Reviews of John W. Campbell Finalists

This is a list of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award winners and finalists, including ratings for those books that I've read and links to reviews where I've written one. Winners are in bold.

From 2002 on, this is the full finalist list, which is every book that received a first, second, or third place vote from the jury. Before that date, this is the first, second, and third place winners for that year, since the full finalist list isn't available.

This was a judged award for the best SF novel of the year published in the United States (not to be confused with the former John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer that's awarded with the Hugos and has been renamed to the Astounding Award). It was administered by the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas until James Gunn's death in 2020.

This award has not been given since 2019 after a change of management of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction following James Gunn's death. As of 2024, it is unclear whether it will be revived.

2019	Sam J. Miller	Blackfish City
2019	Sue Burke	Semiosis	6 out of 10
2019	Imraan Coovadia	A Spy in Time
2019	Mary Robinette Kowal	The Calculating Stars	9 out of 10
2019	Ian McDonald	Time Was
2019	Waubgeshig Rice	Moon of the Crusted Snow
2019	Audrey Schulman	Theory of Bastards
2019	Lavie Tidhar	Unholy Land
2019	Catherynne M. Valente	Space Opera	3 out of 10
2019	Peter Watts	The Freeze-Frame Revolution
2019	Aliya Whiteley	The Loosening Skin

2018	David Walton	The Genius Plague
2018	Nina Allan	The Rift
2018	Christopher Brown	Tropic of Kansas
2018	Louise Erdrich	Future Home of the Living God
2018	Kameron Hurley	The Stars Are Legion
2018	John Kessel	The Moon and the Other
2018	Eleanor Lerman	The Stargazer's Embassy
2018	Paul McAuley	Austral
2018	Annalee Newitz	Autonomous
2018	Deji Bryce Olukotun	After the Flare
2018	Kim Stanley Robinson	New York 2140	6 out of 10
2018	Norman Spinrad	The People's Police
2018	Jeff VanderMeer	Borne

2017	Lavie Tidhar	Central Station
2017	Don DeLillo	Zero K
2017	Kij Johnson	The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
2017	Paul J. McAuley	Into Everywhere
2017	Alastair Reynolds & Stephen Baxter	The Medusa Chronicles
2017	Nisi Shawl	Everfair
2017	Tricia Sullivan	Occupy Me
2017	Tade Thompson	Rosewater
2017	Colson Whitehead	The Underground Railroad
2017	Aliya Whiteley	The Arrival of Missives
2017	Rick Wilber	Alien Morning
2017	Ben Winters	Underground Airlines
2017	Nick Wood	Azanian Bridges

2016	Eleanor Lerman	Radiomen
2016	Paolo Bacigalupi	The Water Knife
2016	Dave Hutchinson	Europe at Midnight
2016	Ian McDonald	Luna: New Moon
2016	James Morrow	Galapagos Regained
2016	Linda Nagata	Going Dark
2016	Nnedi Okorafor	The Book of Phoenix
2016	Kit Reed	Where
2016	Kim Stanley Robinson	Aurora
2016	Adam Roberts	The Thing Itself
2016	Neal Stephenson	Seveneves

2015	Claire North	The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
2015	Nina Allan	The Race
2015	James L. Cambias	A Darkling Sea
2015	William Gibson	The Peripheral
2015	Daryl Gregory	Afterparty
2015	Dave Hutchinson	Europe In Autumn
2015	Simon Ings	Wolves
2015	Cixin Liu	The Three-Body Problem	6 out of 10
2015	Emily St. John Mandel	Station Eleven
2015	Will McIntosh	Defenders
2015	Laline Paull	The Bees
2015	Adam Roberts	Bête
2015	John Scalzi	Lock In
2015	Andy Weir	The Martian
2015	Jeff VanderMeer	Annihilation
2015	Jeff VanderMeer	Authority
2015	Jeff VanderMeer	Acceptance
2015	Peter Watts	Echopraxia

2014	Marcel Theroux	Strange Bodies
2014	Max Barry	Lexicon
2014	Stephen Baxter	Proxima
2014	Dave Eggers	The Circle
2014	Karen Joy Fowler	We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
2014	Nicola Griffith	Hild	8 out of 10
2014	Wolfgang Jeschke	The Cusanus Game
2014	Ann Leckie	Ancillary Justice	10 out of 10
2014	Phillip Mann	The Disestablishment of Paradise
2014	Paul McAuley	Evening's Empires
2014	Linda Nagata	The Red: First Light
2014	Christopher Priest	The Adjacent
2014	Alastair Reynolds	On the Steel Breeze
2014	Kim Stanley Robinson	Shaman
2014	Charles Stross	Neptune's Brood	8 out of 10

2013	Adam Roberts	Jack Glass
2013	Iain M. Banks	The Hydrogen Sonata
2013	Terry Bisson	Any Day Now
2013	David Brin	Existence
2013	Cory Doctorow & Charles Stross	The Rapture of the Nerds
2013	M. John Harrison	Empty Space
2013	Ken MacLeod	Intrusion
2013	China Miéville	Railsea
2013	Hannu Rajaniemi	The Fractal Prince
2013	Alastair Reynolds	Blue Remembered Earth	7 out of 10
2013	Kim Stanley Robinson	2312	5 out of 10
2013	John Varley	Slow Apocalypse
2013	G. Willow Wilson	Alif the Unseen

2012	Christopher Priest	The Islanders
2012	Joan Slonczewski	The Highest Frontier
2012	Ernest Cline	Ready Player One
2012	Kathleen Ann Goonan	This Shared Dream
2012	Will McIntosh	Soft Apocalypse
2012	China Miéville	Embassytown	9 out of 10
2012	Michael Swanwick	Dancing with Bears
2012	Lavie Tidhar	Osama
2012	Daniel H. Wilson	Robopocalypse
2012	Gene Wolfe	Home Fires
2012	Rob Ziegler	Seed

2011	Ian McDonald	The Dervish House	7 out of 10
2011	Jon Armstrong	Yarn
2011	Greg Bear	Hull Zero Three
2011	William Gibson	Zero History
2011	Tom McCarthy	C
2011	Adam Roberts	New Model Army
2011	Hannu Rajaniemi	The Quantum Thief
2011	Gavin Smith	Veteran
2011	Sheri S. Tepper	The Waters Rising
2011	Jean-Christophe Valtat	Aurorarama
2011	E.O. Wilson	Anthill
2011	Connie Willis	Blackout	5 out of 10
2011	Connie Willis	All Clear	5 out of 10
2011	Charles Yu	How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

2010	Paolo Bacigalupi	The Windup Girl	7 out of 10
2010	Margaret Atwood	The Year of the Flood
2010	Iain M. Banks	Transition
2010	Cory Doctorow	Makers
2010	Nancy Kress	Steal Across the Sky
2010	Paul McAuley	Gardens of the Sun
2010	China Miéville	The City & the City	9 out of 10
2010	Adam Roberts	Yellow Blue Tibia
2010	Kim Stanley Robinson	Galileo's Dream
2010	Robert J. Sawyer	Wake	6 out of 10
2010	Bruce Sterling	The Caryatids
2010	Robert Charles Wilson	Julian Comstock	6 out of 10

2009	Cory Doctorow	Little Brother	7 out of 10
2009	Ian MacLeod	Song of Time
2009	Greg Bear	City at the End of Time
2009	Nick Di Chario	Valley of Day-Glo
2009	James Morrow	The Philosopher's Apprentice
2009	Neal Stephenson	Anathem	9 out of 10

2008	Kathleen Ann Goonan	In War Times
2008	Brian Aldiss	HARM
2008	Michael Chabon	The Yiddish Policeman's Union	10 out of 10
2008	Nalo Hopkinson	The New Moon's Arms
2008	Jay Lake	Mainspring	6 out of 10
2008	Ken MacLeod	The Execution Channel
2008	Ian McDonald	Brasyl	7 out of 10
2008	Rebecca Ore	Time's Child
2008	Matt Ruff	Bad Monkeys
2008	Robert J. Sawyer	Rollback	6 out of 10
2008	Jose Carlos Somoza	Zig Zag
2008	Sheri S. Tepper	The Margarets
2008	Jeffrey Thomas	Deadstock
2008	Robert Charles Wilson	Axis

2007	Ben Bova	Titan
2007	Nick DiChario	A Small and Remarkable Life
2007	David Louis Edelman	Infoquake
2007	M. John Harrison	Nova Swing
2007	Jack McDevitt	Odyssey	6 out of 10
2007	James Morrow	The Last Witchfinder
2007	Justina Robson	Living Next Door to the God of Love
2007	Barbara Sapergia	Dry
2007	Karl Schroeder	Sun of Suns	7 out of 10
2007	Charles Stross	Glasshouse	9 out of 10
2007	Vernor Vinge	Rainbows End	6 out of 10
2007	Jo Walton	Farthing	8 out of 10
2007	Peter Watts	Blindsight	7 out of 10

2006	Robert J. Sawyer	Mindscan
2006	Stephen Baxter	Transcendent
2006	Steve Cash	The Meq
2006	David Gerrold	Child of Earth
2006	Paul McAuley	Mind's Eye
2006	Jack McDevitt	Seeker	8 out of 10
2006	Ken Macleod	Learning the World	7 out of 10
2006	Ian R. Macleod	The Summer Isles
2006	David Marusek	Counting Heads
2006	Charles Stross	Accelerando	8 out of 10
2006	Karen Traviss	The World Before	7 out of 10
2006	Robert Charles Wilson	Spin	7 out of 10

2005	Richard Morgan	Market Forces
2005	John Barnes	Gaudeamas
2005	Jack Dann	The Rebel
2005	Ken MacLeod	Newton's Wake
2005	Louise Marley	The Child Goddess
2005	Paul McAuley	White Devils
2005	Audrey Niffenegger	The Time Traveler's Wife	8 out of 10
2005	Frederik Pohl	The Boy Who Would Live Forever
2005	Robert Reed	The Well of Stars
2005	Philip Roth	The Plot Against America
2005	Geoff Ryman	Air	10 out of 10
2005	Karen Traviss	City of Pearl	8 out of 10

2004	Jack McDevitt	Omega	7 out of 10
2004	Max Barry	Jennifer Government
2004	Philip Baruth	The X President
2004	Greg Bear	Darwin's Children
2004	Mike Brotherton	Star Dragon
2004	Michael Flynn	The Wreck of the River of Stars
2004	Kay Kenyon	The Braided World
2004	James Lovegrove	Untied Kingdom
2004	Syne Mitchell	The Changeling Plague
2004	Linda Nagata	Memory
2004	Robert Reed	Sister Alice
2004	Justina Robson	Natural History
2004	Sheri S. Tepper	The Companions
2004	Amy Thomson	Storyteller
2004	John Varley	Red Thunder

2003	Nancy Kress	Probability Space
2003	Steven Barnes	Lion's Blood
2003	Greg Bear	Vitals
2003	David Brin	Kiln People	5 out of 10
2003	Christopher Priest	The Separation
2003	Robert J. Sawyer	Hominids	4 out of 10
2003	Brian Stableford	Dark Ararat
2003	Michael Swanwick	Bones of the Earth	6 out of 10
2003	Shari Tepper	The Visitor
2003	John C. Wright	The Golden Age

2002	Robert Charles Wilson	The Chronoliths
2002	Jack Williamson	Terraforming Earth
2002	Nancy Kress	Probability Sun
2002	Ken MacLeod	Dark Light
2002	Jack McDevitt	Deepsix	6 out of 10
2002	Peter F. Hamilton	Fallen Dragon
2002	C. J. Cherryh	Hammerfall
2002	Paul Johnston	The House of Dust
2002	Scott Mackay	The Meek
2002	Maureen F. McHugh	Nekropolis
2002	Jon Courtenay Grimwood	Pashazade
2002	Connie Willis	Passage	8 out of 10

2001	Poul Anderson	Genesis
2001	Mary Gentle	Ash
2001	Robert J. Sawyer	Calculating God
2001	Jack McDevitt	Infinity Beach
2001	Sheri S. Tepper	The Fresco

2000	Vernor Vinge	A Deepness in the Sky	8 out of 10
2000	Greg Bear	Darwin's Radio	7 out of 10
2000	Norman Spinrad	Greenhouse Summer
2000	Jack Williamson	The Silicon Dagger
2000	Peter Watts	Starfish	7 out of 10

1999	George Zebrowski	Brute Orbits
1999	Poul Anderson	Starfarers
1999	Bruce Sterling	Distraction

1998	Joe Haldeman	Forever Peace	7 out of 10
1998	Greg Bear	Slant
1998	Paul Preuss	Secret Passages

1997	Paul J. McAuley	Fairyland	4 out of 10
1997	Kim Stanley Robinson	Blue Mars	5 out of 10
1997	Mary Doria Russell	The Sparrow	8 out of 10

1996	Stephen Baxter	The Time Ships	4 out of 10
1996	Neal Stephenson	The Diamond Age	7 out of 10
1996	Ian McDonald	Chaga

1995	Greg Egan	Permutation City
1995	Michael Bishop	Brittle Innings

1994	Nancy Kress	Beggars in Spain	7 out of 10
1994	Greg Bear	Moving Mars	8 out of 10

1993	Charles Sheffield	Brother to Dragons	7 out of 10
1993	Sheri S. Tepper	Sideshow
1993	Vernor Vinge	A Fire Upon the Deep	7 out of 10

1992	Bradley Denton	Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede
1992	William Gibson & Bruce Sterling	The Difference Engine
1992	Charles Platt	The Silicon Man
1992	Michael Swanwick	Stations of the Tide	6 out of 10

1991	Kim Stanley Robinson	Pacific Edge
1991	Greg Bear	Queen of Angels
1991	James K. Morrow	Only Begotten Daughter

1990	Geoff Ryman	The Child Garden
1990	K.W. Jeter	Farewell Horizontal
1990	John Kessel	Good News from Outer Space

1989	Bruce Sterling	Islands in the Net
1989	Kim Stanley Robinson	The Gold Coast
1989	Anne McCaffrey	Dragonsdawn	6 out of 10

1988	Connie Willis	Lincoln's Dreams	7 out of 10
1988	George Turner	The Sea and Summer
1988	Geoff Ryman	The Unconquered Country

1987	Joan Slonczewski	A Door into Ocean
1987	James K. Morrow	This Is the Way the World Ends
1987	Orson Scott Card	Speaker for the Dead	10 out of 10

1986	David Brin	The Postman	4 out of 10
1986	Kurt Vonnegut	Galápagos
1986	Greg Bear	Blood Music
1986	Keith Roberts	Kiteworld

1985	Frederik Pohl	The Years of the City
1985	Lucius Shepard	Green Eyes
1985	William Gibson	Neuromancer	7 out of 10

1984	Gene Wolfe	The Citadel of the Autarch	7 out of 10
1984	John Batchelor	The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica
1984	John Sladek	Tik-Tok	5 out of 10

1983	Brian W. Aldiss	Helliconia Spring
1983	Michael Bishop	No Enemy But Time	5 out of 10

1982	Russell Hoban	Riddley Walker

1981	Gregory Benford	Timescape	5 out of 10
1981	Damien Broderick	The Dreaming Dragons
1981	Gene Wolfe	The Shadow of the Torturer	8 out of 10

1980	Thomas M. Disch	On Wings of Song
1980	John Crowley	Engine Summer
1980	J.G. Ballard	The Unlimited Dream Company

1979	Michael Moorcock	Gloriana
1979	Paddy Chayefsky	Altered States
1979	Donald R. Bensen	And Having Writ...

1978	Frederik Pohl	Gateway	7 out of 10
1978	Arkady & Boris Strugatsky	Roadside Picnic
1978	Philip K. Dick	A Scanner Darkly

1977	Kingsley Amis	The Alteration
1977	Frederik Pohl	Man Plus	6 out of 10
1977	Kate Wilhelm	Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang	5 out of 10

1976	Robert Silverberg	The Stochastic Man
1976	Bob Shaw	Orbitsville

1975	Philip K. Dick	Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
1975	Ursula K. Le Guin	The Dispossessed	8 out of 10

1974	Robert Merle	Malevil
1974	Arthur C. Clarke	Rendezvous with Rama	3 out of 10
1974	Ian Watson	The Embedding
1974	Peter Dickinson	The Green Gene

1973	Barry N. Malzberg	Beyond Apollo
1973	James E. Gunn	The Listeners
1973	Christopher Priest	Darkening Island

Ratings for books that don't have a review are based on my memory of the book. The rating may well change if I get a chance to read the book again.

Last modified and spun 2024-03-30