by Mike Resnick
Golden Pagoda Award Winner
Science Fiction Chronicle Poll Winner
HOMer Award Nominee
HOMer Award Winner
Years Best SF—8th Annual Collection, Honorable Mention
The sixth story/chapter was “Song of a Dry River.” It was not nominated for a Hugo, but I think the reason was technical rather than because of a lack of quality. When I was the Guest of Honor at a science-fiction convention called Boskone, the convention published a hardcover collection of my African stories and articles, and asked if I would contribute a brand-new Kirinyaga story to it. I wrote “Song of a Dry River” and it appeared in the book. I then sold it to Asimovs, but due to scheduling problems it did not appear in Asimovs during the same calendar year, so that by the time most readers encountered it, it had already used up its eligibility for most of the major awards. Its various nominations and awards were:
HOMer Award Winner
HOMer Award Nominee
Hayakawa SF Award Finalist
Years Best SF—10th Annual Collection, Honorable Mention
The seventh story/chapter was “The Lotus and the Spear,” and by now Koriba's solutions were less elegant and his long-term prospects less reassuring. Its various nominations and awards were:
Hugo Award Nominee
Nebula Preliminary Ballot
HOMer Award Nominee
Year's Best SF—10th Annual Collection, Honorable Mention
The eighth story/chapter was “A Little Knowledge.” It dealt with one of my favorite subjects—the difference an artist finds between facts and truth—and I really thought it had a shot at a Hugo. But that was the year I wrote “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge,” which ran off with the Hugo and the Nebula and just about every other award in the field, and the voters evidently thought that was honor enough for one year. “A Little Knowledge's” various nominations and awards were:
Hugo Award Nominee
Nebula Preliminary Ballot
HOMer Award Nominee
Years Best SF—12th Annual Collection, Honorable Mention
In the ninth story/chapter, “When the Old Gods Die,” the inevitable comes to pass, and Koriba and his Utopia reject each other. I was afraid the readers might be getting tired of Kirinyaga, but “When the Old Gods Die” obviously hit a responsive chord. Its various nominations and awards were:
Hugo Nominee
Nebula Nominee
Nebula Preliminary Ballot
Locus Award Winner HOMer Award Winner
HOMer Award Nominee
Science Fiction Weekly Poll Winner
Years Best SF—13th Annual Collection, Honorable Mention
I had been waiting for nine years to write the “The Land of Nod,” which had been plotted out back in 1987.1 took a much longer time with it than usual, because the ongoing Kirinyaga fable had already won more honors than any other science fiction in history and I knew that the final story—which became an epilogue for the same reason “One Perfect Morning, With Jackals” was a prologue: they are each set in Kenya, and form literary bookends around the eight episodes that take place on Kirinyaga—would be subject to considerable scrutiny My wife, Carol, who has been my uncredited collaborator for close to a third of a century, thinks it is the best Kirinyaga tale of them all. I still prefer “For I Have Touched the Sky,” but Ko-riba's final story did exactly what I wanted it to do, and I am well pleased with it. I am writing this in early June of 1997, and many of the awards haven't been determined yet. Thus far, its various nominations and awards are:
Hugo Nominee
Nebula Preliminary Ballot
HOMer Award Nominee
Year s Best SF—14th Annual Collection selection
And what, I hear you ask, ever became of Eutopia? Well, the fact of the matter is that, for various reasons, it is still awaiting publication a full decade after it was contracted—but I'll be forever grateful to it, and to Orson Scott Card, for without Eutopia there would be no Kirinyaga.
—Mike Resnick
About the Author
MIKE RESNICK'S outstanding work has won numerous awards—including three Hugos and one Nebula—and has been nominated for dozens more.
Resnick has traveled extensively in Africa, the setting for Kirinyaga. He divides his time between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Orlando, Florida.
A Del Rey® Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 1998 by Mike Resnick
The stories in this work were originally published in somewhat different form in
Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,
and Stalking the Wild Resnick.
Del Rey is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of
Random House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 99-90319
eISBN: 978-0-307-55725-4
v3.0
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE: ONE PERFECT MORNING, WITH JACKALS
KIRINYAGA
FOR I HAVE TOUCHED THE SKY
BWANA
THE MANAMOUKI
SONG OF A DRY RIVER
THE LOTUS AND THE SPEAR
A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE
WHEN THE OLD GODS DIE
EPILOGUE: THE LAND OF NOD
AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD