The Year’s Best Science Fiction

by Gardner Dozois

  “No, we don’t,” Rasali said. “Maybe Atyar does, but we know better here. Do you need to tell a Ferry that nothing will last? These stones will fall eventually, these cables—but the dream of crossing the mist, the dream of connection. Now that we know it can happen, it will always be here. My mother died, my grandfather. Valo.” She stopped, swallowed. “Ferrys die, but there is always a Ferry to cross the mist. Bridges and ferry folk, they are not so different, Kit.” She leaned forward, across the space between them, and they kissed.

  * * *

  “Are you off soon?”

  Rasali and Kit had made love on the levee against the cold grass. They had crossed the bridge together under the sinking moons, walked back to The Deer’s Heart and bought more beer, the crowds thinner now, people gone home with their families or friends or lovers: the strangers from out of town bedding down in spare rooms, tents, anywhere they could. But Kit was too restless to sleep, and he and Rasali ended up back by the mist, down on the dock. Morning was only a few hours away, and the smaller moon had set. It was darker now and the mist had dimmed.

  “In a few days,” Kit said, thinking of the trunks and bags packed tight and gathered in his room at The Fish: the portfolio, fatter now, and stained with water, mist, dirt, and sweat. Maybe it was time for a new one. “Back to the capital.”

  There were lights on the opposite bank, fisherfolk preparing for the night’s work despite the fair, the bridge. Some things don’t change.

  “Ah,” she said. They both had known this; it was no surprise. “What will you do there?”

  Kit rubbed his face, feeling stubble under his fingers, happy to skip that small ritual for a few days. “Sleep for a hundred years. Then there’s another bridge they want, down at the mouth of the river, a place called Ulei. The mist’s nearly a mile wide there. I’ll start midwinter maybe.”

  “A mile,” Rasali said. “Can you do it?”

  “I think so. I bridged this, didn’t I?” His gesture took in the berms, the slim stone tower overhead, the woman beside him. She smelled sweet and salty. “There are islands by Ulei, I’m told. Low ones. That’s the only reason it would be possible. So maybe a series of flat stone arches, one to the next. You? You’ll keep building boats?”

  “No.” She leaned her head back and he felt her face against his ear. “I don’t need to. I have a lot of money. The rest of the family can build boats, but for me that was just what I did while I waited to cross the mist again.”

  “You’ll miss it,” Kit said. It was not a question.

  Her strong hand laid over his. “Mmm,” she said, a sound without implication.

  “But it was the crossing that mattered to you, wasn’t it?” Kit said, realizing it. “Just as with me, but in a different way.”

  “Yes,” she said, and after a pause: “So now I’m wondering: how big do the Big Ones get in the mist ocean? And lives there?”

  “Nothing’s on the other side,” Kit said. “There’s no crossing something without an end.”

  “Everything can be crossed. Me, I think there is an end. There’s a river of water deep under the mist river, yes? And that water runs somewhere. And all the other rivers, all the lakes—they all drain somewhere. There’s a water ocean under the mist ocean, and I wonder whether the mist ends somewhere out there, if it spreads out and vanishes and you find you are floating on water.”

  “It’s a different element,” Kit said, turning the problem over. “So you would need a boat that works through mist, light enough with that broad belly and fish-skin sheathing; but it would have to be deep-keeled enough for water.”

  She nodded. “I want to take a coast-skimmer and refit it, find out what’s out there. Islands, Kit. Big Ones. Huge Ones. Another whole world maybe. I think I would like to be Rasali Ocean.”

  “You will come to Ulei with me?” he said, but he knew already. She would come, for a month or a season or a year. They would sleep tumbled together in an inn very like The Fish or The Bitch, and when her boat was finished, she would sail across Ocean, and he would move on to the next bridge or road, or he might return to the capital and a position at University. Or he might rest at last.

  “I will come,” she said. “For a bit.”

  Suddenly he felt a deep and powerful emotion in his chest: overwhelmed by everything that had happened or would happen in their lives: the changes to Nearside and Farside, the ferry’s ending, Valo’s death, the fact that she would leave him eventually, or that he would leave her. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “I’m not,” she said, and leaned across to kiss him, her mouth warm with sunlight and life. “It is worth it, all of it.”

  All those losses, but this one at least he could prevent.

  “When the time comes,” he said: “When you sail. I will come with you,”

  A fo ben, bid bont. To be a leader, be a bridge.

  —Welsh proverb

  Honorable Mentions: 2011

  Daniel Abraham, “Balfour and Meriwether in The Vampire of Kabul,” Subterranean, Fall.

  Brian W. Aldiss, “Benkoelen,” Welcome to the Greenhouse.

  Michael Alexander, “Someone Like You,” F&SF, July/August.

  Nina Allan, “The Silver Wind,” Interzone 233.

  Charlie Jane Anders, “Six Months, Three Days,” Tor.com.

  _____, “Source Decay,” Strange Horizons, 1/3.

  Eleanor Arnason, “My Husband Steinn,” Asimov’s, October/November.

  Kage Baker, “Attlee and the Long Walk,” Life on Mars.

  Peter M. Ball, “Memories of Chalice,” Electric Velocipede 21/22.

  John Barnes, “The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees,” Engineering Infinity.

  Neal Barrett, Jr., “D.O.C.S.” Asimov’s, September.

  _____, “Where,” Asimov’s, March.

  Christopher Barzak, “Smoke City,” Asimov’s, April/May

  Stephen Baxter, “Gravity Dreams,” PS Publishing.

  _____, “On Chryse Plain,” Life on Mars.

  _____, “Rock Day,” Solaris Rising.

  _____, “Transients,” Fables from the Fountain.

  Peter S. Beagle, “Music, When Soft Voices Die,” Ghosts by Gaslight.

  _____, “Underbridge,” Naked City.

  Elizabeth Bear, “Gods of the Forge,” TRSF.

  _____, “King Pole, Gallows Pole, Bottle Tree,” Naked City.

  _____, “The Leavings of the Wolf,” Apex Magazine, November.

  _____, “Needle,” Blood and Other Cravings.

  Chris Beckett, “Day 29,” Asimov’s, July.

  _____, “Two Thieves,” Asimov’s, January.

  Steve Bein, “The Most Important Thing in the World,” Asimov’s, March.

  Gregory Benford, “Eagle,” Welcome to the Greenhouse.

  _____, “Mercies,” Engineering Infinity.

  Holly Black, “Noble Rot,” Naked City.

  Richard Bowes, “Sir Morgravain Speaks of Night Dragons and Other Things,” F&SF, July/August.

  Marie Brennan, “Dancing the Warrior,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 4/7, 4/21.

  _____, “Love, Cayce,” OSCIMS, 4/11.

  Philip Brewer, “Watch Bees,” Asimov’s, August.

  Patricia Briggs, “In Red, with Pearls,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Damien Broderick, “Time Considered as a Series of Thermite Burns in No Particular Order,” Tor.com.

  _____& Barbara Lamarr, “Walls of Flesh, Bars of Bone,” Engineering Infinity.

  Keith Brooke, “Imago,” Postscripts 24/25.

  _____& Eric Brown, “Eternity’s Children,” Solaris Rising.

  Eric Brown, “Starship Winter,” PS Publishing.

  Tobias S. Buckell, “The Fall of Alacan,” Subterranean, Spring.

  _____, “Mirror, Mirror,” Subterranean, Summer.

  Emma Bull, “Nine Muses,” Eclipse Four.

  Karl Bunker, “Bodyguard,” F&SF, March/April.

  _____, “Overtaken,” F&SF, September/October.

  _____
, “Worm Days,” Electric Velocipede 21/22.

  Sue Burke, “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise,” Interzone 232.

  Jim Butcher, “Curses,” Naked City.

  Pat Cadigan, “Picking Up the Pieces,” Naked City.

  Richard Calder, “Whisper,” Postscripts 24/25.

  James L. Cambias, “Object Three,” F&SF, November/December.

  Tracy Canfield, “One-Eyed Jacks,” Strange Horizons, July.

  Jeff Carlson, “Planet of the Sealies,” Asimov’s, February.

  Siobhan Carroll, “In the Gardens of the Night,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies, July.

  Adam-Troy Castro, “Hiding Place,” Analog, April.

  Jason Chapman, “The Architect of Heaven,” Clarkesworld, May.

  _____, “This Petty Pace,” Asimov’s, October/November.

  Rob Chilson, “Less Stately Mansions,” F&SF, July/August.

  Gwendolyn Clare, “Ashes on the Water,” Asimov’s, January.

  Glen Cook, “Shadow Thieves,” Down These Strange Streets.

  _____, “Smelling Danger: A Black Company Story,” Subterreanean Dark Fantasy 2.

  Matthew Cook, “Insha’allah,” Interzone 235.

  S. C. E. Cooney, “The Last Sophia,” Strange Horizons, 3/11.

  Albert E. Cowdrey, “The Black Mountain,” F&SF, May/June.

  _____, “The Bogle,” F&SF, January/February.

  _____, “How Peter Met Pan,” F&SF, November/December.

  _____, “Scatter My Ashes,” F&SF, March/April.

  _____, “Where Have All the Young Men Gone?” F&SF, September/October.

  Ian Creasey, “I Was Nearly Your Mother,” Asimov’s, March.

  _____, “The Odor of Sanctity,” Asimov’s, September.

  John Crowley, “And Go Like This,” Naked City.

  Leah Cypess, “Twelvers,” Asimov’s, July.

  Don D’Ammassa, “The Buddy System,” Analog, November.

  _____, “Martyrs,” Panverse Three.

  Colin P. Davies, “Fighter,” Asimov’s, June.

  Aliette de Bodard, “Exodus Tides,” OSCIMS, April.

  _____, “Shipbirth,” Asimov’s, February.

  Michael J. De Luca, “The Nine-Tailed Cat,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies, June.

  Bradley Denton, “The Adakian Eagle,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Paul Di Filippo, “Farmearth,” Welcome to the Greenhouse.

  _____, “A Pocketful of Faces,” F&SF, March/April.

  _____, “Specter-Bombing the Beer Goggles,” TRSF.

  _____, “Sweet Spots,” Solaris Rising.

  Cory Doctorow, “The Brave Little Toaster,” TRSF.

  _____, “Martian Chronicles,” Life on Mars.

  Alexandra Duncan, “Rampion,” F&SF, May/June.

  Andy Duncan, “Slow as a Bullet,” Eclipse Four.

  Thoraiya Dyer, “Breaking the Ice,” Cosmos, March.

  Carol Emshwiller, “The New and Perfect Man,” Postscripts 24/25.

  David Farland, “Against Eternity,” Lightspeed, October.

  K. M. Ferebee, “Seven Spells to Sever the Heart,” Fantasy, November.

  Sheila Finch, “The Evening and the Morning,” F&SF, March/April.

  Michael F. Flynn, “The Frog Prince,” Analog, January/February.

  Jeffrey Ford, “The Double of My Double Is Not My Double,” Eclipse Four.

  Eugie Foster, “Black Swan, White Swan,” End of an Aeon.

  Karen Joy Fowler, “Younger Women,” Subterranean, Summer.

  Esther M. Friesner, “The One That Got Away,” Asimov’s, April/May.

  Gregory Frost, “The Dingus,” Supernatural Noir.

  Nancy Fulda, “Movement,” Asimov’s, March.

  Diana Gabaldon, “Lord John and the Plague of Zombies,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Neil Gaiman, “And Weep Like Alexander,” Fables from the Fountain.

  James Alan Gardner, “Three Damnations: A Fugue,” Fantasy, September.

  Laura Anne Gilman, “Crossroads,” Fantasy, August.

  Lisa Goldstein, “Little Vampires,” Realms of Fantasy, April.

  _____, “Paradise Is a Walled Garden,” Asimov’s, August.

  Kathleen Ann Goonan, “Angel and You Dogs,” PS Publishing.

  _____, “Creatures with Wings,” Engineering Infinity.

  Theodora Goss, “Pug,” Asimov’s, July.

  Gavin J. Grant, “Windows in the World,” Strange Horizons, February.

  Joseph Green, “Turtle Love,” Welcome to the Greenhouse.

  Simon R. Green, “Hungry Heart,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Daryl Gregory, “Persistence,” Unpossible.

  John Gribben, “The Alice Encounter,” PS Publishing.

  Eileen Gunn, “Thought Experiment,” Eclipse Four.

  Joe Haldeman, “Complete Sentence,” TRSF.

  Peter F. Hamilton, “Return of the Mutant Worms,” Solaris Rising.

  M. L. N. Hanover, “The Difference Between a Puzzle and a Mystery,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Charlaine Harris, “Death by Dahlia,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Howard V. Hendrix, “A New Bridge Across the Lethe,” Abyss & Apex, 1st Quarter.

  Rosamund Hodge, “Apotheosis,” Black Gate, Spring.

  Nalo Hopkinson, “Old Habits,” Eclipse Four.

  Kat Howard, “Choose Your Own Adventure,” Fantasy, 4/11.

  _____, “The Speaking Bone,” Apex Magazine.

  Matthew Hughes, “So Loved,” Postscripts 24/25.

  _____, “Yellow Cabochen,” PS Publishing.

  Thea Hutcheson, “The Good Husband,” Realms of Fantasy, June.

  Conn Iggulden, “The Lady Is a Screamer,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Jon Ingold, “Sleepers,” Interzone 234.

  Alexander Jablokov, “The Day the Wires Came Down,” Asimov’s, April/May.

  C. W. Johnson, “Fermi’s Plague,” Abyss & Apex, 2nd Quarter.

  Kij Johnson, “Story Kit,” Eclipse Four.

  Gwyneth Jones, “The Flame Is Roses, the Smoke Is Briars,” TRSF.

  _____, “The Ki-anna,” Engineering Infinity.

  Vylar Kaftan, “The Sighted Watchmaker,” Lightspeed, December.

  James Patrick Kelly, “Crazy Me,” Tor.com.

  _____, “Happy Ending,” F&SF, March/April.

  _____, “Tourists,” Eclipse Four.

  John Kessel, “Clean,” Asimov’s, March.

  Caitlin R. Kiernan, “Hydraguros,” Subterranean Dark Fantasy 2.

  _____, “The Maltese Unicorn,” Supernatural Noir.

  _____, “Tidal Forces,” Eclipse Four.

  Laurie R. King, “Hellbender,” Down These Strange Streets.

  Ellen Klages, “Goodnight Moons,” Life on Mars.

  Stephen Kotowych, “Under the Shield,” OSCIMS, August.

  Mary Robinette Kowal, “Kiss Me Twice,” Asimov’s, June.

  _____, “Water to Wine,” Subterranean, Spring.

  Nancy Kress, “A Hundred Hundred Daisies,” Asimov’s, October/November.

  _____, “Eliot Wrote,” Lightspeed, May.

  _____, “First Principle,” Life on Mars.

  Naomi Kritzer, “What Happened at Blessing Creek,” OSCIMS, August.

  Ellen Kushner, “The Duke of Riverside,” Naked City.

  Marc Laidlaw, “The Boy Who Followed Lovecraft,” Subterranean, Winter.

  Jay Lake, “‘Hello,’ Said the Gun,” Daily SF, February 22.

  _____, “Her Fingers Like Whips, Her Eyes Like Razors,” Postscripts 24/25.

  _____& Shannon Page, “The Passion of Mother Vajpai,” Subterranean Dark Fantasy 2.

  Margo Lanagan, “Mulberry Boys,” Blood and Other Cravings.

  Geoffrey A. Landis, “Private Space,” TRSF.

  Joel Lane & Mat Joiner, “Ashes in the Water,” Postscripts 24/25.

  Sarah Langan, “The Man Inside Black Betty,” F&SF, September/October.

  David Langford, “The Pocklington Poltergeist,” Fables from the Founta
in.

  Joe R. Lansdale, “The Bleeding Shadow,” Down These Strange Streets.

  _____, “The Crawling Sky,” Subterranean, Spring.

  Chris Lawson, “Sundown,” Welcome to the Greenhouse.

  Tanith Lee, “Black Fire,” Lightspeed, January.

  Tim Lees, “Crosstown Traffic,” Interzone 233.

  David D. Levine, “Citizen-Astronaut,” Analog, June.

  _____, “The Tides of the Heart,” Realms of Fantasy, June.

  Marissa Lingen, “Some of Them Closer,” Analog, January/February.

  Kelly Link, “Valley of the Girls,” Subterranean, Summer.

  Ken Liu, “Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer,” F&SF, May/June.

  _____, “The Countable,” Asimov’s, December.

  _____, “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary,” Panverse Three.

  _____, “The Paper Menagerie,” F&SF, March/April.

  _____, “Real Artists,” TRSF.

  _____, “Simulacrum,” Lightspeed, February.

  _____, “Staying Behind,” Clarkesworld, October.

  _____, “Tying Knots,” Clarkesworld, January.

  Richard A. Lovett, “Jak and the Beanstalk,” Analog, July/August.

  Will Ludwigsen, “We Were Wonder Scouts,” Asimov’s, August.

  Richard Lupoff, “12:02 P.M.,” F&SF, January/February.

  Jeffrey Lyman, “The Hanged Poet,” OSCIMS, June.

  Pat MacEwan, “Home Sweet Bi’ome,” F&SF, January/February.

  Ken MacLeod, “The Best Science Fiction of the Year Three,” Solaris Rising.

  _____, “The Surface of Last Scattering,” TRSF.

  Ian R. MacLeod, “The Crane Method,” Subterranean, Spring.

  Emily Mah, “The River People,” Black Gate, Spring.

  Geoffrey Maloney, “Mr. Morrow Becomes Acquainted with the Delicate Art of Squid Keeping,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March.

  Daniel Marcus, “Bright Moment,” F&SF, September/October.

  Bruce McAllister, “The Messenger,” Asimov’s, July.

  Tim McDaniel, “Brother Sleep,” Asimov’s, February.

  Ian McDonald, “A Smart Well-Mannered Uprising of the Dead,” Solaris Rising.

  Ian McHugh, “Boumee and the Apes,” Analog, May.

  _____, “The Godbreaker of Seggau-Li,” Andromeda Spaceways 50.

  _____, “Interloper,” Asimov’s, January.