An Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton

Note also the two titles with exclamation points - Dorsai! was the title of the Astounding serial, clumsily retitled, because Don Wollheim, for the Ace Double (which was also abridged.) And Anderson later collected We Claim These Stars! in Agent of the Terran Empire, retitled 'Hunters of the Sky Cave' (and possibly revised.) Despite its presence in a collection, it is novel length by my estimate, 45,000 or more words. I was amused to learn, in searching for it in the ISFDB, that the slight variant title Wolfsbane turns out to be a very oft-used title - at least eight novels and a dozen or more short stories. I list Pohl and Kornbluth's Wolfbane, but a shorter version (perhaps just novella length) appeared in 1957. For that matter, Providence Island is about a lost race resisting the use of their island for nuclear tests, and The Manchurian Candidate is surely a Cold War novel to the max! This was the height of the Cold War, and the height of fears of Nuclear War, and that is emphasized by the popular success of out and out 'End of the World due to Nuclear War' books like Level 7 Alas, Babylon A Canticle for Leibowitz and On The Beach, all published in this time frame. Based on what I've read about them, very possibly Mordecai Roshwald's Level 7 and Jacquetta Hawkes' Providence Island are also Hugo-worthy, and perhaps even The Manchurian Candidate. A for Anything is a decent novel, but not great - Knight wouldn't really figure out how to write a fully satisfying novel for a couple of decades at least. I don't mind the Hugo for Starship Troopers, however, as I think it an interesting and pretty well done novel (even if I don't approve of the political organization the novel suggests.) I haven't read the Jackson novel but it sure sounds like it is worthy of a nomination. My choice for the Hugo would be Time Out of Joint, one of my favorite Philip K. 'The Sweet Little Old Lady' aka Brain Twister, by 'Mark Phillips' (Randall Garrett and Laurence M.

'The Pirates of Ersatz' aka The Pirates of Zan, by 'Murray Leinster' (Will Jenkins) Hugo nominee The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condonĭorsai! aka The Genetic General, by Gordon R. We Claim These Stars! aka 'Hunters of the Sky Cave', by Poul Anderson

The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley JacksonĪ for Anything aka The People Maker, by Damon Knight

Starship Troopers aka 'Starship Soldier', by Robert A.

An Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton