Four
of the six books nominated Monday for the 1999 Philip K. Dick Award feature
alien contact, space travel or other space themes. The winner of the award,
which honors science fiction and fantasy first published in paperback,
will be announced April 21 at Norwescon 23 in Seattle, Washington.
The Philip K. Dick Award
was established in 1983 by friends of SF writer Philip K. Dick, who had
died in 1982. Dick's work was rarely published in hardcover, and received
little publicity or attention from reviewers. The award's founders therefore
decided to use it to draw attention to SF and fantasy paperbacks.
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The nominees and winner are
chosen by a panel of three to five judges, most of whom are active SF writers.
This year's judges were led by Julie Czerneda, and included Catherine Asaro,
Paul Di Filippo, Charles Oberndorf and David Porush.
Previous winners include
William
Gibson (Neuromancer), Pat
Murphy (Points of Departure) and Stephen Baxter (Time Ships).
1998's winner was Troika, by Stepan Chapman.
The 1999 nominees are:
Code
of Conduct,
by Kristine
Smith
Jani Kilian was part of a
diplomatic corps sent to establish peaceful relations with the alien idomeni
when she did the unthinkable and took sides in their civil war. 18 years
later, she has secretly returned home, but her future freedom depends on
solving a mystery for her old lover, the Commonwealth's Interior Minister.
(Avon Eos, $5.99)
Not of Woman Born,
edited by Constance Ash
A non-space theme anthology
of original and reprinted stories focused on cloning and genetic manipulation.
(Roc Books, $6.99)
Tower of Dreams,
by Jamil Nasir
Blaine Ramsey is an "image
digger," exploring the cultures of foreign countries and sending back his
experiences as dreams for use in advertising. But something has gone terribly
wrong, and Blaine is being haunted and obsessed by the dream image of a
beautiful Arab woman suffering a brutal attack. No space content. (Bantam
Spectra, $5.99)
Typhon's
Children, by Toni Anzetti
Typhon seemed like a tropical
paradise, until volcanic activity destroyed most of its small colony's
technology and the colonists' children were born deformed. Now the colony
hangs on the edge of extinction, and unbeknownst to them, an alien presence
is watching them. (Del Rey Books, $5.99)
Vacuum Diagrams,
by Stephen Baxter
A collection of Baxter's
"Xeelee Sequence" of future history stories, spanning five million years
from the discovery of wormhole travel to the destruction of Ring, a massive
artifact from which human and alien forces contemplate the end of Time
itself. (HarperPrism, $15.00)
When We Were Real,
by William Barton
A human-fox hybrid space
pilot and an escapee from a religious matriarchy fall in love while serving
as mercenaries for a galaxy-spanning corporation. But is love enough for
happiness in a galaxy ruled by a ruthless power that annihilates inhabited
worlds for profit? (Warner Aspect, $6.99)
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