"Introduction to Nebula Award Stories 6 (Text)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nebula Award Stories 6)

INTRODUCTION

This is the sixth year that the membership of the Science
Fiction Writers of America has voted Nebula awards to
authors who are considered to have written the best
science fiction (or fantasy) stories published in the pre-
vious year. Ordinarily the award-winning 'short story,
novelette, and novella are published in the annual an-
thology, with. the rest of the book made up of outstanding
stories that were nominated, but failed to win awards.
This year there are only two award-winning stories in the
book, the membership having voted to make no award in
'the short story category.
It is unfortunate that the economics of book publishing
does not allow all the nominated shorter stories to be
published here. Nomination in itself is a signal honor, the
hallmark of approval put upon an author's work by his,
or her, fellow writers. Those nominated works 'that are
left out of this volume for lack of space undoubtedly will
be published in other collections. In the case of the nomi-
nated novels, all have been published as books in their
own right.
The editor of this book will exercise his option of say-
ing as little as possible, not on the premise that an editor
should remain fairly invisible, but in the belief that I can
add little of consequence. The critical essay by Dr. Thom-
as D. Clareson says everything that I possibly could say
and more authoritatively and better.
I hope that I will be pardoned an expression of great
pride in the work herein presented. I have seen the literary
form grow, during the last forty years, From the barely
tolerated position of pulp fiction to a body of writing
that commands attention and respect. Much devotion and
a great deal of work went into this transformation. It is
my feeling that a writing tradition so happily established
can safely rest in the hands of writers such as the ones
who gained nomination for this year's awards and for
those of previous years.
There is one thing more that needs to be said. No
book is edited without encouragement and assistance, and
for these I must thank Gordon R. Dickson, president of
SFWA; Lloyd Biggle, Jr., chairman of the Nebula award
trustees; Foul Anderson, an earlier editor and an old
friend who guided me around many pitfalls; Diane
Cleaver and Lawrence Ashmead of Doubleday; Howard
DeVore, who unearthed magazines I did not have;
Damon Knight, editor of Orbit; Thomas A. Dardis of
Berkley Publishing Corporation; Edward L. Ferman of
Mercury Publications, and Ejler Jakobsson, editor of