“What are the most award-winning Science Fiction & Fantasy books of 1982?” 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 1982, let’s set the scene for those awards by taking a look at what else was happening that year:

1982

The first computer virus is found. Chaotic inflationary multiverse, CD introduced. All 8 planets align on the same side of the sun. The Falklands War begins. World’s Fair begins in Knoxville Tennessee. The Weather Channel airs for the first time. Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO. Italy beats West Germany 3-1 in Spain World Cup. 3 die in Twilight Zone helicopter actor. The first emoticons are posted. Homosexuality decriminalized in Norther Ireland. British public-service Channel 4 is launched. Michael Jackson’s Thriller becomes best-selling album of all time. First U.S> execution by lethal injection. A surplus of crude oil causes gasoline prices to collapse. Recession hits the US. Seattle is officially dubbed Emerald City after a contest is held to choose new slogan. Ciabatta bread is invented. Deaths – Thelonious Monk, Philip K. Dick, John Belushi, Ayn Rand, Henry Fonda, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, etc. Additional entertainment released – Blade Runner, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Cheers, E.T., Annie, The Thing, Poltergeist, Gandhi, TRON, Knight Rider, The Wrath of Khan, Tootsie, 48 Hrs., The Dark Crystal. Non-SFF book – The BFG.

And now, on to the list…

43 .) The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas

It is a dream of electrifying eroticism and inexplicable violence, recounted by a young woman to her analyst, Sigmund Freud. It is a horrifying yet restrained narrative of the Holocaust. It is a searing vision of the wounds of the twentieth century, and an attempt to heal them. Interweaving poetry and case history, fantasy and historical truth-telling, The White Hotel is a modern classic of enduring emotional power that attempts nothing less than to reconcile the notion of individual destiny with that of historical fate.

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42 .) The Woman Who Loved the Moon by Elizabeth A. Lynn

This collection of Lynn’s early short stories serves as a wonderful introduction to her influential work. Soaring emotions, eloquent prose, and fully realized worlds are truly a joy to become lost within. That explains why the namesake short story “The Woman Who Loved the Moon” won Lynn one of her two World Fantasy Awards.

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41 .) An Enemy of the State by F. Paul Wilson

“LaNague is planning a unique revolution — one that not only topples the entrenched Outworld Imperium but fundamentally alters every Outworlder’s concept of government as well. To accomplish this he must ally himself with a madman, trust the word of the last of Sol System’s robber barons, make incisive use of the consummate warriors from the planet Flint without letting them tun amok, confound at every turn the omnipresent forces of the Imperium, and every now and then make it rain money.
But those are the easy part. His greatest challenge will be to see his plan through to successful completion without becoming the very enemy he has vowed to destroy.”

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40 .) The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe

The Sword of the Lictor is the third volume in Wolfe’s remarkable epic, chronicling the odyssey of the wandering pilgrim called Severian, driven by a powerful and unfathomable destiny, as he carries out a dark mission far from his home.

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39 .) Windhaven by George R. R. Martin & Lisa Tuttle

Among the scattered islands that make up the water world of Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers, romantic figures who cross treacherous oceans, braving shifting winds and sudden storms, to bring news, gossip, songs, and stories to a waiting populace. Maris of Amberly, a fisherman’s daughter, wants nothing more than to soar on the currents high above Windhaven. So she challenges tradition, demanding that flyers be chosen by merit rather than inheritance. But even after winning that bitter battle, Maris finds that her troubles are only beginning. Now a revolution threatens to destroy the world she fought so hard to join—and force her to make the ultimate sacrifice.

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38 .) At the Eye of the Ocean by Hilbert Schenck

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37 .) Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee

Waiting for the Barbarians centers on the crisis of the conscience of the Magistrate—a loyal servant of the Empire working in a tiny frontier town, doing his best to ignore an inevitable war with the “barbarians.” After he witnesses the cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war, he reconsiders his role in the regime and carries out a quixotic act of rebellion.

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36 .) Alongside Night Crown by J. Neil Schulman

“A cautionary tale with a disturbing resemblance to past history and future possibilities” (Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate), “Alongside Night” portrays the last two weeks of the world’s greatest superpower and ends on a triumphant note of hope.

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35 .) Roderick by John Sladek

Roderik is a robot and he’s on the run in the USA of the very near future. He’s on the run for having been illicitly conceived and manufactured at the University of Minnetonka. He is also a ‘learning machine’ growing up in a complex technological age which threatens to submerge him in a mire of meaningless and mundane values. The older he gets and the more widely he travels, the more unable he is to comprehend the lost innocence of adults. He encounters the plastic lifestyles of middle-managers in rolling suburbia, confronts megalomaniac army officers and a hotch-potch assortment of ad-men, con-men, CIA agents, Mafiosi. Slowly but surely, in his attempt to become “humanized,” Roderik wonders if in fact he should become more machine-like.

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34 .) War Games by Karl Hansen

“They were no longer human—they were hybrids, genetic/cyborg soldiers. They fought each other in savage battles through the ice forests of Saturn’s moon. They held the constant terror of death and destruction at bay only by indulging in fantastic cybernetic dreams and games, genetically engineered drugs, and the disturbing pleasures of their altered flesh.

A Combat Hybrid …”

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33 .) The Watcher by Kay Nolte Smith

Humanitarian and social critic Dr. Martin Granger is dead. Was it a tragic accident, or a horrible murder? The principle witness in the case is Astrid Cain, a journalist out to expose him as a monster hiding under the sackcloth of sainthood. But there is another witness, an unknown lurker in the gloom.

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32 .) Dream Park by Larry Niven & Steven Barnes

A group of pretend adventurers suit up for a campaign called “The South Seas Treasure Game.” As in the early Role Playing Games, there are Dungeon Masters, warriors, magicians, and thieves. The difference? At Dream Park, a futuristic fantasy theme park full of holographic attractions and the latest in VR technology, they play in an artificial enclosure that has been enhanced with special effects, holograms, actors, and a clever storyline. The players get as close as possible to truly living their adventure.

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31 .) No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop

Joshua Kampa, the illegitimate son of a mute Spanish whore and a black serviceman, has always dreamed of Africa. But his dreams are of an Africa far in the past and are so vivid and in such hallucinatory detail that he is able to question the understanding of eminent palaeontologists. As a result, Joshua is invited to join a most unusual time travel project and is transported millions of years into the past of his dreams.

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30 .) The Sable Moon by Nancy Springer

“The life of young Prince Trevyn of Isle changes forever on the day a mysterious boy named Gwern is welcomed without question into the family’s castle. Stubborn and resentful of the unwanted intrusion, the errant teenage prince abandons his home and soon finds himself both in love and in jeopardy. Enraptured by the village girl Meg, he incurs the wrath of Wael, a powerful warlock, by saving the lady of his heart and her people from certain destruction.

But young Trevyn’s trials have only just begun. Lured across the seas by his vengeful foe, he is captured and enslaved, and must somehow find his way to freedom. For the unprotected Isle is now at Wael’s mercy, and love will surely die if the boy-prince cannot return to the realm as its champion.”

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29 .) Songs from the Stars by Norman Spinrad

He was Clear Blue Lou, perfect master of the Clear Blue Way, at one with the law of muscle, sun, wind and water governing Aquaria. She was Sunshine Sue, always in a hurry in a world that was too slow, Queen of Word of Mouth. Their meeting had been arranged – but by whom? and why? Beyond the beginning of where the world ended, beyond the highest peaks of its primeval majesty, lay a radio active hell and the lairs of the black sorcerers, the Spacers. The black scientists had not forgotten man’s old dream of touching the stars: they wanted the Age of Space reborn. But they needed a little help.

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28 .) The Breaking of Northwall by Paul O. Williams

One thousand years after a devastating and chaotic series of nuclear exchanges, all that is left of the United States of America are scattered, warring tribes and small city-states. One of the latter is Pelbar—proud, civilized, and intolerant of change and new ideas. Rebels and troublemakers are sentenced to a year of exile at the massive midwestern fortress of Northwall, defending Pelbar against the fierce Shumai and Sentani tribes. Restless and brilliant Jestak is a visionary who has seen and learned too much in his distant travels to be content with life in Pelbarigan. During his exile at Northwall, he makes contact with Pelbar’s age-old enemies and risks all to rescue his beloved Tia from nomads armed with long-lost weapons from before the atomic holocaust. Jestak’s daring quest for love brings profound changes to his world.

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27 .) The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick

God is not dead, he has merely been exiled to an extraterrestrial planet. And it is on this planet that God meets Herb Asher and convinces him to help retake Earth from the demonic Belial. Featuring virtual reality, parallel worlds, and interstellar travel, The Divine Invasion blends philosophy and adventure in a way few authors can achieve.

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26 .) Aurelia by R. A. Lafferty

Aurelia was a fifteen-year-old girl. From a very advanced world. She’d passed Starship building easily enough. But she’d slept through most of celestial navigation. That was how she ended up on a little back-water dump like Earth. Where her advanced powers seemed like miracles. Some thought she was the Messiah. Some thought she was the Devil. No one was prepared for the truth.

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25 .) The Nameless by Ramsey Campbell

“Barbara Waugh experienced the worst horror a mother can imagine. Her little girl, Angela, was murdered. Horribly. But now, years later, mysterious phone calls bring both hope and fear. Each time, the girl’s voice on the other end simply pleads, “Mummy, help me.”

Could Angela still be alive after all? Barbara’s desperate search for the truth—and her daughter—will lead her into a living nightmare, an evil world of torture, murder and gruesome rituals, where the initiated have abandoned their names…and are searching for new victims.”

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24 .) The Prometheus Man by Ray Nelson

In this novel, a monopolistic insurance company takes control of planet Earth from a huge balloon drifting around the world; however, a cunning woman ruins the plans of this insurance company.

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23 .) The Captive by Robert Stallman

A mysterious bear-like beast that is able to assume the form of a human being tries to learn how people live by adopting a human family.

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22 .) The Changing Land by Roger Zelazny

“This book has the grandest theme & the most strangely-named demon. The name is Melbriniononsadsazzersteldregandishfeltselior.
Zelazny includes a touching love story between Queen Semirama & a tentacled semi-elder-god who lives in a cesspit below Castle Timeless. The Queen is hard to like since she’s indifferent to prisoners chained in the dungeon & only talks to her slave when she has to work. She’d been raised from the dust by the evil sorcerer Jelerak in order to communicate with the ancient denizen of the cesspit, a source of tremendous occult power even tho he resembles a gigantic, smelly octopus.”

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21 .) Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany

In his four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Samuel R. Delany appropriated the conceits of sword-and-sorcery fantasy to explore his characteristic themes of language, power, gender, and the nature of civilization. Wesleyan University Press has reissued the long-unavailable Nevèrÿonvolumes in trade paperback.

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20 .) The Unbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry by Steve Rasnic Tem

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19 .) The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas

Edward Weyland is far from your average vampire: not only is he a respected anthropology professor but his condition is biological ― rather than supernatural. He lives discrete lifetimes bounded by decades of hibernation and steals blood from labs rather than committing murder. Weyland is a monster who must form an uneasy empathy with his prey in order to survive, and The Vampire Tapestry is a story wholly unlike any you’ve heard before.

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18 .) Delusion’s Master by Tanith Lee

“Long time ago when the Earth was Flat, beautiful indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the exotic Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to exist in the middle.

Chuz, Prince Madness, third of the Lords of Darkness — beauty on one side, foul corruption on the other — “”takes pity”” on the world. In his gentle soft embrace mortal minds repose in a tide of illusion and twisted desire. Yet no one is immune from the sweetest madness of all, and even immortals fall at the cast of the bone dice…”

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17 .) The Sirian Experiments by Doris Lessing

The third in Doris Lessing’s visionary novel cycle “Canopus in Argos: Archives”. It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history.

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16 .) Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov

At last, the costly and bitter war between the two Foundations had come to an end. The scientists of the First Foundation had proved victorious; and now they retum to Hari Seldon’s long-established plan to build a new Empire that the Second Foundation is not destroyed after all-and that its still-defiant survivors are preparing their revenge. Now the two exiled citizens of the Foundation-a renegade Councilman and the doddering historian-set out in search of the mythical planet Earth. . .and proof that the Second Foundation still exists. Meanwhile someone-or something-outside of both Foundations sees to be orchestrating events to suit its own ominous purpose. Soon representatives of both the First and Second Foundations will find themselves racing toward a mysterious world called Gaia and a final shocking destiny at the very end of the universe!

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15 .) 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke

2001: A Space Odyssey shocked, amazed, and delighted millions in the late 1960s. An instant book and movie classic, its fame has grown over the years. Yet along with the almost universal acclaim, a host of questions has grown more insistent through the years, for example: who or what transformed Dave Bowman into the Star-Child? What alien purpose lay behind the monoliths on the Moon and out in space? What could drive HAL to kill the crew? Now all those questions and many more have been answered, in this stunning sequel to the international bestseller. Cosmic in sweep, eloquent in its depiction of Man’s place in the Universe, and filled with the romance of space, this novel is a monumental achievement and a must-read for Arthur C. Clarke fans old and new.

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14 .) Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss

The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author and Science Fiction Grand Master delivers a sweeping epic of a planet suffering deadly conditions of alternating extremes in this Nebula Award finalist Helliconia follows an eccentric orbit around a double-star system with a twenty-six-hundred-year cycle of very long seasons. As spring slowly breaks the brutally long winter, humans emerge from hiding and a long sequence of civilization and growth begins to repeat again, unbeknownst to the participants but watched by an orbiting satellite station, Avernus, created by Earth some centuries ago. Humans free themselves from slavery to the aboriginal Phagors, and religion and science flower and expand. Brian W. Aldiss has, for more than fifty years, continued to challenge readers’ minds with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive fiction. Helliconia Spring’s prescience with regard to climate change is nothing short of extraordinary.

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13 .) Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak

Robot believers at the far end of the galaxy endeavor to create a true religion, but their efforts could be shattered by a shocking revelation. Far in the future, on the remote planet End of Nothing, sentient robots are engaged in a remarkable enterprise. They call their project Vatican-17: an endeavor to create a truly universal religion presided over by a pope, whose extreme godliness and infallible artificial intelligence are fed by telepathic human Listeners who psychically delve into the mysteries of the universe. But the great and holy mission could be compromised by one shocking revelation that threatens to inspire serious crises of faith among the spiritual, truth-seeking robotic acolytes while tearing them into warring religious factions; for the Listener Mary is claiming that she has just discovered Heaven.

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12 .) The Genesis Machine by James P. Hogan

“Brad Clifford’s theory was just applied mathematics — but its implications were too hot for the frozen minds of his superiors. So they buried it — and him — under wraps of secrecy.
Then Aubrey Philipsz, iconoclast and fellow genius, appeared on the scene to build the Genesis Machine Clifford’s theory made possible.
Suddenly, all weapons seemed useless before the previously unimagined power of the Genesis Machine. It could wreck a world or save it — and the men who ruled that world on a path of disaster now fought to gain control of this new force.
But Clifford and Philipsz had another goal, another dream. They were reaching for the stars!”

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11 .) The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith

Denver detective Win Bear, on the trail of a murderer, discovers much more than a killer. He accidentally stumbles upon the probability broach, a portal to a myriad of worlds–some wildly different from, others disconcertingly similar to our own. Win finds himself transported to an alternate Earth where Congress is in Colorado, everyone carries a gun, there are gorillas in the Senate, and public services are controlled by private businesses.

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10 .) The War Hound and the World’s Pain by Michael Moorcock

Lured to the dead kingdom while traveling Europe’s ravaged landscape, the War Hound von Bek is entranced by the beautiful and strange Lady Sabrina. But in return for her love, he must meet her master … Lucifer!

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9 .) Software by Rudy Rucker

It was Cobb Anderson who built the”boppers”–the first robots with real brains. Now, in 2020, Cobb is just another aged “pheezer” with a bad heart, drinking and grooving an the old tunes in Florida retirement hell. His “bops” have came a long way, though, rebelling against their subjugation to set up their own society an the moon. And now they’re offering creator Cobb immortality but at a stiff price: his body his soul … and his world.It was Cobb Anderson who built the “boppers”–the first robots with real brains. Now, in 2020, Cobb is just another aged pheezer with a bad heart, drinking and grooving on the old tunes in Florida retirement hell. His “bops” have come a long way, though, rebelling against their subjugation to set up their own society on the moon. And now they’re offering creator Cobb immortality, but at a stiff price: his body, his soul. . .and his world.

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8 .) Starship & Haiku by Somtow Sucharitkul

The Millennial War left a sullen void where civilization once stood. But then the whales began their song — a mysterious song that resounded throughout the polluted seas and told an ancient heartbreaking tale that moved the survivors to revive and honored ritual .

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7 .) The Affirmation by Christopher Priest

“Peter Sinclair, a 29-year-old Londoner, is reeling after losing his father, his girlfriend, his job and his flat. Taking refuge in a friend’s rural cottage, he tries to make sense of things and figure out where his life began to go wrong by writing an autobiography. But it is possible that none of this is true …

Peter Sinclair is a 31-year-old native of the city of Jethra in Faiandland who has just won the grand prize in a lottery: a trip to the Dream Archipelago, a neverending series of idyllic islands, where he will undergo a medical procedure that gives him immortality. Because the process also results in total amnesia, Peter must first set down all the details of his life in a manuscript in order to recover the memories afterwards. But it is also possible that none of this is true … “

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6 .) Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh

“The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.

Then came Pell, the first station centered around a newly discovered living planet. The discovery of Pell’s World forever altered the power balance of the Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor which kept this vast empire from coming adrift, the one living mote in a sterile universe.”

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5 .) Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

Riddley Walker is a brilliant, unique, completely realized work of fiction. One reads it again and again, discovering new wonders every time through. Set in a remote future in a post-nuclear holocaust England (Inland), Hoban has imagined a humanity regressed to an iron-age, semi-literate state―and invented a language to represent it. Riddley is at once the Huck Finn and the Stephen Dedalus of his culture―rebel, change agent, and artist. Read again or for the first time this masterpiece of 20th-century literature with new material by the author.

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4 .) Radix by A. A. Attanasio

A young man’s odyssey of self discovery in a world eerily alien, yet hauntingly familiar. Set thirteen centuries in the future, A. A. Attanasio meticulously creates a brilliantly realized Earth, rich in detail and filled with beings brought to life with intense energy. In this strange and beautiful world, Sumner Kagan will change from an adolescent outcast to a warrior with god-like powers and in the process take us on an epic and transcendent journey.

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3 .) The Many-Colored Land by Julian May

In the year 2034, Theo Quderian, a French physicist, made an amusing but impractical discovery: the means to use a one-way, fixed-focus time warp that opened into a place in the Rhone River valley during the idyllic Pliocene Epoch, six million years ago. But, as time went on, a certain usefulness developed. The misfits and mavericks of the future—many of them brilliant people—began to seek this exit door to a mysterious past. In 2110, a particularly strange and interesting group was preparing to make the journey—a starship captain, a girl athlete, a paleontologist, a woman priest, and others who had reason to flee the technological perfection of twenty-second-century life.

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2 .) Little, Big by John Crowley

John Crowley’s masterful Little, Big is the epic story of Smoky Barnable, an anonymous young man who travels by foot from the City to a place called Edgewood—not found on any map—to marry Daily Alice Drinkawater, as was prophesied. It is the story of four generations of a singular family, living in a house that is many houses on the magical border of an otherworld. It is a story of fantastic love and heartrending loss; of impossible things and unshakable destinies; and of the great Tale that envelops us all. It is a wonder.

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1 .) The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

The Claw of the Conciliator continues the saga of Severian, banished from his home, as he undertakes a mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic, and learn the truth about his hidden destiny.

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The 1982 Award Nominations & Winners

(Winners Highlighted)

Nebula Award – Best Novel

Hugo Award – Best Novel

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

Seiun (Japanese) Award – Best Translated Novel

John W. Campbell Memorial Award – Best Science Fiction Novel

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award – Adult Literature

The Ditmar (Australian) Award – Best International Long Fiction

SF Chronicle Award – Best Novel