“What are the most award-winning Science Fiction & Fantasy books of 1973?” 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 1973, let’s set the scene for those awards by taking a look at what else was happening that year:

1973

Vietnam ceasefire signed. Kissinger wins Nobel Peace prize. The Godfather wins Best Picture. Birth of “Biotechnology”. Anthropic Principle introduced. Cellular Telephone invented. Other popular entertainment releases – The Exorcist, American Graffiti, The Sting, Soylent Green, Serpico, Battle for the Planet of the Apes. UK, Ireland, and Denmark enter European Economic Community. Miami Dolphins complete only perfect season in NFL history. Nixon is sworn in for second term. Supreme Court overturns state ban on abortion. Foreman defeats Frazier. Lyndon B. Johnson dies leaving no former presidents alive. Paris Peace Accords. Dark Side of The Moon released. The World Trade Center officially opens. Secritariat wins the Tripple Crown. DEA is founded. Spiro Agnew resigns as Vice President. Sydney Opera House opens. “I am not a crook”. Gerald Ford voted as Vice President. Homosexuality removed from DSM-II. Endangered Species Act passed. Deaths – Pearl S. Buck, Pablo Picasso, Bruce Lee, John Ford, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jim Croce. Non SFF books – Gravity’s Rainbow, The Princess Bride, Sula, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, The Gulag Archipelago, Breakfast of Champions, etc.

The Runners Up For Best Science Fiction / Fantasy Book of 1973

22 .) A Choice of Gods by Clifford D. Simak

One day they were there, the next they were gone-all but a small tribe of American Indians, family and friends gathered for a party, and the ubiquitous robots. Whatever mysterious power it was that had snatched up eight billion human souls and spirited them away had overlooked very few. Deprived of a labor force, technology disintegrated. The Indians went back to nature, the others … something very strange happened to them.

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21 .) Dancer From Atlantis by Paul Anderson

Looking out over the Pacific Ocean from the deck of a luxury cruise liner, American architect Duncan Reid is suddenly caught up in an inexplicable event—and when he awakens he is somewhere . . . different. Duncan has inadvertently fallen victim to a fatally malfunctioning time machine from the future, along with three equally startled companions from vastly different epochs and civilizations, and now he stands with them on the rocky Mediterranean coast of Egypt in the year 4000 BCE. With the aid of miraculous technology supplied by the dying time machine, the displaced four are able to communicate and share their stories, the most startling being the tale told by the one woman among them, the bewitching Erissa. Only decades removed from her actual time, she claims to be a priestess from Atlantis who views Duncan as a god, and she represents perhaps their only hope of returning to their rightful eras. But to do so will entail immersing themselves in the savage turmoil of an ancient world and placing themselves in harm’s way on the eve of the most terrible devastation in human history

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20 .) Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz

The novel is set in the land of Gwynedd, one of the fictionalEleven Kingdoms. Gwynedd itself is a medieval kingdom similar to the British Isles of the 12th century, with a powerful Holy Church (based on the Roman Catholic Church), and a feudal government ruled by a hereditarymonarchy. The population of Gwynedd includes both humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent physic and magical abilities who have been shunned and persecuted for centuries.

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19 .) Fugue For A Darkening Island by Christopher Priest

Fugue For A Darkening Island is a dystopian science fiction novel by Christopher Priest. First published in 1972, it deals with a man’s struggle to protect his family and himself in a near future England

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18 .) Green Phoenix by Burnett Swann

GREEN PHOENIX is a tour-de-force of the final stronghold of the prehumans against the last legion of fallen Troy.

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17 .) The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

DARKNESS THREATENS to overtake Earthsea. As the world and its wizards are losing their magic, Ged — powerful Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord — embarks on a sailing journey with highborn young prince, Arren. They travel far beyond the realm of death to discover the cause of these evil disturbances and to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it.

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16 .) The Gorgon Festival by John Boyd

Was the youth elixir the panacea that mankind dreamed of-or a bitter and ironic joke? To Alexander Ward, his discovery could have meant fame, wealth, the Nobel Prize. But his 70-year-old lab assistant stole it and turned herself into a teen-age sex kitten, a nursing home into a brothel–and the world into a madhouse.

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15 .) The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny

Across the worlds of Shadow, Corwin, Prince of blood royal, heir to the throne of Amber, gathers his forces for an assault that will yield up to him the crown that is rightfully his. But, a growing darkness of his own doing threatens his plans, an evil that stretches to the heart of the perfect kingdom itself where the demonic forces of Chaos mass to annihilate Amber and all who would rule there.

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14 .) The I.Q. Merchant by John Boyd

A desperate owner of a California drug company, Dorsey Clayton, is cutting corners to keep his business afloat. A new mind stimulating product could turn the corner for him if he could sell enough of it. An even more powerful drug in testing could potentially evolutionize society…if only he could test it on someone.

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13 .) The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad

Ferric Jaggar mounted the platform. A swastika of flame twenty feet high stood out in glory against the night sky behind him, bathing him in heroic firelight, flashing highlights off the brightwork of his gleaming black leather uniform, setting his powerful eyes ablaze. “I hold in my hand the Great Truncheon of Held. I dedicate myself to the repurification of all Heldon with blood and iron, and to the extension of the dominion of True Humanity over the face of the entire Earth! Never will we rest until the last mutant gene is swept from the face of the planet

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12 .) The Listeners Charles Scribner’s Sons by James E. Gunn

A classic of science fiction, this book predicted and inspired the creation of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)—the organization dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. A tale of contact with alien life hailed by leaders of SETI organizations and today’s leading science fiction authors as hugely influential, the story appeals to both science fiction readers and the hundreds of thousands of members of various SETI organizations

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11 .) The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner

An enduring classic, this book offers a dramatic and prophetic look at the potential consequences of the escalating destruction of Earth. In this nightmare society, air pollution is so bad that gas masks are commonplace. Infant mortality is up, and everyone seems to suffer from some form of ailment. The water is polluted, and only the poor drink from the tap. The government is ineffectual, and corporate interests scramble to make a profit from water purifiers, gas masks, and organic foods. Environmentalist Austin Train is on the run. The Trainites, environmental activists and sometime terrorists, want him to lead their movement. The government wants him in jail, or preferably, executed. The media wants a circus. Everyone has a plan for Train, but Train has a plan of his own.

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10 .) There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson

Jack Havig was born in the American midwest in 1933 with a genetic mutation that allows him to travel through time.

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9 .) What Entropy Means to Me by George Alec Effinger

Doctor, watch out! As Dore stood by, he saw the Doctor backing slowly into the corner where he would meet his fate. Initially defending himself with a torch, the Doctor searched frantically for a new method of defense. The crimson mass is lunging forward using long, tentacle-like attachments: what is that thing? Slowly the subhuman blob comes in to focus, and Dore realizes…it’s a colossal radish! This is a monster never before wrestled with; what are they going to do? After reading this vegetative tale, you won’t look at your garden the same way again

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8 .) Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

The novel’s protagonist is Harry M. Evans, the lone survivor of the disastrous first manned expedition to the planet Venus.

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7 .) Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredible, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind’s first encounter with alien intelligence. It will kindle their wildest dreams… and fan their darkest fears. For no one knows who the Ramans are or why they have come. And now the moment of rendezvous awaits — just behind a Raman airlock door.

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6 .) The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg

Seeking the immortality promised in an ancient manuscript, The Book of Skulls, four friends, college roommates, go on a spring break trip to Arizona: Eli, the scholar, who found and translated the book; Timothy, scion of an American dynasty, born and bred to lead; Ned, poet and cynic; and Oliver, the brilliant farm boy obsessed with death.

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5 .) The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there’s a catch to the invitation–and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell.

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4 .) The Song of Rhiannon by Evangeline Walton

Pryderi, son of Rhiannon, is the rightful heir of the kindgom, and as such should be able to enjoy some measure of happiness in his rule. But this son of Manawyddan must pay a heavy price for the secret of his birth, a price extracted by the immortal ones against the entire kingdom.

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3 .) When HARLIE Was One by David Gerrold

“H.A.R.L.I.E. (Human Analog Replication, Lethetic Intelligence Engine) is an artificially intelligent machine. David Auberson, the psychologist responsible for guiding HARLIE from childhood into adulthood, struggles to understand his erratic behavior. When humans begin vocalizing their wishes that HARILIE be shut down, he has to prove his existence and value to his warm-blooded counterparts. Throughout HARILIE’s fight to stay alive, Auberson discovers the machine has vast knowledge and understanding of life, love, and logic, posing the philosophical question whether or not HARLIE is human, and for that matter, what it means to be human.
“

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2 .) Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg

Dying Inside has stood the test of time and has been recognized as one of the finest novels the field has ever produced. Never wasting a word, Silverberg persuasively shows us what it would be like to read minds, painting an unforgettable portrait of a man shaped by that unique power; a power he is now inexorably losing

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1 .) The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

Only a few know the terrifying truth–an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun. They know the truth–but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy–but who will believe? These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth’s survival.

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The 1973 Award Nominations & Winners

(Winners Highlighted)

Nebula Award – Best Novel

Hugo Award – Best Novel

BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) – Best Novel

Seiun (Japanese) Award – Best Translated Novel

John W. Campbell Memorial Award – Best Science Fiction Novel

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award – Adult Literature

Locus Award – Best Science Fiction Novel

The Ditmar (Australian) Award – Best International Long Fiction