Fond Books
Archive Collection

Nebula Award for Best Novel Winners

1965–2025

The Nebula Award for Best Novel is one of the highest honours in science fiction and fantasy, chosen each year since 1966 by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Winners include Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin.

Jump to:
2020s 2010s 2000s 1990s 1980s 1970s 1960s
Year Title & Author Historical Context
2025 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones The novel won both the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel, a rare double honor from the scie...
2024 Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell This debut novel from John Wiswell won the 2024 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2025 Locus Award for Best First Novel, and it was a finalist fo...
2023 The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera The Saint of Bright Doors was the debut novel of Sri Lankan writer Vajra Chandrasekera and drew wide acclaim across the major genre award shortlists.
2022 Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence by R. F. Kuang The full title, Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence, An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, signals the book's pointed argument a...
2021 A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark A Master of Djinn was P. Djèlí Clark's debut novel and grew out of his earlier short fiction set in the same magical alternate Cairo.
2020 Network Effect by Martha Wells Network Effect was the first novel in the popular Murderbot series, which had previously consisted of novellas, and it won both the Nebula and the ...
2019 A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker A Song for a New Day, published in 2019, eerily anticipated a world reshaped by pandemic isolation and was Sarah Pinsker's debut novel.
2018 The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal The Calculating Stars expanded Kowal's earlier short story The Lady Astronaut of Mars and went on to win both the Nebula and the Hugo for Best Novel.
2017 The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin With The Stone Sky, N. K. Jemisin completed an unprecedented sweep, winning the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row for each book in the...
2016 All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders All the Birds in the Sky was the debut adult novel of Charlie Jane Anders, a cofounder of the influential science fiction site io9.
2015 Uprooted by Naomi Novik Uprooted marked a turn toward standalone fantasy for Naomi Novik, who had been known for her long running Temeraire series of Napoleonic dragon nov...
2014 Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer Alex Garland adapted Annihilation into a 2018 film starring Natalie Portman.
2013 Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Ancillary Justice swept the major science fiction prizes, taking the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for a single debut novel.
2012 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson Kim Stanley Robinson, long celebrated for his Mars trilogy, won the Nebula Award for Best Novel for the first time with this book.
2011 Among Others by Jo Walton Among Others won both the Nebula and the Hugo, and it is celebrated for its loving references to classic science fiction and fantasy novels.
2010 Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis Blackout and All Clear were honored together as a single work and won both the Nebula and the Hugo for Connie Willis.
2009 The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi The Windup Girl was Paolo Bacigalupi's debut novel and shared the 2010 Hugo Award for best novel alongside winning the Nebula.
2008 Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin Powers is the third book in Ursula K. Le Guin's Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, following Gifts and Voices.
2007 The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon The Yiddish Policemen's Union won the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Locus awards, an unusual sweep for a novel by a mainstream literary author.
2006 Seeker by Jack McDevitt Seeker is the third novel in Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series and the volume that earned him the Nebula Award.
2005 Camouflage by Joe Haldeman Camouflage shared the 2006 Nebula ballot's spotlight and earned Joe Haldeman another major award following his classic The Forever War.
2004 Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold Paladin of Souls won the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Locus Award for best fantasy novel, a rare triple honor.
2003 The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon Elizabeth Moon drew on her experience as the mother of an autistic child when she wrote the novel's protagonist.
2002 American Gods by Neil Gaiman American Gods won the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Bram Stoker awards, and Starz adapted it into a television series beginning in 2017.
2001 The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro Catherine Asaro holds a doctorate in chemical physics, and she layered the novel's structure on the mathematics of quantum scattering.
2000 Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear Greg Bear later continued the story in a 2003 sequel, Darwin's Children, extending the saga of humanity's accelerated evolution.
1999 Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler Parable of the Talents won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and was the second book in Butler's unfinished Earthseed series.
1998 Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman Though it shares thematic ground with The Forever War, this novel is not a sequel, and it won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
1997 The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre The novel won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, controversially beating George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones in that category.
1996 Slow River by Nicola Griffith Slow River won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and is noted for centering a queer protagonist within a near future science fiction setting.
1995 The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer The novel won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and was originally serialized in Analog magazine under the title Hobson's Choice.
1994 Moving Mars by Greg Bear Moving Mars won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and is set in the same future history as Bear's earlier work Heads.
1993 Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson Red Mars won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and opened a trilogy whose later volumes, Green Mars and Blue Mars, each went on to win the Hugo Award.
1992 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis The novel won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award for Best Novel and is the first of Willis's time traveling Oxford historians books.
1991 Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick The novel won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and is widely regarded as one of Swanwick's most accomplished works.
1990 Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin Le Guin subtitled the book as the last of Earthsea, though she later returned to the world with further stories, and it won the Nebula Award for Be...
1989 The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Scarborough drew directly on her year of service as a nurse in Vietnam, and the novel won the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
1988 Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold This novel won the Nebula Award and serves as a prequel within Bujold's long running Vorkosigan saga, set roughly two centuries before her central ...
1987 The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy The Falling Woman won the Nebula Award for Best Novel the same year Pat Murphy also won the Nebula for Best Novelette.
1986 Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card Speaker for the Dead won the Nebula and the Hugo, making Card the first author to win both top awards in consecutive years.
1985 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Ender's Game won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award and was adapted into a 2013 feature film of the same name.
1984 Neuromancer by William Gibson Neuromancer became the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Philip K. Dick Award, and it popularized the term cyberspace.
1983 Startide Rising by David Brin Startide Rising won the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Locus Award, and it is the second novel in David Brin's Uplift series.
1982 No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop No Enemy But Time won the Nebula Award for Best Novel for 1982, one of the high points of Michael Bishop's career.
1981 The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe This is the second book in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun tetralogy and it won the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
1980 Timescape by Gregory Benford Benford, a professional plasma physicist, won the Nebula, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the British Science Fiction Association Award fo...
1979 The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke The novel won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award and helped popularize the concept of the space elevator in science fiction.
1978 Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre Dreamsnake won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards, and it grew out of McIntyre's earlier novelette Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand.
1977 Gateway by Frederik Pohl Gateway swept the major awards, winning the Nebula, the Hugo, the Locus, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and it launched Pohl's Heechee se...
1976 Man Plus by Frederik Pohl Pohl won the Nebula Award for Best Novel for this book in 1976, one of several major honors across his long career in science fiction.
1975 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards and is widely read as a response to Haldeman's service in the Vietnam War.
1974 The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin The Dispossessed won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards and is set within Le Guin's broader Hainish Cycle.
1973 Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke Rendezvous with Rama won the Nebula, Hugo, and several other major awards, and Clarke later expanded it into a sequence of sequels written with Gen...
1972 The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov The Gods Themselves won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award and marked Asimov's return to science fiction novels after years focused on nonfiction.
1971 A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg A Time of Changes won the 1971 Nebula Award for Best Novel during one of Silverberg's most celebrated creative periods.
1970 Ringworld by Larry Niven Ringworld swept the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards and anchors Niven's Known Space universe across several sequels.
1969 The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award and was the first installment of Le Guin's acclaimed Hainish Cycle to earn that do...
1968 Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin Rite of Passage was Panshin's debut novel and won the 1968 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
1967 The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany Delany won the Nebula Award for Best Novel two years running, taking the honor in 1966 and again in 1967.
1966 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Expanded from Keyes's earlier award winning short story, the novel shared the 1966 Nebula Award and was adapted into the film Charly, which earned ...
1966 Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany The novel shared the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novel with Flowers for Algernon in a rare tie.
1965 Dune by Frank Herbert Dune won the very first Nebula Award for Best Novel and went on to share the Hugo Award, becoming one of the best selling science fiction novels of...