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The 1992 James Tiptree, Jr. Award

Judges

Eleanor Arnason, Gwyneth Jones, John Kessel, Michaela Roessner (coordinator), Pamela Sargent

Non-attributed commentary harvested from correspondence among the judges.

Winner of the 1992 James Tiptree, Jr. Award

Maureen McHugh, China Mountain Zhang, Tor, 1992

"Homosexuality is a useful device for a political novelist-a male homosexual is a public agent who does not stand to benefit, in the terms of his own futurity, from anything the state can do. Throughout this novel there's an understated, building tension between the loveless embrace of the 'caring' state and the unassuming humane behavior of Zhang the outsider. Deep in the heart of China Mountain Zhang there's a very old riff: the wild talent, the young male outsider who is smarter, faster, much better than the system that rejects him. McHugh has given this old, old story an elegant transformation."
"A sympathetic and subtle portrayal of women and men in nontraditional roles."
"Avoiding preachment without abandoning thought is hard. Characters must seem real without seeming doctrinaire; issues must arise out of the story instead of being imposed on it. By this standard I'd say McHugh's China Mountain Zhang is the best political novel I've read in years, because for the most part it doesn't seem to be about politics at all."
"Rigorous science fiction, set in a non-western culture. It's well written and the characters live and breathe. It's got it all."