“What are the most award-winning Science Fiction & Fantasy books of 1970?” 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 1970, let’s set the scene for those awards by taking a look at what else was happening that year:

1970

President Nixon. Peru Earthquake. Brazil over Italy in the World Cup. Kansas over Minnesota in the Super Bowl. The Beatles Break Up. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix both die. Midnight Cowboy awarded Best Picture. Floppy Disk Introduced. LCD invented. Most Watched Show – Marcus Welby, M.D. Top Grossing Movie – Love Story. Rhodesia severs ties with the UK. Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty goes into effect. Apollo 13 is launched and aborted. First Earth Day is celebrated. Other entertainment – Mary Tyler Moore, MASH, Patton, All My Children, Catch-22. PBS begins broadcasting. Non-SFF books – I know Why The Caged Bird Sings, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Deliverance, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Etc.

And now, on to the list…

The Runners Up For Best Science Fiction / Fantasy Book of 1970

9) Macroscope By Piers Anthony

Macroscope Throughout history, man has been searching for better ways to gather information about his universe. But although they may have longed for it, not even the most brilliant minds could conceive of a device as infinitely powerful or as immeasurably precise as the macroscope, until the twenty-first century. By analyzing information carried on macrons, this unbelievable tool brought the whole universe of wonders to man’s doorstep. The macroscope was seen by many as the salvation of the human race. But in the hands of the wrong man, the macroscope could be immensely destructive-infinitely more dangerous than the nuclear bomb. By searching to know too much, man could destroy the very essence of his mind. This is the powerful story of man’s struggle with technology, and also the story of his human struggle with himself. This novel takes us across the breathtaking ranges of space as well as through the most touching places in the human heart. It is a story of coming of age, of sacrifice, and of love. It is the story of man’s desperate search for a compromise between his mind and his heart, between knowledge and humanity

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8) Isle of the Dead By Roger Zelazny

Human Francis Sandow is amused when the alien Pei’ans mistake him for Shimbo of Darktree, God of Thunder, but the Shimbo’s enemy, Belion–a true supreme being–arrives for a showdown.

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7) The Crystal World By J. G. Ballard

The Crystal World, J. G. Ballard’s fourth novel, which established his reputation as a writer of extraordinary talent and imaginative powers, tells the story of a physician specializing in the treatment of leprosy who is invited to a small outpost in the interior of Africa. Finding the roadways blocked, he takes to the river, and embarks on a frightening journey through a strange petrified forest whose area expands daily, affecting not only the physical environment but also its inhabitants.

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6) Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.

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5) Bug Jack Barron By Norman Spinrad

Lover and hero, Jack Barron, the sold-out media god of the Bug Jack Barron Show, has one last chance to hit it big when he meets Benedict Howards, the power-mad man with the secret to immortality

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4) Up the Line By Robert Silverberg

Up the Line is a time travel novel by American science fiction author Robert Silverberg. The plot revolves mainly around the paradoxes brought about by time travel, though it is also notable for its liberal dosage of sex and humor.

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3) Cosmicomics By Italo Calvino

Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. “Naturally, we were all there, – old Qfwfq said, – where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?

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2) The Jagged Orbit By John Brunner

In THE JAGGED ORBIT, Brunner, writing at the peak of form that allowed him to create STAND ON ZANZIBAR, takes a long, hard, disturbing, hilarious look at the near, and not-so-distant, future and the catastrophic changes that widespread and rampant drug abuse, uncontrolled violence, high-level corruption in government, inhumane treatment of the too-readily defined “insane” and the accompanying collapse of the social order are wreaking on the world we recognize and turning it into a reality we must fear and hope to avoid. Brunner tells a spine-chilling tale and makes where the world could possibly go all too believable and real for our comfort

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The Best Science Fiction / Fantasy Book of 1970

1.) The Left Hand of Darkness By Ursula K. Le Guin

“Once in a long while a whole new world is created for us. Such worlds are Middle Earth, Dune—and such a world is Winter.”  Twenty-five years and a Hugo and Nebula Award later, these words remain true. In Winter, or Gethen, Ursula K. Le Guin has created a fully realized planet and people. But Gethen society is more than merely a fascinating creation. The concept of a society existing totally without sexual prejudices is even more relevant today than it was in 1969…

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The 1970 Award Nominations & Winners

(Winners Highlighted)

BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) – Best Novel

The Ditmar (Australian) Award – Best International Long Fiction

Hugo Award – Best Novel

Seiun (Japanese) Award – Best Translated Novel

Nebula Award – Best Novel