Hugo Award for Best Novel winners of the 1970s
The top 3 according to 234 votes from people: Ringworld — Larry Niven · Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang — Kate Wilhelm · The Left Hand of Darkness — Ursula K. Le Guin. (Updated May 20, 2025.)
The ten novels that won the Hugo Award for Best Novel from 1970 to 1979, with two wins for Ursula K. Le Guin.
Top 10
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1
Ringworld — Larry Niven
1971. An artificial ring around a distant star.
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2
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang — Kate Wilhelm
1977. Clones after the collapse of civilisation.
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3
The Left Hand of Darkness — Ursula K. Le Guin
1970. An envoy on Gethen, a planet whose people have no fixed sex.
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4
The Forever War — Joe Haldeman
1976. A soldier aged by time dilation in an interstellar war.
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5
Rendezvous with Rama — Arthur C. Clarke
1974. A giant alien cylinder enters the solar system.
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6
The Gods Themselves — Isaac Asimov
1973. An energy pump between parallel universes.
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7
To Your Scattered Bodies Go — Philip José Farmer
1972. All of humanity resurrected along a vast river.
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8
The Dispossessed — Ursula K. Le Guin
1975. A physicist between an anarchist moon and its capitalist planet.
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9
Gateway — Frederik Pohl
1978. Prospectors ride abandoned alien ships.
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10
Dreamsnake — Vonda N. McIntyre
1979. A healer who uses snakes in a post-apocalyptic world.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (4)
The Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness, Le Guin owned the decade.
The Dispossessed is my favourite SF novel.
The Dispossessed is still my favourite SF novel ever.
Rendezvous with Rama, pure sense of wonder.