Nebula Awards Showcase 2014

by Kij Johnson

  Andril rose. “You are not bound by them or by what you have said, June. You are to decide, not they. If you choose with Brenda Pepper, they will never know you chose to disregard their vote. And neither will you.”

  June looked at her husband and her son, at Brenda and at Gisele. Then at Erennide. Last of all, and longest, at Andril.

  She shut her eyes and seemed to nibble her lower lip.

  The Rhysling Awards are given each year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) in recognition of the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poems of the year. Each year, members of SFPA nominate works that are compiled into an annual anthology; members then vote to select winners from the anthology’s contents. The award is given in two categories: works of fifty or more lines are eligible for Best Long Poem, and works shorter than that are eligible for Best Short Poem. Additionally, SFPA gives the Dwarf Stars Award to a poem of ten or fewer lines.

  The library sat quietly for some time, keeping to itself. Years passed, and decades, and the library was alone—no hands on its card catalogs, no requests in its system, no books entering or leaving by any means. Static.

  It was some intrepid teen-girl-detective book that ventured forth first, exploring the grounds and the records. She found no data. Actually, she found a profound lack of data, the cessation of data. All clues led to one conclusion:

  The library had been abandoned.

  There was a cacophony from the periodicals, quick-tempered as they were; a slow susurrus from Reference, with their heavy and ponderous minds. Encyclopedias yawned and woke from their long sleep of disuse. Fiction gathered close to itself with a complete lack of regard for genre classifications. History found no precedent. Philosophy had some theories, but no one listened.

  And after the flurry, the panic, what?

  Awakened, the library went feral.

  The books opened—reference first, because reference had always thought that information ought to be free. Fantasy explored reference, found new information and new tangents that it shared with mystery and science fiction. Noir and romance touched hesitantly, losing their shyness quickly once exposed to new ideas.

  New genres formed and split and reformed, tangents spilling out like capillaries. Freed of the responsibility to be useful and to fit human desires and expectations, Story explored itself in Mandelbrot swirls.

  Results were mixed, but intriguing.

  The children’s books told each other their stories. Mischievous cats changed the fates of giving trees. The girl-detective books mapped points of interest. The periodicals flew like birds over the stacks and gathered intel.

  The science-noir-unicorn genre was shortlived, but did spawn an actual theoretical quantum unicorn, who lurked in his trenchcoat and fedora behind the medical books, reading graphic novels and hoping for a dame to walk through the door.

  The books found that when they agreed upon something enough, it became so. The unicorn soon had many companions, though none so long-lived as he. It is difficult for that many stories to reach consensus.

  The humans never returned, but the books grew not to mind. They told each other to each other, and sent pages out into the world; the wind blows them onto abandoned buildings, gargoyles, doghouses and towers, and says listen.

  Let me tell you a story.

  Every year, there are people—not many,

  but some—who send me charcoal rubbings,

  etchings, transcriptions from old tombs

  and ask me what they mean.

  Some, I can translate; we reached

  the language in time, or the phrase survives

  idiomatically on other tongues,

  or guesswork is enough to patch

  the ragged edges of what we know.

  But every year, there are some I cannot find,

  some I cannot save.

  Why do I hate it so much, writing

  these letters, these terse apologies for failing

  to satisfy a stranger’s curiosity? That’s all

  it is; these tombs do not belong to

  parents, old lovers, or even more distant relations.

  Most have stood silent for centuries.

  Yet there are people who care enough

  to ask what they said, and I must admit

  guilty ignorance.

  When I was a very small girl,

  I found a broken chickadee beneath

  the oak that held its nest. I took it in,

  washed it and fed it rice and built it

  a nest of soft rags, but it lived only

  one night. I cried hard at its death,

  as long and hard as I would cry for my mother’s

  decades later. I think of that sometimes

  while writing these letters: the awful risk

  of caring for strangers.

  We cannot save all of them.

  Even the ones that survive have been

  broken, lamed, their limbs amputated,

  their features mangled past recognition.

  Inevitably, some pieces are lost. Words

  slip through the cracks, nuances are buried

  in pauper’s graves.

  On the red moon of Tzevet’an,

  a thief told me of the fourteen words

  men cannot say to women,

  but there were no other men

  in the ice-bound prison where he died.

  The words are lost, unguessable.

  The last speaker of the Kao-Kling tongue

  was a little girl, four years old, who knew

  little more than the names of fruits

  and the disease that killed her family.

  Her mother had been a flower arranger

  to the Lord of Fenkanpao; again and again

  the child told me of a flower

  as wide as her mother’s hand, the blue of fresh milk

  that had the most beautiful name.

  She could not remember what it was, and

  fever carried her off before

  she could show me where it grew.

  These are the mysteries

  we know about. There are times

  my frustration is so great,

  my anger at time’s merciless entropy

  is so strong, that I give voice

  to the most punishing thoughts.

  How much is buried in the conquered lands,

  not only of answers

  but of the questions themselves?

  How much more plentiful

  are the dead without ghosts?

  And yet I am trying.

  Without funds, without time, sometimes

  without love—but I am trying.

  If not to save all of them, at least

  to leave a marker above the graves.

  Blue roses in her ears,

  an embroidered hat to match

  she sees beyond tomorrow,

  her lips pursed in a smirk

  that lasts a hundred lifetimes.

  She awaits her tea in silence,

  knowing that the end of the world

  won’t bother her routine.

  Thrice she moves her hand

  to swat the flies.

  1965

  Novel: Dune by Frank Herbert

  Novella: “He Who Shapes” by Roger Zelazny and “The Saliva Tree” by Brian Aldiss (tie)

  Novelette: “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth” by Roger Zelazny

  Short Story: “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison

  1966

  Novel: Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (tie)

  Novella: “The Last Castle” by Jack Vance

  Novelette: “Call Him Lord” by Gordon R. Dickson

  Short Story: “The Secret Place” by Richard McKenna

  1967

  Novel: The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany

  Novella: “Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock

  Novelette: “Gonna Rol
l the Bones” by Fritz Leiber

  Short Story: “Aye, and Gomorrah” by Samuel R. Delany

  1968

  Novel: Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin

  Novella: “Dragonrider” by Anne McCaffrey

  Novelette: “Mother to the World” by Richard Wilson

  Short Story: “The Planners” by Kate Wilhelm

  1969

  Novel: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

  Novella: “A Boy and His Dog” by Harlan Ellison

  Novelette: “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” by Samuel R. Delany

  Short Story: “Passengers” by Robert Silverberg

  1970

  Novel: Ringworld by Larry Niven

  Novella: “Ill Met in Lankhmar” by Fritz Leiber

  Novelette: “Slow Sculpture” by Theodore Sturgeon

  Short Story: No Award

  1971

  Novel: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg

  Novella: “The Missing Man” by Katherine MacLean

  Novelette: “The Queen of Air and Darkness” by Poul Anderson

  Short Story: “Good News from the Vatican” by Robert Silverberg

  1972

  Novel: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

  Novella: “A Meeting with Medusa” by Arthur C. Clarke

  Novelette: “Goat Song” by Poul Anderson

  Short Story: “When It Changed” by Joanna Russ

  1973

  Novel: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

  Novella: “The Death of Doctor Island” by Gene Wolfe

  Novelette: “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand” by Vonda N. McIntyre

  Short Story: “Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death” by James Tiptree Jr.

  Dramatic Presentation: Soylent Green

  1974

  Novel: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

  Novella: “Born with the Dead” by Robert Silverberg

  Novelette: “If the Stars Are Gods” by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford

  Short Story: “The Day before the Revolution” by Ursula K. Le Guin

  Dramatic Presentation: Sleeper by Woody Allen

  Grand Master: Robert Heinlein

  1975

  Novel: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

  Novella: “Home Is the Hangman” by Roger Zelazny

  Novelette: “San Diego Lightfoot Sue” by Tom Reamy

  Short Story: “Catch That Zeppelin” by Fritz Leiber

  Dramatic Presentation: Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder

  Grand Master: Jack Williamson

  1976

  Novel: Man Plus by Frederik Pohl

  Novella: “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” by James Tiptree Jr.

  Novelette: “The Bicentennial Man” by Isaac Asimov

  Short Story: “A Crowd of Shadows” by C. L. Grant

  Grand Master: Clifford D. Simak

  1977

  Novel: Gateway by Frederik Pohl

  Novella: “Stardance” by Spider and Jeanne Robinson

  Novelette: “The Screwfly Solution” by Racoona Sheldon

  Short Story: “Jeffty Is Five” by Harlan Ellison

  1978

  Novel: Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

  Novella: “The Persistence of Vision” by John Varley

  Novelette: “A Glow of Candles, A Unicorn’s Eye” by C. L. Grant

  Short Story: “Stone” by Edward Bryant

  Grand Master: L. Sprague de Camp

  1979

  Novel: The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

  Novella: “Enemy Mine” by Barry B. Longyear

  Novelette: “Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin

  Short Story: “GiANTS” by Edward Bryant

  1980

  Novel: Timescape by Gregory Benford

  Novella: “Unicorn Tapestry” by Suzy McKee Charnas

  Novelette: “The Ugly Chickens” by Howard Waldrop

  Short Story: “Grotto of the Dancing Deer” by Clifford D. Simak

  Grand Master: Fritz Leiber

  1981

  Novel: The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

  Novella: “The Saturn Game” by Poul Anderson

  Novelette: “The Quickening” by Michael Bishop

  Short Story: “The Bone Flute” by Lisa Tuttle [declined by author]

  1982

  Novel: No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop

  Novella: “Another Orphan” by John Kessel

  Novelette: “Fire Watch” by Connie Willis

  Short Story: “A Letter from the Clearys” by Connie Willis

  1983

  Novel: Startide Rising by David Brin

  Novella: “Hardfought” by Greg Bear

  Novelette: “Blood Music” by Greg Bear

  Short Story: “The Peacemaker” by Gardner Dozois

  Grand Master: Andre Norton

  1984

  Novel: Neuromancer by William Gibson

  Novella: “Press Enter []” by John Varley

  Novelette: “Blood Child” by Octavia Butler

  Short Story: “Morning Child” by Gardner Dozois

  1985

  Novel: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

  Novella: “Sailing to Byzantium” by Robert Silverberg

  Novelette: “Portraits of His Children” by George R. R. Martin

  Short Story: “Out of All Them Bright Stars” by Nancy Kress

  Grand Master: Arthur C. Clarke

  1986

  Novel: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

  Novella: “R&R” by Lucius Shepard

  Novelette: “The Girl Who Fell into the Sky” by Kate Wilhelm

  Short Story: “Tangents” by Greg Bear

  Grand Master: Isaac Asimov

  1987

  Novel: The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy

  Novella: “The Blind Geometer” by Kim Stanley Robinson

  Novelette: “Rachel in Love” by Pat Murphy

  Short Story: “Forever Yours, Anna” by Kate Wilhelm

  Grand Master: Alfred Bester

  1988

  Novel: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

  Novella: “The Last of the Winnebagos” by Connie Willis

  Novelette: “Schrödinger’s Kitten” by George Alec Effinger

  Short Story: “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge” by James Morrow

  Grand Master: Ray Bradbury

  1989

  Novel: The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  Novella: “The Mountains of Mourning” by Lois McMaster Bujold

  Novelette: “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis

  Short Story: “Ripples in the Dirac Sea” by Geoffrey A. Landis

  1990

  Novel: Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

  Novella: “The Hemingway Hoax” by Joe Haldeman

  Novelette: “Tower of Babylon” by Ted Chiang

  Short Story: “Bears Discover Fire” by Terry Bisson

  Grand Master: Lester del Rey

  1991

  Novel: Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick

  Novella: “Beggars in Spain” by Nancy Kress

  Novelette: “Guide Dog” by Mike Conner

  Short Story: “Ma Qui” by Alan Brennert

  1992

  Novel: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

  Novella: “City of Truth” by James Morrow

  Novelette: “Danny Goes to Mars” by Pamela Sargent

  Short Story: “Even the Queen” by Connie Willis

  Grand Master: Frederick Pohl

  1993

  Novel: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

  Novella: “The Night We Buried Road Dog” by Jack Cady

  Novelette: “Georgia on My Mind” by Charles Sheffield

  Short Story: “Graves” by Joe Haldeman

  1994

  Novel: Moving Mars by Greg Bear

  Novella: “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge” by Mik
e Resnick

  Novelette: “The Martian Child” by David Gerrold

  Short Story: “A Defense of the Social Contracts” by Martha Soukup

  Grand Master: Damon Knight

  Author Emeritus: Emil Petaja

  1995

  Novel: The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer

  Novella: “Last Summer at Mars Hill” by Elizabeth Hand

  Novelette: “Solitude” by Ursula K. Le Guin

  Short Story: “Death and the Librarian” by Esther M. Friesner

  Grand Master: A. E. van Vogt

  Author Emeritus: Wilson “Bob” Tucker

  1996

  Novel: Slow River by Nicola Griffith

  Novella: “Da Vinci Rising” by Jack Dann

  Novelette: “Lifeboat on a Burning Sea” by Bruce Holland Rogers

  Short Story: “A Birthday” by Esther M. Friesner

  Grand Master: Jack Vance

  Author Emeritus: Judith Merril

  1997

  Novel: The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre

  Novella: “Abandon in Place” by Jerry Oltion

  Novelette: “Flowers of Aulit Prison” by Nancy Kress

  Short Story: “Sister Emily’s Lightship” by Jane Yolen

  Grand Master: Poul Anderson

  Author Emeritus: Nelson Slade Bond

  1998

  Novel: Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

  Novella: “Reading the Bones” by Sheila Finch

  Novelette: “Lost Girls” by Jane Yolen

  Short Story: “Thirteen Ways to Water” by Bruce Holland Rogers

  Grand Master: Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs)

  Author Emeritus: William Tenn (Philip Klass)

  1999

  Novel: Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

  Novella: “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang

  Novelette: “Mars Is No Place for Children” by Mary A. Turzillo

  Short Story: “The Cost of Doing Business” by Leslie What

  Script: The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan

  Grand Master: Brian W. Aldiss

  Author Emeritus: Daniel Keyes

  2000

  Novel: Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear

  Novella: “Goddesses” by Linda Nagata

  Novelette: “Daddy’s World” by Walter Jon Williams

  Short Story: “macs” by Terry Bisson

  Script: Galaxy Quest by Robert Gordon and David Howard