Impossible Things
Encyclopedia
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
by Connie Willis
Connie Willis
Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis is an American science fiction writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for Blackout/All Clear...
including tales of ecological disaster, humorous satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
, and satirical alternate realities. Its genres range from comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
to tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
to horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
. Three of the stories are Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winners, and two of these also won Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
s.
Like her novel Bellwether
Bellwether (novel)
Bellwether, a 1996 novel by Connie Willis, is a book that can fall into many genres, such as comedy, fairy tale, romance, and science fiction. The novel is broadly based on the unsettling concepts of human culture. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1997.- Plot introduction...
, the stories In the Late Cretaceous and At the Rialto explore aspects of scientific research. Like All Seated on the Ground
All Seated on the Ground
"All Seated on the Ground" is a science fiction novella by Connie Willis, originally published in the December 2007 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction and as a standalone volume from Subterranean Press...
, the story Spice Pogrom involves first contact
First contact (science fiction)
First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient race's first encounter with another one....
with an intelligent alien species. Like the two-part novel Blackout/All Clear
Blackout/All Clear
Blackout and All Clear are the two volumes that comprise a 2010 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. Blackout was published February 2, 2010 by Spectra. The second part, the conclusion All Clear, was released as a separate book on October 19, 2010...
, the story Jack involves life during The Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
. The stories Ado and Winter's Tale both refer to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, while Time Out, like her time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
novels, explores the nature of time.
Contents
- The Last of the WinnebagosThe Last of the Winnebagos"The Last of the Winnebagos" is a short story written by Connie Willis. It was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1988 and reprinted in the short story collection Impossible Things in 1994.-Awards:...
(1988) (HugoHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winner) - Even the QueenEven the Queen"Even the Queen" is a short story by Connie Willis. A humor story involving the future of gynecological science, it won the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Short Story...
(1992) (HugoHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winner) - Schwarzschild Radius (1987)
- Ado (1988)
- Spice Pogrom (1986)
- Winter's Tale (1988)
- Chance (1986)
- In the Late Cretaceous (1991)
- Time Out (1989)
- Jack (1991)
- At the Rialto (1989) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winner)