Nebula Awards Showcase 2016
Read Nebula Awards Showcase 2016 Online
Authors: Mercedes Lackey
ALSO AVAILABLE:
Nebula Awards Showcase 2015
edited by Greg Bear
Nebula Awards Showcase 2014
edited by Kij Johnson
Nebula Awards Showcase 2013
edited by Catherine Asaro
Nebula Awards Showcase 2012
edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
Published 2016 by Pyr®, an imprint of Prometheus Books
Nebula Awards Showcase 2016
. Copyright © 2016 by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA, Inc.). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopyÂing, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, exÂcept in the case of brief quotations emÂbodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any characters, organizations, products, locales, and events portrayed either are products of the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously.
Cover image © Reiko Murakami
Cover design by Nicole Sommer-Lecht
Inquiries should be addressed to
Pyr
59 John Glenn Drive
Amherst, New York 14228
VOICE: 716â691â0133
FAX: 716â691â0137
20 19 18 17 16Â Â Â Â Â 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pending
ISBN 978-1-63388-138-9 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-63388-139-6 (ebk)
Printed in the United States of America
PERMISSIONS
“Introduction,” copyright 2015 by Mercedes Lackey.
“A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide,” copyright 2014 by Sarah Pinsker, first published in
Fantasy and Science Fiction
, March 2014.
“The Breath of War,” copyright 2014 by Aliette de Bodard, first published in
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
, March 2014.
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family,” copyright 2014 by Usman T. Malik, first published in
Qualia Nous
, Written Backwards Press, August 2014.
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye,” copyright 2014 by Matthew Kressel, first published in
Clarkesworld
, May 2014.
“When It Ends, He Catches Her,” copyright 2014 by Eugie Foster, first published in
Daily Science Fiction
, September 2014.
“The Fisher Queen,” copyright 2014 by Alyssa Wong, first published in
Fantasy and Science Fiction
, May 2014.
“Jackalope Wives,” copyright 2014 by Ursula Vernon, first published in
Apex
, January 2014.
“Sleep Walking Now and Then,” copyright 2014 by Richard Bowes, first published in
Tor.com
, July 2014.
“The Devil in America,” copyright 2014 by Kai Ashante Wilson, first published in
Tor.com
, April 2014.
“The Husband Stitch,” copyright 2014 by Carmen Maria Machado, first published in
Granta: 129
, October 2014.
“The Magician and Laplace's Demon,” copyright 2014 by Tom Crosshill, first published in
Clarkesworld
, December 2014.
“We Are the Cloud,” copyright 2014 by Sam J. Miller, first published in
Lightspeed
, September 2014.
“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i,” copyright 2014 by Alaya Dawn Johnson, first published in
Fantasy and Science Fiction
, July 2014.
Excerpt from
Calendrical Regression
copyright 2014 by Lawrence M. Schoen, first published by NobleFusion Press, November 2014.
Excerpt from “The Mothers of Voorhisville,” copyright 2014 by Mary Rickert, first published in
Tor.com
, April 2014.
Excerpt from “The Regular,” copyright 2014 by Ken Liu, first published in
Upgraded
, Wyrm Publishing, September 2014.
Excerpt from “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap),” copyright 2014 by Rachel Swirsky, first published in
Subterranean
, July 2014.
Excerpt from
We Are All Completely Fine
, copyright 2014 by Daryl Gregory, first published by Tachyon Press, July 2014.
Yesterday's Kin
, copyright 2014 by Nancy Kress, first published by Tachyon Press, August 2014.
Excerpt from
Annihilation
, copyright 2014 by Jeff VanderMeer, first published by FSG Originals, January 2014.
CONTENTS
Mercedes Lackey
A
BOUT THE
S
CIENCE
F
ICTION AND
F
ANTASY
W
RITERS OF
A
MERICA
Nebula Award Nominees: Best Short Story
“A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide”
Sarah Pinsker
Aliette de Bodard
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”
Usman T. Malik
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye”
Matthew Kressel
“When It Ends, He Catches Her”
Eugie Foster
Alyssa Wong
Nebula Award Winner: Best Short Story
Ursula Vernon
Nebula Award Nominees: Best Novelette
Richard Bowes
Kai Ashante Wilson
Carmen Maria Machado
“The Magician and Laplace's Demon”
Tom Crosshill
Sam J. Miller
Nebula Award Winner: Best Novelette
“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i”
Alaya Dawn Johnson
Nebula Award Nominees: Best Novella
Excerpt from
Calendrical Regression
Lawrence M. Schoen
Excerpt from “The Mothers of Voorhisville”
Mary Rickert
Ken Liu
Excerpt from “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)”
Rachel Swirsky
Excerpt from
We Are All Completely Fine
Daryl Gregory
Nebula Award Winner: Best Novella
Nancy Kress
Nebula Award Winner: Best Novel
Jeff VanderMeer
INTRODUCTION
If you're late to the party, the Nebula Awards are chosen every year by the members of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America); in other words, they are chosen out of all of the science fiction and fantasy literature written that year by the peers of those writers. By writers, for writers. As such, the nominators and voters tend to have a slightly different outlook on the work that comes up for the Nebulas than the average reader.
Those who nominate and vote want something more. Something different. It may or may not equate to what has gotten popular acclaim that year. It probably won't be what the “average reader” would like.
Kafka said it best, I think:
Altogether, I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn't shake us awake like a blow on the skull, why bother reading it in the first place? So that it can make us happy, as you put it? Good God, we'd be just as happy if we had no books at all; books that make us happy we could, at a pinch, also write ourselves. What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is what I believe.
âFranz Kafka, from a letter to Oskar Pollak dated January 27, 1904
Ideally, there is nothing in the works that follow this introduction that will make you feel cozy and comfortable. Ideally, they will challenge you. Ideally, while they might leave you deciding you are absolutely never going to reread a story, you will
never
be sorry you read it in the first place.
A Nebula winner should be, as Harlan Ellison put it in the anthologies he edited, a “dangerous vision.” Danger wakes us up, makes us realize we are alive, makes us realize why we want to stay alive. It may move us to terror, to joy, to tears, but it should never leave us unmoved.
Here's to danger.
Mercedes Lackey
ABOUT THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS OF AMERICA
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (formerly known as the Science Fiction Writers of America; the original acronym “SFWA” was retained), includes among its members many active writers of science fiction and fantasy. According to the bylaws of the organization, its purpose “shall be to promote the furtherance of the writing of science fiction, fantasy, and related genres as a profession.” SFWA informs writers on professional matters, protects their interests, and helps them in dealings with agents, editors, anthologists, and producers of nonprint media. It also strives to encourage public interest in and appreciation of science fiction and fantasy.
Anyone may become an active member of SFWA after the acceptance of and payment for one professionally published novel, one professionally produced dramatic script, or three professionally published pieces of short fiction. Only science fiction, fantasy, horror, or other prose fiction of a related genre, in English, shall be considered as qualifying for active membership. Beginning writers who do not yet qualify for active membership but have published qualifying professional work may join as associate members; other classes of membership include affiliate members (editors, agents, reviewers, and anthologists), estate members (representatives of the estates of active members who have died), and institutional members (high schools, colleges, universities, libraries, broadcasters, film producers, futurist groups, and individuals associated with such an institution).
Readers are invited to visit the SFWA site on the internet at
www.sfwa.org
.
ABOUT THE NEBULA AWARDS
Shortly after the founding of SFWA in 1965, its first secretary-treasurer, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., proposed that the organization periodically select and publish the year's best stories. This notion evolved into the elaborate balloting process, an annual awards banquet, and a series of Nebula anthologies.
Throughout every calendar year, members of SFWA read and recommend novels and stories for the Nebula Awards. The editor of the
Nebula Awards Report
collects the recommendations and publishes them in the
SFWA Forum
and on the SFWA members' private web page. At the end of the year, the
NAR
editor tallies the endorsements, draws up a preliminary ballot containing ten or more recommendations, and sends it all to active SFWA members. Under the current rules, each work enjoys a one-year eligibility period from its date of publication in the United States. If a work fails to receive ten recommendations during the one-year interval, it is dropped from further Nebula consideration.