THE HUGO WINNERS

Winners in the short-story, novella, and novelette categories from 1971 through 1975. The most striking efforts are Ursula K. LeGuin's thoughtful novella of the rape of a forest planet and James Tiptree's angry, magnificent tale of a deformed girl hooked up to a beautiful waldo. Other impressive stories from LeGuin, Harlan Ellison, and R. A. Lafferty; good solid contributions from Larry Niven, George R. R. Martin, and Poul Anderson. The most moving award is that shared by Frederik Poul and the long-dead C. M. Kornbluth for a harrowing (and perhaps, on Kornbluth's part, autobiographical) short story of a father making a terrible decision about an emotionally disturbed child. Wonderful collection—but there are liabilities. Asimov has never provided noisier, more pointless introductions. And, if you think awards are any guarantee of excellence, look at Fritz Leiber's "Ship of Shadows" (inadvertently omitted from Volume 2) with its marvelous situation and lazy writing, or his disgracefully ragged sword-and-sorcery effort. Or Sturgeon's mawkish, exiguous love story, "Slow Sculpture," full of syrupy cliches in worldly-wise clothing. The collection is a must, but not always a monument to the merits of all concerned.