Anthologies always hold special promise for readers. Like a collection of “greatest hits,” they extend an invitation to sample only the cream of the crop. And when the selections are all prizewinners, as they are here, the anthology becomes an event.

And THE HUGO WINNERS is truly an event. For writers—and fans—of science fiction, the Hugo Award symbolizes the achievement of excellence, the equivalent of Hollywood’s Oscar or Broadway’s Tony. Presented annually by the World Science Fiction Convention, the Hugos honor the best and brightest in SF short stories, novellas, and novelettes. Now Volume 5 showcases the award winners for 1980—1982, nine superb stories, each accompanied by a special introduction by the Grand Master himself, Isaac Asimov.

In these pages you’ll discover incredible tales of power and beauty, of side-splitting humor and spine-tingling horror, all from the pens of such contemporary wizards as Barry B. Longyear, George R. R. Martin, Gordon R. Dickson, Clifford D. Simak, Poul Anderson, Roger Zelazny, and John Varley. As they take you on fantastic journeys of the mind, you’ll enter new realms of inner and outer space. Explore life in death and death in life. And glimpse extraordinary visions of time past, present, and future. These are works which offer you singular experiences of the imagination and to read them is to share the rich rewards of superior science fiction.

This was the last Hugo winners volume published by Doubleday; the series was eventually picked up by Baen books who published four volumes called The New Hugo Winners, including two edited by Asimov.

Asimov’s own presence in this book is minimal—he has no stories here—but we have nine strong tales nonetheless, the three winners in the three short fiction Hugo categories for 1980 through 1983. None of the stories are poor, but three in particular deserve mention: Barry B. Longyear’s “Enemy Mine,” Poul Anderson’s “The Saturn Game,” and the incredibly chilling “Sand Kings” by George R.R. Martin. This is definitely not a volume to miss if one can help it.