Catherine Asaro - Nebula Awards Showcase 2013

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

“Everything can be crossed. Of course it has 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 fishskin 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 or even longer, perhaps. 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.

Among Others , Jo Walton (Tor)

Embassytown , China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey; Subterranean Press)

Firebird , Jack McDevitt (Ace Books)

God’s War , Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti , Genevieve Valentine (Prime Books)

The Kingdom of Gods , N. K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

“The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” Kij Johnson ( Asimov’s Science Fiction , October/November 2011)

“Kiss Me Twice,” Mary Robinette Kowal ( Asimov’s Science Fiction , June 2011)

“Silently and Very Fast,” Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA Press; Clarkesworld Magazine , October 2011)

“The Ice Owl,” Carolyn Ives Gilman ( The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , November/December 2011)

“The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary,” Ken Liu ( Panverse Three , Panverse Publishing)

“With Unclean Hands,” Adam-Troy Castro ( Analog Science Fiction and Fact , November 2011)

“What We Found,” Geoff Ryman ( The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , September/October 2011)

“Fields of Gold,” Rachel Swirsky ( Eclipse 4 , Night Shade Books)

“Ray of Light,” Brad R. Torgersen ( Analog Science Fiction and Fact , December 2011)

“Sauerkraut Station,” Ferrett Steinmetz ( GigaNotoSaurus , November 2011)

“Six Months, Three Days,” Charlie Jane Anders ( Tor.com , June 2011)

“The Migratory Pattern of Dancers,” Katherine Sparrow ( GigaNotoSaurus , July 2011)

“The Old Equations,” Jake Kerr ( Lightspeed Magazine , July 2011)

“The Paper Menagerie,” Ken Liu ( The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , March/April 2011)

“Her Husband’s Hands,” Adam-Troy Castro ( Lightspeed Magazine , October 2011)

“Mama, We Are Zhenya, Your Son,” Tom Crosshill ( Lightspeed Magazine , April 2011)

“Movement,” Nancy Fulda ( Asimov’s Science Fiction , March 2011)

“Shipbirth,” Aliette de Bodard ( Asimov’s Science Fiction , February 2011)

“The Axiom of Choice,” David W. Goldman ( New Haven Review , Winter 2011)

“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees,” E. Lily Yu ( Clarkesworld Magazine , April 2011)

The Freedom Maze , Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House)

Akata Witch , Nnedi Okorafor (Viking Juvenile)

Chime , Franny Billingsley (Dial Books; Bloomsbury)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone , Laini Taylor (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Hodder & Stoughton)

Everybody Sees the Ants , A. S. King (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

The Boy at the End of the World , Greg van Eekhout (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

The Girl of Fire and Thorns , Rae Carson (Greenwillow Books)

Ultraviolet , R. J. Anderson (Orchard Books; Carolrhoda Lab)

Doctor Who : “The Doctor’s Wife,” Neil Gaiman (writer), Richard Clark (director) (BBC Wales)

Attack the Block , Joe Cornish (writer/director) (Optimum Releasing; Screen Gems)

Captain America: The First Avenger , Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (writers), Joe Johnston (director) (Paramount)

Hugo , John Logan (writer), Martin Scorsese (director) (Paramount)

Midnight in Paris , Woody Allen (writer/director) (Sony)

Source Code , Ben Ripley (writer), Duncan Jones (director) (Summit)

The Adjustment Bureau , George Nolfi (writer/director) (Universal)

2011 Damon Knight Grand Master Award: Connie Willis

Solstice Award: Octavia Butler (posthumous) and John Clute

SFWA Service Award: Bud Webster

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

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

Novel: The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany

Novella: “Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock

Novelette: “Gonna Roll the Bones” by Fritz Leiber

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

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