Hugo Award for Short Story Winners of the 1970's

1970- "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" by Samuel Delany - 

This is a literary science fiction tale of the thief and master impersonator, known by aliases that all have the initials H.C.E. rising from being a lowly crook to a wealthy criminal overlord in a vibrant interplanetary underworld.  He is being pursued by the Interplanetary Secret Service Maud Hinkle who mysteriously knows about his past, present, and future. We follow H.C.E.'s life using monthly criminal code words based on semi-precious stones, The story introduces the concept of holographic information storage which can unravel a person's entire life trajectory using a single date point. It brings up questions of self-determination and the surveillance state. This was my favorite story from the 1970's because the world Delaney created comes alive and the questions about free will, identity and surveillance lingered in my mind days after reading the story. I could talk about this story for hours!

1971- "Slow Sculpture" by Theodore Sturgeon -

A literary story about an old genius and a woman troubled by a surprise diagnosis bond over a Bonsai tree and learn more about human relationships. This was a cozier story that had a good message about humanism and how to handle obstacles in the way of technological progress. 

1972 - "Inconstant Moon" by Larry Niven

In this hard science fiction story, a sudden change in the moon signals to our main character that the Earth is about to suffer a catastrophic disaster. The story makes me ask "What would I do if I had one more day to live?" In Niven's story, the threat isn't from climate change or nuclear apocalypse but from nature which makes it feel darker, yet the story of the couple making the most of what appears to be their last night together gives this hard science fiction story a more emotional connection. 

1973 - "Eurema's Dam" by R. A. Lafferty and "The Meeting" by Frederick Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth

These were the weakest winners of the decade thought Lafferty, Pohl, and Kornbluth are amazing writers. Eurmea's Dam is about Albert, "the last of the dolts" that invents machines and robots to do his thinking for him as he is too slow to do it himself. He even invents a robot to help him talk to girls and a machine to give him ideas called Hunchy. He later becomes rich off of his inventions even though he can't read or do simple arithmetic. I read this story before in a collection of short stories by Lafferty and this one was one of my favorites. I don't know how well it fits in with the rest of the Hugo Award winners of the 70's and even Lafferty himself was confused by winning the award.

"The Meeting" was my least favorite story of the 1970's. The first part was a good description of what it is like to raise a child with severe special needs. We follow a group of parents at a special school discussing the challenges with their children and fighting the system to get the help they need. The ending was dark and unsettling and not in a good way. 

1974 - "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin

This literary classic is the most famous of all of the stories of the 1970's and makes the list of the best short stories of all time inspiring writers to this day. It is a morality tale about a utopia that bases its prosperity on the suffering of a child. Some walk away choosing not to live in paradise if it means one must suffer. It is a critique of utilitarianism and also makes me think about those who suffer to make our society prosper. It is, however, not my personal favorite story. It reminded me too much of other morality tales. 

1975 - "The Hole Man" by Larry Niven 

A hard science fiction story about the conflict between two scientists and quantum black holes. An expedition on Mars finds an ancient, abandoned alien base. Not only does the story make me think about quantum black holes and their destructiveness but it also gives me a solution to the Fermi Paradox that I never thought of before. Also, don't bully a man who has his finger on a button to release a quantum black hole. I liked this story more than other reviewers I found online, but I prefer harder science fiction over literary science fiction. 

1976 - "Catch That Zeppelin!" by Fritz Leiber

An alternate fiction story about a man who slips into another more prosperous timeline where World War II never happened, and Adolf Hitler is a Zeppelin expert. It also was a precursor to Steampunk or Dieselpunk making it very important to the science fiction genre. Though it was fun to read, it wasn't my favorite as I am now tired of WWII alternate history stories. 

1977 - "Tricentennial" by Joe Haldeman

This story was written in 1976 during the Bicentennial of the birth of the United States so it looks forward to what the world might be like in the Tricentennial. One interesting topic is how Americans no longer want to spend the money into space exploration. Something that I think is relevant today! A group of people go rogue and steal a generation ship. Because of time dilation, no one on Earth knows if the adventurers were ever successful and were eventually forgotten. 

1978 - "Jeffty is Five" by Harlan Ellison

This story made me cry! I think this story is very relevant today as we argue about old Star Wars vs the Prequels vs the Sequels and 90's Star Trek vs New Trek. Some arguments are valid about the weaknesses of new takes on popular franchises but sometimes it is because those franchises represent something special and innocent about our childhoods and we don't want to accept changes. This story is about a man who has a friend named Jeffty who is eternally five years old. The radio plays only Jeffty's old radio shows and the movie theater only shows old movies for Jeffty. His parents are depressed being around a child that never grows up, so our protagonist becomes Jeffty's friend while enjoying the old shows and movies from his childhood. Jeffty is stuck in the 1940's. Jeffty tragically collides with the 1970's. This story was very emotional and hit me right in the heart. 

1979 - "Cassandra" by C. J. Cherryh

This is another literary science fiction story about a woman who can see the future around her yet everyone thinks she is crazy. She sees her city destroyed by war and the people around her look like walking corpses. When she finally meets a man that doesn't look like a corpse, is she finally able to make a human connection with someone before everything is annihilated. Cherryh has excellent prose, and her story instantly made a connection with me, but the story seemed a little dated from a time when we were obsessed with a possible World War III in the near future.  

This was a lot of fun and I would like to do other decades! 

My Ranking

1. Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones

2. Jeffty is Five

3. Inconstant Moon

4. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

5. Slow Sculpture

6. Eurema's Dam

7. Cassandra

8. The Hole Man

9. Catch that Zeppelin!

10. Tricentennial

11. The Meeting