Special Collections
Nebula Award Winners (science fiction)
Description: The Nebula Award is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for exceptional science fiction or fantasy fiction published in the United States. The following titles were awarded the Nebula Award for best novel. #award
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Dune
by Frank Herbert• DUNE: PART TWO • THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE COMING NOVEMBER 3rd, 2023Directed by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert • Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsgård, with Charlotte Rampling, and Javier BardemFrank Herbert&’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time.Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad'Dib—and of a great family's ambition to bring to fruition mankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel KeyesOscar-winning film Charly starring Cliff Robertson and Claire Bloom-a mentally challenged man receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
Babel-17
by Samuel R. DelanyThe Nebula Award Winner: &“By looking at a typical space opera adventure from a different angle, Delany . . . give[s] us a weird, welcoming book&” (Tor.com). At twenty-six, Rydra Wong is the most popular poet in the five settled galaxies. Almost telepathically perceptive, she has written poems that capture the mood of mankind after two decades of savage war. Since the invasion, Earth has endured famine, plague, and cannibalism—but its greatest catastrophe will be Babel-17. Sabotage threatens to undermine the war effort, and the military calls in Rydra. Random attacks lay waste to warships, weapons factories, and munitions dumps, and all are tied together by strings of sound, broadcast over the radio before and after each accident. In that gibberish Rydra recognizes a coherent message, with all of the beauty, persuasive power, and order that only language possesses. To save humanity, she will master this strange tongue. But the more she learns, the more she is tempted to join the other side . . . This ebook features an illustrated biography of Samuel R. Delany including rare images from his early career.
Einstein Intersection
by Neil Gaiman and Samuel R. DelanyThe Einstein Intersection won the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of 1967 -- now with a foreword by Neil Gaiman. The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity.
The deeper tale concerns, however, the way those who are "different" must deal with the dominant cultural ideology. The tale follows Lobey's mythic quest for his lost love, Friza. In luminous and hallucinated language, it explores what new myths might emerge from the detritus of the human world as those who are "different" try to seize history and the day.
Rite of Passage
by Alexei PanshinIn 2198, one hundred and fifty years after the desperate wars that destroyed an overpopulated Earth, Man lives precariously on a hundred hastily-established colony worlds and in the seven giant Ships that once ferried men to the stars.
Mia Havero's Ship is a small closed society. It tests its children by casting them out to live or die in a month of Trial in the hostile wilds of a colony world. Mia Havero's Trial is fast approaching and in the meantime she must learn not only the skills that will keep her alive but the deeper courage to face herself and her world.
Published originally in 1968, Alexei Panshin's Nebula Award-winning classic has lost none of its relevance, with its keen exploration of societal stagnation and the resilience of youth.
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le GuinWinner of the Hugo and Nebula AwardsA groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.
Ringworld
by Larry NivenFOUR TRAVELERS COME TO THE RINGWORLD... Louis Wu — human and old; bored with having lived too fully for far too many years. Seeking a challenge, and all too capable of handling it. Nessus — a trembling coward, a puppeteer with a built-in survival pattern of nonviolence. Except that this particular puppeteer is insane. Teela Brown — human; a wide-eyed youngster with no allegiances, no experiences, no abilities. And all the luck in the world. Speaker-To-Animals — kzin; large, orange-furred, and carnivorous. And one of the most savage life-forms known in the galaxy.
Why did these disparate individuals come together? How could they possibly function together? And where, in the name of anything sane, were they headed?
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards.
A Time Of Changes
by Robert SilverbergThree thousand years after Earth's colonization of the planet Borthan, stories of self-serving hypocrisy that occurred among the first arrivals have bred a culture that forbids emotional sharing and denies the naturally human concept of "self." The result is a lasting peace, but at a terrible price.
For it is a peace without love, without self, where even the mention of the word "I" is taboo. Spurred on by the arrival of an Earthman with a selfbaring drug, Kinnall Darival breaks the strict code of the Covenant to record the sordid details of his rebellious life from the days of his royal youth to self-appointed prophet of love. He begins his account with the greatest of heresies: "I am Kinnall Darival and I mean to tell you all about myself."
Nebula Award winner
The Gods Themselves
by Isaac AsimovOnly a few know the terrifying truth--an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun. They know the truth--but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy--but who will believe? These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth's survival.
Rendezvous with Rama
by Arthur C. ClarkeAstronauts explore an alien spacecraft hurtling toward the sun in this Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel—&“a stone-cold classic&” of hard sci-fi (The Guardian). An enormous cylindrical object has entered Earth&’s solar system on a collision course with the sun. A team of astronauts are sent to explore the mysterious craft, which the denizens of the solar system name Rama. What they find is astonishing evidence of a civilization far more advanced than ours. They find an interior stretching over fifty kilometers; a forbidding cylindrical sea; mysterious and inaccessible buildings; and strange machine-animal hybrids, or &“biots,&” that inhabit the ship. But what they don&’t find is an alien presence. So who—and where—are the Ramans? Often listed as one of Clarke&’s finest novels, Rendezvous with Rama won numerous awards, including the Hugo, the Nebula, the Jupiter, and the British Science Fiction Awards. A fast-paced and compelling story of an enigmatic encounter with alien technology, Rendezvous with Rama offers both answers and unsolved mysteries that will continue to fascinate readers for generations. &“Mr. Clarke is splendid . . . We experience that chilling touch of the alien, the not-quite-knowable, that distinguishes SF at its most technically imaginative.&” —The New York Times
The Dispossessed
by Ursula K. Le GuinCenturies ago, the moon Anarres was settled by utopian anarchists who left the Earthlike planet Urras in search of a better world, a new beginning. Now a brilliant physicist, Shevek, determines to reunite the two civilizations that have been separated by hatred since long before he was born.
The Dispossessed is a penetrating examination of society and humanity -- and one man's brave undertaking to question the unquestionable and ignite the fires of change.
Winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards.
The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman and John ScalziHe went off to war, but the Earth he came back to wasn't the one he left behind Man has taken to the stars. Deep in space, humans discover the fearsome Taurans after a transport ship is destroyed
To combat the threat, humanity sends in the United Nations Exploratory Force -- a highly trained unit built for revenge. Conscripted into the service, physics student William Mandella fights for his planet against the alien force light years away. However, because of the relative passage of time when one travels at incredibly high speed, the Earth he returns to after his two-year experience has progressed decades and is foreign to him in disturbing ways.
Based in part on the author's experiences in Vietnam, The Forever War is regarded as one of the greatest military science fiction novels ever written, perfectly capturing the alienation that servicemen and women experience even now upon returning home from battle.
The Forever War shines a light not only on the culture of the 1970s, the era in which it was written, but also on our potential future. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Joe Haldeman including rare images from the author's personal collection, as well as a Foreword by John Scalzi.
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Man Plus
by Frederik PohlFrom the book jacket: Roger Torraway watched in horror as the monster lurched, toppled over and died. Project Man Plus had gone suddenly and drastically wrong. The race to colonize Mars was too important, too costly, and America was already too committed, for plans to be scrapped. They would have to make a new Martian. And Roger Torraway was it, candidate for the endless surgery, operation after painful operation, that would enable him to survive on that faraway planet. Man Plus is a thrilling race against timeto land on Mars on schedule, to insure that Roger's system will withstand the stress that killed the previous candidate. And, meanwhile, somewhere, somehow, there has been a breakdown in the computer network ... With edge-of-the-chair excitement and suspense, four-time Hugo Award winner Frederik Pohl tells the story of the remaking of man into Man Plus, creating in Roger an unforgettable character, grotesque in appearance but totally human in feelingcapable of yearning, depression, love, jealousy, terror. Man Plus is so superbly well done that it will appeal not only to science-fiction fans but to readers of such novels as The Andromeda Strain.
Gateway
by Frederik PohlGateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe...and on reaches of unimaginable horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!
Nebula Award winner.
Dreamsnake
by Vonda N. McintyreThis is the haunting story of an extraordinary woman and her dangerous quest to reclaim her healing powers. Revered healer Snake must undertake a journey in search of the dreamsnake, whose bite eases the fear and pain of death.
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
The Fountains of Paradise
by Arthur C. ClarkeA Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel from the legendary &“colossus of science fiction&” and creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey (The New Yorker). Renowned structural engineer Dr. Vannevar Morgan seeks to link Earth to the stars by constructing a space elevator that will connect to an orbiting satellite 22,300 miles from the planet&’s surface. The elevator would lift interstellar spaceships into orbit without the need of rockets to blast through the Earth&’s atmosphere—making space travel easier and more cost-effective. Unfortunately, the only appropriate surface base for the elevator is located at the top of a mountain already occupied by an ancient order of Buddhist monks who strongly oppose the project. Morgan must face down their opposition—as well as enormous technical, political, and economic challenges—if he is to create his beanstalk to the heavens. An epic novel of daring dreams spanning twenty decades, this award-winning drama combines believable science with heart-stopping suspense. &“A beautifully mounted story about the human need to reach—literally—for the stars, and the fine line between genius and megalomania.&” —SFReviews.net
Timescape
by Gregory BenfordThe author of Tides of Light offers his Nebula Award-winning SF classic — a combination of hard science, bold speculation, and human drama. In the year 1998, a group of scientists works desperatey to communicate with the scientists of 1962, warning of an ecological disaster that will destroy the oceans in the future — if it is not averted in the past.
The Claw of the Conciliator
by Gene WolfeThe second volume of "The Book of the New Sun": The torturer Severian continues his journey of exile to the city Thrax, carrying with him the ancient executioner's sword and the Claw of the Conciliator, a gem of extraterrestrial power and beauty which no one man is meant to possess.
Severian, a young torturer banished for the sin of mercy, is now imbued with the powers of an ancient relic as he continues his journey to the city of his exile in a magical world.
Nebula Award winner.
No Enemy But Time
by Michael BishopJoshua has always dreamed of pre-historic Africa and of our earliest ancestors. He will get to live his dreams.
His spirit dreams bring family trouble in the present. Yet those dreams let him meet our earliest Hominid ancestors in their own world and become one of them.
Nebula Award winner.
Startide Rising
by David BrinDavid Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War--a New York Times bestseller--together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind? The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed in the uncharted water world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret--the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars. From the Paperback edition.
Neuromancer
by William GibsonTwenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene--it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society. Neuromancer's virtual reality has become real. And yet, William Gibson's gritty, sophisticated vision still manages to inspire the minds that lead mankind ever further into the future.
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott CardIn order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut — young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Hugo and Nebula Awards Winner.
Speaker for the Dead
by Orson Scott CardIn the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.
Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth.
Speaker for the Dead, the second novel in Orson Scott Card's Ender Quintet, is the winner of the 1986 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1987 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
The Falling Woman
by Pat MurphyWinner of the Nebula Award: &“A lovely and literate exploration of the dark moment where myth and science meet&” (Samuel R. Delany). When night falls over the Yucatan, the archaeologists lay down their tools. But while her colleagues relax, Elizabeth Butler searches for shadows. A famous scientist with a reputation for eccentricity, she carries a strange secret. Where others see nothing but dirt and bones and fragments of pottery, Elizabeth sees shades of the men and women who walked this ground thousands of years before. She can speak to the past—and the past is beginning to speak back. As Elizabeth communes with ghosts, the daughter she abandoned flies to Mexico hoping for a reunion. She finds a mother embroiled in the supernatural, on a quest for the true reason for the Mayans&’ disappearance. To dig up the truth, the archaeologist who talks to the dead must learn a far more difficult skill: speaking to her daughter.
Falling Free
by Lois Mcmaster BujoldDisability politics in space. Disability politics in outer space. Same setting as the Vorkosigan Saga, but set approximately 200 years before Miles is born.
Leo Graf was an effective engineer ...Safety Regs weren't just the rule book he swore by; he'd helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporation exploitation of his bright new students - - 'till that exploitation turned to something much worse. He hadn't anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither safe, nor in the rules... Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies -- now all he had to do was teach them to be free.
Nebula Award winner.