Nebula Awards Showcase 2001: The Year's Best SF and Fantasy Chosen by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

271 Pages·2001·11.8 MB·English

by  Robert Silverberg

N
EBULA
/A
WARDS
/_|r\
sHo wcAsE2 001
TheY ear'sB esSt F andF antasy
Chosenb y theS ciencFe iction
and FantasyW riterso f America
EDITEDB Y
RobertS itverberg
A HARVESOTR IGINAL
HARCOURITN,C .
SanDiego NewYorkL ondon
Compilation copyright @ zoor by Science Fiction and FantasyW riters ofAmerica
Inhoduction and headnotcs copyright @ zoor by Agberg, Ltd.
Gary K. Wolfe essayc opyright @ zoor by Gary K. Wolfe
Harry Harrison cssayc opvright @ zmr bv Harry Harrison
Barry N. Malzberg essayc opyright @ zoor by Barry N. Malzberg
AII rights reserved.N o part ofthis publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, elechonic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storagea nd retrieval system,w ithor,rt permission in writing from
the publisher.
Rcqucsts for permission to make copics ofany part ofthe work should be mailed to
the following address:P ennissionsD epartment, Harcourt, Inc., 6277 Sea Harbor Drive,
Orlando, Florida 328874777.
www.harcourt.com
The SFWA Nebula Awards is a trademark of the Science Fiction and Fantasyw riters of
America, Inc.
Thc Library ofCongress has cataloged this serial as follows:
The Nebula awards.-No. r9-NewYork [N.y]:Arbor House,c r9g3_v.;z zcm.
Annual.
Published:S an Dicgo, Cali[: Harcourt, Inc., 1984-
Published for: Science Fiction and Flntasy Writers ofAmerica, r9g3-
Continues: Nebula award stories (New York, N.y: r98z)
ISSN o74r-5567= The Nebula awards
r. Scienccf ic tion. American- Periodicals.
r. Science! -iction and FantasyW ritcrs of America.
PS648.S3N83z8- 6+nss
8r3'.o876'o8-dcr9
MCRz MARC.S
Library of Congrcs [87o9r84]rev
ISBN o-r5-rm58i-8
ISBN or5-6o1335-5( pbk)
Text set in Electra
Designed by Kaelin Chappell
Printcd in thc United Stateso f America
I(JTHGFEDCBA
First cdition
Permissionsa cknowledgments appear on page 253,w hich constihrtes a contimration of
the copyright page.
IN MEMORIAM
A. E. van Vogt
Oliver E. Saari
A,rt Saha
Marion Zimmer Bradley
CharlesD . Hornig
Eddie| ones
FrankB ryning
Howard Browne
WaltWillis
famesW hite
George" Lan" Laskowski
Marjii Ellers
Charles" Chuch" Harris
Chris Boyce
fim Tirrner
TerryH odel
RayR ussell
StanleyK ubrick
Robert" Buck" Coulson
FrankM cConnell
)ohn W. Pritchard( "Ian Wallace")

CON TEN TS
Introduction:
Nebulasa t Centu4y'Es nd ix
RobertS ilverberg
Storyo f YourL ife (bestn ovelta) 7
Ted Chiang
Mars Is No Placef or Children (bestn ovetette) 49
MaryA. Turzillo
TheC osto f DoingB usiness(b ests horts tory) 85
LeslieW hat
EpiloguefromP arableo ftlre Talents (bestn ovel) 96
OctaviaE . Butler
Unhidden Agendas,U nfinished ltialogues:
1999 in ScienceF iction 1.07
GaryK .W olfe
The Wedding Atbum 1,?3
David Marusek
Radiant Doors 177
Michael Swanwick
TheG randM asterA ward:B rian W.A tdiss 794
Harry Harrison
JudasD anced 196
BrianW .A ldiss
Author Emeritus 2000: Daniel Keyes 21'0
BarryN . Malzberg
Algernon,C harlig and I: A Write/s Journey ?13
Daniel Keyes
RhystingA wardW inners 236
BruceB oston
Laurel Winter
Appendixes ?43
About the Nebula Awards
PastN ebulaA wa rd Wi nners
AbouttheS cienceF iction andFantasyWriterso f America
Introduction
NEBULAAST CENTURYE'SN D
ROBERTS ILVERBERG
So here we all are in the twenty-first century, we raggle-taggle
band of survivingt wentieth-centurys ciencef ictionists,s taringf uthur C.
Clarke'so wn yearo f 2001 in the eyea nd looking back in this volume at
the NebulaA wardse vento f May 2000,w heret he ScienceF iction and
FantasyW riters of America, hereafterk nown in thesep agesa s SFWA,
honoredt he bests ciencefi ctiona ndf antasys torieso f 1998a nd 1999t:h e
stateo f the art in our field ast he old centuryc amet o its end.
(Why the bests torieso f 1998a nd ry99,y ou may ask?I s the Neb-
ula Awardn ot given annually?Y es,i t is. Why, then, weres omeo f the
nominateds toriesfi rstp ublishedt wo yearsb eforet he banqueta t which
theyw ereh onored?B ecauseth e Nebulae ligibilityr ulesa rev erys trange,
kiddo.N ow go awaya nd studyy our non-Aristotelianlo gic lessonsw, ill
you?)
The organizationth at givest hesea wardsw asf oundedi n 1965b y
the writer,c ritic, and editorD amon Knight.I ts purposea, ss etf orth in
the original seto f bylaws,w as" to inform sciencef iction writerso n mat-
terso f professionailn terest,t o promotet heir professionawl elfare,a nd to
help them deal effectivelyw ith publishers,a gents,e ditors,a nd antholo-
gists."N ote that nothing is explicitly mentioned about awardsi n that
statement.
Seventy-twow ritersr espondedto Knight'si nitial invitation and be-
came charter memberso f SFWA. At least thirty-one of them are still
Introduction
alive,t hreea nda half decadelsa ter:n ot a bada ctuariadl isplayT. he very
first name on the list of charterm embersi s that of Brian W. Aldiss,w ho
wasn amed to the rostero f SFWA'sG rand Mastersa t the z,oooN ebula
ceremony. The name of Daniel Keyes,t he zooo Author Emerifus,
shouldh aveb eeno n that list too-certainly he waso n the scenea t the
iime-but evidentlyh e didn't bothers igningu p.
The list of original membersi s bespeckledw ith the nameso f a
number of other writersw ho eventuallyr eceivedt he Grand Master
award-Poul AndersonI,s aacA simov,A ]fredB esterf,u thur C. Clarke,
Robert A. Heinlein, Damon Knight, Fritz Leiber, Frederik Pohl, fack
Vance,A . E. vanV ogt,a nd fack Williamson.T hat'st welveG rand Mas-
terso ut of the firsts eventy-twmo embersi,n cluding,b y a curiousc oinci-
dence,t he first four nameso n the alphabeticarlo sterA. nderson,P ohl,
and Williamson alsow ent on to becomep residentso f SFWA, as did
sucho therc harterm embersa sB en Bova,G ordonR . Dickson,| amesE .
Gunn, AIan E. Nourse,a nd Norman Spinrad.( l wasa charterm ember
too, and in an unguardedm omentI allowedm yselft o becomet he sec-
ond presidenot f SFWA,s ucceedingD amon Knight in fuly 1967.)
As those statisticss how, we were a tight-knit little bunch then.
Everybodyk newp racticallye verybodey lse,a nd mosto f usw eref amiliar
with nearly everythingt hat everybodye lse had writien. In that far-off
yearo f 1965s, ciencef iction wasa quaintl ittle cornero f the publishing
world, cherishedo nly by thosef ew who cherishedi t and generallyi g-
noredo r mockedb y everybodye lse.T wo or threeh ardcovepr ublishers,
a handfulo fpaperbackh ousesa, nd sixo r sevenm agazinepsr ovidedt he
English-speakinwgo rldw ith suchS F asw asa vailableL. esst han a dozen
of the original seventy-twoS FWA memberse arneda full-time living
ftom sciencef iction. Nobody made the New YorkT imesb est-sellelri st.
Nobody even made the Locus best-sellelri st, becauseL ocus hadn't
begun publication. Star Trek hadn't happenedy et, either. Stanley
Kubrick hadn't even startedt alking to futhur Clarke, probably,a bout
the movie that would be calledz oor. Nor had all the resto f the stuffthat
makesS F such big businessto day-the computerg amest,h e fantasy
playingc ards,t he jilliondollar spacea dventurem oviess tarringB ruce
Willis or SeanC onnery or Keanu Reeveso r SigourneyW eaver-come
into view We wrote our little storiesa nd our little novels,a nd we were
paid a little bit of money,a nd we had a little gagg;leo f faithful readers,
and that wast hat.
Introduction
Damon Knight dreamedu p the Nebula Awardsm idway through
the organization'fsi rst year,n ot som uch asa promotionald evice( ast hey
haves incei nevitablyb ecome)b ut asa wayf or professionawlr iterst o rec-
ognizeh igh literarya ccomplishmenint the worko f theirp eersH. is plan
wast o hold a formal banquet each year in New York, then as now the
publishingc entero f the counhy, at which hophieso f somea ppropri-
ately dignified sort would be given out to the writers of the best novel,
novella,n ovelette,a nd short story of the previousy ear,n ominations
beingo pen to the entirem embershipa nd winnersc hosenb y member
vote.S incet ranscontinentatrl avelw asn ot then ase asya si t would later
becomeW, estC oastm embersw ereg ivent he optiono f holdinga simul-
taneousb anqueto f their own.
The firstN ebulab anquetsw ereh eld on March rr, 1966-the New
York one at the OverseasP ressC lub in midtown Manhattan, the West
Coasto ne at McHenry'sT hil o'the Cock Restauranitn BeverlyH ills. I
wasp resenat t the New Yorkd inner,a nd I recallt hreet hingsi n particu-
lar abouti t:
r) The food wast errible.
z) Among thosea t my table were not only the well-knownw riters
Anne McCaftey andG ordonR . Dickson,b ut a certainD amon Stetson,
then a reporterf or the NewYorkTimes.al skedh im whetherh e wasc ov-
eringt he banquetf or his newspaper".O h, no," he said." Damon Knight
invitedm e justb ecausem y namei s Damon. He likesh avingo ther Da-
monsa round."T his was,a las,n ot my first clue to the existenceo f the
mile-wides treako f frivolityt hat wasa nd is a distinguishingc haracteris-
tic of our organizatione'ss teemedfo under.
3) Also seateda t my table wasa writer whosen ame I remember
only too well but will leaveu nstatedh ere.T hroughs omei ncomprehen-
siblem iracleh e had begunh is careeri n sciencefi ction with the almost
impossibletr ick of sellinga collectiono f his shorts toriesto Doubleday,
then the premierp ublishero f hardcovers ciencef iction-stories that,
asi t happenedh, ad nearlya ll beenr ejectedb y the SF magazineosf that
day.( lt wash is first and lastb ook, incidentally.)A bout an hour through
the meal,a fterl isteningt o the veteranp rosM cCaftey, Dickson,a nd Sil-
verberge ngagingin a steadys treamo f insiderc hat,M r. X turnedt o me
pleasantlya nd said," Oh, arey ou a writert oo, Ralph?"
Annie McCaffrey,b lessh er,s eth im straighot n thats ubjectw ith a
bursto f true Gaelicf ervor.A nd then we went on to the speecheosf the