“What are the most award-winning Science Fiction & Fantasy books of 1988?” We looked at all the large SFF book awards given, aggregating and ranking the books that appeared so we could answer that very question!

A note on our grading system: We give 5 points for every nomination a book received and an additional 5 points for each win. These values are purely arbitrary, easy to add up, numbers. For more info on our super scientific grading system visit our Info page. For a full list of the awards and award winners can be found below our rankings at the bottom of the page.

Before we take a look at the top Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 1988, let’s set the scene for those awards by taking a look at what else was happening that year:

1988

Anthony Kennedy is Appointed to the Supreme Court. Winter Olympics are held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. British Party Liberal Democrats are formed. Francois Mitterrand re-elected in France. NASA scientist testifies before Congress that man-made global warming has begun. Iran-Iraq War ends. Summer Olympics are held in Seoul South Korea. George H.W. Bush is elected president of the United States over Michael Dukakis. Worlds first AIDS Day is held. Deaths – Richard Feynman, Robert A. Heinlein, Chet Baker, Hal Ashby, etc. Popular Entertainment Released – Roseanne, Die Hard, Beetlejuice, The Wonder Years, They Live, Rain Man, Big, My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Red Dwarf, Akira, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Child’s Play, A Fish Called Wanda, The Land before Time, Twins, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Bull Durham, etc. Non-SFF books released – Dances With Wolves, The Alchemist, Focault’s Pendulum, The Silence of the Lambs, Matilda, etc.

And now, on to the list…

The Top Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Of 1988

45 .) Vergil in Averno by Avram Davidson

For centuries, the lords of the city have thrived on the bloody sacrifice of their own people. Now they are determined to add one more name to the scrolls of Averno’s dead…and to cast Vergil, now an outlaw, into the burning pits of the dying empire.

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44 .) The Wooden Spaceships by Bob Shaw

“Twenty-four years have passed since Toller Maraquine led the population of Land to the sister planet of Overland. Somehow, those left behind have become immune to the deadly pterthacosis which caused the exodus, and their voracious ruler now lays claim to Overland.

Grudgingly put in charge of his planet’s defence, Toller designs a front-line force of spaceships and satellites made of wood, which will engage the enemy fleet in the cold vastness of space, before the invaders can set food upon Overland. As the war proceeds, a far more deadly, alien menace makes itself known, which will threaten the entire existence of Overland.”

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43 .) In Conquest Born by C. S. Friedman

In Conquest Born is the monumental science fiction epic that received unprecedented acclaim-and launched C.S. Friedman’s phenomenal career. A sweeping story of two interstellar civilizations-locked in endless war, it was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award.

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42 .) Liege-Killer by Christopher Hinz

Two hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse forced humanity to flee earth, humans still remember the most feared warriors of that planet—-the Paratwa, genetically modified killers who occupy two bodies controlled by one vicious mind. The legendary Paratwa named Reemul, known as the Liege-Killer, was the strongest of them all. Now someone has revived Reemul from stasis and sent him to terrorize the peaceful orbital colonies of Earth. Is this an isolated incident, or has the one who unleashed this terrible power announced a gambit for control over the entire human race?

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41 .) Rendezvous by David Alexander Smith

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40 .) Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe

The first volume of Gene Wolfe’s powerful story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory. In return it gave him the ability to converse with supernatural creatures, gods and goddesses who invisibly inhabit the ancient landscape.

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39 .) The Unconquered Country by Geoff Ryman

“When Third was a little girl, the Unconquered Country was tranquil, ordered and happy, its traditions proud and strong.
But one day the Neighbours came, armed with weapons given to them by the Big People. And with them came the Sharks.
They invaded and occupied the Unconquered Country and brough pain, terror and great change in their wake..”

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38 .) Way of the Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson

Imagine an Earth totally dominated by an alien race. Imagine that humans and their technology are completely powerless against these invaders. Imagine a world in which people are nothing more than cattle to their new masters Now imagine that one man discovers a key that might free mankind, but he must learn how to care and how to love before he can believe in that key

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37 .) Kairos by Gwyneth Jones

The streets of London: Japanese tourists in smog-masks and Work Force youths in their tagged orange overalls. It’s the first decade of the new century and business as usual for UK Ltd, despite the Islamic War that’s moving ever closer. BREAKTHRU reps in their preposterous angel fancy-dress stalk the dissidents, making many converts to their own brand of extremism.

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36 .) Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H. F. Saint

A freak accident renders an ordinary stock analyst invisible, and though invisibility has its pitfalls, he is able to eavesdrop his way into amassing a fortune in this side-splitting, tear-jerking mixture of fantasy and nightmare.

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35 .) The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

The Culture – a human/machine symbiotic society – has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game…a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life – and very possibly his death.

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34 .) Gráinne by Keith Roberts

Meet Gráinne: blue-stocking seductress, darling of the media, painfully human yet mysterious as her great namesake, the proud girl-goddess who plunged all Ireland into war and shadow…

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33 .) The Net by Loren J. MacGregor

The main character, Jason, is a tough, powerful woman, the CEO of one of the biggest corporations in the galaxy. She’s also been known to steal gemstones for fun. That’s why she can’t resist a dangerous challenge made by one of her top business competitors from the planet New Crete.

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32 .) Life During Wartime by Lucius Shepard

David Mingolla soon learns that escape from the rotten jungles of Guatemala is impossible – he is once more a pawn of secret, ruthless forces lusting for world domination. They try to dominate David by ordering him to kill the woman he loves.

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31 .) Neon Lotus by Marc Laidlaw

It begins with the assassination of a Tibetan scientist, creator of a “Bardo Device” that tags and follows souls from one life to the next. Identifying this soul’s next incarnation as the daughter of a Swiss-American couple, the murdered scientist’s assistant persuades the reluctant parents that their child has a critical role to play not only in the fate of an oppressed Tibet, but in the liberation of all beings.

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30 .) Circuit Breaker by Melinda M. Snodgrass

Judge Cabot Huntington becomes caught in the middle of a conflict between ruthless, corrupt industrial powers on Earth and a group of proud, determined colonists over newly discovered diamond mines on Mars.

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29 .) Ancient of Days by Michael Bishop

What if a living specimen of Homo habilis appeared in the pecan grove of a female artist living in Georgia? What if she reached out to her ex-husband, a restaurant owner in the small town of Beulah Fork, to help her establish the creature’s precise identity? From these dramatic speculations, Michael Bishop creates a complex story spanning several years in the late 1980s and intertwining the lives of many fascinating and/or exasperating characters, including: RuthClaire Loyd, an artist tasked with an ambitious project to illustrate several species of early human progenitors; Paul Loyd, the narrator of Ancient of Days, who believes that his rekindled devotion to RuthClaire will somehow win her back; Brian Nollinger, an anthropologist at the Yerkes Primate Center, whom Paul entices into this matter with disconcerting results; Dwight “Happy” McElroy, a televangelist out of Rehobeth, Louisiana, who never passes up a chance to fund-raise, proselytize, or damn; A. P. Blair, a world-famous paleontologist and authority on human evolution, who at first believes that RuthClaire’s “hominid” is an inept hoax; and Adam Montaraz, the habiline himself, a bipedal fossil whom RuthClaire has christened and whom she dares to take into her home.

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28 .) Mindplayers by Pat Cadigan

Mindplayers are tomorrow’s psychoanalysts, linked directly to their patients using sophisticated machinery attached to the optic nerve. In one-to-one Mindplay contact, you can be inside someone else’s head, wandering the landscapes of their consciousness. Allie is a sensation-seeking young woman, obtaining illicit thrills from her shady friend Jerry Wirerammer. But Allie goes badly astray when Jerry supplies her with a “madcap” – a device that lets you temporarily and harmlessly experience psychosis. There’s something wrong with Jerry’s madcap, and the psychosis doesn’t go away when it’s disconnected. Allie ends up undergoing treatment at a “dry-cleaner”, and she is faced with a stark choice – jail, for her illegal use of the madcap; or training to become a Mindplayer herself.

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27 .) Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon

He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of the countless followers he has gathered into his service. His only desire is to find a special child named Swan — and destroy her. But those who would protect the girl are determined to fight for what is left of the worldŠand their souls.

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26 .) Orphan of Creation by Roger MacBride Allen

An anthropologist stumbles across a stunning secret that will put the very definition of humanity suddenly in doubt. Are the bone she discovers buried on a old Mississippi plantation the remains of humans, or apes — or something else? The answer will turn her life, and the world, upsidedown.

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25 .) Sign of Chaos by Roger Zelazny

The epic story of the royal family of Amber enters an exciting new chapter as Merlin, son of Prince Corwin, pursues his noble destiny against a shifting panorama of shadow worlds and deadly intrigue, powerful computers, and magic gone out of control. A violent vendetta, renegade sorcery, and whirlwind adventure lead Merlin to a monumental confrontation at the Keep of the Four Worlds, where astonishing secrets and mysterious identities will at last be revealed.

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24 .) Fiasco by Stanisław Lem

The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of misunderstanding.

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23 .) Misery by Stephen King

Paul Sheldon is a bestselling novelist who has finally met his number one fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes, and she is more than a rabid reader—she is Paul’s nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also furious that the author has killed off her favorite character in his latest book. Annie becomes his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.

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22 .) First Citizen by Thomas T. Thomas

The decision to default on the country’s massive national debt, followed by a rogue nuclear attack on Washington, DC, and abetted by the forces of factionalism, splits the United States into a clutch of warring regions led by strong men with private armies. Granville James Corbin–“Granny” to his friends and enemies–uses the U.S. breakup to build a personal fortune in the new markets for environmental cleanup, state funding lotteries, and electric power pools. He undertakes an adventurous war in Mexico and, when a political rival decides to outlaw him, returns to the States to settle an old score. Corbin eventually defeats the strongest army on the continent and reunites the nation in the role of First Citizen. The story is told from Corbin’s own first-person chronicles, with commentary by his bodyguard and henchman, the renegade Billy Birdsong.

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21 .) Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson

Enter Gibson’s unique world–lyric and mechanical, erotic and violent, sobering and exciting–where multinational corporations and high tech outlaws vie for power, traveling into the computer-generated universe known as cyberspace. Into this world comes Mona, a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is on a collision course with internationally famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell. Since childhood, Angie has been able to tap into cyberspace without a computer. Now, from inside cyberspace, a kidnapping plot is masterminded by a phantom entity who has plans for Mona, Angie, and all humanity, plans that cannot be controlled . . . or even known. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yazuka, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes . . . or so they think.

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20 .) Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

On the treacherous streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. Within this elite, dangerous world, Richard St. Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless–until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye.

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19 .) The Glamour by Christopher Priest

Cameraman Richard Grey’s memory has blanked out the few weeks before he was injured in a car bomb explosion. When he is visited by a girl who seems to have been his lover, his attempts to recall the forgotten period produce an odyssey through France and conflicting accounts of what happened. When Susan Kewley speaks to him of that time, he finds himself glimpsing a terrible twilight world – the world of “the glamour”.

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18 .) Weaveworld by Clive Barker

Clive Barker has made his mark on modern fiction by exposing all that is surreal and magical in the ordinary world — and exploring the profound and overwhelming terror that results. With its volatile mix of the fantastical and the contemporary, the everyday and the otherworldly, Weaveworld is an epic work of dark fantasy and horror — a tour de force from one of today’s most forceful and imaginative artists.

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17 .) Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith

Welcome to Old North Australia, or Norstrilia, the only planet that has “stroon,” a substance that indefinitely delays aging in humans. Stroon is cultivated from huge, deformed sheep farmed by the wealthiest estate owners to ever exist in all of humanity’s existence. Rod McBan is the last of one of the oldest and most honorable families on Norstrilia. But he himself has shortcomings that would normally have led to his death under the strict laws governing population control on a planet where immortality is cheap and imperfect citizens are ruthlessly “culled” to make way for more productive members of society.

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16 .) Aegypt by John Crowley

Pierce Moffett, jilted and newly jobless, is seeking an answer to the question of life when he gets off a bus by chance and steps unawares on a path toward the longed-for country of our oldest dreams and most unanswerable desires.

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15 .) Four Hundred Billion Stars by Paul J. McAuley

The possibility of life on other planets is the theme of this science fiction thriller which depicts through the experiences of a young telepath, the ingenious and sometimes terrifying means by which this “life” survives in hostile environments.

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14 .) Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock

“In Mythago Wood, Robert Holdstock gave us an intricate world spun from the stories of Irish and English mythology, a great forest steeped in mystery and legend, whose heart contains secrets that will change all who behold them.

Young Tallis is one such seeker. When she was just an infant, she lost her brother Harry to Ryhope Wood. Her adolescent fancies now cause her to suspect that he is still alive—and in grave danger. Tallis follows Harry into the primal Otherworld armed only with magic, masks, and clues left by her grandfather. Eventually the primitive forest gives way to Lavondyss itself, a fascinating and terrible realm where she is forced to confront the mythagos, physical manifestations of the legends of humanity’s collective unconscious.”

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13 .) Wetware by Rudy Rucker

In 2030, bopper robots in their lunar refuge have founds a way to infuse DNA wetware with their own software code. The result is a new lifeform: the meatbop. Fair is fair, after all. Humans built the boppers, now bops are building humans. . .sort of. Its all part of an insidious plot thats about to ensnare Della Taze–who doesnt think she killed her lover while in drug-induced ecstasy. . .but isnt sure. And its certainly catastrophic enough to call Cobb Anderson–the pheezer who started it all–out of cold-storage heaven.

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12 .) On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers

The remarkable Tim Powers—who ingeniously married the John Le Carrè spy novel to the otherworldly in his critically acclaimedDeclare—brings us pirate adventure with a dazzling difference.On Stranger Tides features Blackbeard, ghosts, voodoo, zombies, the fable Fountain of Youth…and more swashbuckling action than you could shake a cutlass at, as reluctant buccaneer John Shandy braves all manner of peril, natural and supernatural, to rescue his ensorcelled love.

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11 .) The Jehovah Contract by Victor Koman

A dying assassin is given one last assignment and one last chance for survival. The job: to find God Almighty and destroy Him. The payment: eternal life. With the aid of a beautiful lady gambler, an ancient Hollywood witch, and a telepathic smartass of a girl, Dell Ammo breaches the gates of Heaven and Hell to pull the Cosmic Trigger.

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10 .) War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But her boyfriend just dumped her, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk―and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.

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9 .) The Sea and Summer by George Turner

Francis Conway is Swill—one of the 90 percent in the year 2041 who must subsist on the inadequate charities of the state. A young boy growing, Francis finds life is rapidly becoming impossible as government corruption, official blindness, and nature have conspired to turn Swill homes into watery tombs. Now he must find a way to escape the approaching tide of disaster. Comparable to J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World, George Turner’s masterful exploration of the effects of climate change was also shortlisted for the Nebula Award.

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8 .) The Forge of God by Greg Bear

“On September 28th, a geologist working in Death valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area.

On October 1st, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn’t there six months ago….

Something is happening to Planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to consider….”

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7 .) Replay by Ken Grimwood

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn’t know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again — in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle — each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: “What if you could live your life over again?”

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6 .) The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy

Elizabeth Waters, an archeologist who abandoned her husband and daughter years ago to pursue her career, can see the shadows of the past. It’s a gift she keeps secret from her colleagues and students, one that often leads her to incredible archeological discoveries and the realization that she might be going mad. Then on a dig in the Yucatan, the shadow of a Mayan priestess speaks to her. Suddenly Elizabeth’s daughter Diane arrives, hoping to reconnect with her mother. As mother, daughter and priestess fall into the mysterious world of Mayan magic, it is clear one will be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice.

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5 .) Lincoln’s Dreams by Connie Willis

For Jeff Johnston, a young historical reseacher for a Civil War novelist, reality is redefined on a bitter cold night near the close of a lingering winter. He meets Annie, an intense and lovely young woman suffering from vivid, intense nightmares. Haunted by the dreamer and her unrelenting dreams, Jeff leads Annie on an emotional odyssey through the heartland of the Civil War in search of a cure. On long-silenced battlefields their relationship blossoms–two obsessed lovers linked by unbreakable chains of history, torn by a duty that could destroy them both. Suspenseful, moving, and highly compelling, Lincoln’s Dreamsis a novel of rare imaginative power.

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4 .) The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

The long awaited sequel to Gene Wolfe’s four-volume classic,The Book of the New Sun. We return to the world of Severian, now the Autarch of Urth, as he leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien Hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test, to become the legendary New Sun or die. The strange, rich, original spaceship scenes give way to travels in time, wherein Severian revisits times and places which fill in parts of the background of the four-volume work, that will thrill and intrigue particularly all readers of the earlier books. But The Urth of the New Sun is an independent structure all of a piece, an integral masterpiece to shelve beside the classics, one itself.

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3 .) When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger

“n a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hardway. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he’s available…for a price.

For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. And Marid Audrian has been made an offer he can’t refuse.”

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2 .) The Uplift War by David Brin

As galactic armadas clash in quest of the ancient fleet of the Progenitors, a brutal alien race seizes the dying planet of Garth. The various uplifted inhabitants of Garth must battle their overlords or face ultimate extinction. At stake is the existence of Terran society and Earth, and the fate of the entire Five Galaxies. Sweeping, brilliantly crafted, inventive and dramatic,The Uplift War is an unforgettable story of adventure and wonder from one of today’s science fiction greats.

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1 .) Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

From the author of Ender’s Game, an unforgettable story about young Alvin Maker: the seventh son of a seventh son. Born into an alternative frontier America where life is hard and folk magic is real, Alvin is gifted with the power. He must learn to use his gift wisely. But dark forces are arrayed against Alvin, and only a young girl with second sight can protect him.

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The 1988 Award Nominations & Winners

(Winners Highlighted)

Nebula Award – Best Novel

Hugo Award – Best Novel

Arthur C. Clark Award– Best Novel First Published In United Kingdom in Previous Year

Locus Award – Best Science Fiction Novel

Locus Award – Best Fantasy Novel

Locus Award – Best First Novel

BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) – Best Novel

Philip K. Dick Award

The World Fantasy Award – Best Novel

Prometheus Award – Best Novel

Kurd-Lobwitz-Preis (German) – Foreign Fiction

Seiun (Japanese) Award – Best Translated Novel

John W. Campbell Memorial Award – Best Science Fiction Novel

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award – Adult Literature

SF Chronicle Award – Best Novel