“What are the most award-winning Science Fiction & Fantasy books of 1985?” 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 1985, let’s set the scene for those awards by taking a look at what else was happening that year:

1985

The Internets Domain Name System is created. Ronald Reagan is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. First Artificial Heart patient leaves hospital. First democratically elected president of Uruguay is elected. Worlds Fair is held in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. South Africa ends ban on interracial marriage. New Coke is released, universal loved by everyone. Charges brought up against the heads of the 5 mafia heads in New York by the FBI. British Antarctic Survey announces discovery of the Ozone Hole. Studio Ghibli founded. Discovery Channel is launched. The Iran-Contra affair begins. Aspen Colorado passes the first smoking ban in restaurants in the United States. Titanic wreck discovered. Super Mario Bros is released. 8.1 earthquake hits Mexico City. First Nintendo home video game system is introduced in the United States. Calvin and Hobbes debuts. Tommy Hilfiger is established. DNA is first used in a criminal case. Deaths – Ito Calvino, Orson Wells, etc. Additional Entertainment released: The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future, The Goonies, MacGyver, The Golden Girls, Teen Wolf, The Color Purple, Weird Science, Brazil, Clue, Moonlighting, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Rambo: First Blood, Ran, Cocoon, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Lonesome Dove, Blood Meridian, Galapagos, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, etc.

And now, on to the list…

The Top Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Of 1985

47 .) The Remaking of Sigmund Freud by Barry N. Malzberg

O Brave New World . . . When man roamed freely among the planets and away to the stars, spacecraft had to carry the best advisers with them, for outside help was usually too far off to do any good in emergencies. And so the android simulacrum was born – a conveniently storable but believably human package which duplicated all the strengths of the Master after whom each was modeled. For centuries a Sigmund Freud was standard equipment on long voyages, but put to little useThen Man met his first etees, and Freud’s career entered a new phase – one which would change history forever.

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46 .) Chanur’s Venture by C. J. Cherryh

In the sequel to Pride of Chanur, Tully returns, and brings with him a priceless trade contract with human space―a contract that could mean vast power, riches, and a mess of trouble for Pyanfar Chanur.

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45 .) Moonheart by Charles de Lint

Sweeping from ancient Wales to the streets of Ottawa today,Moonheart will entrance you with its tale of this world and the other one at the very edge of sight…and the unforgettable people caught up in the affairs of both. A tale of music, and motorcycles, and fey folk beyond the shadows of the moon. A tale of true magic; the tale of Moonheart.

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44 .) Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones

“The trouble started when Howard Sykes came home from school and found the “”goon”” sitting in the kitchen. He said he’d been sent by Archer. But who was Archer? It had to do with the 2,000 words that Howard’s author father had failed to deliver.

It soon became clear not only that Archer wanted those words, but that his wizard siblings, Hathaway, Dillian, Shine, Torquil, Erskine, and Venturus, would also go to any lengths to get them.

Although each wizard ruled a section of the town, he or she was a prisoner in it. Each suspected that one of them held the secret behind the words, and that secret was the key to their freedom. Which one of them was it? The Sykes family become pawns in the wizards’ fight to win their freedom, wrest control from one another, and fan out to rule the world.”

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43 .) The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson

Much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Gia, Repairman Jack doesn’t deal with electronic appliances—he fixes situations for people, situations that usually involve putting himself in deadly danger. His latest project is recovering a stolen necklace, which carries with it an ancient curse that may unleash a horde of Bengali demons. Jack is used to danger, but this time Gia’s daughter Vicky is threatened. Can Jack overcome the curse of the yellow necklace and bring Vicky safely back home?

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42 .) Heechee Rendezvous by Frederik Pohl

After millennia had passed, Mankind discovered the Heechee legacy (an alien culture that fled to the reative safety of a black hole)–in particular an asteroid stocked with autonavigating spacecraft. Robinette Broadhead, who had led the expedition that unlocked the many secrets of Heechee technology, is now forced once more to make a perilous voyage into space–where the Heechee are waiting. And this time the future of Man is at stake.

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41 .) Manna by G. Harry Stine

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40 .) Free Live Free by Gene Wolfe

“””Free Live Free,”” said the newspaper ad, and the out-of-work detective Jim Stubb, the occultist Madame Serpentina, the salesman Ozzie Barnes, and the overweight prostitute Candy Garth are brought together to live for a time in Free’s old house, a house scheduled for demolition to make way for a highway.

Free drops mysterious hints of his exile from his homeland, and of the lost key to his return. And so when demolition occurs and Free disappears, the four make a pact to continue the search, which ultimately takes them far beyond their wildest dreams.”

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39 .) The Warrior Who Carried Life by Geoff Ryman

To defeat her enemies she must make them immortal. Only men are allowed into the wells of vision. But Cara’s mother defies this edict and is killed, but not before returning with a vision of terrible and wonderful things that are to come… and all because of five-year-old Cara. Years later, evil destroys the rest of Cara’s family. In a rage, Cara uses magic to transform herself into a male warrior. But she finds that to defeat her enemies, she must break the cycle of violence, not continue it. As Cara’s mother’s vision of destiny is fulfilled, the wonderful follows the terrible, and a quest for revenge becomes a quest for eternal life.

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38 .) The Infinity Concerto by Greg Bear

There is a song you dare not sing – a melody that you dare not play, a concerto that you dare not hear: It is called a Song of Power. It is a gateway to another world – a gate that will lock behind you as you pass, barring you from the Earth forever. Resist at all cost. For it is a world of great danger and great beauty – and it is not good to be human in the Realm of the Sidhe.

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37 .) Them Bones by Howard Waldrop

Madison Yazoo Leake, the hero of this science fiction novel, attempts to travel from the 21st century to 1930’s Louisiana in a bid to prevent the outbreak of World War III. Instead he is transported to an alternative Earth, where history is twisted, and where he fears he may be stranded.

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36 .) The Book of Lost Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien

THE BOOK OF LOST TALES, I, stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor. Here is the whole, glorious history of Middle-earth that J.R.R. Tolkien brought to mythic and dramatic life with his classic fantasy novels of the Ring Cycle.

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35 .) The Man Who Melted by Jack Dann

The Man Who Melted is a warning for the future. It is the Brave New World and 1984 for our time, for it gives us a glimpse into our own future — a future ruled by corporations that control deadly and powerful forms of mass manipulation. It is a prediction of what could happen…tomorrow. The Man Who Melted examines how technology affects us and changes our morality, and it questions how we might remain human in an inhuman world. Will the future disenfranchise or empower the individual? Here you’ll find new forms of sexuality, new perversions, new epiphanies, and an entirely new form of consciousness.

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34 .) Demon by John Varley

Gaea, the world and goddess, has gone insane. She has trapped humans in her mind. She has transformed her love of old movies into monstrous realities. She is Marilyn Monroe. She is King Kong. And she must be destroyed.

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33 .) Kiteworld by Keith Roberts

Through a series of Kite stories we are drawn compellingly into a strange but recognizable world where loyalty to the Corps is everything and non-conformity a sin. Keith Roberts depicts the fortunes, passions and failings of his characters against this background of a fragile and superstitious society. As the fanatical Ultras embark on a religious campaign of destruction, the Realm starts to disintegrate — fast.

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32 .) Tom Paine Maru by L. Neil Smith

Whitey O’Thraight, the Ship’s Armorer on the first interstellar vessel launched by his home planet Vespucci, finds himself stranded on a strange planet with just one other survivor. Captured by the local Baron, they are freed by a group of monks who are much more than they initially appear to be. Their new benefactors and friends have something special in mind for the two survivors, but going along with these plans might mean the destruction of Vespucci as they knew it.

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31 .) Frontera by Lewis Shiner

Ten years ago the world’s governments collapsed, and now the corporations are in control. Houston’s Pulsystems has sent an expedition to the lost Martian colony of Frontera to search for survivors. Reese, aging hero of the US space program, knows better. The colonists are not only alive, they have discovered a secret so devastating that the new rulers of Earth will stop at nothing to own it. Reese is equally desperate to use it for his own very personal agenda. But none of them have reckoned with Kane, tortured veteran of the corporate wars, whose hallucinatory voices are urging him to complete an ancient cycle of heroism and alter the destiny of the human race.

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30 .) Emprise by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

The devastating Food and Fuel Wars have turned once-powerful nations into isolated farming communities. Barter has replaced currency, and scientists-considered responsible for the world’s misery-are burned at the stake. Hidden in the Idaho hills, astronomer Allen Chandliss secretly monitors his radiotelescope, listening for signs of intelligent life, hoping that aliens will come and improve things on Earth. For seventeen years he has waited patiently. His patience is about to pay off. .

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29 .) Raphael by R. A. MacAvoy

Set against the turbulent backdrop of the Italian Renaissance, this alternate history takes place in a world where real faith-based magic exists. Weakened by his contact with mortals, the Archangel Raphael falls prey to his brother Lucifer, who strips him of his angelic powers. Sold in the Moorish slave markets, confused and humbled by his sudden humanity, Raphael finds his only solace in the friendship of the dark-skinned Berber woman Djoura and the spiritual guardianship of his former pupil Damiano Delstrego.

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28 .) Saraband of Lost Time by Richard Grant

“The people of Earth whispered the name in fear – the Overmind – the powerful entity which could reactivate the dreaded machines of long ago, before the last great war.”

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27 .) The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

Although she is the daughter of Damar’s king, Aerin has never been accepted as full royalty. Both in and out of the royal court, people whisper the story of her mother, the witchwoman, who was said to have enspelled the king into marrying her to get an heir to rule Damar-then died of despair when she found she had borne a daughter instead of a son. But none of them, not even Aerin herself, can predict her future-for she is to be the true hero who will wield the power of the Blue Sword…

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26 .) The Timeservers by Russell Griffin

Too far from Earth time creates a different kind of human.

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25 .) Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel’s central issues—technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism—have only become more pressing with the passage of time.

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24 .) Terrarium by Scott Russell Sanders

Phoenix Marshall decodes satellite images for a living. He has spent all 30 years of his life in Oregon City, afloat on the Pacific Ocean. He busies himself with work and various forms of recreation to keep boredom at bay. One morning he opens his door to find Teeg Passio. Teeg is the same age as Phoenix, but she’s different; she’s menacingly and enticingly wild. She grew up on the outside. Her mother oversaw the recycling of the old cities, and her father helped design the Enclosure. Teeg works maintenance, which allows her to travel outside the walls. When she introduces Phoenix to her crew, he is drawn into a high-tech conspiracy that may threaten everything he understands. Are humans really better off within the Enclosure? Is the Earth? Are Health Patrollers keeping us safe or just keeping us in?

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23 .) The Ceremonies by T. E. D. Klein

Jeremy Freirs is a graduate student and teacher who decides to spend his summer working on his dissertation and preparing for the class he will be teaching in the fall on Gothic Literature; he thinks he has found the perfect place in Gilead, New Jersey, is a world all to its own, the home of a strict religious sect with extremely puritan ideas. Moving into a former storage building on the farm of Sarr and Deborah Poroth, he expects to spend a productive summer free from essentially all distractions – he is quite wrong in this assumption. Meanwhile, in New York, the rather reserved Carol Conklin goes about trying to survive in the big city on a small income from her job at a library. She meets Jeremy in New York just before he leaves for the summer, and a connection is made which will find the couple developing a romantic relationship on somewhat strange terms. What Jeremy and Carol do not know is that this relationship is the work of a strange, little old man known as Mr. Rosebottom. Rosie is actually the Old One working to bring his master back after a very long absence, and Jeremy and Carol are the unsuspecting keys to his success.

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22 .) The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

Only the dazzling imagination of Tim Powers could have assembled such an insane cast of characters: an ancient Egyptian sorcerer, a modern millionaire, a body-switching werewolf, a hideously deformed clown, a young woman disguised as a boy, a brainwashed Lord Byron, and finally, our hero, Professor Brendan Doyle.

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21 .) Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams

“Eight hundred years ago Doran Falkner gave humanity the stars, and he now lives with his regrets on a depopulated Earth among tumbledown ruins and ancient dreams brought to life by modern technology.

But word now comes that alien life has been discovered on a distant world, life so strange and impossible that the revelation of its secrets could change everything. A disillusioned knight on the chessboard of the gods, Doran must confront his own lost promise, his lost love, and his lost humanity, to make the move that will revive the fortunes both of humans and aliens . “

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20 .) Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin

Set in the twenty-second century after the repeal of the Nineteenth Amendment, the novel reveals a world where women are once again property, denied civil rights, and banned from public life. In this world, Earth’s wealth relies on interplanetary commerce, for which the population depends on linguists, a small, clannish group of families whose women breed and become perfect translators of all the galaxies’ languages. The linguists wield power, but live in isolated compounds, hated by the population, and in fear of class warfare. But a group of women is destined to challenge the power of men and linguists.

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19 .) (no award) by (no award)

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18 .) The Zen Gun by Barrington J. Bayley

“Pout, the chimera, half-man, half-ape, was incorporated into one of the plants or vice versa. He was jammed into a squatting position, while the stems, entering at his buttocks, merged with his legs, his arms and his torso, emerging at knees, elbows, and through his abdomen and thorax. A large, yellow-petalled flower seemed to frame his face.

It was his face that rivetted Ikematsu’s attention, while the chimera squirmed in dumb distress, glaring with huge piteous eyes. For in that face, set into it as if set in pudding, was the zen gun. The gun was his face, or a part of it. The barrel pointed straight out in place of a nose… the stock merged with and disappeared into Pout’s pendulous mouth.”

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17 .) Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

When the children of his village were struck with a mysterious illness, Number Ten Ox found master Li Kao. Together they set out to find the Great Root of Power, the only possible cure, and together they discover adventure and legend, and the power of belief..

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16 .) Helliconia Winter by Brian W. Aldiss

Winner of two Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss has, for more than fifty years, continued to challenge readers’ minds with literate, thought provoking, and inventive fiction.After many centuries, the flowering of human civilization has begun to dwindle again and the Great Year slowly progresses while the long, deadly cold winter looms-but a break in the long, repeating cycles of growth and decay may result from the long-ago visit of the Earthman. New legends of the spring and summer have evolved and a new future may be aborning.

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15 .) Emergence by David R. Palmer

“With international relations rapidly deteriorating, Candy’s father, publicly a small-town pathologist but secretly a government biowarfare expert, is called to Washington. Candy remains at home.

The following day a worldwide attack, featuring a bionuclear plague, wipes out virtually all of humanity (i.e., Homo sapiens). With her pet bird Terry, she survives the attack in the shelter beneath their house. Emerging three months later, she learns of her genetic heritage and sets off to search for others of her kind”

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14 .) The Years of the City by Frederik Pohl

In the New York City of the next century, twin domes over Manhattan control extremes of weather, illegal hang-gliding is common, and many old problems have been solved–but the rage of some Gothamites cannot be controlled.

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13 .) Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen

The year is 2132 when members of the Anthropologist’s Guild set down on the planet Henderson’s IV, or L’Lal’lor as it is known to the native population. Charged with the nonintrusive study of alien cultures, the crew discovers a society containing no love or laughter. It is, instead, centered around death—a world of aristocratic and common folk in which grieving is an art and the cornerstone of life. But the alien civilization stands on the brink of astonishing change, heralded by the discovery of Linni, the Gray Wanderer, a young woman from the countryside whose arrival has been foretold for centuries. And for Anthropologist First Class Aaron Spenser, L’Lal’lor is a place of destructive temptations, seducing him with its mysterious, sad beauty, and leading him into an unthinkable criminal act.

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12 .) Green Eyes by Lucius Shepard

Life the second time around is short, strange and terrifying to the awakened. One “zombie”, victim of a bizarre scientific obsession, breaks away, leaving a trail of muder and miracle as he flees the Project and the horror his “life” hasbecome.

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11 .) VALIS by Philip K. Dick,

What is VALIS? This question is at the heart of Philip K. Dick’s ground-breaking novel, and the first book in his defining trilogy. When a beam of pink light begins giving a schizophrenic man named Horselover Fat (who just might also be known as Philip K. Dick) visions of an alternate Earth where the Roman Empire still reigns, he must decide whether he is crazy, or whether a godlike entity is showing him the true nature of the world.

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10 .) Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged. Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable …and stronger than time itself. Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christopher, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity .

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9 .) The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub

Why had twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer’s mother frantically moved the two of them from Rodeo Drive to a New York City apartment to the Alhambra, a fading ocean resort and shuttered amusement park in New Hampshire? Who or what is she running from? She is dying . . . and even young Jack knows she can’t outrun death. But only he can save her—for he has been chosen to search for a prize across an epic landscape of dangers and lies, a realm of innocents and monsters, where everything Jack loves is on the line.

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8 .) Dinner at Deviant’s Palace by Tim Powers

In the twenty-second century, the City of Angels is a tragic shell of its former self, having long ago been ruined and reshaped by nuclear disaster. Before he was in a band in Ellay, Gregorio Rivas was a redeemer, rescuing lost souls trapped in the Jaybirds cult of the powerful maniac Norton Jaybush. Rivas had hoped those days were behind him, but a desperate entreaty from a powerful official is pulling him back into the game. The rewards will be plentiful if he can wrest Urania, the official’s daughter and Gregorio’s first love, from Jaybush’s sinister clutches. To do so, the redeemer reborn must face blood-sucking hemogoblins and other monstrosities on his way to discovering the ultimate secrets of this neo-Californian civilization.

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7 .) The Peace War by Vernor Vinge

The Peace War is quintessential hard-science adventure. The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon–the “bobble,” a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent. But they’ve never caught Paul Hoehler, the maverick who invented the technology, and who has been working quietly for decades to develop a way to defeat the Authority. With the help of an underground network of determined, independent scientists and a teenager who may be the apprentice genius he’s needed for so long, he will shake the world, in the fast-paced hard-science thriller that garnered Vinge the first of his four Hugo nominations for best novel.

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6 .) The Final Encyclopedia by Gordon R. Dickson

In The Final Encyclopedia the human race is split into three Splinter cultures: the Friendlies, fanatic in their faith; the truth-seeking Exotics; and the warrior Dorsai. But now humanity is threatened by the power-hungry Others, whose triumph would end all human progress.

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5 .) Damiano’s Lute by R. A. MacAvoy

This novel is a sequel to Damiano. Set against the turbulent backdrop of the Italian Renaissance, this alternate history takes place in a world where real faith-based magic exists. Our hero is Damiano Dalstrego. He is a wizard’s son, an alchemist and the heir to dark magics. Shattered by the demonic fury of his dark powers, Damiano Delstrego has forsaken his magical heritage to live as a mortal man. Accompanied only by the guidance of the Archnagel Raphael, the chidings of a brash young rogue, and the memory of a beautiful pagan witch, Damiano journeys across a plague-ridden French countryside in search of peace. But the Father of Lies reaches out once again to grasp him. And to save himself from the hellish destiny that awaits him, Damiano must challenge the greatest forces of darkness, armed only with the power of his love and the music of his lute.

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4 .) Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein

After he firewalked in Polynesia, the world wasn’t the same for Alexander Hergensheimer, now called Alec Graham. As natural accidents occurred without cease, Alex knew Armageddon and the Day of Judgement were near. Somehow he had to bring his beloved heathen, Margrethe, to a state of grace, and, while he was at it, save the rest of the world ..

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3 .) The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson

2047: For the small Pacific Coast community of San Onofre, life in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack is a matter of survival, a day-to-day struggle to stay alive. But young Hank Fletcher dreams of the world that might have been, and might yet be–and dreams of playing a crucial role in America’s rebirth.

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2 .) The Integral Trees by Larry Niven

When leaving Earth, the crew of the spaceship Discipline was prepared for a routine assignment. Dispatched by the all-powerful State on a mission of interstellar exploration and colonization, Discipline was aided (and secretly spied upon) by Sharls Davis Kendy, an emotionless computer intelligence programmed to monitor the loyalty and obedience of the crew. But what they weren’t prepared for was the smoke ring–an immense gaseous envelope that had formed around a neutron star directly in their path. The Smoke Ring was home to a variety of plant and animal life-forms evolved to thrive in conditions of continual free-fall. When Discipline encountered it, something went wrong. The crew abandoned ship and fled to the unlikely space oasis.

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1 .) Neuromancer, by William Gibson

Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

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The 1985 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

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

The Ditmar (Australian) Award – Best International Long Fiction

SF Chronicle Award – Best Novel