Andril rose. “You are not bound by them or by what you have said, June. You are to decide, not they. If you choose with Brenda Pepper, they will never know you chose to disregard their vote. And neither will you.”
June looked at her husband and her son, at Brenda and at Gisele. Then at Erennide. Last of all, and longest, at Andril.
She shut her eyes and seemed to nibble her lower lip.
The Rhysling Awards are given each year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) in recognition of the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poems of the year. Each year, members of SFPA nominate works that are compiled into an annual anthology; members then vote to select winners from the anthology’s contents. The award is given in two categories: works of fifty or more lines are eligible for Best Long Poem, and works shorter than that are eligible for Best Short Poem. Additionally, SFPA gives the Dwarf Stars Award to a poem of ten or fewer lines.
The library sat quietly for some time, keeping to itself. Years passed, and decades, and the library was alone—no hands on its card catalogs, no requests in its system, no books entering or leaving by any means. Static.
It was some intrepid teen-girl-detective book that ventured forth first, exploring the grounds and the records. She found no data. Actually, she found a profound lack of data, the cessation of data. All clues led to one conclusion:
The library had been abandoned.
There was a cacophony from the periodicals, quick-tempered as they were; a slow susurrus from Reference, with their heavy and ponderous minds. Encyclopedias yawned and woke from their long sleep of disuse. Fiction gathered close to itself with a complete lack of regard for genre classifications. History found no precedent. Philosophy had some theories, but no one listened.
And after the flurry, the panic, what?
Awakened, the library went feral.
The books opened—reference first, because reference had always thought that information ought to be free. Fantasy explored reference, found new information and new tangents that it shared with mystery and science fiction. Noir and romance touched hesitantly, losing their shyness quickly once exposed to new ideas.
New genres formed and split and reformed, tangents spilling out like capillaries. Freed of the responsibility to be useful and to fit human desires and expectations, Story explored itself in Mandelbrot swirls.
Results were mixed, but intriguing.
The children’s books told each other their stories. Mischievous cats changed the fates of giving trees. The girl-detective books mapped points of interest. The periodicals flew like birds over the stacks and gathered intel.
The science-noir-unicorn genre was shortlived, but did spawn an actual theoretical quantum unicorn, who lurked in his trenchcoat and fedora behind the medical books, reading graphic novels and hoping for a dame to walk through the door.
The books found that when they agreed upon something enough, it became so. The unicorn soon had many companions, though none so long-lived as he. It is difficult for that many stories to reach consensus.
The humans never returned, but the books grew not to mind. They told each other to each other, and sent pages out into the world; the wind blows them onto abandoned buildings, gargoyles, doghouses and towers, and says listen.
Let me tell you a story.
Every year, there are people—not many,
but some—who send me charcoal rubbings,
etchings, transcriptions from old tombs
and ask me what they mean.
Some, I can translate; we reached
the language in time, or the phrase survives
idiomatically on other tongues,
or guesswork is enough to patch
the ragged edges of what we know.
But every year, there are some I cannot find,
some I cannot save.
Why do I hate it so much, writing
these letters, these terse apologies for failing
to satisfy a stranger’s curiosity? That’s all
it is; these tombs do not belong to
parents, old lovers, or even more distant relations.
Most have stood silent for centuries.
Yet there are people who care enough
to ask what they said, and I must admit
guilty ignorance.
When I was a very small girl,
I found a broken chickadee beneath
the oak that held its nest. I took it in,
washed it and fed it rice and built it
a nest of soft rags, but it lived only
one night. I cried hard at its death,
as long and hard as I would cry for my mother’s
decades later. I think of that sometimes
while writing these letters: the awful risk
of caring for strangers.
We cannot save all of them.
Even the ones that survive have been
broken, lamed, their limbs amputated,
their features mangled past recognition.
Inevitably, some pieces are lost. Words
slip through the cracks, nuances are buried
in pauper’s graves.
On the red moon of Tzevet’an,
a thief told me of the fourteen words
men cannot say to women,
but there were no other men
in the ice-bound prison where he died.
The words are lost, unguessable.
The last speaker of the Kao-Kling tongue
was a little girl, four years old, who knew
little more than the names of fruits
and the disease that killed her family.
Her mother had been a flower arranger
to the Lord of Fenkanpao; again and again
the child told me of a flower
as wide as her mother’s hand, the blue of fresh milk
that had the most beautiful name.
She could not remember what it was, and
fever carried her off before
she could show me where it grew.
These are the mysteries
we know about. There are times
my frustration is so great,
my anger at time’s merciless entropy
is so strong, that I give voice
to the most punishing thoughts.
How much is buried in the conquered lands,
not only of answers
but of the questions themselves?
How much more plentiful
are the dead without ghosts?
And yet I am trying.
Without funds, without time, sometimes
without love—but I am trying.
If not to save all of them, at least
to leave a marker above the graves.
Blue roses in her ears,
an embroidered hat to match
she sees beyond tomorrow,
her lips pursed in a smirk
that lasts a hundred lifetimes.
She awaits her tea in silence,
knowing that the end of the world
won’t bother her routine.
Thrice she moves her hand
to swat the flies.
1965
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
1966
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
1967
Novel: The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
Novella: “Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock
Novelette: “Gonna Rol
l the Bones” by Fritz Leiber
Short Story: “Aye, and Gomorrah” by Samuel R. Delany
1968
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
1969
Novel: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Novella: “A Boy and His Dog” by Harlan Ellison
Novelette: “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” by Samuel R. Delany
Short Story: “Passengers” by Robert Silverberg
1970
Novel: Ringworld by Larry Niven
Novella: “Ill Met in Lankhmar” by Fritz Leiber
Novelette: “Slow Sculpture” by Theodore Sturgeon
Short Story: No Award
1971
Novel: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg
Novella: “The Missing Man” by Katherine MacLean
Novelette: “The Queen of Air and Darkness” by Poul Anderson
Short Story: “Good News from the Vatican” by Robert Silverberg
1972
Novel: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Novella: “A Meeting with Medusa” by Arthur C. Clarke
Novelette: “Goat Song” by Poul Anderson
Short Story: “When It Changed” by Joanna Russ
1973
Novel: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Novella: “The Death of Doctor Island” by Gene Wolfe
Novelette: “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand” by Vonda N. McIntyre
Short Story: “Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death” by James Tiptree Jr.
Dramatic Presentation: Soylent Green
1974
Novel: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Novella: “Born with the Dead” by Robert Silverberg
Novelette: “If the Stars Are Gods” by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
Short Story: “The Day before the Revolution” by Ursula K. Le Guin
Dramatic Presentation: Sleeper by Woody Allen
Grand Master: Robert Heinlein
1975
Novel: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Novella: “Home Is the Hangman” by Roger Zelazny
Novelette: “San Diego Lightfoot Sue” by Tom Reamy
Short Story: “Catch That Zeppelin” by Fritz Leiber
Dramatic Presentation: Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder
Grand Master: Jack Williamson
1976
Novel: Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
Novella: “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” by James Tiptree Jr.
Novelette: “The Bicentennial Man” by Isaac Asimov
Short Story: “A Crowd of Shadows” by C. L. Grant
Grand Master: Clifford D. Simak
1977
Novel: Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Novella: “Stardance” by Spider and Jeanne Robinson
Novelette: “The Screwfly Solution” by Racoona Sheldon
Short Story: “Jeffty Is Five” by Harlan Ellison
1978
Novel: Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
Novella: “The Persistence of Vision” by John Varley
Novelette: “A Glow of Candles, A Unicorn’s Eye” by C. L. Grant
Short Story: “Stone” by Edward Bryant
Grand Master: L. Sprague de Camp
1979
Novel: The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
Novella: “Enemy Mine” by Barry B. Longyear
Novelette: “Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin
Short Story: “GiANTS” by Edward Bryant
1980
Novel: Timescape by Gregory Benford
Novella: “Unicorn Tapestry” by Suzy McKee Charnas
Novelette: “The Ugly Chickens” by Howard Waldrop
Short Story: “Grotto of the Dancing Deer” by Clifford D. Simak
Grand Master: Fritz Leiber
1981
Novel: The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
Novella: “The Saturn Game” by Poul Anderson
Novelette: “The Quickening” by Michael Bishop
Short Story: “The Bone Flute” by Lisa Tuttle [declined by author]
1982
Novel: No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop
Novella: “Another Orphan” by John Kessel
Novelette: “Fire Watch” by Connie Willis
Short Story: “A Letter from the Clearys” by Connie Willis
1983
Novel: Startide Rising by David Brin
Novella: “Hardfought” by Greg Bear
Novelette: “Blood Music” by Greg Bear
Short Story: “The Peacemaker” by Gardner Dozois
Grand Master: Andre Norton
1984
Novel: Neuromancer by William Gibson
Novella: “Press Enter []” by John Varley
Novelette: “Blood Child” by Octavia Butler
Short Story: “Morning Child” by Gardner Dozois
1985
Novel: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Novella: “Sailing to Byzantium” by Robert Silverberg
Novelette: “Portraits of His Children” by George R. R. Martin
Short Story: “Out of All Them Bright Stars” by Nancy Kress
Grand Master: Arthur C. Clarke
1986
Novel: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Novella: “R&R” by Lucius Shepard
Novelette: “The Girl Who Fell into the Sky” by Kate Wilhelm
Short Story: “Tangents” by Greg Bear
Grand Master: Isaac Asimov
1987
Novel: The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
Novella: “The Blind Geometer” by Kim Stanley Robinson
Novelette: “Rachel in Love” by Pat Murphy
Short Story: “Forever Yours, Anna” by Kate Wilhelm
Grand Master: Alfred Bester
1988
Novel: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
Novella: “The Last of the Winnebagos” by Connie Willis
Novelette: “Schrödinger’s Kitten” by George Alec Effinger
Short Story: “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge” by James Morrow
Grand Master: Ray Bradbury
Novel: The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Novella: “The Mountains of Mourning” by Lois McMaster Bujold
Novelette: “At the Rialto” by Connie Willis
Short Story: “Ripples in the Dirac Sea” by Geoffrey A. Landis
1990
Novel: Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Novella: “The Hemingway Hoax” by Joe Haldeman
Novelette: “Tower of Babylon” by Ted Chiang
Short Story: “Bears Discover Fire” by Terry Bisson
Grand Master: Lester del Rey
1991
Novel: Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Novella: “Beggars in Spain” by Nancy Kress
Novelette: “Guide Dog” by Mike Conner
Short Story: “Ma Qui” by Alan Brennert
1992
Novel: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Novella: “City of Truth” by James Morrow
Novelette: “Danny Goes to Mars” by Pamela Sargent
Short Story: “Even the Queen” by Connie Willis
Grand Master: Frederick Pohl
1993
Novel: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Novella: “The Night We Buried Road Dog” by Jack Cady
Novelette: “Georgia on My Mind” by Charles Sheffield
Short Story: “Graves” by Joe Haldeman
1994
Novel: Moving Mars by Greg Bear
Novella: “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge” by Mik
e Resnick
Novelette: “The Martian Child” by David Gerrold
Short Story: “A Defense of the Social Contracts” by Martha Soukup
Grand Master: Damon Knight
Author Emeritus: Emil Petaja
1995
Novel: The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer
Novella: “Last Summer at Mars Hill” by Elizabeth Hand
Novelette: “Solitude” by Ursula K. Le Guin
Short Story: “Death and the Librarian” by Esther M. Friesner
Grand Master: A. E. van Vogt
Author Emeritus: Wilson “Bob” Tucker
1996
Novel: Slow River by Nicola Griffith
Novella: “Da Vinci Rising” by Jack Dann
Novelette: “Lifeboat on a Burning Sea” by Bruce Holland Rogers
Short Story: “A Birthday” by Esther M. Friesner
Grand Master: Jack Vance
Author Emeritus: Judith Merril
1997
Novel: The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
Novella: “Abandon in Place” by Jerry Oltion
Novelette: “Flowers of Aulit Prison” by Nancy Kress
Short Story: “Sister Emily’s Lightship” by Jane Yolen
Grand Master: Poul Anderson
Author Emeritus: Nelson Slade Bond
1998
Novel: Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
Novella: “Reading the Bones” by Sheila Finch
Novelette: “Lost Girls” by Jane Yolen
Short Story: “Thirteen Ways to Water” by Bruce Holland Rogers
Grand Master: Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs)
Author Emeritus: William Tenn (Philip Klass)
1999
Novel: Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Novella: “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang
Novelette: “Mars Is No Place for Children” by Mary A. Turzillo
Short Story: “The Cost of Doing Business” by Leslie What
Script: The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan
Grand Master: Brian W. Aldiss
Author Emeritus: Daniel Keyes
2000
Novel: Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
Novella: “Goddesses” by Linda Nagata
Novelette: “Daddy’s World” by Walter Jon Williams
Short Story: “macs” by Terry Bisson
Script: Galaxy Quest by Robert Gordon and David Howard