How I would vote now: 1955 Hugo Award (Best Novel)

The Nominees

They’d Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley (also published as The Forever Machine)

The Actual Results

1. They’d Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley

How I Would Have Voted

1. They’d Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley

Explanation

Things worked a little differently back in 1955. This was only the second time the Hugo Awards were given out (the first was in 1953), though it was the thirteenth Worldcon. As far as I can tell, there was no formal ballot or nominating process, just the organizers of the convention getting together and deciding which winners to award.

They’d Rather Be Right was serialized in four issues of Astounding Science Fiction, before it was published as a novel by Gnome Press in 1957. Among the fans who regularly attend Worldcon, it is largely panned as the worst book to ever win a Hugo Award. For that reason, it is very difficult to find a copy (I was fortunate enough to find a used copy on Amazon that a small-town library in California happened to be selling, but I had to keep an eye out for a couple of months).

But does the book really merit the distinction of being the worst? Personally, I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong—it’s nowhere near the caliber of Dune, Hyperion, or Ender’s Game, but it does tell a fun story with an interesting sci-fi premise and some entertaining twists. It wasn’t the greatest book I’ve ever read, but I did genuinely enjoy it.

So why does this book get panned so hard? Probably because of its underlying message, which is that 1) Malthus was wrong, 2) Freud was wrong, 3) most self-styled scientists are actually charlatans and quacks, and 4) the best way to safeguard a new technology from evil and conspiring men is to make it open source, even if that technology grants the user with god-like powers.

In short, this book gives a glorious middle finger to would-be authoritarian statists everywhere. For that reason, it will always have a special place in my heart. If the 1955 Hugos were held today, I would happily vote They’d Rather Be Right for best novel.