Win Some, Lose Some
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
The Hugo Award Winning
(and Nominated)
Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of
MIKE RESNICK
WIN
SOME,
LOSE
SOME
The Hugo Award Winning
(and Nominated)
Short Science Fiction
and Fantasy of
MIKE
RESNICK
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
Copyright © 2012 Mike Resnick. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction Copyright © 2012 Carol Resnick. All rights reserved.
All Introductions Copyright their respective authors. All rights reserved.
Cover Art Copyright © 2012 Vincent Di Fate. All rights reserved.
Frontis Photo of Mike Resnick Copyright © Beth Gwinn. All rights reserved.
Acknowledgements appear on page vi
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written consent from both the authors and copyright holder, except by a reviewer who may want to quote brief passages in review.
“World Science Fiction Society,” “WSFS,” “World Science Fiction Convention,” “Worldcon,” “NASFiC,” “Hugo Award,” and the distinctive design of the Hugo Award Rocket are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.
Series Editor
Steven H Silver
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To Carol, as always,
And to the Chicon 7 Committee,
with gratitude for the honor of a lifetime.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
“Kirinyaga,” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1988.
“For I Have Touched the Sky,” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1989.
Bully!, Axolotl Press, September 1990.
“The Manamouki,” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, July 1990.
“Winter Solstice,” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October-November 1991.
“One Perfect Morning, With Jackals,” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, March 1991.
“The Lotus and the Spear,” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, August 1992.
“Mwalimu in the Squared Circle,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, March 1993.
“Barnaby in Exile,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 1994.
“A Little Knowledge,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, April 1994.
Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge, Axolotl Press, October 1994.
“When the Old Gods Die,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, April 1995.
with Susan Shwartz, “Bibi,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, Mid-December 1995.
“The Land of Nod,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, June 1996.
“The 43 Antarean Dynasties,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 1997.
“Hothouse Flowers,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, October-November 1999.
“Hunting the Snark,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 1999.
“The Elephants on Neptune,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, May 2000.
“Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, September 2001.
“Redchapel,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2000.
“Robots Don’t Cry,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 2003.
“A Princess of Earth,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2004.
“Travels with My Cats,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 2004.
“Down Memory Lane,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, April-May 2005.
“All the Things You Are,” Jim Baen’s Universe, October 2006.
“Distant Replay,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, April-May 2007.
“Article of Faith,” Jim Baen’s Universe, October 2008.
“Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 2008.
“The Bride of Frankenstein,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2009.
“The Homecoming,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, April 2011.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction by Carol Resnick
1989–Kirinyaga (winner)
Introduced by Gardner Dozois
1990–For I Have Touched the Sky
Introduced by Nancy Kress
1991–Bully!
Introduced by Harry Turtledove
1991–The Manamouki (winner)
Introduced by Connie Willis
1992–Winter Solstice
Introduced by Laura Resnick
1992–One Perfect Morning, With Jackals
Introduced by Janis Ian
1993–The Lotus and the Spear
Introduced by Ralph Roberts
1994–Mwalimu in the Squared Circle
Introduced by Barry N. Malzberg
1995–Barnaby in Exile
Introduced by John Scalzi
1995–A Little Knowledge
Introduced by Nick DiChario
1995–Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge (winner)
Introduced by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
1996–When the Old Gods Die
Introduced by Michael Stackpole
1996–Bibi (with Susan Schwartz)
Introduced by Susan Shwartz
1997–The Land of Nod
Introduced by Lou Anders
1998–The 43 Antarean Dynasties (winner)
Introduced by Michael Swanwick
2000–Hothouse Flowers
Introduced by Kay Kenyon
2000–Hunting the Snark
Introduced by David Brin
2001–The Elephants on Neptune
Introduced by Jack McDevitt
2002–Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Introduced by Eric Flint
2002–Redchapel
Introduced by Kevin J. Anderson
2004–Robots Don’t Cry
Introduced by Robert Silverberg
2005–A Princess of Earth
Introduced by Catherine Asaro
2005–Travels with My Cats (winner)
Introduced by Sheila Williams
2006–Down Memory Lane
Introduced by Michael A. Burstein
2007–All the Things You Are
Introduced by Robert J. Sawyer
2008–Distant Replay
Introduced by Lezli Robyn
2009–Article of Faith
Introduced by James Patrick Kelly
2009–Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders
Introduced by Bill Fawcett
2010–The Bride of Frankenstein
Introduced by Kij Johnson
2011–The Homecoming
Introduced by Brad R. Torgerson
Contributors
INTRODUCTION
Carol Resnick
This is a collection of Mike’s Hugo-winning and Hugo-nominated stories, each introduced by one of the many distinguished science fiction writers and editors who have been his friends for years.
Many of you know Mike the Fan—the jovi
al guy who tells those wonderful stories about science fiction’s past. I know Mike the Serious Artist, the man who is driven to write 23 hours a day for fear that he’ll die before he types “The End.”
You also probably don’t know of his love of the short form, since it’s the novels that have paid our bills for close to half a century. I think if Mike could only write one thing it would be short science fiction. This form allows for the kind of thematic experimentation that can’t—and shouldn’t—be sustained for a novel. I offer, for example, “The Elephants on Neptune,” “The Incarceration of Captain Nebula,” and “Barnaby in Exile,” none of which would work at greater length.
Perhaps one of the reasons he is so in love with short science fiction is the freedom of expression it allows the artist. Certainly it has helped him explore the central overriding theme of his work: that Relationships Matter—over time, space, or even species. It’s very gratifying that his work had been nominated and awarded so often that as I write these words he is science fiction’s all-time leading award winner for short fiction.
I think it is the clarity of his prose and the universality of his themes that has made him so popular in so many countries. He has been translated into 25 languages, has won awards in six countries, and been nominated in three others. And his ability to totally inhabit his characters’ psyches has resulted in his being identified by reviewers at various times as black or Hispanic.
When you’re through with this book, I hope you’ll seek out some of Mike’s early stories, such as “The Last Dog,” “Blue,” and “Beachcomber.” It will show you that he was thoughtful—and winning non-sf awards—from the beginning.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to read his humorous stories (he has written well over one hundred). Like Mark Twain, Mike’s favorite creation Lucifer Jones is the innocent abroad, holding up a satirical mirror to modern life and the tropes of science fiction and fantasy.
Mike’s writing is like Shaker furniture, beautiful in its simplicity and elegance—and philosophical. The Shakers produced furniture that spoke of their belief in the beauty and sacredness of everyday life and its objects. It was built to last and to perform its function superbly. Mike’s stories, like Shaker furniture, are pared down to the essentials. Every word matters, and is used to further the author’s underlying message. It is not easy to write with this kind of economy and transparency. He hides behind no literary gimmicks unless they can advance the story in a meaningful way, and Mike’s stories, like Shaker furniture in its classic simplicity and elegance, will stand the test of time.
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
The Hugo Award Winning
(and Nominated)
Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of
MIKE RESNICK
INTRODUCTION TO “KIRINYAGA”
Gardner Dozois
One of the more interesting trends in recent SF is the story that takes place not in the familiar setting of a future United States, or even a future England, the default setting for the vast majority of science fiction throughout the bulk of the genre’s history, but rather in authentically described Third World nations, far outside the boundaries of the Western World—or, to be more specific, in the often surprising possible futures of those nations. In recent years we’ve seen the “Future India” stories of Ian McDonald, like the Hugo-nominated “The Little Goddess,” which builds a vivid picture of a future India where high technology and ancient traditions meet, and reach sometimes uneasy accommodations with each other. Paolo Bacigalupi, Maureen McHugh, Greg Egan, Lucius Shepard, Jay Lake, Vandana Singh, Chris Robinson, Nalo Hopkinson, Lavie Tidhar, and others have recently picked locations for SF stories as varied as Thailand, China, India, Laos, Vietnam, and the Caribbean. Lavie Tidhar has even postulated spacefaring societies based on the culture and traditions of tiny South Sea Island nations like Vanuatu. McDonald’s latest novel takes place in a future Turkey, and he’s also written a series of stories set in a future Brazil.
Before almost all of them, though, Mike Resnick was breaking new ground with the “Kirinyaga” series, which take place on an orbital space-colony that has been remade in the image of ancient Kenya as a Utopian experiment. And unlike even some of the authors mentioned above, Resnick’s Third World Future stories featured not expatriate Europeans and Americans, but the Kenyans themselves—almost all of the characters in the Kirinyaga stories are African, something that’s rare in science fiction even to this day, where the default setting for characters is still white, for the most part. Resnick also motivated his characters with Kenyan values, values and goals (and methods of achieving those goals) sometimes very different from European values—something that occasionally brought him in for some sharp criticism from those who confuse the values of the character for the values of the author.
The Kirinyaga stories were gathered in the collection Kirinyaga, and were among the most-talked about, critically acclaimed, and fiercely debated stories of the ’90s. The first of them, the story that follows, won Resnick a Hugo Award in 1989, and is still the best of them, and one of the best stories of that decade. It reminds us that although we like to compliment ourselves, rather smugly, on the brightness and rationality of our tidy, shiny modern world, the Old Ways still exist—and maybe always will.
It was back in 1986 that Orson Scott Card asked me to write a story for an anthology he was editing titled Eutopia. Each story would concern a group that was trying to create a Utopian society on a series of terraformed worlds, and there were a couple of Catch-22s that made it very interesting from a writer’s point of view. First, it had to be told by a member of the society who believed in it, so you couldn’t just do a wonder tour as described by an impressed or shocked outsider; and second, there would be an area on each planetoid called Haven, where anyone who was unhappy with the society could go, and would be picked up by a Maintenance ship in an hour or two, so there would be no revolt against Big Brother. I told him that I’d be happy to write a story for the book, and that I’d reserve the Kikuyu tribe of East Africa, since I was quite a student of them.
When I cast about for a story, I decided to choose the most indefensible custom the society possessed, and then have my narrator defend it in the face of all opposition. I thought it was a pretty good story, but even when I’d finished it I had no idea the effect it would have on my career. I delivered it to Scott at the 1987 British Worldcon on my way down to Kenya again, and asked him if he minded very much if I submitted it to a magazine as well. He gave me his permission, and it was the cover story of the November, 1988 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It earned me my first Hugo and Nebula nominations in 1989, topped the Science Fiction Chronicle Poll, and flabbergasted me by actually winning the Hugo for Best Short Story. I’d had an international bestselling novel, Santiago, a couple of years earlier, but nothing before or since has helped my career the way “Kirinyaga” did.
Ready for the kicker?
25 years later the anthology still hasn’t come out. I get nightmares thinking of where I’d be if Scott hadn’t allowed me to sell it to F&SF.
KIRINYAGA
IN THE BEGINNING, NGAI LIVED alone atop the mountain called Kirinyaga. In the fullness of time he created three sons, who became the fathers of the Maasai, the Kamba, and the Kikuyu races, and to each son he offered a spear, a bow, and a digging-stick. The Maasai chose the spear, and was told to tend herds on the vast savannah. The Kamba chose the bow, and was sent to the dense forests to hunt for game. But Gikuyu, the first Kikuyu, knew that Ngai loved the earth and the seasons, and chose the digging-stick. To reward him for this Ngai not only taught him the secrets of the seed and the harvest, but gave him Kirinyaga, with its holy fig tree and rich lands.
The sons and daughters of Gikuyu remained on Kirinyaga until the white man came and took their lands away, and even when the white man had been banished they did not return, but chose to remain in the cities, wearing Western clothes and using Western machines and living Western lives.
Even I, who am a mundumugu—a witch doctor—was born in the city. I have never seen the lion or the elephant or the rhinoceros, for all of them were extinct before my birth; nor have I seen Kirinyaga as Ngai meant it to be seen, for a bustling, overcrowded city of three million inhabitants covers its slopes, every year approaching closer and closer to Ngai’s throne at the summit. Even the Kikuyu have forgotten its true name, and now know it only as Mount Kenya.
To be thrown out of Paradise, as were the Christian Adam and Eve, is a terrible fate, but to live beside a debased Paradise is infinitely worse. I think about them frequently, the descendants of Gikuyu who have forgotten their origin and their traditions and are now merely Kenyans, and I wonder why more of them did not join with us when we created the Eutopian world of Kirinyaga.
True, it is a harsh life, for Ngai never meant life to be easy; but it is also a satisfying life. We live in harmony with our environment, we offer sacrifices when Ngai’s tears of compassion fall upon our fields and give sustenance to our crops, we slaughter a goat to thank him for the harvest.
Our pleasures are simple: a gourd of pombe to drink, the warmth of a boma when the sun has gone down, the wail of a newborn son or daughter, the foot-races and spear-throwing and other contests, the nightly singing and dancing.
Maintenance watches Kirinyaga discreetly, making minor orbital adjustments when necessary, assuring that our tropical climate remains constant. From time to time they have subtly suggested that we might wish to draw upon their medical expertise, or perhaps allow our children to make use of their educational facilities, but they have taken our refusal with good grace, and have never shown any desire to interfere in our affairs.
Until I strangled the baby.
It was less than an hour later that Koinnage, our paramount chief, sought me out.
“That was an unwise thing to do, Koriba,” he said grimly.
“It was not a matter of choice,” I replied. “You know that.”
“Of course you had a choice,” he responded. “You could have let the infant live.” He paused, trying to control his anger and his fear. “Maintenance has never set foot on Kirinyaga before, but now they will come.”