Vernor Vinge - Tatja Grimm's World

“I take back one thing I said: I will return. Soon. The cure is simple, and I owe you more than that…” She let his hands fall back into his lap, and for a moment her lips brushed his cheek. She stood up slowly, and left the clearing. For several minutes he could hear her moving through the brush, toward the nearest camping area.

His eyes never left the beautiful mammal that moved so delicately on the branch. It had slid along the top of the branch, now edged back under. Its clear black eyes gazed down at him. In a moment…

Svir lunged up to catch the bat in a two-handed crushing blow. But the little animal was too fast, and it flashed from between the approaching hands. It fluttered up through the branches and into the blue spaces above.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

TATJA GRIMM’S WORLD

Copyright © 1987 by Vernor Vinge

Originally published in July 1987 by Baen Books.

Part I appeared in a slightly different form as The Barbarian Princess, copyright © 1986 by Vernor Vinge, in Analog , September 1986.

Part II appeared in a different form as Grimm’s Story, copyright © 1968 by Vernor Vinge, in Damon Knight’s anthology Orbit 4, published by Putnam and Berkley, 1968.

Parts II and III appeared in a different form as Grimm's World, copyright © 1969 by Vernor Vinge, published by Berkley Books, 1969.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Edited by James Frenkel

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

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www.tor.com

Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vinge, Vernor.

Tatja Grimm’s world / Vernor Vinge. p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates Book.”

ISBN 0-765-30885-1

EAN 978-0-765-30885-6

PS3572.I534.T35 2006

813'. 54—dc22

2005055944

Printed in the United States of America

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