaire on Saturn's giant moon Titan zips to America to celebrate the 500th anniversary of its nationhood, make good business deals, be re-cloned, and get laid. Clarke's afterword explains where he got his utopian and technical notions, and why Utopia is inevitable and yet tricky to obtain. Why did Clarke receive the unheard-of figure of $200,000 in advance for this novel, and start the escalation of super-advances for major authors? He was the right writer at the right time, and the book wasn't bad either... 1975 Arthur Byron Cover: "Autumn Angels" Nebula finalist. 1975 John Crowley: "The Deep" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Where did this guy come from? We all scratched our pointy heads in wonderment when John Crowley hurtled his readers into a genuinely Flat Earth, atop a near-infinite column, with human fate controlled and manipulated by an incomprehensible hierarchy of beings, in a universe not only stranger than we imagined, but stranger than we could imagine. 1975 Avram Davidson: "The Enquiries of Dr. Esterhazy" [fantasy] Won World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1975 Samuel R. Delany: "Dhalgren" (New York: Bantam) Either "Chip" Delany's greatest novel, or his most ambitious failure, depending upon which critic you ask. America has gone downhill pretty far, and the survivors who haunt its decayed corpse are involuted, expressive, charming, irritating, unpredictable, self-justifying, sexual, polemical, anxious, loving, disconnected, and animated. You know: people! Each time you re-read this, a different insight will catch you by the throat. Nebula finalist (ranked #3). 1975 Lester del Rey: "The Early del Rey" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Two dozen tales republished from 1938-1951, with biographical and bibliographical commentary and indices. Some have aged well, some very well, and the few that didn't are still exemplars of prodigious capability. 1975 E. L. Doctorow: "Ragtime" Nebula finalist. 1975 Harlan Ellison: "Deathbird Stories" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1975 Stephen King: "Salem's Lot" [fantasy] Gradual discovery that entire New England town is inhabited by vampires. World Fantasy Award finalist. {film hotlink to be done} 1975 Tanith Lee: "The Birthgrave" Nebula finalist. 1975 Ursula K. Le Guin: "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" (New York: Harper & Row) 17 short works from several of her fantastic and superbly-executed worlds: the "Hainish" universe, the "Earthsea" trilogy, and the semi-utopia of "The Dispossessed). There is no one lese like Le Guin, and this gem has many facets to show you why. 1975 Katherine MacLean: "The Missing Man" Nebula finalist 1975 Frank Belnap Long: "The Early Long" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1975 Barry N. Malzberg: "Guernica Night" Nebula finalist. 1975 Vonda MacIntyre: "The Exile Waiting" Nebula finalist. 1975 Richard Matheson: "Bid Time Return" [fantasy] Won 2nd annual World Fantasy Award. 1975 Larry Niven: "Inferno" a modern rewrite of Dante. 1975 Hugo Award nominee. 1975 Robert Carroll O'Brian: "Z for Zachariah" (New York: Athenaeum) Joe De Bolt loves this book, and says so in Marshall B. Tymn's "The Science Fiction Reference Book", but I've never seen the darned thing. 1975 E. Hoffman Price: "Far Lands, Other Days" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1975 Joanna Russ: "The Female Man" (New York: Bantam) an unblinking gaze at a future run by women forces you to see our present run by men in a shudderingly different way. This novel goes far beyond dogmatic feminism, to an enhanced humanism butressed by elegant critical theory. Nebula finalist. 1975 Bob Shaw: "Orbitsville" 3rd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1975 Robert Silverberg: "The Stochastic Man" Nebula finalist. 2nd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1975 Hugo Award nominee. 1975 Ian Watson: "The Embedding" extraordinary first novel, about linguistics, mind, and aliens. Nebula finalist. {hotlink to be done} Tied for 2nd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1975 Kate Wilhelm: "The Infinity Box: A Collection of Speculative Fiction" (New York: Harper & Row) 9 strong stories by an under-rated author of superior Science Fiction, fantasy, and Mystery. 1975 Roger Zelazny: "Doorways in the Sand" Protagonist collects endowment from rich dead uncle so long as he matriculates at a specific university. So he keeps changing majors just before graduating from any given program, and has been a student for decades... 1975 Hugo Award nominee. 1976 Brian Aldiss: "The Malacia Tapestry" (London: Faber & Faber) Man and dinosaur cohabit in baroque fantasy city, crammed into a picaresque format, but on a vastly original canvas 1976 Kingsley Amis: "The Alteration" Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1976 Jonathan Bacon & Steve Troyanovich [editors]: "Omniumgathum: An Anthology of Verse by Top Authors in the Field of Fantasy" (Lamoni IA: Stygian Isle Press) pioneering collection of fantasy poetry 1976 Alfred Bester: "The Light Fantastic" (New York: Berkley) 7 super stories. 1976 Ray Bradbury: "Long After Midnight" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1976 Edward Bryant: "Cinnabar" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1976 Ramsey Campbell: "The Doll Who Ate His Mother" [fantasy] Won 3rd annual World Fantasy Award. 1976 Ramsey Campbell [editor]: "Superhorror" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1976 Ramsey Campbell: "The Height of the Scream" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1976 Lin Carter [editor]: "Kingdoms of Sorcery" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) historico/thematic anthology of fantasy 1976 Lin Carter [editor]: "Realms of Wizardry" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) historico/thematic anthology of fantasy 1976 Lin Carter [editor]: "Flashing Swords #3" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1976 C. J. Cherryh: "Brothers of Earth" 1976 Samuel R. Delany: "Triton" (New York: Bantam) Triton is the giant moon of Neptune, bigger than the planet Mercury. It is the venue for a probing, frustrating, and enlightening probe of human foibles, sexual ambiguities, aspects of psychological power and importence, ideological trickery, and this novel will trip you up over your own preconceptions every time. Nebula finalist. 1976 Gordon Dickson: "The Dragon and the George" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1976 Joe Haldeman: "Mindbridge" (New York: St.Martin) Unusual novel of alien-induced humnan telepathy 1976 Hugo Award nominee. 1976 Frank Herbert: "Children of Dune" (New York: Berkley) Launched in hard-cover, this sequel to "Dune" quickly filled orders for 100,000 copies and started another press run, a success poreviously achieved only by "Th Andromeda Strain" (which was marketed as'Thriller" rather than "Science Fiction.") Publishers suddenly realized that science fiction was no mere genre ghetto, but a source of best-sellers. 1976 Hugo Award nominee. 1976 William Kotzwinkle: "Doctor Rat" [fantasy] Won 3rd annual World Fantasy Award. 1976 Anne McCaffrey: "Dragonsong" (New York: Athenaeum) 1976 Kirby McCauley [editor]: "Frights" [fantasy] Won World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1976 Barry Malzberg: "Scop" (New York: Pyramid) 1976 Michael Moorcock: "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1976 Larry Niven: "A World Out of Time" (New York: Holt Rinehart Winston) 1976 Larry Niven: "Inferno" Nebula finalist modern rewrite of Dante. 1976 Frederik Pohl: "Man Plus" (New York: Random House) Won the 12th annual Nebula Award for best novel. 2nd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1976 Hugo Award nominee. 1976 Christopher Priest: "The Space Machine: A Scientific Romance" (London: Faber & Faber) claws its way into the soul of H.G. Wells, the father of our field. 1976 Marta Randall: "Islands" Nebula finalist 1976 Robert Silverberg: "The Best of Robert Silverberg" (New York: Pocket Books) 1976 Robert Silverberg: "Shadrach in the Furnace" Nebula finalist (ranked #3). 1976 Hugo Award nominee. 1976 John Steinbeck: "The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1976 Karl Edward Wagner: "Dark Crusade" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1976 Kate Wilhelm: "The Clewiston Test" (New York: Farrar Strauss & Giroux) 1976 Kate Wilhelm: "Where Late the Sweet Bird Sang" (New York: Harper & Row) 1976 Hugo Award winner. Nebula finalist (ranked #2). Won 4th annual Jupiter Award. 3rd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1976 Roger Zelazny: "Doorways in the Sand" (New York: Harper & Row) Nebula finalist. 1977 Gregory Benford: "In the Ocean of Night" (New York: Dial) A great example of how a real physicist can be a real writer. Nebula finalist (ranked #2). 1977 Robert Bloch: "Cold Chills" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1977 Robert H. Boyer & Kenneth J. Zahorski [editors]: "The Fantastic Imagination: An Anthology of High Fantasy" (New York: Avon) 1977 Marion Zimmer Bradley: "The Forbidden Tower" 1977 Hugo Award nominee. 1977 Terry Brooks: "The Sword of Shannara" [Fantasy] 1977 Algis Budrys: "Michaelmas" (New York: Berkley) 1977 Terry Carr: "Cirque" Nebula finalist (ranked #3). 1977 Lin Carter [editor]: "The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2" (New York: Daw) sword & sorcery-biased anthology fantasy 1977 Lin Carter [editor]: "The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3" (New York: Daw) sword & sorcery-biased anthology fantasy 1977 Hugh B. Cave: "Murgunstrumm and Others" [fantasy] Won World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1977 Jack Chalker: "Midnight at the Well of Souls" 1977 Philip K. Dick: "A Scanner Darkly" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) The ultimate anti-drug novel, which could only be written by a genius who'd been swallowed by the drug scene. Here, a narcotics agent with super-gadgets to help him, eternally seeks a super-drug dealer, who turns out to be himself. Not as goofy as this sounds, this novel plumbs the depths of confusion and despair, and also had me rolling on the floor with laughter, as he reworks what must have been verbatim conversations between stoned houseguests in his own livingroom. 3rd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1977 Gordon Dickson: "Timestorm" 1977 Hugo Award nominee. 1977 Stephen R. Donaldson: "Lord Foul's Bane" [Fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. This is actually the first of three volumes of "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever", volume 2 being "The Illearth War", and volume 3 being "The Power that Preserves" 1977 David Gerrold: "Moonstar Odyssey" Nebula finalist. 1977 Charles L. Grant: "The Hour of the Oxrun Dead" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1977 Joe Haldeman: "All My Sins Remembered" (New York: St.Martin) 1977 Fritz Leiber: "Our Lady of Darkness" [fantasy] Won 4th annual World Fantasy Award. 1977 Fritz Leiber: "Swords and Ice Magic" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1977 Richard Lupoff: "Sword of the Demon" Nebula finalist. 1977 George R. R. Martin: "Dying of the Light" 1977 Hugo Award nominee. 1977 Larry Niven: "Lucifer's Hammer" 1977 Hugo Award nominee. 1977 Andrew J. Offutt [editor]: "Swords Against Darkness" (New York: Zebra) First of a sword & sorcery series with new original fiction 1977 Andrew J. Offutt [editor]: "Swords Against Darkness II" (New York: Zebra) sword & sorcery series with new original fiction 1977 Gerald W. Page [editor]: "The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series V" [horror] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1977 Frederik Pohl: "Gateway" (New York: St.Martin) The alien Heechee have left behind in our solar system a bunch of one-, two-, and many-seater spacecraft whose navigation we can't easily decode, and a system of spacewarps (stargates), and so brave and foolhardy volunteers head for the stars on missions that might be suicide and might win them tremendous wealth. Won the 13th annual Nebula Award for best novel. 1977 Hugo Award winner. Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1977 Stuart David Schiff [editor]: "Whispers" [fantasy] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology. First of a very attractive series. 1977 Clifford D. Simak: "A Heritage of Stars" Won 5th annual Jupiter Award. 1977 Arkady & Boris Strugatsky: "Roadside Picnic/Tale of the Troika" 2nd place in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The first of these two novels packaged together deals with humans risking their lives extracting secrets from an alien garbage dump on Earth. The second is a rip-raoring satire of Soviet bureaucracy. I especially like the commissar who always speaks for the people... in the sense that when he says "The people appreciate our bountiful harvest of coffee" it means "get me a cup of coffee right now!" 1977 John Varley: "The Ophiuchi Hotline" (New York: Dial) How could there be such a good science fiction author that I never heard of, I wondered, trapped in Puffton Village, a sprawling stident slum near the University of Massachusetts at Amherest. Well, because this was his first published novel, that's all. Galactic culture, traders versus invaders, cloning, spaceships, families turned inside out, remarkable set scenes, polished language, this guy had it all! And he proved it no fluke with "Persistence of Vision" (1978) and "Titan" (1979) and everything thereafter. Reviewers admit to being dazzled by his characters, plots, and scientific speculations, but they miss how gosh-danged excellent is his command of the English tongue. 1977 Gahan Wilson [editor]: "First World Fantasy Awards" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) The 1975 winners of the "Howard" awards 1978 Poul Anderson: "The Avatar" (New York: Berkley) Welfare State shuts down the space program more or less simultaneously with First Contact with extraterrestrial civilization. "Others" -- a super-race -- help struggling cultures including ours bootsrap themselves towards maturity, through space-warp technology and other goodies. Capitalist hero tries to cast off the limits of Welfare State political institutions, and ends up un space-warped odyssey across the galaxy, in quest of the "Others" and the secrets that will set humanity one again -- or for the first time -- free. 1978 Donald Benson: "And Having Writ..." Placed 2nd for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1978 Robert H. Boyer & Kenneth J. Zahorski [editors]: "The Fantastic Imagination II: An Anthology of High Fantasy" (New York: Avon) 1978 Robert H. Boyer & Kenneth J. Zahorski [editors]: "Dark Imaginings: A Collection of Gothic Fantasy" (New York: Dell) 1978 Paddy Chayefski: "Altered States" Placed 3rd for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. {film hotlink to be done} 1978 C. J. Cherryh: "The Faded Sun: Kesrith" Nebula finalist (ranked #2). Nominee, 1978 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1978 Les Daniels: "The Black Castle" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1978 Avram Davidson: "The Redward Edward Papers" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist for best collection/anthology. 1978 Gardner Dozois: "Strangers" Nebula finalist. Nominee, 1978 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1978 Charles L. Grant: "The Sound of Midnight" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1978 Charles L. Grant [editor]: "Shadows" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist for best collection/anthology. 1978 Virginia Kidd [editor]: "Millennial Women" (New York: Delacorte) Half-dozen stories of women, by women, and about women, with not a weak effort to be seen. Cynthia Felice, Ursula K. Le Guin, Elizabeth Lynn, Diana Paxson, Joan Vinge, Cherry Wilder. 1978 Stephen King: "The Stand" Unique cross between Science Fiction and Fantasy on a near-future American landscape. World Fantasy Award finalist. Released in un-cut edition years later. {Film hotlink to be done} 1978 Stephen King: "Night Shift" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist for best collection/anthology. 1978 Damon Knight [editor]: "Orbit 20" (New York: Harper & Row) Alas, the final volume of the best original fiction series of anthologies. 1978 Tanith Lee: "Night's Master" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1978 Anne McCaffrey: "The White Dragon" (New York: Ballentine) Planet Pern is still at risk, protected only by the "dragonriders" and their telepathic link with indigenous flying reptiles. Anne McCaffrey has expertly interlaced science fictional background with Fantasy atmosphere, and hit the best seller list again and again, with cause. 1978 Vonda MacIntyre: "Dreamsnake" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin) Won the 14th annual Nebula Award. Winner, 1978 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1978 Jane Mobley [editor]: "Phantasmagoria: Tales of Fantasy and the Supernatural" (Garden City NY: Anchor-Doubleday) one of the best fantasy anthologies -- ever 1978 Michael Moorcock: "Gloriana" [fantasy] Won 5th annual World Fantasy Award. Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Richly woven tapestry of Queen Elizabeth's court as nexus of real magic, centered on Roger Dee, the (historical) Royal Astrologer. 1978 Andrew J. Offutt [editor]: "Swords Against Darkness III" (New York: Zebra) Last of a sword & sorcery series with new original fiction 1978 Gerald W. Page [editor]: "The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series VI" [horror] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1978 Tom Reamy: "Blind Voices" (New York: Berkley) Like Stanley Weinbaum and Cyril Kornbluth, Tom Reamy was a prodigiously talented and likeable writer who died far too young, in his 30s, while his career was just starting to take off. Circus life in Depression-era Kansas is the setting for people with emergent extrasensory powers. Nostalgiac for small-town America in a style remininscent of Bradbury, Heinlein, and Sturgeon. Nebula finalist (ranked #3). Nominee, 1978 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1978 Robert Sheckley: "Crompton Divided" (New York: Holt Rinehart Winston) Perhaps based on the epilepsy patients whose corpus callosum is cut, severing their brains into two half-brains cohabiting a single skull, Sheckley paints a broad-brushed comedy here with the eponymous protagonist splitting his personality into multiple parts, each given its own android body, and each exiled to frontier planets. The hero decides to put these pieces back together, but some like things as they are (for example the one in perpetual orgy). British title: "The Alchemical Marriage of Alistair Crompton." 1978 James Tiptree, Jr. [Alice B. Sheldon]: "Up the Walls of the World" (New York: Berkley) 1978 J. R. R. Tolkein: "The Silmarillion" [Fantasy] 1978 John Varley: "The Persistence of Vision" (New York: Dial) The best single-author story collection in years, including the Nebula and Hugo Aard-winning title story which literally reduced this jaded webmaster to tears. 1978 Gore Vidal: "Kalki" Nebula finalist. Nominee, 1978 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1978 Karl Edward Wagner: "Night Winds" [horror] Finalist for World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology 1978 Kate Wilhelm: "Somerset Dreams and Other Fictions" (New York: Harper & Row) Kate Wilhelm blurs the line between science fiction, speculative fiction, and speculative mainstream stories in what Bruce Sterling later called "slipstream" fiction, in this case of a uniformly high literary quality. 1978 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: "False Dawn" (Garden City NY: Doubleday) Cruel tale of female mutant who can physically heal from most wounds, who is raped and otherwise suffers again and again in a hellish California after eco-catastrophe. 1979 J. G. Ballard: "The Unlimited Dream Company" Placed 3rd as finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. 1979 Michael Bishop: "Catacomb Years" (New York: Berkley) Major American cities seal themselves and domes and fly into the Galaxy in James Blish's "The Stars in Flight" quartet; in this novel, by contrast, they en-dome themselves and merely stagnate. Michael Bishop pastes together several earlier stories to trace a century of Atlanta, Georgia's despotic escapism through multiple points of view; nuanced, subtle, and telling more about the texture of the South than many mainstream stories. 1979 Arthur C. Clarke: "The Fountains of Paradise" (London: Gollancz) Nebula and Hugo Award winner about a "skyhook" -- an elevator from Sri Lanka to a geosynchronous space station. Low-cost access to orbit and interplanetary space kicks humanity into a new Renaissance, and grants us the maturity to deal with the newly-dsicovered aliens. This was one of two novels that appeared this year based on the identical technological conception, the other being xxxxxxxxx by Charles Sheffield. 1979 John Crowley: "Engine Summer" 2nd place for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. John Crowley single-handedly reinvents the fantasy/science fiction intersection with extraordinary lyricism. 1979 Thomas M. Disch: "On Wings of Song" Nebula finalist (ranked #2). Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Unique science fiction/fantasy about a near-future America carved balkanized by a theocracy, the bone of contention being a musically-linked out-of-body technology. Nominee, 1979 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1979 Charles L. Grant: "The Last Call of Morning" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1979 Stephen King: "The Dead Zone" Interested example of the definitional problem: was a World Fantasy Award finalist, but was withdrawn from ballot by Stephen King because he wanted the novel considered to be not Fantasy but Science Fiction. Is the central concept of precognition based on a brain tumor in one genre and not the other? 1979 Elizabeth A. Lynn: "Watchtower" [fantasy] Won 6th annual World Fantasy Award. 1979 Elizabeth A. Lynn: "The Dancers of Arun" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. 1979 Patricia McKillip: "Harpist in the Wind" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. Nominee, 1979 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1979 Frederik Pohl: "Jem" (New York: St.Martin) Three competing Earth colonies entangle themselves in the complex dynamics of three intelligent species on a planet we all find habitable. Music turns out to be the key, as is the poetics of flight. Nominee, 1979 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1979 Eric S. Rabkin [editor]: "Fantastic Worlds: Myths, Tales, and Stories" (New York/Oxfrod: Oxford University Press) Huge, valuable collection, great overview of field 1979 Spider & Jeanne Robinson: "Stardance" (New York: Dial) Artistic novel of a woman considered unsuitable for professional dance who, in orbit, develops the methodology of free-fall choreography, just in time to communicate with aliens who seem not to understand other forms of language. Jeanne Robinson has been a professional choreographer and dance theatre manager; she and her husband give this an earnest, transcendental narrative power. 1979 Jessica Amanda Salmonson [editor]: "Amazons" [fantasy] Won World Fantasy Award for best collection/anthology. Groundbreaking anthology of women warrior tales. 1979 Charles Sheffield: "Sight of Proteus" (New York: Ace Books) Proteus was the legendary character in Greek myth who could turn into any shape. In this novel, this capability is achieved by technical means, and people in an overpopulated Earth can shift into other forms. Layer after layer of abuse and regulation proliferate, with ingenuity in concepts and plot. 1979 Darko Suvin: "Metamorphoses of Science Fiction" [nonfiction] translation of "Pour une poetique de la science-fiction" [1977] winner of Pilgrim Award, influential to SF criticism 1979 John Varley: "Titan" (New York: Berkley) A bored and possibly insane goddess rules a stupendous Moon-sized spacecraft, and its ecologically diverse creatures, including multi-sexed Centaurs. A human spacecraft arrives to explore, and gets caught up relationships with the aliens and the goddess. Nebula finalist (ranked #3). Nominee, 1979 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. 1979 Patricia Wrightson: "The Dark Bright Water" [fantasy] World Fantasy Award finalist. First appeared overseas in 1978, but 1979 edition was first generally available to American readers. 1979 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: "The Palace" World Fantasy Award finalist. Technically speaking, was copyrighted 1978 and released 1979. 1980 Gregory Benford: "Timescape" One of the finest time-travel story ever written, even though all that moves back through time is a neutrino beam from the future with coded information on how to prevent ecological disaster. One of the best novels ever written about how scientists actually work. Winner of 1980 Nebula Award for Best SF Novel 1980 Arthur C. Clarke: "The Fountains of Paradise" "Sky-hook" or "space elevator" carries passengers mechanically from the ground (Sri Lanka) to Clarke orbit (geosynchronous orbit), a mega-engineering project which is scientifically possible 1980 Peter Nichols: "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia" [Nonfiction] 1980 Larry Niven: "The Ringworld Engineers" Sequel to "Ringworld", which the scientist known as "Ctein" had pointed out was orbitally unstable. Nominated for 1980 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1980 Frederik Pohl: "Beyond the Blue Event Horizon" Nominated for 1980 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1980 Robert Silverberg: "Lord Valentine's Castle" Nominated for 1980 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1980 Robert Stallman: "The Orphan" Nominated for 1980 Nebula Award for Best SF Novel 1980 Walter Tevis: "Mockingbird" Nominated for 1980 Nebula Award for Best SF Novel 1980 John Varley: "Wizard" Part of trilogy about Moon-sized artificial planet entering our solar system, filled with intelligent centaurs and other species, and manipulated by a deranged being of godlike power Nominated for 1980 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel 1980 Joan D. Vinge: "The Snow Queen" Winner of 1980 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel Nominated for 1980 Nebula Award for Best SF Novel 1980 Gene Wolfe: "The Shadow of the Torturer" Set in a future so distant that the very idea of historians is a myth, and all mountains have been carved into likenesses of forgotten leaders and heroes. Nominated for 1980 Nebula Award for Best SF Novel Return to Top of Timeline 1970s Page

Major Films/Television this Decade

see also Science Fiction Television of the 1970s Hotlinks to reviews as shown See also: Craig W. Anderson: "Science Fiction Films of the Seventies" [McFarland, Sep 1985] ISBN 0-89950-086-2, $15.95 + $1.00 postage, 261pp, paperback historical/critical survey, numerous photographs 1970 Colossus: The Forbin Project Afraid that computers are taking over the world? Then don't dare see this realistic film, in which the ultimate computer of the United States links with the ultimate computer of Russia and decides to eliminate the middleman... Colossus: The Forbin Project 1971 The Andromeda Strain [from the Michael Crichton novel] The novel is gripping science fiction, in part because of the many pages of excerpts from fictional but convncing government documents and news releases, all in different fonts, to add authenticity. The film tries the same sense of reality by lavishly sterile high-tech sets. Alas, the central concept (of infection from extraterrestrial germs) is half-plausible, but the notion that the ET germs can eat energy is pure sci-fi nonsense, undercutting all the authenticity so laboriusly achieved. The Andromeda Strain links to Retrospective The Andromeda Strain 1971 A Clockwork Orange [from the Anthony Burgess novel] I saw this again a few days ago, and it was even more obviously ahead of its time. A work of visual genius by Kubrick from a novel that predicted Punk before it happened, and inflated it to a politically chilling depiction of a decadent Britain numbed by pervasive sex, drugs, and "ultraviolence." A Clockwork Orange links to 7 reviews A Clockwork Orange 1971 The Omega Man [from the Richard Matheson novel] Film treatment of paranoai/solipsism: one human survives in a world where everyone else has become a plague-infected zombie. The Omega Man 1971 THX 1138 [by that George Lucas guy who also directed, whatchacallit...] Visually arresting but slow-moving dehumanized dystopia. THX 1138 1972 Silent Running Nice special effects, but ludicrous premise: the biosphere can only be preserved by putting greenhouses on spaceships. If you grit your teeth and buy into that, then why send a greenhouse-spaceship further and further from the sun, where the plants will surely wither from lack of energy? Dumb, but has cute robots. 1972 Slaughterhouse-Five [from the novel by Vonnegut] One of Vonnegut's strongest novels, due to its autobiographical essence. Protagonist survives the Allied firebombing of Dresden, and suffers anger at his side for wiping out one of the museum-cities of old Europe, plus survivor's guilt. The protagonist bares his soul to the extraterrestrial Tralfamadorians, who live somehow outside of time, and thus disrupt this film from any pretense of a linear plot (intentionally). 1973 Sleeper Woody Allen parodies science fiction so well that he achieves it's style perfectly, with alternatiely (and sometimes simultaneously) creepy, slick, and wacky portrayal of a Big Brother dictatorship ("Great Leader"), the head of which must be cloned (from his nose???), robots, and the ever-popular Orgasmatron. Sleeper links to 4 reviews Sleeper 1973 Soylent Green [from the Harry Harrison novel] In an overpopulated world, the malthusian limits set in. Government supplies emergency food, and guess what? It's recycled human flesh. 1973 West World Disneyland with real robots is not safe when they carry guns, especially when one of them is Yul Brenner. 1974 The Terminal Man [from the Michael Crichton novel] As with many Crichton novels, there's a germ of an idea buried under the paraphrenalia of the techno-thriller. Yes, there have been experiments by Jose Delgado where a charging bull is stopped by an experimenter pushing a button that triggers an electrical impulse in an electrode in the bull's brain. Yes, it might be unethical to control human behavior that way. But it's overkill (in more ways than one) to film a man with an implanted computer in his skull running amok. Not all technology is eveil, Mike; live with it. The Terminal Man 1974 Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks hits the short list of truly great sci-fi parodies. Even Mary Shelley would laugh. 1974 Zardoz Either a very good or very bad Sean Connery vehicle, depending on your taste. Socially disintegrated future Earth has a few pockets of high-tech surrounded by a vast sea of ignorance. Zardoz 1975 A Boy and His Dog [from the Harlan Ellison story] Unforgettably vivid and faithful treatment of a particularly chilling Harlan Ellison story, which neatly subverts all the rules of Hollywood. Boy meets girl, boy must choose between girl and dog, society is too messed up for anyone to make the sentimental decision. 1975 The Land that Time Forgot and so did I 1975 Rollerball James Caan stars in a tale of a politically corrupt dystopia, run by media conglomerates, as seen from the viewpoint of the superstar of an imaginary future sport which combines roller derby, motorcycle racing, bowling, and karate. I've heard that the stuntmen actually played the game between takes. 1975 The Stepford Wives Replace your spouse with a robot. Eliminates domestic violence, and the minor expense of humanity. 1976 The Food of the Gods [from the H. G. Wells story] Superfood makes creatures and humans grow huge. Yeah, right. 1976 Futureworld Sequel to West World, see above. 1976 King Kong (remake) They should have left the classic original alone. 1976 Logan's Run Logan's Run 1976 The Man Who Fell to Earth [from the Walter Tevis novel] Sad, well-acted story of heroic humanoid alien, who comes to earth armed only with gold rings and blueprints of wonderful machines, in order to build spaceships to bring water to his dying people, but "goes native" and is corrupted by our self-destructive television-addicted culture. 1977 Star Wars Has anyone ever seen this obscure little film? 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind Close Encounters of the Third Kind links to 7 reviews Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Demon Seed Computer rapes woman in genetics experiment whose research grant is unlikely to be renewed. 1977 The Island of Dr. Moreau [from the Jules Verne novel] 1977 The People that Time Forgot I don't remember. 1977 Star Wars Hardware links to 73 reviews 1977 Wizards Ralph Bakshi animation. Typically for him, the cartooning is fine, but the plot makes little sense. Good versus bad Toons, in a conflict based sort of on magic, and sort of on rotoscoped Nazis. 1978 Superman: The Movie Partly right, partly wrong. See Science Fiction Television treatment of the Superman character. 1978 Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (remake) HInvasion of the Bodysnatchers links to 1 review Invasion of the Bodysnatchers 1978 Lord of the Rings (Ralph Bakshi's animation) Too bad he ran out of money in midstream. Ambitious, sometimes very effective visualization of the great J. R. R. Tolkein trilogy. The idea of animating "Lord of the Rings" was actually the basis of an early 1960's story by Vernor Vinge, in which a computer scientist steals massive amounts of computer time to digitally animate the work. Ralph has his animators do it the old fashioned way, with rotoscoped Orc battles. A great change from the over-sweet Disney features, with a much darker vision. Unfortunately, the Disney machine has gigabucks to play with, and Bakshi has to scrape for a few hundred thou. 1978 Parts: The Clonus Horror Parts: The Clonus Horror 1978 Watership Down Smart rabbits allegorically represent human strengths and follies. 1979 Alien [ripped of from an A. E. Van Vogt story] Alien links to 6 reviews Alien 1979 Battlestar Galactica See Science Fiction Television for a debunking of this pap. Battlestar Galactica 1979 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 1979 Mad Max Many of us got our first look at Mel Gibson in this Australian dystopia. Mel is a gripping anti-hero in a world that has gone downhill fast (nuclear war?) and in which cops in fast cars are the only check on bad guys in fast cars. Those endless roads across the Nullarbor symbolize, well, something or other. Lots of action. Sequels even more science fictional. Mad Max 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture The franchise began to make serious money here. Star Trek: The Motion Picture links to 2 reviews Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979 Time After Time [from the novel by Jack Finney] Time After Time links to 2 reviews Time After Time 1980 Alien 1980 Altered States Paddy Chayevsky wrote this unclassifiable mood-piece about psychedelic drugs that somehow alter peoples' bodies or their reality, or something like that. Creepy, atmospheric, but makes no sense to me. Altered States 1980 Flash Gordon Flash Gordon links to 2 reviews Flash Gordon 1980 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Possibly the best of the Star Trek films, because of a very cool villain, played with panache by Ricardo Montelban. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Reviews of 1970's SF Movies Return to Top of Timeline 1970s Page

Major Writers Born this Decade

{to be done} Return to Top of Timeline 1970s Page

Major Science Fiction Figures Who Died this Decade

1971 John W. Campbell, the most inluential magazine editor in science fiction 1973 Walter F. Moudy, age 43 1973 J. R. R. Tolkien 1975 Vaughan Bode, artist/cartoonist, freak accident 4 days before age 34 1976 Winifred Kearns, who sold her first and only story at age 72 a year earlier 1977 David McDaniel, fell in shower, age 38 1977 Tom Reamy, heart attack, age 42 1980 Susan C. Petrey, accidental overdose of antidepressants, age 35 1980 Susan Wood, accidental overdose of aspirin and naproxen, age 32 Return to Top of Timeline 1970s Page

Key Dates of the Decade

1970 The founder of Penguin Books, Sir Allen Lane, dies. He was sometimes credited with launching the era of mass-market paperback book publishing, so essential to Science Fiction. 1970 "Galaxy" and "If", under Universal Publishing and Distributing Company, and Ejler Jakobsson, slip from monthly to bimonthly 1970 "Venture" magazine dies a second time 1970 "Vision of Tomorrow", a British/Australian joint venture magazine, collapses after three issues in 1969 and six in 1970 Apr 1970 British magazine "New Worlds", under Michael Moorcock, dies after being kept afloat by an Arts Council grant. Moorcock transforms the remnants intoi a remarkable book series. July 1970 Robert Heinlein's serial "I Will Fear No Evil" begins in "Galaxy" 1970: Heicon '70, the Twenty-Eighth World Science Fiction Convention, in Heidelberg, Germany (Heidelberg Stadthalle), Chaired by Manfred Kage, E. C. Tubb as UK Guest of Honor, Robert Silverberg as US Guest of Honor, Herbert W. Franke as German Guest of Honor, Elliot K. Shorter as Fan Guest of Honor, 620 members attending. John Brunner, as toastmaster, surprised his German and English-speaking fans alike by emceeing in flawless German. Besides the Hugo Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Hugo Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1970 Fritz Leiber's "Ill met in Lankhmar" (winner) 1970 Harlan Ellison's "The Region Between" (nominee) 1970 Dean R. Koontz's "Beast Child" (nominee) 1970 Robert Silverberg's "The World Outside" (nominee) 1970 Clifford Simak's "The Thing in the Stone" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1970 Theodore Sturgeon's "Slow Sculpture" (winner) 1970 Ben Bova & Harlan Ellison's "Brillo" (nominee) 1970 Gordon Dickson's "Jean Dupres" (nominee) 1970 Keith Laumer's "In the Queue" (nominee) 1970 Gene Wolfe's "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" in "Orbit 7", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story Besides the Nebula Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Nebula Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella (17,500-40,000 words): 1970 Fritz Leiber's "Ill met in Lankhmar" (winner) 1970 Poul Anderson's "Fatal Fulfillment" (nominee) 1970 Harlan Ellison's "The Region Between" (nominee) 1970 Clifford Simak's "The Thing in the Stone" (nominee) 1970 Kate Wilhelm's "April Fools' Day Forever" (nominee) Best SF Novelette (7,500-17,500 words): 1970 Theodore Sturgeon's "Slow Sculpture" (winner) 1970 Thomas M. Disch's "The Asian Shore" (nominee) 1970 Gordon Eklund's "Dear Aunt Annie" 1970 Gerald Jonas' "The Shaker Revival" (nominee) 1970 Harlan Ellison's "The Region Between" (nominee) 1970 R. A. Lafferty's novelette "Continued on Next Rock" (nominee) 1970 Joanna Russ' "The Second Inquisition" (nominee) Best SF Short Story (7,500 words or under): 1970 No Award (winner) 1970 Gardner Dozois' "A Dream at Noonday" (nominee) 1970 Harry Harrison's "By the Falls" (nominee) 1970 R. A. Lafferty's "Entire and Perfect Chrysolite" (nominee) 1970 Keith Laumer's "In the Queue" (nominee) 1970 James Sallis' "The Creation of Bennie Good" (nominee) 1970 Kate Wilhelm's "A Cold Dark Night with Snow" (nominee) 1970 Gene Wolfe's "The Island of Dr. Death" (nominee) Some of the best short fiction of the year 1970 included: 1970 Isaac Asimov's short story "Waterclap" 1970 Neil Barrett Jr.'s short story "Greyspun's Gift" 1970 Gregory Benford's short story "Nobody Lives of Burton Street" 1970 Michael Coney's short story "Whatever Became of the McGowans" 1970 Gordon Eklund's novelette "Dear Aunt Annie" 1970 Ron Goulart's short story "Confessions" 1970 H. B. Kickey's short story "Gone Are the Lupo" 1970 Gerald Jonas' novelette "The Shaker Revival" 1970 R. A. Lafferty's novelette "Continued on Next Rock" 1970 Larry Niven's short story "Bird in the Hand" 1970 Arthur Selling's short story "The Last Time Around" 1970 Bob Shaw's short story "Invasion of Privacy" 1970 Robert Silverberg's short story "Ishmael in Love" 1970 Clifford Simak's novella "The Thing in the Stone" 1970 Theodore Sturgeon's novella "Slow Sculpture" {The above 15 stories may be found in Donald Wollheim & Terry Carr [editors] "World's Best Science Fiction 1971"} 1971 Donald A. Wollheim quits editing at Ace and founds his own publisher, DAW Books, specializing in Science Fiction 11 July 1971 Death of John W. Campbell, the most influential magazine editor in science fiction. 1971 Noreascon I is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Boston, Chaired by Tony Lewis, with Clifford D. Simak as pro Guest of Honor, Harry Warner, Jr., as fan Guest of Honor, and 1,600 members attending. Besides the Hugo Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Hugo Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1971 Poul Anderson's "The Queen of Air and Darkness" (winner) 1971 John Brunner's "Dead Empire" (nominee) 1971 Arthur C. Clarke's "A Meeting With Medusa" (nominee) 1971 Gardner Dozois' "A Special Kind of Morning" (nominee) 1971 Larry Niven's "The Fourth Profession" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1971 Larry Niven's "Inconstant Moon" (winner) 1971 George Alec Effinger's "All the Last Wars at Once" (nominee) 1971 R. A. Lafferty's "Sky" (nominee) 1971 Ursula K. Le Guin's "Vaster Than Empires, and More Slow" (nominee) 1971 Clifford Simak's "The Autumn Land" (nominee) 1971 Stephen Tall's "The Bear With the Knot on his Tail" (nominee) 1971 Ursula K. Le Guin's "Vaster Than Empires, and More Slow" in "New Dimensions", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story Besides the Nebula Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Nebula Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1971 Katherine McLean's "The Missing Man" (winner) 1971 Jerzy Kozinski's "Being There" (nominee) 1971 Keith Roberts' "The God House" (nominee) 1971 Kate Wilhelm's "The Infinity Box" (nominee) 1971 Kate Wilhelm's "The Plastic Abyss" (nominee) Best SF Novelette: 1971 Poul Anderson's "The Queen of Air and Darkness" (winner) 1971 Gardner Dozois' "A Special Kind of Morning" (nominee) 1971 Edgar Pangborn's "Mount Charity" (nominee) 1971 Joanna Russ' "Poor Man, Beggar Man" (nominee) 1971 Kate Wilhelm's "The Encounter" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1971 Robert Silverberg's "Good News from the Vatican" (winner) 1971 Gardner Dozois' "Horse of Air" (nominee) 1971 Stephen Goldin's "The Last Ghost" (nominee) 1971 George Zebrowski's "Heathen God" (nominee) Nov 1971 Ben Bova hired as new editor of "Analog" to fill the over-sized shoes of the late John W. Campbell. He begins to revive a magazine that had been gradually losing its momentum. Mar 1972 Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at the Starbow's End" is his first sale to "Analog" Mar 1972 Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves" marks his return to SF novels after a 16-year hiatus, and starts in "Galaxy" 1972 L.A.con I is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Los Angeles, Chaired by Charles Crayne, with Frederik Pohl as pro Guest of Honor, Buck & Juanita Coulson, as fan Guests of Honor, and 2,007 members attending. Besides the Hugo Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Hugo Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1972 Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest" (winner) 1972 Joe Haldeman's "Hero" (nominee) 1972 Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at Starbow's End" (nominee) 1972 whatsisname's "The Mercenary" (nominee) 1972 Gene Wolfe' "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" (nominee) Best SF Novelette: 1972 Poul Anderson's "Goat Song" (winner) 1972 Gardner Dozois' "A Kingdom by the Sea" (nominee) 1972 Harlan Ellison's "Basilisk" (nominee) 1972 William Rotsler's "Patron of the Arts" (nominee) 1972 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "Painwise" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1972 R. A. Lafferty's "Eurema's Dam" (Joint Winner) 1972 Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth's "The Meeting" (Joint Winner) 1972 Joanna Russ' "When It Changed" (nominee) 1972 Robert Silverberg's "When We Went to See the End of the World" (nominee) 1972 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "And I Awoke And Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side (nominee) 1972 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "Painwise" in "F&SF", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story Besides the Nebula Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Nebula Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1972 Arthur C. Clarke's "A Meeting With Medusa" (winner) 1972 Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest" (nominee) 1972 Richard A. Lupoff's "With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Little Old New Alabama" (nominee) 1972 Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at Starbow's End" (nominee) 1972 Gene Wolfe' "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" (nominee) Best SF Novelette: 1972 Poul Anderson's "Goat Song" (winner) 1972 Alfred Bester's "The Animal Fair" (nominee) 1972 Gardner Dozois' "A Kingdom by the Sea" (nominee) 1972 Harlan Ellison's "Basilisk" (nominee) 1972 David Gerrold's "In the Deadlands" (nominee) 1972 William Rotsler's "Patron of the Arts" (nominee) 1972 Kate Wilhelm's "The Funeral" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1972 Joanna Russ' "When It Changed" (Winner) 1972 Harlan Ellison's "On the Downhill Side" (nominee) 1972 Frederik Pohl's "Shaffrey Among the Immortals" (Joint Winner) 1972 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "And I Awoke And Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side (nominee) 1972 Gene Wolfe's "Against the Lafayette Escadrille" (nominee) Late 1972 Random House buys Ballantine Books, Betty Ballentine hires Judy-Lynn del Rey Sep 1973 1973 Torcon II is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Toronto, Canada, Chaired by John Millard, with Robert Bloch as pro Guest of Honor, William Rotsler as fan Guest of Honor, and 2,900 members attending. Besides the Hugo Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Hugo Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1973 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (winner) 1973 Michael Bishop's "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" (nominee) 1973 Michael Bishop's "The White Otters of Childhood" (nominee) 1973 Gardner Dozois' "Chains of the Sea" (nominee) 1973 Gene Wolfe' "The Death of Doctor Island" (nominee) Best SF Novelette: 1973 Harlan Ellison's "The Deathbird" (winner) 1973 George Alec Effinger "City on the Sand" (nominee) 1973 Vonda MacIntyre's "Of Mist, And Grass, And Sand" (nominee) 1973 whatsisname's "He Fell Into a Dark Hole" (nominee) 1973 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "Love is the Plan, The Plan is Death" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1973 Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (Winner) 1973 Vonda MacIntyre's "Wings" (nominee) 1973 George R. R. Martin's "With Morning Comes Mistfall" (nominee) 1973 Clifford Simak's "Construction Shack" (nominee) 1973 Edgar Pangborn's "My Brother Leopold" in "An Exaltation of Stars", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story Besides the Nebula Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Nebula Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1973 Gene Wolfe' "The Death of Doctor Island" (winner) 1973 Michael Bishop's "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" (nominee) 1973 Michael Bishop's "The White Otters of Childhood" (nominee) 1973 Jack Dann's "Junction" (nominee) 1973 Gardner Dozois' "Chains of the Sea" (nominee) Best SF Novelette: 1973 Vonda MacIntyre's "Of Mist, And Grass, And Sand" (winner) 1973 Harlan Ellison's "The Deathbird" (nominee) 1973 Theodore Sturgeon's "Case and the Dreamer" (nominee) 1973 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1973 James Tiptree, Jr.'s "Love is the Plan, The Plan is Death" (Winner) 1973 Edward Bryant's "Shark" (nominee) 1973 Vonda MacIntyre's "Wings" (nominee) 1973 George R. R. Martin's "With Morning Comes Mistfall" (nominee) 1973 Norman Spinrad's "A Thing of Beauty" (nominee) 1973 Gene Wolfe' "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion" (nominee) 1973 Hyperion Press publishes 23 science fiction books, plus seven books of science fiction history by Sam Moskowitz, on nearly-immortal acid-free paper. 1974 The Japanese "SF Magazine" which had, since 1960, published Japanese translations of stories in the American "Fantasy & Science Fiction", starts printing original Japanese fiction. 1974 Discon II is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Washington, D.C., Chaired by Jay Haldeman and Ron Bounds, with Roger Zelazny as pro Guest of Honor, Jay Kay Klein as fan Guest of Honor, and 3,587 members attending. Besides the Hugo Awards for Best SF Novel, listed in the section above on Major Books of the Year, Hugo Awards and Nominees included: Best SF Novella: 1974 George R. R. Martin's "A Song for Lya" (winner) 1974 Gardner Dozois' "Strangers" (nominee) 1974 Robert Silverberg's "Born with the Dead" (nominee) 1974 Norman Spinrad's "Riding the Torch" (nominee) 1974 Jack Vance's "Assault on a City" (nominee) Best SF Novelette: 1974 Harlan Ellison's "Adrift just off the Islets of Langerhans Latitude 38o54'N, Longitude 77o00'13"W" (winner) 1974 Isaac Asimov's "That Thou Art Mindful of Him" (nominee) 1974 Fritz Leiber's "Midnight by the Morphy Watch" (nominee) 1974 Richard Lupoff's "City on the Sand" (nominee) 1974 whatsisname's "Exteme Prejudice" (nominee) 1974 William Walling's "Nix Olympica" (nominee) 1974 Kate Wilhelm's "A Brother to Dragons, A Companion to Owls" (nominee) Best SF Short Story: 1974 Larry Niven's "The Hole Man" (Winner) 1974 Alfred Bester's "The Four-Hour Fugue" (nominee) 1974 Michael Bishop's "A Cathadonian Odyssey" (nominee) 1974 Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Day Before the Revolution" (nominee) 1974 Robert Silverberg's "Schwartz Between the Galaxies" (nominee) 1974 Michael Moorcock's "Pale Roses" in "New Worlds", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story 1974 NEBULAs {to be done} 1974 Ian and Betty Ballentine leave Ballentine Books, and Judy-Lynn del Rey starts an economic boom and a resurgence of classic works and new adult Fantasy. Dec 1974 The last issue of "If" magazine, thereafter nominally folded into "Galaxy." Jim Baen had replaced Ejler Jakobsson as Editor, and then left to edit Ace Books, leaving John J. Pierce at the helm. 1975 Under editor Gerard Klein, the first science fiction books in the "Anthologie de la Science-Fiction" are published. 1975 the French science fiction anthology series "Univers" is launched by the publisher "J'ai lu" 1975 California-based "Vertex" magazine went tabloid format on cheap newsprint, and then dissolved. 1975 Garland Press publishes 45 science fiction books on nearly-immortal acid-free paper. 1975 AussieCon I is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Mlbourne, Australia, Chaired by Robin Johnson, with Ursula K. Le Guin as pro Guest of Honor, Susan Wood and Michael Glickson as fan Guests of Honor, Donald Tuck as Australian Guest of Honor, and 606 members attending. 1975 Harlequin Books (known for its Romance novels) storms into science fiction with three title per month, edited by Roger Elwood, with Kelly Freas covers, in supermarkets across America, but ran out of steam. 1975 John Varley's "Retrograde Summer" in "F&SF", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story 1976 Grosset & Dunlap buys Ace Books. 1976 Bantam Books hires Frederik Pohl as science fiction editor. 1976 "Odyssey Science Fiction" magazine is launched, but only survives for a couple of issues 1976 "SF Digest" is launched, but only the debut issue is published. 1976 "Science Fiction Monthly" dies April 1976 50th anniversary of Science Fiction magazines ("Amazing Stories" being the first) and yet not one of the original pulp magazines survived to this date. In fact, there were just two monthly Science Fiction magazines in good shape: "Analog" and "The Magazine of Fantasy & Scioence Fiction." Sep 1976 Semi-professional magazine "Galileo" launched (only to last 15 issues and die in 1980) 1976 Richard Cowper's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in "F&SF", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story 1976 MidAmeriCon is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Kansas City, Missouri, Chaired by Ken Keller, with Robert A. Heinlein as pro Guest of Honor, George Barr as fan Guest of Honor, and 2,800 members attending. 1977 "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine" is launched 1977 The highly political "Collectif" anthologies of French science fiction are published by Kesselring The "1977 Annual World's Best SF", edited by Donald A. Wollheim, includes the following stories among the 10 selected {story descriptions courtesy of The Science Fiction Book Club mailer "Things to Come", September 1977}: 1977 Brian W. Aldiss' short story "Appearance of Life": The Korlevalulaw... their name conjures up pictures of gods and demons. We know that they were inhuman. We know that they had abandoned the written word by the time they loreded over the star lanes. What we don't know is what became of them. Some have supposed that they committed some sort of racial suicide; while others postulate a mammoth galactic civil war that totally annihilated their species. Yet no one is sure... at least not until one intrepid explorer visits their dark and ancient museum on planet Norma. There he finds the aliens' secret and something more foreboding than anyone had imagined... 1977 Lester del Rey's short story "Natural Advantage": Star Captain Anthor Sef sighed heavily and put down the trinoculars. Over his short snout and just above his third eye was a bulging forehead that ached painfully. The anti-matter cloud was definitely heading for solar system G. That's why the a;iens had to be warned. Research had determined that their rocketry was primitive... their language incomprehensible... and their vision only binary. But by the Ancient Dust, thought Anthor, if there was a way of helping this race of beings called humans--he'd find it! 1977 James Tiptree Jr.'s short story "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" "I suppose," Lorimer said, "it's possible that in some sense we are not here." That doesn't sound too clear, but, then again, nothing had seemed totally real to the trio of astronauts since they had gone through the time warp. One moment they'd been gliding in the blank void of space talking with mission control; the next saw their tiny craft hurtled three hundred years into the future. The possibility of rescue seemed remote, until a giant ship paced them and urged them to enter. But who--or what--was inside? Was this an Earth vessel... or a machine from beyond the stars? They didn't have to wait long for the answers..." {these three are the last men in a world of women, and the results are nasty for all} 1977 SunCon is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Miami Beach, Florida, Chaired by Don Lundry, with Jack Williamson as pro Guest of Honor, Robert A. Madle as fan Guest of Honor, and 2,050 members attending. 1977 Vonda McIntyre's "Aztecs" in "2076: The American Tricentennial", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story 1978 Bob Guccione launches the heavily-capitalized visually sophisticated "Omni Magazine", which pays the most per word to writers of all SF magazines. It was to have been called "Nova" but the lawyers for the PBS television series of the same name prevented that. Thye magazine shows its exquisite taste by immediately buying a lead article from Jonathan Vos Post, a.k.a. Your Humble Webmaster 1978 European Science Fiction award goes to "Saga de Los Aznar" by George H. White, published in the 1950s in Spain. 1978 IguanaCon II is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Phoenix, Arizona, Chaired by Tim Kyger and Gary Farber, with Harlan Ellison as pro Guest of Honor, Bill Bowers as fan Guest of Honor, and 2,050 members attending. 1978 Ian Watson's "The Very Slow Time Machine" in "Anticipations", Richard Lupoff contends that this should have won the Hugo Award for best short story 1979 Seacon '79 is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Brighton, England, Chaired by Peter Weston, with Harlan Ellison as pro Guest of Honor, Bill Bowers as fan Guest of Honor, and 2,050 members attending. 1980 Tom Doherty leaves Ace Books and launches Tor Books 1980 Noreascon II is the World Science Fiction Convention set in Boston, Chaired by Leslie Turek, with Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm as pro Guests of Honor, Bruce Pelz as fan Guest of Honor (an overweight man who has been unnecessarily nasty to your humble webmaster), and 5,850 members attending. 1980 the French magazine "SF et quotidien" is launched Return to Top of Timeline 1970s Page Hotlinks to other Timeline pages of SF Chronology |Introduction: Overview and Summary |Prehistory: Ancient Precursors |16th Century: Ariosto and Cyrano on the Moon |17th Century: Literary Dawn |18th Century: Literary Expansion |19th Century: Victorian Explosion |1890-1910: Into Our Century |1910-1920: The Silver Age |1920-1930: The Golden Age |1930-1940: The Aluminum Age |1940-1950: The Plutonium Age |1950-1960: The Threshold of Space |1960-1970: The New Wave |1970-1980: The Seventies (you're here now) |1980-1990: The Eighties |1990-2000: End of Millennium |2000-2010: Future Prizewinners Return to Top of Timeline 1970s Page
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