Connie Willis - The Best of Connie Willis

“Death on the Nile” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1993 by Connie Willis. First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction , March 1993.

“Even the Queen” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1992 by Connie Willis. First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction , April 1992.

“Fire Watch” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1982, 2010 by Connie Willis. First appeared in different form in Asimov’s Science Fiction , February 1982.

“Inside Job” by Connie Willis, copyright © 2005 by Connie Willis. First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction , January 2005.

“The Last of the Winnebagos” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1988 by Connie Willis. First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction , July 1988.

“A Letter from the Clearys” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1982 by Connie Willis. First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction , July 1982.

“The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson’s Poems: A Wellsian Perspective” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1996 by Connie Willis. First appeared in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches , ed. Kevin J. Anderson (New York: Spectra, 1996).

“The Winds of Marble Arch” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1999 by Connie Willis. First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction , October/November 1999.

Lincoln’s Dreams

Doomsday Book

Impossible Things

Uncharted Territory

Remake

Bellwether

Fire Watch

To Say Nothing of the Dog

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories

Passage

Blackout

All Clear

The Best of Connie Willis

CONNIE WILLIS has received seven Nebula Awards and eleven Hugo awards for science fiction, and her novel Passage was nominated for both. Her other works include Doomsday Book , Lincoln’s Dreams , Bellwether , Impossible Things , Remake , Uncharted Territory , To Say Nothing of the Dog , Fire Watch , Miracle and Other Christmas Stories , Blackout , and All Clear . Connie Willis lives in Colorado with her family.

The Best of Connie Willis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Introduction and new text copyright © 2013 by Connie Willis

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Most of the stories in this work have been previously published in Asimov’s Science Fiction . “At the Rialto” was originally published in Omni . “The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invation and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson’s Poems: A Wellsian Perspective”: was originally published in War of the Worlds” Global Dispatches edited by Kevin J. Anderson (New York: Spectra, 1996).

Previous publication information can be found on this page.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Willis, Connie.

The best of Connie Willis : award-winning stories / Connie Willis.

pages cm

All ten of her Hugo and Nebula award-winning short stories.

eISBN: 978-0-345-54065-2

1. Science fiction, American. I. Title. II. Title: Award-winning stories.

PS3573.I45652B47 2013

813′.54—dc23

2013000495

www.delreybooks.com

Jacket design: Faceout Studio/Charles Brock

Jacket photograph: © Louise Leppard

v3.1

See Grand Master Acceptance Speech, though I think MDE—Much Delighted Editor—is by far the better designation.

Being the sort of obsessive neurotic I am, I wasn’t sure exactly what would be required of me when I was given the Grand Master Nebula Award, so I wrote a couple of speeches, “just in cases” as Aurelia says in Love Actually .

I only ended up having to give one speech, but here, for your delectation, is the other.