Nebula Awards Showcase 2008

BOOK: Nebula Awards Showcase 2008
6.74Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Praise for
Nebula Awards Showcase 2007…
 

“Resnick has done a commendable job of choosing representative new work…. The vast majority of the stories included are simply wonderful and absolutely deserve recognition…. Bottom line: This year’s Nebula Showcase actually succeeds in showcasing a great variety of truly good work. Read it now.”

—InterGalactic Medicine Show

 

“The annual
Nebula Awards Showcase
anthologies always have something interesting to offer up…. There are plenty of solid, entertaining pieces in this anthology.”


Subterranean

 

“As always, a fine anthology.”

—Alternative Worlds

 
 

…and for the previous volumes

 

“Would serve well as a one-volume text for a course in contemporary science fiction.”


The New York Review of Science Fiction

 

“Reading all of
Nebula Awards Showcase 2002
is a way of reading a bunch of good stories. It is also a very good way to explore the writing of tomorrow.”

—John Clute, scifi.com

 

“Conveys a sense of the vitality and excitement that have characterized the field’s internal dialogues and debate over the last few years. One of the most entertaining Nebula volumes in years.”


Locus

 

“Stellar…. This is not only a must-read for anyone with an interest in the field, but a pleasure to read…. That’s more reassuring than surprising, of course, given that this collection has little if any agenda besides quality writing, but it is reassuring to see that so many fresh voices are so much fun…. Worth picking up.”

—SF Revu

 

“While the essays offer one answer to the question of where does SF go now, the stories show that science fiction writers continue to reexamine their vision of the future. It’s a continuing dialogue, and by including critical essays along with the stories, the
Nebula Awards Showcase 2002
does more to present the SF field as an ongoing conversation and discussion of ideas than any of the other best of the year anthologies. It’s a worthy contribution and a good volume to have on your shelf.”

—SF Site

 

“Every fan will have their favorites; there’s pretty much something for everyone…. Overall,
Nebula Awards Showcase 2006
gets it right. I judge it a keeper.”

—Scifi Dimensions

 

“[A] quality mix of literary SF and fantasy with critical essays.”


Publishers Weekly

 

“An essential index of one year in SF and fantasy.”


Booklist

 

“The variety of taste shown by the SFWA continues to be striking and heartening.”


Publishers Weekly

 

“Invaluable, not just for the splendid fiction and lively nonfiction, but as another annual snapshot, complete with grins and scowls.”


Kirkus Reviews

 
NEBULA AWARDS
©
SHOWCASE
2008
 

T
HE
Y
EAR’S
B
EST
SF
AND
F
ANTASY

 

Selected by the Science Fiction and
Fantasy Writers of America
©

 
EDITED BY Ben Bova
 

A ROC BOOK

 

ROC
Published by New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

 

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

Published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

Copyright © Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 2008
Additional copyright notices can be found
All rights reserved
ISBN: 1-4362-0179-9

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

PUBLISHER’S NOTE
In the works of fiction published in this volume, names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
     The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

 

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors’ rights is appreciated.

CONTENTS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NEBULA AWARDS
©
SHOWCASE
2008
 
INTRODUCTION
 
BEN BOVA
 

I’
ve had a love affair with science fiction since I first learned to read. In fact, one of my incentives for learning to read was
Action Comics
, featuring Superman.

I can still see that dazzling illustration showing a rocket ship fleeing from the exploding planet Krypton. Talk about “sense of wonder”! It knocked me on my five-year-old butt. And started a lifelong fascination with astronomy, rocketry, and (of course) science fiction.

That one image taught me an important lesson: The universe changes, sometimes abruptly, dramatically, catastrophically. And the literature of change is the aforementioned genre of science fiction.

It was a ghetto literature then. Respectable people disdained science fiction, branding it as trashy pulp fiction, not worthy of serious consideration.

But I loved it. From swashbuckling John Carter on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom to Isaac Asimov’s “The Ugly Little Boy,” I saw much more in science fiction than in most of the contemporary literature being published then. I devoured the pages of
Astounding Science Fiction
and, later,
Galaxy
and
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Yet even by the time I began working on the first American artificial satellite program, Vanguard, I found that even professional rocket engineers still hid their copies of
Astounding Science Fiction
magazine in the bottom drawer of their desks.

Then came SFWA. Originally called Science Fiction Writers of America, the organization broadened its scope eventually to become Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (although it officially retained the acronym SFWA), in recognition of the true breadth of the field.

SFWA began in the fertile mind of Damon Knight. He and his wife, Kate Wilhelm, hosted the annual Milford Science Fiction Writers Conference in their Pennsylvania home each summer. One year, Damon proposed that we create a professional organization, by, of, and for the writers in our field.

The rest, as they say, is history. It may be coincidence, but as SFWA began to establish the professional integrity of science fiction and fantasy, universities began taking the field seriously and teaching courses in it. And book publishers started to realize that science fiction and fantasy appeals to a very wide audience, thanks in no small measure to publishers and editors such as Ian Ballantine and Judy-Lynn del Rey.

It didn’t hurt, of course, that TV’s
Star Trek
and Hollywood blockbusters such as
2001: A Space Odyssey
and
Star Wars
opened the eyes of hundreds of millions of viewers to the same “sense of wonder” that smacked me when I first saw the planet Krypton explode.

Today science fiction and fantasy have infiltrated (
conquered
, I’m tempted to say) just about every facet of popular culture, from romance novels to Broadway musicals, from television series to university studies of “alternate futures.”

Science fiction and fantasy have matured. And so has SFWA. The organization is thriving, and has been a strong advocate for writers in their never-ending struggles with publishers and producers who would like to take the fruit of a writer’s genius and labor without paying fairly for it.

Since 1966 the members of SFWA have given Nebula Awards to the stories and screenplays they consider the best of the year. This is the most coveted award in the field, bestowed on writers by their fellow writers.

Each year the Nebula Award winners are showcased in an anthology. You hold in your hands the
Nebula Showcase 2008
, which features the award winners of 2006. Within the covers of this book you can see what SFWA’s members considered the best work of that year: the award winners in each category, the Grand Masters and Authors Emeriti, plus a trio of essays discussing the past, present, and future of the science fiction and fantasy field.

You will see the Rhysling Award–winning poems, essays on the Best Script Nebula and the André Norton Award for young adult fiction, as well as a broad variety of story types, themes, and treatments. Which is only natural, since the field of science fiction and fantasy encompasses all of time, all of space, all of the universe within the human soul—and then some.

Have an exciting journey!

 

Ben Bova
Naples, Florida
June 2007

Other books

The Dead Media Notebook by Bruce Sterling, Richard Kadrey, Tom Jennings, Tom Whitwell
Room for More by Beth Ehemann
Luminoso by Greg Egan
His Indecent Proposition by Aphrodite Hunt
Selby Spacedog by Duncan Ball
Stitch-Up by Sophie Hamilton
The Blob by David Bischoff
Sylvia Andrew by Francesca
Warrior's Song by Catherine Coulter